Alexi Giannoulias Denies Risky Lending At Broadway Bank, Admits The Bank Will Probably Close

While Mark Kirk continues to attack Alexi Giannoulias for allegedly refusing to answer questions about his family's troubled Broadway Bank, the state treasurer was surprisingly candid while speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board on the subject Wednesday morning--admitting that the bank will likely be closed by the November election.

Giannoulias has faced criticism from both Republicans and state Democrats regarding his involvement with the financially strained bank, which has been accused of risky lending and is now required to raise tens of millions in capital, stop paying dividends without regulatory approval and to hire an outside party to evaluate the bank's senior management.

"I take my share of responsibility for possibly concentrating too much in commercial real estate," Giannoulias told the Sun-Times' editorial board Wednesday morning. "Obviously, it's easy to look back four or five years and say that, but I think in my role, that's part of what I should be doing. This is not something I'm shying away from. This is not something I'm hiding from. I'm here to answer as many questions as I possibly can."

The biggest news of the meeting was Giannoulias' confession that the bank may not be around much longer. The Sun-Times reports:

"It's quite likely that the bank will not be around," Giannoulias said. "There's not a lot of capital out there for somebody to find $60, $70 million [as federal and state regulators want the Giannoulias family to reinvest in the bank in the next two months]. I hope I'm wrong."

He blamed the bank's problems on the real estate collapse, and said the situation has hurt his family:

"[It] breaks my heart," he told the Sun-Times. "It was my father's whole life."