The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "bank collapse" ...
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How Safe Are Your Savings?; The Time Bomb In Your Nest Egg
"The Time Bomb In Your Nest Egg" was the result of an intensive, year-long investigation which revealed how Wall Street firms and major banks are selling structured products by advertising them as safe, sure bets. In fact, they are essentially a repackaged version of the same high-risk products that played a major role in the 2008 financial collapse. "How Safe Are Your Savings?" details the nature of these investments, how they're sold, and who Congress and the SEC need to do to protect investors.
Tags: congress; SEC; wall street; nest egg; savings
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The Economic Collapse: Fixing Blame
The series details the AIG bailout and the decisions surrounding it. It also looks at how small community banks in the Greenspan-era were able to overextend themselves like the big Wall Street banks did.
Tags: Moody's; AIG; bailout; banks; Wall Street; Ben Bernanke
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"New Frontier"
In this investigation, The Denver Post reveals potential fraud, in addition to mismanagement of "deposits and loans," caused the collapse of Colorado's New Frontier Bank. Loans were issued to borrowers who "agreed to buy stock," and loan officers often "rewrote terms of delinquent loans."
Tags: New Frontier Bank; Greenley; Larry Seastrom; Weld County; Johnson Dairy; Bill Garcia; FDIC
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"Inside the Collapse"
Kerry Killinger, former CEO of Washington Mutual, refused to take blame for the bank's collapse. Instead, he cited the faltering housing market and "credit crisis." An investigation by The Seattle Times reveals Killinger and his employees used "reckless" and "predatory practices," like encouraging high-risk loans, to increase the bank's profits. The greed-fueled decisions eventually led to the bank's collapse.
Tags: WaMu; Kerry Killinger; Lehman Brothers; Washington Mutual; Countrywide Financial
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Goldman Sachs: Low Road to High Finance
After the collapse of the financial market in the United States, there were many key components which played a large role in the devastation to many Americans. These key components mainly focus on major financial institutions, which played a large role in manipulating the mortgage and mortgage security markets. Furthermore, the institutions that should be keeping them honest, failed to do so.
Tags: Nation's financial sector; financial institutions; mortgage; market; American International Group (AIG); Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Moody's; Securities and Exchange Commission; Citigroup, Inc.; Bank of America Corp.
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Who's Behind the Financial Meltdown?
"Who's Behind the Financial Meltdown" explores lending practices of big banks leading up to the near collapse of the financial sector in 2007. Findings suggest large banks such as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs bankrolled about 72 percent of the industry's risky subprime lending while executives reaped record bonuses and collected billions in federal bailout money.
Tags: banking; financial; meltdown; collapse; bailout; bonuses; subprime; lending; loans; banks;
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WAMU: Inside The Collapse
It's October 2008: major banks are failing, Congress is bailing them out with taxpayer dollars. The public deserves to know how we got into the mess. ABC News Nightline's "Inside the Collapse" was first to expose a top-down, company-wide reckless lending strategy that led to the biggest bank failure in U.S. history: Washington Mutual Bank. Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas got inside Washington Mutual's culture and uncovered what really went wrong using original reporting, an exclusive whistleblower interview, a video of a jubilant company party, exclusive internal company documents, former employee interviews and victim interviews. His piece, as well as a follow-up on World news with Charles Gibson and articles on ABCNews.com, caught the attention of law enforcement. Two days after the piece aired, federal prosecutors announced that because of "intense public interest" they were investigating the bank's activities with assistance from the FBI, FDIC, SEC and IRS. The story was widely reported in the national media in the following weeks.
Tags: Washington Mutual; Securities and Exchange Commission; Internal Revenue Service; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; FDIC; Federal Bureau of Investigation; economics
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Way Ahead of the Curve
This is a series of three stories by senior writer David Evans that ran in the February, July and November issues of Bloomberg Markets magazine. In "The Risk Nightmare," (July 2008), Evans pierced the opacity and complexity of credit default swaps, unregulated securities that were supposed to act as a form of insurance and protect investors against risk. He found that CDS had built up so many interconnections that one player could jeopardize the entire financial system. In "Banks on the Edge" (November 2008), Evans reported that scores of regional banks across the U.S. would fail within a year because they hadn't yet realized their losses on defaulting mortgages. In "Peddling Tainted Debt to Florida," (February 2008), he reported that Lehman Brothers was both advising and selling toxic debt to Florida's "money market pool." This disclosure prompted a run on the pool, and it was then shut down as the state investigated its holding and worked to restore its creditworthiness.
Tags: Lehman Brothers; Bear Stearns; Florida; Charlie Crist; bank collapse; Wells Fargo; Washington Mutual; bailout
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A Final Accounting: Arthur Andersen
The Chicago Tribune's four part series about Arthur Andersen. "Part 1: The Fall of Andersen - After decades as the gold standard for U.S. auditing firms, Andersen changed its focus and lost its way. Part 2: Civil War Splits Andersen - A revolution sweeps Andersen, pitting auditors against consultants in a race for higher profit. Part 3: Ties to Enron Blinded Andersen - Andersen struggles to deal with a monster it helped create: Enron. Part 4: Repeat Offender Gets Stiff Justice - Faulty decisions and strategy in Andersen's final months set the firm up for its collapse."
Tags: Arthur Andersen; Enron; accounting; accounting scandal; Chicago; auditor; fraud; justice; auditing firms; integrity; banks; money; corruption; finance; financing; Michael Odom; Nancy Temple; Dorsey Baskin; C.E. Andrews; Mike Gagel; Dean Christensen; firm; Harvey Kapnick; Jim Edwards; Duane Kullberg; reform
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Loose Screws
A New Times investigation examines "potentially serious construction problems at Maricopa County's $ 370 million Bank One Ballpark ... that could result in sections of the grandstands collapsing." The story uncovers a written warning about the improper installation of "approximately 1,500 anchor bolts ... that support the stadium's grandstands". The reporter reveals that the team of Arizona Diamondbacks has "kept the information hidden from the Maricopa County Stadium District, which owns the facility, for more than two months." The public also has also been unaware of the potential danger to "the millions of fans who enter [the stadium] each year."
Tags: engineering; safety; stadium; baseball