Just north of Napa Valley, famous for its picture-perfect wineries and inviting restaurants, lies a California county with a much less flattering reputation.

Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco, with a population of about 68,000, has some of the highest rates of poverty, unemployment and poverty in the state. opioid deaths. The Los Angeles Times wrote in 2014 that the struggling rural province named after the gigantic lake that surrounds it looked as if it had been “plucked from Appalachia – with weeds and dirt streets, stray dogs and marijuana crops in the backyard.”

Bad luck has made matters worse. Between 2012 and 2018, a series of devastating wildfires raged through Lake County. burning more than half of the country.

But in the small mountain town of Middletown, population 700, an arts center has sprung into action to help the region recover from the wildfires — and, more recently, the pandemic.

Helen Whitney, a resident of Cobb, another small town in Lake County, told me that the exhibits, workshops and craft fairs at the nonprofit Middletown Arts Center have made it a “focal point for the resilience and growth of the area”.

Lake County residents typically don’t have much access to the arts, and “the MAC,” as residents call it, grew out of a call from local artists for a space to show, educate and create art, according to Lisa Kaplan . co-founder and director of the center. It opened in early 2015 in a renovated gymnasium.

A few months after the MAC’s first exhibit in March 2015, the Valley Fire, one of the most destructive in California history, tore through Lake County, killing four people and leveling more than a thousand homes were created. President Barack Obama has declared the province a disaster area.

Kaplan’s house burned down and many of the MAC’s artists and board members lost homes, studios or workplaces. But the MAC remained standing.

So instead of canceling an art class that was scheduled to take place a few weeks after the fire, Kaplan decided the center could provide a refuge after so much devastation. The lesson was a success.

She realized then, she said, that “this could be something very healing for the community.”

Fast-moving wildfires, fueled by a prolonged statewide drought, continued to ravage the region Mendocino Complex fire devastated the northern part of Lake County in 2018.

The arts center began hosting farmers markets and craft fairs with open-mic entertainment. In 2020, the MAC expanded its art workshops again, attracting a virtual audience so people could participate during Covid lockdowns.

“Zoom gave us a whole new landscape to work with, in terms of connecting,” Kaplan told me.

Over the years, the MAC has offered classes in photography, creative writing, painting and printmaking, in part to help people grieve or process survivor’s guilt. The center has held Valley fire anniversary shows, featuring local artists’ sculptures of spindly charred trees and paintings of orange infernos. And it has published books of poems written by community members about the trauma of the fires and how they survived. Right now it has a exhibition of Latino art.

When I recently visited the MAC, the road I took to Middletown wound through a beautiful grassy valley. Yet I was struck by the signs of fire that were still visible years later. On either side of the road were grazing horses, as well as groves of tall, scorched trees.

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And before you go: good news

On Valentine’s Day, scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Birch Aquarium in La Jolla spent the day playing matchmaker with two sunflower starfish, members of a species that has nearly become extinct in the past decade.

The romantic encounter was facilitated, if you will, by Melissa Torres and her colleagues at the aquarium, and was covered in a recent New York Times article. The scientists wanted to see if they could fertilize eggs from the female starfish with both fresh and frozen sperm from the male.

Sunflower starfish are important to ocean ecology in the Pacific Northwest. They can keep the region’s kelp forests healthy by hunting sea urchins that eat the forests’ algae. However, since 2013, about 90 percent of the starfish population has become extinct, mainly due to warm sea temperatures.

But on February 14, love was in the air and the team in La Jolla managed to fertilize millions of eggs that have since been distributed to the aquarium and other research centers involved in conservation efforts. By late February, some of those eggs had already entered the larvae stage, and they are still growing.

The Republican National Committee, days after electing new leadership and overhauling its presidential campaign operation, is closing all the community centers it established for minority outreach across the country and laying off their staff, according to two people briefed on the plans. a move that could hinder Republicans’ efforts to court voters of color.

The community centers, located in several states including California, New York, North Carolina and Texas, were part of a yearslong effort to encourage Black, Latino, Asian and Native American voters to join the party. Republicans closed several minority outreach centers in battleground states more than a year ago and did not retain their minority media outreach directors.

