Burying the Evidence: First National Bank of Keystone (S1 E1)

Knox McConnell, Keystone Bank president, and the women known as "Knox’s Foxes". Billie Cherry, two unnamed women, Knox McConnell, Terry Lee Church, Melissa Quesenberry

Banking Bad - Keystone transcript.pdf

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When Keystone National Bank collapsed in 1999, it exposed one of the most dramatic banking failures of its era — a story involving hidden losses, unreliable records, aggressive growth, and the sudden realization that regulators could no longer trust the bank’s financial condition.

In this debut episode of Banking Bad, co-host John Bovenzi draws on his firsthand experience as the head of resolutions and receiverships at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation during the failure of Keystone. Through personal recollections and behind-the-scenes observations, the episode explores what it was like managing a fast-moving bank collapse where uncertainty, incomplete information, and market confidence all collided in real time.

More than two decades later, the Keystone story still resonates. The episode examines how familiar themes — weak governance, rapid growth, opaque risk, and delayed recognition of problems — continue to appear in modern financial disruptions, reminding us that while history may not repeat, it often rhymes.

Bonus Content

Artifacts and Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Boxer and The Banker by J. Knox McConnell - his 1984 biography of Billy Conn. Now out-of-print, it can be tracked down on book collector sites like eBay and AbeBooks

Congratulatory letter to John Bovenzi (FDIC) from President of First National Bank of Keystone 1989

John Bovenzi passport to Free State of McDowell, West Virginia 1989