Word: silverado
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Wise, an S&L marketing whiz from Columbia Savings in Kansas, to run the company. The nattily dressed Wise wasted no time in transforming Mile High's small-town image. He launched an ambitious expansion drive, unveiled plans for a glass-and-steel headquarters downtown, and renamed the company Silverado, evoking the dreams of prospectors in the days of the Wild West. Silverado was only the 26th largest S&L in the state, with total assets of $56 million and five offices, but it was ready to go places. Propelled by the oil shock of 1979, petroleum prices were rocketing...
Wise too was ready to move. He was eager to shake the small-town dust from his shoes and gain entry to Denver's society. One of his first acts was to hire a public relations firm to burnish his image and put a speechwriter on the Silverado payroll. "I remember him standing up in white tie and tails and pledging $100,000 of Silverado's money to the Denver Symphony," recalls an associate. Chuck Henning, former executive director of the Colorado Savings & Loan League, notes that "Wise was image-conscious and was going through all the proper steps...
Deregulation coupled with federal insurance set Silverado loose like a runaway stagecoach. "Silverado began to take advantange of that $100,000 insurance fast," says Hemming. Wise opened an office that did nothing more than generate new deposits by telephone solicitation. He advertised market- breaking high interest rates called the Silverado Prime. But paying those rates meant Silverado had to get a higher return on loans. To do this, Wise and Metz gradually moved Silverado out of the home-loan market, abandoning small local builders and buyers in favor of big depositors and even bigger developers...
...energy boom of the late 1970s and early '80s provided Silverado with plenty of opportunities for long-shot ventures with big returns. "It was a real Western boom that made the gold and silver days look pale by comparison," remembers Jim Thomas, executive director of Colorado's Independent Bankers Association. "We attracted all the con men, promoters, hucksters and sleaze artists in sight...
...Silverado's officers had thrown prudent banking practices to the wind, and before long the S&L was locked into a constant seesaw battle with regulators. Says a former Silverado executive: "They began playing musical chairs with their auditors, and all kinds of things were going on between the federal regulators and management because of the dubious appraisals on property. Silverado would lend a developer $10 million, plus the money he needed to pay the interest on the loan, and then when the developer came back in a year after repaying nothing, they would roll the whole loan over...