A Welcome Return

Longtime Gulf Coast community banker Bill Sedgeman longingly recalls the days when an institution's return on assets was a metric he and his peers bragged about.

But even though Sedgeman has been a banker since 1971, the good ol' days of banks getting good returns on assets actually weren't too long ago. In fact, during the boom in the previous decade, many Gulf Coast community banks posted quarterly return on assets of at least 1.5%. That's the general figure banks nationwide strive for, though in the recession most bankers consider an ROA of 1% a victory.

If that's the case, Sedgeman, chairman and founder of Lakewood Ranch-based Community Bank & Co., again has something to brag about. That's because Community Bank had an ROA of .99% in the fourth quarter, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. That was an increase of 1.49% over 2010, and the fourth-highest quarterly ROA among all 54 community banks on the Gulf Coast.