Just say no to banks

When it comes to taxpayers’ money, the chutzpah of banks knows no bounds. Take Guaranty Financial Group, a Texas savings and loan, which said in a filing last month that there was “substantial doubt” that it can continue as a going concern. Now it is calling for an unusual government lifeline.

Guaranty said in an SEC filing on Monday that it has approached the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation over “open bank assistance,” a method by which FDIC subsidizes “too-big-to-fail” banks in order to avoid absorbing their toxic assets.

If GFG’s primary bank subsidiary, Guaranty Bank, collapses, it would be the largest bank failure so far this year. With $14.4 billion of assets and $11.7 billion of deposits, it would be a very big fish to swallow at a time when FDIC is already choking on illiquid assets received from other failed banks.