Bank bidders get busy on the Gulf Coast

The most active banks that seek to buy failed institutions nationwide have been busy on the Gulf Coast.

To wit: The three lenders in the country that bid most often on shuttered banks since Jan. 1, 2009, according to an SNL Financial report, are Bank of the Ozarks, Centennial Bank and IberiaBank. Each of those lenders has entered the local market via a failed bank transaction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Plus, the SNL list of top failed bank bidders, 18 in total that have made at least 10 separate offers, have an even deeper Sunshine State glow. Five of the top 10 won bids on the Gulf Coast, in addition to those first three, and another two on the total list are from Florida: Miami-based Bond Street Holdings and Davenport-based CenterState Banks Inc.