Fund lends Florida banks $70M

Eight Florida banks will receive $70.8 million in capital from the U.S. Treasury's Small Business Lending Fund. The fund was created as part of the Small Business Jobs Act, which was signed into law in September 2010.

Four of the eight banks receiving funds in this latest outlay of capital are based in Southwest Florida. Their names, along with the amount of lending capital each is receiving, are as follows:

• Tampa-based Florida Business BancGroup Inc. ($15.4 million)
• Brandon-based Platinum Bank ($13.8 million)
• Fort Myers-based FineMark Holdings Inc. ($5.7 million)
• Naples-based Ovations Holdings Inc. ($5 million)

The SBLF provides capital to banks by purchasing preferred stock from the banks in which it invests. The bank must then pay a dividend on the stock owned by the fund. To incentivize small business lending, the dividend rate on that stock goes down as the bank's small business lending increases.

Community banks with less than $10 billion in assets are eligible to receive SBLF funding. To date, 17 Florida banks have received $144.6 million in capital from the SBLF. A full list of SBLF transactions is available online.