Anatomy of a Banking Scandal: The Keystone Bank Failure-Harbinger of the 2008 Financial Crisis

Anatomy of a Banking Scandal is a thrilling book that’ll keep the pages turning - the author has written a piece that is both entertaining and informative. I’d never expect a book about a bank examination to keep me up until 1 am; then again, I’d never have imagined the scenario depicted in this book in my wildest dreams.

Not only a great story about bank fraud, but a good overview of the critical role the OCC plays in protecting America.

An excellent read on the fraudulent activities at FNB Keystone. Readers may be surprised by the action taken by bank personnel to deter the efforts of the federal bank examiners. Moreover, readers may be surprised at the occasional lack of support by the examiners' senior management and the conflict between federal regulators.

Outstanding book. Well written and factual.

Thoroughly researched and well written. The author provides some interesting thoughts to ponder about the state of our regulatory system.

Good read on gaming the regulators

Excellent read, interesting story and many lessons for our securitization system.

Extremely well written, this book should be required reading for all new bank examiners as it explains the examination process and the activities undertaken by management of the bank to try to slow down and thwart that process. To hide a massive fraud in which more than $500 million in bank assets were fake, management and employees of the bank tried to hide the bank’s true financial condition by falsifying, hiding, and destroying bank records, lying to and misleading the regulators and the directors of the bank, and even literally hiding from the examiners to avoid answering questions. It’s an amazing story of a bank failure.Given its description as a harbinger of the financial crisis, I wish the author had spent more ink on discussing the impact from the rubber-stamping of MBS by the rating agencies. Similar to the author’s contention that financial regulators are incented to be more lenient on banks that threaten to switch charters, the bond rating agencies apparently rubber-stamped MBS issuances to prevent issuers from switching to another rating agency. Also, it’s only in a footnote that we learn of attempts to simplify the regulatory structure as part of the Dodd-Frank Act.