Bank Beachhead

Bank Beachhead

USAmeriBank, unaffected by real estate loans, is focusing on

serving commercial customers and expanding in central Florida.

BANKING by Dave Szymanski | Tampa Bay Editor

You're running a commercial bank that is only 18 months old, unencumbered by real estate loans and boosted by investment income. What is your strategy?

For Largo-based USAmeriBank, it is careful expansion in west central Florida. The bank has three branches in Largo, downtown Tampa and South Tampa and more than $330 million in assets.

It plans to have three more branches in Clearwater, Brandon and Ocala open in winter 2008 and spring 2009.

USAmeriBank recently entered into a merger agreement with Clearwater-based LibertyBank. Pending regulatory approval, the merger is expected to close prior to year's end, at which point Liberty will become a USAmeriBank.

It is waiting on state and federal approval for a similar merger with Pilot Bank in Brandon. And it is talking to a veteran banker in Ocala to head up a branch there.

Although it is not a retail bank and doesn't plan a bank "on every corner," says Brad McMurtrey, president of USAmeriBank, the bank does want to extend its reach. In fact, it calls itself the fastest-growing bank in Florida.

"We are trying to be opportunistic," says McMurtrey, a lifetime banker in Pinellas County.

It believes it has a chance to make a banking beachhead because other banks are distracted by financial pressures, such as bad real estate loans, and can't focus as much on commercial customers, McMurtry says.

"Timing is everything," McMurtrey says. "Being young isn't bad. We think this is a very good time to be in banking, if you know your customer." He adds that a lot of banks have liquidity problems and are in a "reactive mode."

Its strategy is to expand carefully, using veteran local bankers, and avoid risky loans, such as speculative real estate construction, McMurtrey says.

"We are not a construction lender," McMurtrey says. "We do have loans for commercial real estate, but not in construction. We're not financing developers to build on spec."

Beginnings, strategy

McMurtrey and fellow local banker Joe Chillura founded USAmeriBank in 2006 and opened in 2007 with $12 million in capital. Chillura was president and chief executive officer in the Tampa Bay area for Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial BancGroup Inc.

USAmeriBank was buoyed in part by an investment from the Steanss family of Chicago, which owns most of the bank.

Employees own 20% of USAmeriBank. Two members of the Steanss family, Harrison and Jennifer Steanss, sit on the bank's board. Harrison and Jennifer, father and daughter business executives in Chicago, were former investors in PCB Bancorp Inc. before it was sold to Colonial in 2004.

The bank originally planned to serve Pinellas, but expanded its sights to Hillsborough County when Chillura brought in some former Colonial executives to the bank, including Al Rogers, executive vice president.

USAmeriBank is also looking to buy an interest in a local insurance company which the Steanss family partly owns.

"It's a way to leverage our interest," McMurtrey says. "There's a good synergy between the companies.

Some competitors believe USAmeriBank may be trying to compete against them primarily on price, but McMurtrey discounts that as its core strategy.

"We're not leading with price," he says. "We have to be competitive. Selling involves some knowledge, some creativity. Price goes with it."

The keys to the USAmeriBank strategy: Knowledgable bankers, flexibility, competitiveness and, of course, the ever-present service.

Future visions

USAmeriBank hopes to be a $1 billion bank or greater in the next five years.

"We want to be the independent bank in our market, controlling our market," McMurtrey says.

McMurtrey, 49, who has been in banking for 27 years, says his biggest lesson in the business has been that everything runs in cycles, so patience, planning and endurance are important.

"We've had challenges like we have now," he says. "Things go up and things go down. Hopefully, we're on the lower end of the cycle in the economy. It's a cycle. It is sometimes painful."

McMurtrey sees more banks getting back to basic relationship building again. "It's very important in today's banking environment," he says.

But that does not mean it turns its back on the technology of the day.

USAmeriBank is using online banking to reach customers.

It also offers remote deposit capture, which allows companies to scan checks and transmit the images to the banks for deposit.

With a name like USAmeriBank, it seems logical the owners would be pursuing a national profile. But they are not. They are not even looking to buy a bank in South Florida.

"We feel the bank should stay in the central and west region of Florida," McMurtrey says. "We know the market."

REVIEW SUMMARY

Company: USAmeriBank

Industry: Banking

Key: Build relationships with commercial customers, carefully.

BY THE NUMBERS

USAmeriBank (Dollars in thousands)

ASSETS AND LIABILITIES 6/30/07 6/30/08 %Change

Total assets 29,744 315,770 961%

Net loans and leases 11,533 267,170 2216%

Total liabilities 17,629 276,934 1470%

Total deposits 17,562 206,956 1078%

Equity capital 12,115 38,836 220%

Noncurrent loans and leases 0 0 0%

Average assets, year-to-date 23,752 242,834 922%

Insider loans 1598 13,719 758%

Tier 1 (core) capital 12,115 40,521 234%

INCOME AND EXPENSES YTD 6/30/07 YTD 6/30/08 %Change

Total interest income 464 7,290 1471%

Total interest expense 127 2,808 2111%

Net interest income 337 4,482 1229%

Provision for loan and lease losses 160 1,643 926%

Total noninterest income 1 47 4600%

Total noninterest expense 581 2,943 406%

Salaries and employee benefits 329 1,994 506%

Pre-tax net operating income -403 -57 607%

Net income -403 -57 607%

PERFORMANCE RATIOS YTD 6/30/07 YTD 6/30/08

Net interest margin 3.13% 3.92%

Return on assets -3.39% -.05%

Return on equity -6.82% -.29%

Efficiency ratio 171.89% 64.98%

Noncurrent assets plus other real estate owned to assets 0% 0%

Core capital (leverage) ratio 48.3% 15.45%

Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio 64% 13.52%

Total risk-based capital ratio 64.8% 14.6%

Source: FDIC