The most recent cuts, which will affect about 10 community centers, were first reported by The Daily Beast, and they are part of a wave of layoffs at the RNC that has seen more than sixty party officials fired or forced to resign and reapply for their former jobs. Allies of former President Donald J. Trump have taken over with plans to merge his campaign with the party. Employees were informed via email that their jobs would end on March 31.

Republicans have widely promoted community centers, which were largely established within the racial and ethnic communities they sought to court. The centers often hosted political rallies, dances, and potlucks, and some even helped community members prepare for the U.S. citizenship test. The layoffs will impact many RNC employees of color, as the employees were often members of the communities themselves.

“We are currently evaluating every aspect of political and community engagement to align our activities with President Trump’s campaign,” Michael Whatley, the chairman of the RNC, said in a statement. “We have seen very positive impacts from our community engagement centers and plan to continue using them to build support for President Trump and Republican candidates across the country.”

Republicans have long struggled to gain significant support from voters of color. Mr. Trump, who is banking on improved support from black voters in November, has tried to appeal to them with a heavy reliance on stereotypes and insults. Speaking before a predominantly black audience in South Carolina last month, he suggested that his criminal charges would help him reach black voters, who are disproportionately targeted by the justice system.

Without an organized outreach system, it will be difficult for Republicans to translate an already charged campaign message into actual votes in November. The elimination of community centers compounds the challenges. In a post Wednesday afternoon on Truth Social, Mr. Trump seemed to recognize that need, saying that former Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina would help lead his campaign’s outreach efforts to “work with faith groups and minority communities. ” (Mr. Walker became embroiled in a scandal in 2019 that led to the indictment of state Republican Chairman Robin Hayes.)

Still, a notable split in the Democratic coalition this year, especially among black and Latino voters, could provide something of an opening for Mr. Trump: A New York Times/Siena College poll in February showed the former president a had a narrow majority. of support from Latino voters, while a larger share of black voters showed openness toward the Republican party

Mr. Biden’s campaign responded to news of the outreach center closures in a statement from Black and Hispanic media outreach directors Maca Casado and Jasmine Harris, calling Mr. Trump’s outreach efforts “hollow.” and called ‘cheap distractions from the poster’. boy for modern racism who works to undermine the progress and success of our communities.”

A new management team at New York Community Bank is trying to reassure investors after the struggling lender announced a $1 billion cash injection under former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. On Thursday, the bank’s beaten-down shares rose after executives gave investors new information about the state of the company and details of the rescue plan announced the day before.

The company’s leaders, including Joseph Otting, a longtime bank executive and close ally of Mr. Mnuchin who took over as CEO this week, said the bank’s deposits were up more than $4 billion, or 7 percent, last month. decreased. They also announced a dividend cut, the second this year, to just one cent per share.

The bank’s balance sheet will be “strengthened” by the cash injection, Mr. Otting said on a call with analysts and investors, and along with a boardroom overhaul and plans to reduce the lender’s large exposure to the shaky commercial real estate market , “we will We have several levers that we can pull if necessary, while we continue to strengthen the base,” he added.

The bank’s share price rose more than 10 percent in early trading on Thursday, before settling for a gain of 7 percent. As a result, shares are still down about 60 percent since the start of the year as the bank has lurched from one crisis to another, reporting billions in writedowns and raising concerns about the accuracy of its past financial reports. The bank’s stock prices rose and its bonds were downgraded by credit rating agencies.

Amid another decline in the bank’s shares on Wednesday, trading was halted and the $1 billion deal was announced late in the afternoon, which appeared to stabilize the lender. “We view the capital increase as a much-needed step in the right direction, taking the worst-case scenario out of the picture, at least temporarily,” analysts at Stephens wrote in a research note on Thursday.

Analysts at Fitch, a rating agency that recently downgraded the bank, called the cash injection “a positive development in the near term” but warned of the “continued ambiguity regarding the company’s strategic direction and business mix.”

The Hicksville, New York-based bank operates more than 400 branches under brands like Flagstar, one of the largest residential mortgage servicers in the province, and manages an outsized loan portfolio tied to rent-regulated apartments, whose values ​​have suffered under laws that restrict property rights. opportunity to profitably improve the properties.

