'Immense Undertaking'

Several Gulf Coast banks have hightailed it out of the mortgage and residential lending business, scared off by onerous Dodd-Frank regulations.

But Sarasota-based Sabal Palm Bank, a $107 million asset lender, plans to use the changes for an opportunity to expand in that area — not retrench. Sabal Palm CEO Neil McCurry says getting the bank ready to comply with the rules was an “immense undertaking” that involved dozens of meetings, seminars and courses. The bank even hired an outside compliance expert to assess its progress. McCurry believes the expense, and risk, will be worth it.

Area banks that have exited residential mortgage lending include Tampa-based Bay Cities Bank. Bay Cities President and CEO Greg Bryant says the work was mostly a sideline business, and it made more sense to focus elsewhere, especially on commercial lending. The bank got into residential lending in 2007 and got out of it in January.