With respect to the supervision of CBC, FDIC and state examiners conducted annual
examinations, consistently identifying and reporting deficiencies, and taking various formal
and informal enforcement actions. In 2001, examiners discovered unusual loan activity at the
bank and promptly began an investigation that eventually uncovered the nominee loan
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schemes. However, in retrospect, more aggressive supervisory action and additional scrutiny
of CBC’s application to purchase MTB Bank was warranted in light of CBC’s:
• risky lending and weak management practices,
• failure to fully resolve examination findings and comply with enforcement actions, and
• questionable “satisfactory” CRA rating when the application was pending approval.
FDIC and state examiners conducted annual examinations and/or targeted examinations of CBC
from 1993 until its closure. The examiners repeatedly identified and reported on significant, yet
uncorrected, problems at the bank in resulting examination reports. Examiners also required the
bank to operate under two C&D Orders from 1993 to 1999, an MOU from 1999 until 2001, and
another C&D Order from December 2001 until CBC failed. In February 2000, the FDIC
approved CBC’s application to purchase MTB Bank notwithstanding CBC’s long history of
uncorrected management deficiencies identified in examination findings and enforcement actions
and absent validation of the Chairman’s source of funds for acquiring MTB Bank. Finally, the
1999 Community Reinvestment Act performance evaluation for CBC did not reflect the bank's
actual performance, rather the evaluation was largely based on future projections of the bank’s
performance and the bank’s performance in the context of factors not clearly applicable to the
institution. As a result, the rating may not have been an appropriate one on which to base
approval of the bank's application to acquire MTB Bank