Plastic confetti
BESTBANK was scattering credit cards like plastic confetti and growing its bal- ance sheet (to call it that) from $10 million to $348 million in four years. Such progress encouraged Mr Mattar and Mr Boyd to pay themselves $17 million in bonuses. Boulder's other attractions, the Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art, the Tajikstani teahouse, must have seemed dull by comparison. Money was pouring out of the bank and the only problem was to keep it pouring in. BestBank managed that easily by posting attractive rates and offering them on — you guessed it — the Internet. Depositors were comforted to learn that their money was protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corpora- tion, which in turn was supported, unwill- ingly enough, by the United States tax- payer. This time last year the FDIC belatedly realised that BestBank was BustBank. It closed the bank's doors, reimbursed the depositors, and settled down to get the insurance money back from BestBank's debtors.
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