Every area bank lost in 2009

Recession took its toll on local institutions in 2009

Year-end financial reports available Monday show that every bank based in Sarasota, Manatee or Charlotte counties posted a loss last year.

Free Enterprise?

Banks set to become region's largest landholders

All in all, banks are set to become some of Southwest Florida's largest landholders.

So far in 2009, they have begun foreclosing on at least 5,500 acres in Manatee and Sarasota counties that were bought for $420 million during the boom. more...

How do banks think? See here.

Fla. faces $2.6 billion shortfall

Just months after patching together a budget by cutting spending, raising fees and gobbling up federal money, Florida lawmakers are bracing for more tough times next year.

Florida could face a budget shortfall of as much as $2.6 billion for the 2010-11 fiscal year that starts in July, as state tax collections continue sagging and costs increase for programs such as Medicaid.

Teeth, please

Slow-to-no mortgage fixes

Banks and other mortgage lenders have been slow so far to modify struggling homeowners' loans, but they now face a deadline. Congress and the White House should hold them strictly to it.

Obama administration officials recently gave the lenders until November to record 500,000 mortgage loan modifications under a voluntary federal program designed to avoid foreclosures.

So far, the results of the federal program, called Making Home Affordable, are not encouraging. A report issued Tuesday by the Treasury Department showed that only 9 percent of the 2.7 million delinquent borrowers eligible for loan modifications have received help. Those homeowners have missed at least two mortgage payments.

Meanwhile, the number of foreclosures continues to rise. More...

Under new management and shareholders wiped out

Two banks in region are seized and sold

By Michael Braga

Regulators on Friday shut down First State Bank of Sarasota and Community National Bank of Sarasota County, two institutions that played in risky loans during the real estate boom and crumbled when the bubble burst. More...