Industry Article: Florida bank losses top $1B for 2010

Florida’s 218 banking institutions lost a combined $1.023 billion in 2010.

The 46 banks in the Tampa Bay area posted combined losses of $74.3 million last year, a report from Saltmarsh Cleaveland & Gund said.

“Performance levels have shown little improvement since September 2010,” said Lee Bell, shareholder in the Tampa office of the accounting firm.

In 2009, Florida banks lost a combined $2.17 billion, and 58 banks in the Tampa Bay area lost a combined $289.7 million. Several banks have failed since then.

Florida Bank, headquartered in Tampa and with $839.5 million in assets, posted the biggest loss of any Bay area bank with a $42.3 million loss in 2010, more than half the total for the area’s banks.

The most profitable bank was American Momentum Bank, a Tampa bank with $663.9 million in assets. American Momentum had net income of $9.7 million for 2010.

Thirty-nine banks in the state had total risk-based capital ratios of below the 10 percent that’s considered well capitalized by regulators. In the Bay area, those banks included First Commercial Bank of Tampa Bay with a total risk-based capital ratio of 4.27 percent at year’s end; Old Harbor Bank, 4.74 percent; LandMark Bank of Florida, 5.9 percent; First Home Bank, 6 percent; SouthShore Community Bank, 6.06 percent; Cortez Community Bank, 7.52 percent; Bank of Commerce, 8.61 percent; Heritage Bank of Florida, 9.05 percent; and Freedom Bank of America, 9.4 percent.

Banks with the highest levels of nonperforming assets as a percent of assets include Southern Commerce with 27.32 percent; Cortez, 24.43 percent; First Commercial, 16.09 percent; and LandMark, 17 percent.