The pace of bank failures in the Suncoast region has dropped after reaching alarming highs during the recession. Over the past three years, nine of Southwest Florida’s community banks collapsed, a striking 17 percent of Florida’s bank failures. Now, regulators say only one bank in the area has failed this year. Eleven of the remaining banks in Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota Counties are now reportedly well-financed and a twelfth adequately financed. That has banking officials hopeful that no more bank failures will occur. Six of Florida’s first dozen bank failures came in Manatee and Sarasota Counties due, regulators say, to plunging real estate values and toxic loans.