The bank’s executives told analysts on Thursday that they would diversify its loan portfolio and sell assets to strengthen its balance sheet, among other cost-cutting measures. The dividend cut was a “bitter pill to swallow” for some investors, said Christopher Marinac, research director at Janney Montgomery Scott.

Regulators in Washington are eager to avoid another banking crisis just before the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. IT and other lenders that failed last year — including Signature Bank, which was eventually acquired by New York Community Bank — were felled after losing a flood of deposits.

A large portion of New York Community Bank’s deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which covers deposits up to $250,000. About 80 percent of the bank’s deposits fall below that threshold, the bank said Thursday, far more than banks that failed last year. This may have prevented a more dramatic decline in deposits, Mr. Marinac noted.

New York Community Bank, the midsize lender under pressure over its real estate lending and internal management, announced an overhaul Wednesday that included more than $1 billion in emergency funding, the addition of former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to its board of directors and the appointment of its third CEO in a month.

The deal was an attempt to prop up a bank that has lurched from shock to shock this year, and caught the attention of Washington regulators eager to avoid another banking crisis just before the one-year anniversary of Silicon Valley’s collapse Bank.

The more than $1 billion investment includes cash from Mr. Mnuchin’s private equity firm, Liberty Strategic Capital, and Kenneth Griffin’s Citadel Global Equities, among others.

The bank’s new CEO, Joseph Otting, has worked closely with Mr. Mnuchin in the past. He led OneWest Bank, then owned by Mr. Mnuchin, for five years. During the Trump administration, he also oversaw the Office of the Comptroller of the Monet, one of the banking industry’s top regulators.

Mr. Otting was a controversial figure in the administration, feuding with other regulators and angering critics who said his proposals would have gutted rules requiring banks to invest in poor communities and lend to low-income individuals.

New York Community Bank’s troubles began when the bank posted a $240 million loss in its most recent earnings report in January, mostly related to investments in apartments and office buildings, which surprised analysts and investors and sent stock prices tumbling. plummeted.

Just last week it replaced its CEO after disclosing billions of dollars in additional writedowns dating back to 2008, and said it would investigate whether years of previous financial disclosures had been accurate. Several credit rating agencies have also downgraded the bank.

The Long Island-based lender, which operates more than 400 branches including Flagstar Bank, grew rapidly over the past year after acquiring much of the assets of Signature Bank, another bank that collapsed during last March’s banking crisis.

Thomas R. Cangemi, who led NYCB’s purchase of Signature assets as CEO before resigning last month, publicly blamed the pressure to grow so big so quickly for the recent problems. He said it was forced to comply with regulations to which it would not have been subject as a smaller bank.

Mr. Mnuchin, a Trump administration official, said in a statement that while he was “aware of the bank’s credit risk profile,” he believed NYCB had “a strong foundation for future growth.”

It remains to be seen whether the moves will work. The bank’s shares plunged earlier Wednesday when The Wall Street Journal reported it was looking to raise capital. The New York Stock Exchange subsequently halted trading of the shares, but when trading resumed following the bank’s public announcement of the overhaul, NYCB’s shares rose and then fell to flat for the day.

This year they are almost 70 percent behind.

NYCB had $83 billion in deposits and more than $100 billion in total assets last month. Flagstar is one of the country’s larger mortgage servicers and ties the bank’s fortunes relatively closely to that of the housing market.

Shares of New York Community Bank fell more than 25 percent on Friday, a day after the lender said its fourth-quarter loss was $2.4 billion more than previously reported and also announced the departure of its CEO and a board member.

Shares of other regional banks were also lower: Valley National Bank and Columbia Banking System both fell more than 2 percent. The KBW Regional Bank Index, which tracks the performance of American regional banks, fell more than 1 percent.

The decline in other banks’ shares is a sign that investors are still nervous about the possibility of bigger problems in the banking sector – almost a year after several small banks collapsed. But the fact that the declines at other regional banks were small suggested that NYCB’s problems are considered unique to the bank.

