Company type | Holding company |
---|---|
Industry | financial services |
Founded | 1974 |
Founder | Bobby Lowder |
Defunct | August 14, 2009 |
Fate | Banking assets seized by FDIC and later sold to BB&T |
Headquarters | Montgomery, Alabama |
Area served | United States |
Colonial BancGroup Inc. was a bank holding company headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, United States that failed in 2009. It was a financial services company that, through its subsidiaries, provided diversified services, including retail and commercial banking, wealth management services, mortgage banking and insurance. The company was in the top 50 largest banks in the US prior to its failure and its subsidiary, Colonial Bank, operated 346 branches in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Nevada and Texas.
The company ran into problems after it was revealed that it had bought $1 billion in mortgages from Taylor, Bean & Whitaker that Taylor Bean had forged, in one of the biggest fraud cases in history.[1] On August 25, 2009 it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[2] The banking assets and branches were sold to BB&T bank under a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) brokered deal.