Is there a future for community banks?

From 2008 through today, regulators closed 22 Southwest Florida community banks. These banks only include those headquartered in the counties served by the Gulf Coast Business Review. Add banks headquartered elsewhere with offices in this geographic area, and the number is much higher. Considered to be one of the centers of the banking crisis, the Sarasota/Manatee area saw nine local community banks and an additional six with offices in these two counties closed and passed on to healthier institutions at considerable cost to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. fund.