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July 29, 2010 |
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| December 08, 2009 |
By: Wayne Tompkins |
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ontinued weakness in South Florida’s community banking sector affected the strongest as well as the weakest banks in the third quarter, according to BauerFinancial’s newest quarterly ratings.
The First National Bank of South Miami saw its string of 79 consecutive five-star quarters come to an end in the Bauer survey for the period ended Sept. 30. American National Bank in Oakland Park also fell from the five-star ranks after 13 straight five-star quarters.
Both maintained four-star ratings on BauerFinancial’s zero-to-five star scale, keeping them in the “recommended” category.
That leaves only three South Florida-based banks with the maximum five-star rating from the Coral Gables-based company: City National Bank of Florida, the Bank of Belle Glade and Intercontinental Bank in West Miami.
Only 10 of 79 South Florida banks surveyed made Bauer’s four-star or higher recommended rating, down from 11 in the previous quarter and 31 in the quarter ended June 30, 2008. The Coral Gables-based company rates banks and credit unions across the country on a zero-to-five-star scale.
Three area banks fell to the zero-star category in the third quarter, though one of them, Union Credit Bank in Miami, was purchased last week and supplied with $15 million in new capital. Sterling Bank in Lantana and Bank of Florida-Southeast in Fort Lauderdale brought the total of lowest-rated banks to 11, up from eight the previous quarter.
Four-star banks have a tangible capital ratio greater than 6 percent and a total risk-based capital ratio greater than 10 percent. Five-star institutions generally have twice the capital required by regulators. The institutions are either profitable or had only an insignificant loss for the reporting quarter.
South Florida now has the distinction of having more zero-star banks than recommended ones in the Bauer survey.
Four banks are teetering on the brink of the lowest rating with one star, including Great Florida Bank and Mellon United National Bank. Mellon is being acquired by Spain’s Banco Sabadell. An additional 13 two-star banks give South Florida 28 institutions rated “problematic” or worse, up from 24 the previous quarter.
One positive sign in the report is that the total number of banks that saw their scores fall in the latest quarter — 19 — is down from the 24 that fell in the previous quarter. And three banks saw their scores increase in the quarter after none did in the quarter ended June 30.
Flagler Bank in West Palm Beach and Plus International Bank in Miami each improved to three stars from two, removing them from the problematic list; Mackinac Savings Bank of Boynton Beach gained half a star, to 3½ from 3.
Four start-up banks were listed as too new to rate. Two startups got their first ratings during the third quarter, as FirstCity Bank of Commerce in North Palm Beach and Marquis Bank in North Miami Beach each opened at three stars.
Wayne Tompkins can be reached at wtompkins@alm.com or at (305) 347-6645.
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