Florida Going Bust -- Half of Its Banks Are Unprofitable

The second largest Florida institution is BankUnited of Miami Lakes, which is held by BankUnited, Inc. (BKU). The "new" BankUnited was formed was formed by an investor group led by John Kanas to acquire the old BankUnited FSB from the FDIC after the thrift failed in May 2009.

The investor group took the thrift public in January 2011. The holding company last Wednesday announced that its $71 million deal to acquire Herald National Bank (HNB) of New York had been approved by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and expected the acquisition to be completed on Feb. 29.

Interested in more on BankUnited? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

Strongest Florida Banks and Thrifts

Based on fourth-quarter financial reports, only two Florida institutions were assigned "recommended" ratings of B-plus or above by Weiss Ratings:

Thorough Bank Failure Coverage

There have been only two bank failures in Florida this year, following 13 closures in 2011, 29 in 2010, and 14 in 2009.

Since the current wave of bank and thrift closures began in 2008, Florida has had 60 institutions shuttered by regulators, trailing only Georgia, which has seen 75 institutions fail, and leading Illinois, with 48 failures, and California, which has had 38 bank and thrift failures since the beginning of 2008.

There were two bank failures on Friday.

All 423 previous U.S. bank and thrift closures since the beginning of 2008 are detailed in TheStreet's interactive bank failure map:

The bank failure map is color-coded, with the states having the greatest number of failures highlighted in dark gray, and states with no failures in light green. By moving your mouse over a state you can see its combined 2008-2011 totals. Then click the state to open a detailed map pinpointing the locations and providing additional information for each bank failure.

-- Written by Philip van Doorn in Jupiter, Fla.

To contact the writer, click here: Philip van Doorn.

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Philip W. van Doorn is a member of TheStreet's banking and finance team, commenting on industry and regulatory trends. He previously served as the senior analyst for TheStreet.com Ratings, responsible for assigning financial strength ratings to banks and savings and loan institutions. Mr. van Doorn previously served as a loan operations officer at Riverside National Bank in Fort Pierce, Fla., and as a credit analyst at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, where he monitored banks in New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Mr. van Doorn has additional experience in the mutual fund and computer software industries. He holds a bachelor of science in business administration from Long Island University.

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