(Reuters) – New York Community Bancorp shares fell 30% before the bell on Friday after it found “material weaknesses” in internal controls related to its loan review, adding worries to investors already fretting over its commercial real estate (CRE)exposure.
The weaknesses were related to “ineffective oversight, risk assessment and monitoring activities”, the bank said, adding it will detail the remediation plan when it files annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 15 days.
The lender has been under pressure since it posted a surprise fourth-quarter loss on Jan. 31 due to higher provisions tied to CRE loans and cut its dividend to deal with tough regulation.
NYCB late on Thursday revised the quarterly loss to 10 times higher than what it had stated, citing goodwill impairment tied to transactions from 2007 and before.
The lender’s market value was set to shed $1 billion, if the current losses hold through the session. It has already lost more than $4 billion since its earnings report.
Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz said the impairment should not be seen as a big surprise, but material weakness is a bigger issue.
“Significant changes will need to be made with respect to how they monitor credit risk, which we expect may lead to them being more proactive on recognizing issues,” he said.
Following the share slide due to its CRE exposure, the lender had last month named banking veteran Alessandro DiNello as executive chairman. It added the roles of president and CEO to him on Thursday.
“NYCB’s change in leadership as a net positive given the significant issues the bank has disclosed over the past month,” Raymond James analyst Steve Moss said.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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