NYCB – One of Long Island’s largest real estate lenders – among many struggling regional banks

New York Community Bancorp (Headquarters in Hicksville, NY) is among the largest regional banks in the country. With over $100 Billion in assets, it is considered one of the powerhouses of the real estate lending space. (The Problem Isn’t Big Banks—It’s Banks Getting Bigger - WSJ). NYCB has faced many challenges in the past year and a half between its merger with Flagstar Bank, its acquisition of the failed Signature Bank and the many changes to its’ Chairman and CEO. However, the biggest challenge NYCB will face is how they will reconcile their business while their largest business partner, Meridian Capital, faces their own problems.

Meridian Capital and NYCB have close business ties and have those ties dating back years where Meridian would broker deals to NYCB. NYCB gave Meridian better terms on mortgages than other banks, and because of this, Meridian directed most of their business towards NYCB (NYCB and Meridian Rode the Property Boom Together. Now They’re Struggling. - WSJ). Both companies rode the real estate boom in 2022, where most real estate lenders closed a record number of deals for a year but are now struggling as many in the industry are with elevated interest rates. This hardship that NYCB and Meridian now face is even more complicated with Meridian effectively blacklisted from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alongside allegations that Meridian was falsifying figures to get clients better mortgages. NYCB in the past two months has had its credit rating downgraded by Moody’s from Baa3 to Ba2 (Moody’s Cuts NYCB to Junk, Extending Sharp Decline in Shares - WSJ) and it’s stock price has dipped from trading at $10.38 per share at market close January 30th
2024 to $3.22 per share at market close March 28th 2024 (NYCB | New York Community Bancorp Inc. Stock Price & News - WSJ).

NYCB has a rich history serving the communities in Queens, Long Island and Brooklyn. NYCB opened its doors originally in 1859 as Queens County Savings Bank and after many mergers and acquisitions with various banks such as Roslyn Savings Bank, Richmond Savings Bank, Roosevelt Savings Bank, etc… it became known as New York Community Bank. NYCB retained its name until 2024 when it rebranded to Flagstar Bank a year following the merger between Flagstar and NYCB. NYCB remains a staple of the Long Island Community.

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