by Pete Syme at MSN Business Insider
- Farmington State Bank had 3 staff and was the 26th-smallest bank in America out of a total 4,800.
- Then FTX bought an $11.5 million stake in the bank, it has emerged during FTX’s bankruptcy case.
- That stake was more than twice the bank’s previous net worth.
FTX has come under more scrutiny after it emerged that the collapsed crypto giant owned an $11.5 million stake in one of America’s smallest banks – more than double the bank’s previous net worth – the New York Times reported.
Farmington State Bank, which is based in the small town of Farmington in the rural farming region of Whitman County, Washington, was described as “no-frills” by local newspaper The Spokesman-Review in 2010. Its then-president, John Widman, told the newspaper that it had stopped making mortgage loans because the paperwork was too much effort.
Its single branch had three employees until this year, and didn’t offer online banking or even credit cards. It instead specialised in agricultural loans to farmers.