Is there a difference between banks like Lehman Brothers & Bear Stearns and VIST?
As the media reports on the failures of banks, they neglect to qualify those failures as “investment banks”, such as Lehman Brothers, Bear-Stearns, and other behemoths that have been allowed to grow so large, without the same oversight we—as a community bank—are bound by. As we’ve seen, the failure of just one of these massive institutions can have a dramatic impact in our community and around the world. These investment banks deal in securities (including securities backed by mortgages that are subprime or Alt-A), in raising capital for other companies, and oftentimes in merger & acquisition deals on a grand scale, not in cash transactions like a traditional or community bank like VIST Bank. As a community bank, we are not involved in those lines of business, but rather the traditional banking products and services to help businesses and individuals manage their money at every stage in life. Lumping community banks in with investment banks is purely an apples and oranges comparison, a
