By Becky Yerak |
Akron, Ohio-based FirstMerit, Lake Forest-based Wintrust and
Chicago-based MB Financial are among the banks that have considered a
bid for New Century Bank, the ailing River North lender that’s likely to
be seized soon by regulators and sold to a healthier institution,
people familiar with the matter said.

The bid deadline for $509.7 million-asset New Century was earlier this
week, as previously reported by the Tribune.

Meanwhile, despite being perhaps only days from being seized by the U.S. regulators, Faye Pantazelos, chief executive and owner of 6 percent of the bank headquartered at Ontario Street and the interstate, said she might resign soon anyway.

“I’m not sure I want to be here when it happens,” she said of the likely government seizure. But “if they need me I’m available, and the regulators have been kind to me.”

She declined to comment on capital raising efforts or potential bidders but said she needs time off.

“It’s a purely personal reason,” she said. “It’s a very difficult time for me personally. We did nothing unlawful. We were a real estate bank, and there wasn’t anything wrong for many years.”

The bank was founded in 1999 and last year lost $12.3 million as 24.4 percent of its loans were seriously delinquent by year-end. It recently sued its law firm over a loan gone bad.

“Mark-to-market is killing us,” she said, referring to accounting that requires companies to value assets at prices reflecting current market conditions.

“When you mark-to-market and it’s an unrealistically depressed market — there’s no financing available — it’s depressed,” she said. “What’s the current value? There are no” comparable numbers.

“We’re a product of the economic dislocation in real estate,” she said.

She said she has a substantial amount of her personal wealth tied up in the bank.

“It’s a substantial loss to me personally, and I consider it a personal failure frankly,” she said. “I know everyone is telling me it’s a perfect storm. I tried very hard to diversify the portfolio but we had a difficult time trying to do that. We’ve lost so many of our manufacturing businesses in the Midwest. I know the regulators are telling everybody to do C&I (commercial and industrial) loans and everybody is going to be rushing out to do C&I loans but candidly” there’s not that much demand from businesses, which are trying to reduce debt.

When New Century was trying to raise capital, it talked to numerous private equity funds, including Fortress, people familiar with the matter have said.

The standard deposit insurance at FDIC-insured banks is $250,000 per depositor.