The Signature Bank may be most remembered for getting in too deep with cryptocurrency firms. But until recently it was best known as one of the biggest lenders to New York City apartment landlords, including owners known for deregulating rent-controlled housing, the Wall Street Journal reported. The bank had been working for years to lessen real-estate lending as a share of its total business after Signature’s exposure greatly exceeded what U.S. bank regulators recommended for managing risk. It also slowed real-estate lending after changes to New York tenant laws that made it harder for landlords to profit from deregulation. “We don’t want the [commercial real estate] concentration that we currently have,” Signature’s vice chairman, John Tamberlane, said at a finance-industry conference in 2018. Signature over the years branched out into less-conventional businesses, such as heavy-equipment lending and loans to cabdrivers. It later provided short-term loans for private-equity investors and launched a transaction platform targeting crypto businesses. Some of these ventures grew in size and made the bank less vulnerable to a real-estate downturn. These higher-risk businesses were also a major reason the bank failed. Signature faced a crisis of confidence after Silicon Valley Bank was taken over by regulators. The New York bank was also reeling from a bet on crypto banking that collapsed after the sector imploded and banking regulators cracked down on lenders’ exposure to digital assets.