Bank on it

New community banks in Florida have been nonexistent for close to a decade, due to both the economic downturn and regulatory resistance.

A group of business leaders in the Sarasota-Bradenton market hopes to enter that dry market in 2018, with a new, yet-unnamed, community bank. The proposed president and CEO is Dennis Murphy, who had been one of the top executives at Sarasota-based Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida for a decade. Winter Haven-based CenterState acquired Gateway for $142 million in a deal that closed earlier this year.

“We think the timing is right on this,” Murphy tells Coffee Talk. “With all the recent bank consolidations, we think there aren't a lot of banks left offering the products and services a community bank offers. We want to be a relationship-based bank.”