New York Community Bancorp Unit Buys Certain Assets Of Signature Bridge Bank From FDIC

(RTTNews) - New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYCB) announced Monday that its bank subsidiary, Flagstar Bank, N.A., has acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of Signature Bridge Bank from its receiver, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or FDIC.

The company noted that all regulatory approvals, including approval from the OCC, have been obtained, and the transaction has closed.

In connection with the deal, Flagstar Bank will take over all of Signature's branches. This includes 30 branches in the New York City metro area and several branches on the West Coast. These branches will open Tuesday morning and operate under the Flagstar Bank brand.

Last week, Signature Bank was closed by the New York State Department of Financial Services or NYDFS after significant deposit outflows, following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. NYDFS appointed the FDIC as Signature Bank's receiver. The FDIC also transferred all the deposits and substantially all of the assets of Signature Bank to a newly created, full-service FDIC-operated 'bridge bank', Signature Bridge Bank, N.A.

In a statement, New York Community Bancorp noted that Flagstar Bank acquired only certain financially and strategically complementary parts of Signature that are intended to enhance its future growth.

Under terms of the purchase and assumption deal with the FDIC, the Bank purchased assets of around $38 billion, including cash totaling around $25 billion and around $13 billion in loans.

Included in the $25 billion of cash is $2.7 billion arising from a discounted bid to net asset value.

The bank also assumed liabilities approximating $36 billion, including deposits of approximately $34 billion and other liabilities of approximately $2 billion.

New York Community Bancorp said it is working on an agreement to sub-service the legacy Signature multi-family, commercial real estate or CRE, and other loans it did not acquire.

The deal also included Signature's wealth-management and broker-dealer business. In addition, all of legacy Signature's core bank deposit relationships, including both the New York and the West Coast Private Client teams, as well as the wealth management and broker-dealer business are included in the transaction.

The company plans to use its significant liquidity position to pay down a substantial amount of its wholesale borrowings, leaving the balance sheet in an even stronger cash position.