New York Community Bancorp is back in the news. The 28th bank in the United States by balance sheet size (around $116 billion) announced on Thursday evening that "as part of the assessment of the company's internal controls, management has identified material weaknesses related to the internal review of loans, resulting in ineffective monitoring, risk assessment and follow-up activities," according to the document filed with the SEC.
The audit process is not over, but it has already cost the CEO his head. Alessandro DiNello will take over from Thomas Cangemi, who will remain a member of the Board of Directors, with immediate effect. The Chairman of the Board, Hanif Dahya, will be replaced by Marshall Lux.
Early last month, Moody's downgraded the company's long-term debt to speculative grade.
Further write-downs
The bank had published an unexpected net loss of $252 million for Q4, which caused the share price to fall by more than half in just a few sessions. However, the previous day's press release added a further $2.4 billion in impairment charges. NYCB has warned that it will need more time to produce its annual 10-K report, given these new elements.
The stock slumped 25% in after-hours trading following these announcements.