You can count the number of Southwest Florida’s profitable banks on one hand, and still have two fingers to spare.
Seventeen of the banks based in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties lost money in 2008. Only three managed to turn a profit.
In a year when the U.S. banking industry posted its first money-losing quarter since 1990, local banks continued to be battered by a slumping economy, stacks of bad loans and plunging real estate values.
Not one of the 11 banks with headquarters in Sarasota County posted a profit last year. Three of Manatee County’s four banks lost money — and that does not include First Priority Bank and Freedom Bank, the two Bradenton banks that failed during 2008.
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