According to Politico: "Federal regulators Friday shut down the bank owned by the family of Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. The FDIC estimates the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $394.3 million."
Alexi Giannoulias has been facing challenges in his Senate race (for the seat once occupied by President Obama), many of them relating to press reports relating to his family's banking business.
While not completely surprising, this development will push this issue further to the center of public attention in Illinois.
I'll post more details and links as they become available.
Here's a link to the Chicago Sun Times brief article: Broadway Bank
MB Financial Bank has taken over the deposits of Broadway Bank, the troubled bank run by the family of Illinois Senate Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias.
Broadway Bank’s four branches will reopen Saturday as branches of MB Financial Bank, and depositors will automatically become depositors of MB Financial.
A similar AP wire report is up on the New York Times website (thanks to dharmafarmer)
Bank Tied to Senate Candidate Is Shut Down
Broadway Bank, which was heavy into real estate loans and lost $75 million last year, had been given until Monday to raise about $85 million in new capital, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced at the close of business Friday that Broadway was among four banks, all in Illinois, that had failed.
Obviously this is not likely to be helpful for Giannoulis's campaign. He has already been slipping against Republican Mark Kirk in a several polls. Most DC analysts have previously rated this seat as a toss-up. (The two most recent public polls have both shown Kirk in front - Rasmussen (4/5) by 41-37, and PPP (4/1-5) by 37-33). Those are pretty weak numbers for a Democrat in Illinois.
Giannoulis once worked for the bank, but left four years ago. But his close association with the family business has getting hammered by Mark Kirk for some time now, with Illinois observers seeming to believe it has had some effect.
This is definitely not good news for Democrats.