“The market has become nervous because of what we went through last year,” said Christopher Marinac, analyst and research director at Janney Montgomery Scott, a financial services company.

What endangered NYCB?

NYCB appeared to be one of the winners of last year’s regional banking crisis after it acquired most of the assets of Signature Bank, which collapsed along with Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank.

The acquisition allowed NYCB to grow to more than $100 billion in assets, but it also subjected it to increased regulatory scrutiny, which meant it had to increase its reserves, and quickly.

NYCB said the larger loss reported Thursday was a $2.4 billion hit to what is known as goodwill, essentially a general financial category that companies of all types use to describe assets that cannot be easily valued or sold . NYCB did not provide any details on the reason for this impairment.

The current crisis at NYCB is a result of the way regulators responded a year ago, when they “inexplicably approved multiple quick mergers,” said Dennis M. Kelleher, the president and CEO of Better Markets, a group that seeks stricter banking rules. .

What consequences does this have for the consumer?

Based in Hicksville, NY, NYCB has a national presence, in part due to its acquisition of Signature Bank’s assets, and operates more than 400 branches under brands including Flagstar Bank and Atlantic Bank of New York. Flagstar is one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, leaving the bank exposed to weaknesses in the housing market, especially at a time of persistently high interest rates.

When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed last March, fears grew of a broader run on banks that could have threatened the sector as it did during the 2008 financial crisis. The health of banks like NYCB, a major lender in the New York region, is being closely watched.

While investors reacted strongly to the news on Thursday, customers should be less concerned about their accounts and insuring their deposits. Each depositor is protected by government insurance up to $250,000.

The bank said on Feb. 6 that it had set aside $10 billion to offer customers comprehensive deposit insurance, and that insured and collateralized deposits represent more than 70 percent of all deposits. The company continues to have strong liquidity and deposits, which at $83 billion as of February 5 were higher than at the end of 2023.

The reaction from investors on Friday is the latest sign that regional banks are struggling to put last year’s crisis behind them. Regional banks like NYCB have more exposure to commercial real estate than larger banks, and high vacancy rates in office buildings following the rise and continued power of remote work have contributed to a decline in commercial real estate values. That floundering market has been a major driver of NYCB’s latest woes, which have been exacerbated by high interest rates.

Where does NYCB go from here?

NYCB continues to face a difficult financial and regulatory environment. It could raise capital by selling assets or choosing not to refinance some loans and writing them off as losses. Raising capital would help NYCB better meet regulatory requirements, but it would also give it an opportunity to diversify beyond real estate.

The adjustment is part of the growing pains the bank is enduring as it adapts to a new regulatory environment, with agencies like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Monet looking more closely at regional banks since last year. crisis, said Mr Marinac.

“It’s a transition that has taken a lot of effort, but it can still be successful,” he said.

Lamy, a German pen manufacturer, recently made waves with the reissue of Dark Lilac, a much-praised ink color. A lush purple with a golden sheen, Dark Lilac, despite its popularity, had only been produced once before – as a limited edition in 2016.

Are reappeared a few weeks ago was so unexpected that the fountain pen community, which is a small but passionate corner of the office supplies market, panicked.

There was just one problem: it wasn’t the same color.

“There is drama in the fountain pen community,” Aidan Bernal, a 23-year-old fountain pen enthusiast, said at the start of a recent TikTok in which he did his best to explain the saga – one that involved conflicting corporate statements, amateur sleuthing and an elusive shade of purple.

“An absolutely beautiful ink,” Mr. Bernal said in a telephone interview.

Long overshadowed by its ballpoint, gel and felt-tip rivals, the regal fountain pen has seen a modest revival in recent years. Brian Goulet of Goulet pinsan online retailer in Richmond, Virginia, suggested the resurgence follows a trend of consumers returning to analog goods such as vinyl records, mechanical watches and single-blade safety razors.

“The fountain pen really ties into that,” he said.

As a teenager, Mr. Bernal was so enchanted by his grandfather’s fountain pens that he searched the Internet to learn more about them. There, he said, he found a huge community of fellow hobbyists. He now has an online audience of over 550,000 subscribers on Youtube.

