Banks' Answer to Crisis? Shoot the Messengers.

Just what does a bank have to do get noticed anymore?

BankAtlantic Bancorp has an idea. Sue the pants off of the glass half-empty banking analysts on Wall Street and blame the media.

The Florida-based bank sued Richard Bove, an analyst for Ladenburg Thalmann who is perhaps best known as the author of last week's crushing report entitled "Who is Next?," for defamation.

The report, which was published in the wake of the government seizure of IndyMac, listed certain ratios for 107 banks and thrifts that might put them in the so-called "danger zone" of failure.

BankAtlantic alleges that Bove got the figures for it wrong. He used figures for the holding company of BankAtlantic, not figures for the FDIC-insured subsidiary. Because the holding company owns other assets as well, the calculation was simply nonsensical.

It issued a press release saying as much last week. Later in the week, Bove issued a follow-up report, noting that the bank disagreed and clarifying that the ratios are, in fact, different for the holding company and its bank subsidiary.

BankAtlantic, it should be noted, was not even in the so-called "danger zone" in Bove's original report.

Nonetheless, BankAtlantic insists it deserves some retribution. It believes that the false sense of financial instability Bove created about it will forever influence investors' perception of it, thanks to the indiscriminate media and the evildoers on the internet.

BankAtlantic chairman Alan Levan:

"Literally dozens of other analysts and commentators have picked up on the Bove "analysis," assumed its legitimacy, and passed it on to a growing audience on the Internet. Soon, the falsehood will be presumed true and the truth false, leading us to regretfully conclude that the only way BankAtlantic can clear its name from this irresponsible defamation - and that is what it is - is in the courthouse."

BankAtlantic has company today in pursuing the wretched talking heads and ink-stained fingers in the media. In a speech, Office of Thrift Supervision Director John Reich also had plenty of blame to throw around:

"Seemingly oblivious to the fact that they could drive otherwise healthy banks to fail and push troubled institutions away from potential solutions toward ruin, TV reporters staked out banks on these rogue lists, interviewed customers and stoked public fears."

We're sure that BankAtlantic appreciated the attention today from some of the very same media outlets it had in mind in its suit. And what a smart move it was!

After the news of its lawsuit broke, shares of BankAtlantic Bancorp reversed their slide to end the day up 12.5 percent, comfortably above their level before IndyMac imploded and Bove hit the airwaves.

Way to move that market.

by Megan Barnett