Bronx Rep. Torres touts affordable housing dub in now-failed Signature Bank loan sale

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres penned a letter to SEC chair Gary Gensler with concerns about proposed rule changes for investments.

Photo courtesy Jacob Long

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres is touting the finalization of a real estate loan portfolio sale last month after Signature Bank failed last spring — saying more than 19,000 units of Bronx housing are out of the hands of potentially careless developers and now belong to investors who prioritize affordable housing. 

Torres sounded the alarm after New York City’s Signature Bank was the latest in a string of big bank collapses to send ripple effects through the economy in March 2023. Signature Bank, which championed cryptocurrency lending, closed its doors last spring after California-based institutions Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Bank — also big digital and crypto dealers — fell a few weeks prior due to instability with crypto deposits, customer withdrawals and plummeting stock prices.   

Signature Bank’s loan portfolio — part of the bank’s assets at the time of its collapse — was particularly worrisome for Torres, since the bank served as a major real estate lender in the city. He cautioned that the loans in the Bronx and other boroughs could be sold to a buyer who “brings greater disinvestment and displacement,” or that the properties will be refinanced at higher interest rates — which he said “could mean less money for the maintenance” of the properties themselves. 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), an independent agency created by Congress to maintain stability and public trust in the country’s financial system, was responsible for selling the residential New York City loans after Signature Bank’s failure. 

“When New York City sneezes, the Bronx gets the flu,” Torres told the Bronx Times in an interview earlier this month. “And nowhere more so than on the issue of housing.” 

But the warning bells quit ringing last month after…