“I’ve been interested in stationery all my life,” said Mr. Bernal, who works as an engineer in Seattle. “I always had to be the kid in class with the coolest pencils and erasers.”

Given the community’s passion, neither Mr. Bernal nor Mr. Goulet were surprised that Lamy’s reintroduction of Dark Lilac caused such a stir. Mr. Goulet recalled that the color was released in limited numbers in 2016.

“It crashed our website because so many people wanted it,” he said.

More recently, Mr. Goulet said, small bottles of the 2016 version were selling for $300 or more on the secondary market, a significant increase from the original retail price of about $12.

But no one expected Lamy to re-release Dark Lilac — that is, until last month, when a few European retailers started selling an ink called, wait for it, Dark Lilac.

“Everyone panicked,” Mr. Bernal said.

Adding to the confusion, Lamy had already unveiled a new ink for 2024 called Violet Blackberry, which many assumed was an homage to Dark Lilac.

However, something wasn’t right. The lucky few who got their hands on the new Dark Lilac were dismayed that once they put pen to paper, the ink wasn’t quite the same as the original. The base color, according to an early YouTube review, was neither as blue nor as rich. The shine was green instead of gold. And it certainly wasn’t Violet Blackberry.

“Was it a translation error? A new-old stash that someone found in a back room? A reproduction? A mistake?” Mike Matteson, a philosophy instructor from Greensboro, NC, passing by Ink dependence on his social media channels, said in an interview. “There was no press release or any teasing about the product, and so no one really knew what was going on.”

Enthusiasts have opened investigations. Among them was a man who runs an Instagram account called Fountain pen memes. The man, who declined to be identified, citing a government job in Brazil, posted an interaction he claimed to have had a conversation with a Lamy executive last week in which the executive said the new Dark Lilac was identical to the old ink. In a subsequent post, the account shared an interaction with another Lamy official in which the company operated retracted that statementrecognizing that the ink was different.

The man behind Fountain Pen Memes said he believed the company was unaware of the ink’s immense popularity.

On Wednesday, Lamy confirmed to The New York Times that the inks were slightly different. Some ingredients from the original version were no longer available when the company formulated the new one.

“So you could say that the 2024 Dark Lilac is the old special edition with today’s technical capabilities,” Lamy said, adding that he regretted the confusion. “We should have renamed our revised Lilac release.”

Mr. Goulet had a few bottles of the original Dark Lilac stashed away so he could make a side by side comparison when he received a sample of the new one this week.

“Hardcore pen fans can point out the differences like night and day,” he said. “But it’s also a very solid attempt by Lamy to bring back a beloved ink.”

The ink was barely dry on that fiasco back then on Wednesday more news came: Lamy, a family business since 1930, was taken over by the Mitsubishi Pencil Company from Japan.

“That,” Mr. Matteson said, “was not something I saw coming.”

New York Community Bank, the lender teetering under mounting real estate-related losses, shared several new bad news Thursday: Fourth-quarter losses were $2.4 billion worse than previously explained; the CEO and an allied board member are absent; and the bank identified what it called “material weaknesses in internal controls.”

The tell-all revelations, released in securities filings late Thursday, were an uncomfortable reminder of the price the bank is paying for a breakneck expansion strategy that included acquiring an ailing rival less than a year ago. They sent the bank’s already under-pressure shares into another nosedive, falling more than 20 percent in after-hours trading. The stock had already fallen by 54 percent this year.

The ugly developments were the last thing NYCB needed after weeks of trying to assuage investor concerns about its financial health. For weeks, questions have been swirling about the extent of the losses in investments and loans associated with both office and apartment buildings – an area of ​​concern to banks generally, but in which NYCB is particularly concentrated.

Despite its name, the bank has a national presence, thanks in part to its acquisition of a large part of Signature Bank, which collapsed during last year’s banking crisis. NYCB, based on Long Island, operates more than 400 branches under brands including Flagstar Bank in the Midwest and elsewhere. Flagstar is one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, making the bank particularly at risk of some housing market weakness in an era of persistently high interest rates.

