Banks in region grow asset bases rapidly

Raymond James remains the clear leader among banks based in the region.

By Business Observer Staff
| 6:00 a.m. September 18, 2020
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

File. Dennis Murphy, middle, along with board members Jennifer Compton, left, and Tim Clarke, helped launch Gulfside Bank in Sarasota in late 2018.

Finance

Multiple banks in the region posted significant gains in assets year-over-year through June. For starters, 17 of the 23 community banks with a headquarters from Polk through Collier counties grew assets by at least 20%. And two banks, Clearwater-based Flagship and St. Petersburg-based First Home, posted increases of at least 100% in assets, 112.3% and 219.29%, respectively.

One of the biggest banks in Florida, meanwhile, St. Pete-based Raymond James, continues to get bigger, ending the 2020 second quarter with a little more than $29 billion in assets under management. And despite being the biggest in the region, Raymond James saw further growth over the past year, with assets up more than 13%.

It’s a big step down to get to the second-largest bank in the region, Fort Myers-based FineMark National Bank & Trust. FineMark managed just over $2.5 billion in assets at the end of the quarter, up almost 27% from a year earlier.

As was true a year ago, three other Gulf Coast banks managed at least $1 billion in assets at the end of the quarter — but some names have changed. Both then and now, The Bank of Tampa and Naples-based First Florida Integrity Bank are in that category. But CenterState Bank is gone, having since merged with South Carolina-based South State Bank. The new entrant? St. Petersburg-based First Home Bank, which grew its assets by more than 219% over the last year to reach nearly $1.5 billion at the end of the quarter. A large portion of the increase at First Home Bank, much like it is for several other banks, stems from handling federal Payment Protection Program loans.

Among Gulf Coast banks under $1 billion in assets, two have shown robust growth over the past year: Tampa-based Central Bank, where assets are up 53% versus last year, and Sarasota’s Gulfside Bank, one of the newest banks in the region, which grew assets by 89%. Gulfside was founded in late 2018.

(Winter Haven-based South State bank, which closed on a deal to buy CenterState Bank earlier this year, was mistakenly excluded from the chart. The bank had $37,721,678 in assets through June 30, according to FDIC data, up $20,698,203 from $17,023,475 through June 30, 2019. That's a gain of 121%.)

— Alexander Walsh