Bureaucrats scuttle bank deal

Florida banks aren't exactly on the regulators' most-favored status list.

Instead of spending more time and money bogged down in the regulatory swamp, Pompano Beach-based Florida Shores Bancorp and Shamrock Bank of Naples quietly canceled their deal to combine.

Colleen Kvetko, the longtime Naples banker who would have been president and CEO of the combined bank that was to be called Florida Shores-Gulf Coast, says the deal for Florida Shores to buy Shamrock got state regulatory approval on May 27.

But then the acquisition got stuck in the federal regulatory process and it wasn't clear approval would be imminent. The deal had been in the works since September 2009. “It didn't help that a number of banks failed in Florida,” she says. Kvetko says she is considering other opportunities inside and outside of the banking industry in Naples.

Donald York, the president and CEO of Shamrock, says the bank has no plans to look for another partner and has the capital to withstand the recession. Investors include Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza who is developing the Catholic university at Ave Maria in eastern Collier County with Barron Collier Cos.

York says he expects economic distress to continue for another three to four quarters. “The midterm elections are going to tell the story of what happens next,” he says.