In January, NYCB shocked investors and peers when it unexpectedly posted a $252 million loss for the fourth quarter, cut its dividend and set aside a significant amount of reserves to cover any future losses. NYCB’s revelations on Thursday mean an additional $2.4 billion in impairment charges will be required for the fourth quarter.

The bank’s troubles are resurrecting fears from a year ago about how small lenders have weathered the sharp rise in interest rates since March 2022, although NYCB’s revelation last month did not spark a widespread sell-off.

Last spring, financial health problems at Silicon Valley Bank caused an exodus of depositors that ended with its collapse as customers withdrew their money. That spooked investors at other banks, which had large chunks of deposits not protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which backs accounts of up to $250,000.

By the time the dust settled, three banks had failed, including First Republic Bank, the second largest U.S. bank to collapse by assets. Silicon Valley Bank was sold to First Citizens Bank, Signature to NYCB and First Republic to JPMorgan Chase.

NYCB had $83 billion in deposits and more than $100 billion in total assets as of the month. Thursday’s filings did not provide more recent figures and a spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

The extent of the bank’s problems – both past and future – remains unclear. The new disclosures stated that “the controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting were not effective as of December 31, 2023,” and the bank promised future updates.

The bank’s new CEO, Alessandro DiNello, was appointed executive chairman of the board this month. Mr. DiNello, who led Flagstar before NYCB bought it in 2022, replaced Thomas R. Cangemi, who had been with the company for nearly three decades. A board member who did not support Mr. DiNello’s appointment as CEO resigned at about the same time.

During last spring's banking crisis, when a rival lender collapsed, New York Community Bank swooped in and acquired much of its business. Now the country is paying dearly for that decision.

The pain stems largely from a weakening commercial real estate market that prompted NYCB — which operates more than 400 branches under brands including Flagstar Bank — to admit mounting losses. In symmetry with last year's crisis, the bank said its newfound size after acquiring Signature Bank had exacerbated its problems by forcing it to keep more cash on hand, limiting its profitability and pushing it to divest distressed assets sooner. to sell than it might have been preferable.

Fears emerged last week that such pressure could be too much for the bank to bear, with NYCB shares losing almost two-thirds of their value as investors sold en masse after a dismal earnings report. After the bank rushed to project stability, including by releasing a new set of financial disclosures Tuesday evening that one analyst called a “late night news dump,” shares rose 7 percent on Wednesday.

Whether his efforts will last is an open question. NYCB executives, who had remained tight-lipped about the bank's finances just a week ago, opened the books Wednesday and laid out plans for a turnaround during a public conference call.

The bank appointed a new executive chairman, Alessandro DiNello, who led Flagstar before NYCB bought it in 2022. During the call, Mr. DiNello said he and NYCB CEO Thomas R. Cangemi would return the company to financial health.

The 164-year-old institution, founded in Queens, boasts on its website that “the opening of the borough's first local bank was accordingly met with elation and relief.” It is now based on Long Island and also has locations in the Midwest and elsewhere.

“This company has strong fundamentals, strong liquidity and a strong deposit base, which gives me confidence for our path forward,” Mr. DiNello said on Wednesday's call.

He said NYCB would consider raising more money or selling assets, adding that the bank would use all pre-tax income to build its savings.

“If we have to shrink, we will shrink,” Mr. DiNello said. “If we need to sell non-strategic assets, we will do so.”

Yet, as UBS analysts put it, there are “still some missing pieces of information,” including details about how the bank plans to finance its long-term debt.

Data released by the bank showed deposits were broadly stable through Tuesday, although it is unclear whether that was due to additional money from customers or money being shifted from other lenders. Executives also declined to promise how often they would provide further updates on deposit levels.

The bank's leaders continued to show some irritability, refusing to say, for example, when they would consider Mr. DiNello's promotion. “I don't see why that matters,” he said during the phone call.

The stock went on a wild run Wednesday, temporarily plunging by double-digits and repeatedly tripping the New York Stock Exchange's automated circuit breakers meant to halt a freefall before rebounding. Overall, regional bank stocks were slightly lower at Wednesday's close.

