Peninsula Bank under more duress

Despite gloomy numbers, executives at Englewood-based Peninsula Bank say they don't believe the institution's failure is imminent, even as they get ready to submit figures for the bank's first call report of 2010.

The call report is due to be released April 30 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and some investors and bankers on the Gulf Coast are girding themselves for a bloody mess. The latest signal that the troubled bank is under deeper stress than ever came March 26, when it resubmitted its fourth quarter 2009 financials with the FDIC.

In that report the bank lowered its Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio from 4.29% to 1.38%. Some bankers consider a Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio under 2% a near-death sentence because it falls under the FDIC's “critically undercapitalized” rules.

Tony Leo, hired to run Peninsula late last year in a turnaround effort, says the bank had to restate its fourth quarter report because several write downs of collateral dependent loans took place in late 2009. As of the March 26 report, the bank held $109 million in nonperforming loans — 20% of its total loan portfolio.

Still, in an April 28 interview with the Review, Leo says he believes the bank can still survive the turmoil. “We are making every effort to recapitalize the bank in a timely fashion,” says Leo. “That's all I can say at this point.”

For more on Peninsula's survival effort, see the Review's most recent story on the bank (link).