1,000
Banks to Fail In Next Two Years: Bank CEO
By Natalie Erlich | Thursday, 27 Aug 2009 | 10:29 PM ET
The
US banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the
next two years, said John Kanas, whose private equity firm
bought BankUnited of Florida in May.
“We’ve already lost 81 this year,”
Kanas told CNBC. “The numbers are climbing every day. Many
of these institutions nobody’s ever heard of. They're smaller
companies.” (See the accompanying video for the complete interview.)
Failed banks tend to be smaller and private,
which exacerbates the problem for small business borrowers,
said Kanas, who became CEO of BankUnited when his firm bought
the bank and is the former chairman and CEO of North Fork
bank.
“Government money has propped up the very
large institutions as a result of the stimulus package,” he
said. “There’s really very little lifeline available for the
small institutions that are suffering.”