The problems at NYCB highlight the relatively shaky ground on which many regional and community banks find themselves. Unlike JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and other banking giants, which have multiple lines of business, small and mid-sized lenders operate within just a few areas and can make loans that deteriorate all at once. That exposes them to a level of volatility that the country's largest banks rarely experience.

Some of NYCB's troubles began last spring when Silicon Valley Bank imploded, causing a mini-contagion among regional lenders that led to the closure of Signature and ended with the sale of First Republic Bank to JPMorgan. In March, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a banking regulator, seized Signature and auctioned off several parts of its operations.

Through its subsidiary Flagstar, NYCB made the most aggressive bid—one that allowed the government to incur the smallest short-term loss—and was chosen over others, including one from a much larger lender. The bank bought about $13 billion in mostly commercial and industrial loans on Signature's books, as well as $34 billion in deposits.

As recently as January 31, NYCB executives said Signature's acquisition had strengthened the bank by adding “low-cost deposits” and a profitable business that provides banking services to mid-market companies and wealthy families. But the acquisition also thrust the bank into a category of regulators — those with $100 billion or more in assets — that forced it to increase its reserves faster than necessary as a smaller lender.

Swallowing Signature's assets made sense for NYCB, as the two banks operated in many of the same markets. But the Long Island bank was also still integrating new and old assets from its acquisition of Flagstar, one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders.

At the same time, the real estate market began to show cracks due to the Federal Reserve's multiple rate hikes and the post-pandemic decline in office occupancy. That jeopardized much of Signature's portfolio, which contained older loans made in a different economic climate.

Some of these loans may need to be refinanced at interest rates that are higher than before, and others may simply need to be written off as losses. NYCB cut its dividend last week to preserve cash.

“Should they have known this was coming? Yes,” said Todd Baker, a banking and finance expert and senior fellow at Columbia University's Richman Center. “It seems clear to me that they really didn't know how quickly they had to adapt. The supervisors, who have already been burned once, are falling like a pile of stones.”

Representatives for the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Monetary Fund, another banking industry regulator, declined to comment. A Fed representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Less than a year ago, New York Community Bancorp appeared to be one of the big beneficiaries of a crisis among its peers when it acquired most of the assets of ailing Signature Bank and shot to more than $100 billion in assets.

The costs of that decision reverberated Wednesday when the bank, which has 420 branches, posted a $252 million loss in the latest quarter, cut its dividend and set aside a significant amount of reserves to cover any future losses. Share prices fell 38 percent to a 25-year low, dragging down the shares of other regional banks by an average of 6 percent.

New York Community Bancorp tried to put a brave face on the news — an accompanying message included the headline “Record Results for 2023,” where the bank is now much larger than it was before Signature's acquisition — but analysts and investors quickly came to zero. weaknesses.

It was an uncomfortable reminder of the tumult of last March, when the troubles at Silicon Valley Bank spilled over into the sector, including the collapse of Signature, a bank known for its real estate, legal and cryptocurrency lending. New York Community Bancorp bought a large portion of Signature under federal receivership.

Some of New York Community Bancorp's problems are of its own making, while others reflect Signature's absorption. The bank's executives said they would have to set aside more money for commercial real estate loan losses, partly because of a deteriorating investment climate for office space. (One director said there is “no real estate activity happening at the moment.”)

The bank did not respond to a request for comment.

As analysts spied on the bank's executives on their regularly scheduled call to discuss results, the questions became unusually pointed. JP Morgan's Steven Alexopoulos asked why the bank would not reveal more details about the effect on its future profitability.

“Why don't we give us the number?” Mr. Alexopoulos asked. “Your stocks are at a 25-year low. I can't imagine you're happy about this.” He added: “I don't know why you wouldn't take this opportunity to level expectations.”

Executives declined to provide further details, repeatedly linking their malaise to regulations that force banks with more than $100 billion in assets to keep more money in reserve than smaller lenders, as New York Community Bancorp previously did. On the dividend cut, the bank's president, Thomas R. Cangemi, said: “There is no doubt that this was a difficult decision as a company, but clearly necessary.”

One key difference between last year's crisis and what's happening to New York Community Bancorp: the bank's deposits appear to be relatively stable. Deposits fell 2 percent to $81.4 billion in the fourth quarter.