Apollo Bank in Miami lifted off last year, boosting the size of its loan portfolio by 25 percent after the portfolio shrank by 10 percent in 2010. Richard H. Dailey, Apollo’s president and chief executive officer, said management actually had bigger expectations for 2011.

“The loan portfolio grew a little bit slower than we had budgeted,” Dailey said, citing a scarcity of qualified, motivated borrowers. “We’ve been actively looking, but sometimes they’re just difficult to find.”