Banker confirms downturn's severity

Most people agree that today's market is unique. But most people don't have nearly a half-century of professional banking experience to use for comparison.

David Stone does. And in 45 years of banking, he's never seen a market like this.

Stone, who came to Clearwater in 1968 after spending the first four years of his career in Massachusetts, says the current slowdown is lasting “longer than any downturn I've seen in the past.”

Now, in 2010, he's retiring.

It's the second time he's done so in the past nine years, having first put his career on hold in 2001. The opportunity to become president and chief executive officer of Clearwater-based Liberty Bank in 2005 brought him back.

Stone noticed a “dramatic difference” in practices in just four years. Referring to many banks' earlier lending practices, he says it appeared as though they “threw the book away.”

Stone walks away happily from a 45-year career, which ended with an executive vice presidency with Largo-based USAmeriBank.