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AmericanWest Bancorp. in Spokane said Thursday that it has given up on getting an investment from the Treasury Department, but that it is still pursuing other avenues to raise capital.
May 1 -
With Robert M. Daugherty at the helm, AmericanWest Bancorp in Spokane had been in growth mode for the last four years, buying up banks, opening branches, and adding deposit and loan products.
July 30
AmericanWest Bancorp. in Spokane, which has been low on capital for at least a year, is coming under increasing regulatory pressure.
The $1.8 billion-asset company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that it has 60 days to submit a plan for maintaining sufficient capital, under a written agreement it signed Sept. 15 with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
AmericanWest already has a cease-and-desist order requiring its bank unit to achieve elevated capital ratios by Sept. 8, but did not provide an update on its effort to comply. It said in a filing last month that it was unlikely to meet the deadline, despite the "aggressive efforts" under way to raise capital from private investors and divest selected assets.
The order, which it received May 11 from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the state Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Banks, imposed a leverage ratio of 10%, double the typical minimum needed to be considered well capitalized. The bank had a leverage ratio of 4.29% at June 30, according to FDIC data. Noncurrent loans rose to 8.35% of its total loans in the quarter, from 7.87% at March 30.
The company said in the spring that it had given up on participating in the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program. It also said at the time that it had received offers for branches and assets. Though its board considered the offers acceptable, it still needed regulatory approval to proceed with any sale.
