In 2000, evangelist Chuck Ripka says he had a vision from God: He was to start a faith-based bank in Otsego, and with the backing of the Lord his Riverview Community Bank could not fail.
<snip>
The bank had seen initial success but after getting tied up in bad real estate loans, it turned its last profit in 2007. Ripka left the bank in 2006 and former Secretary of State and current member of the Minnesota House Mary Kiffmeyer was at the helm when the feds took over the bank on Friday. She is president and director of the bank’s holding company, American Eagle Financial Corp.
The bank had $108 million in assets at the end of August and this summer, 90 percent of the bank’s loans were for real estate. Riverview was cited in June for being undercapitalized
.
It is the fifth bank to fail in Minnesota this year. The bank’s assets will be taken over by Central Bank of Stillwater. According to the FDIC, the bank will likely cost the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) $20 million.
When it was founded, Riverview was looked at by evangelicals as the center of a revival in the Elk River area. In The Elk River Story: Transforming the Spiritual Climate of a City — a 2004 book written by Elk River townspeople, including the mayor, spotlighting the Christian explosion in that city — Ripka penned a chapter about Riverview:
The Lord said, “I’m going to cause such an acceleration of this bank, that you will be invited to speak to secular groups about what has made the bank successful.” The Lord told me, “Chuck, if you will do the things I’ve called you to do, I will take care of the bottom line.” Two weeks before the bank opened up, I prayed about what should go on the cornerstone of the bank. Then the Lord told me to put these words on the cornerstone “In God We Trust.” The week before the bank opened up the Lord told me to pastor the bank. “Take what I have taught you and pass it on to others,” He told me. “Teach others within the bank to pray for the customers. Not only will your customers make physical deposits in your bank, but you will also make spiritual deposits into you customers.”
Gods Bank failure