FDIC Warns Clermont Bank to Raise Capital or Find Buyer

Tuesday, Mar 30,2010, 10:48:49 PM   Click:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. gave AmericanFirst Bank in Clermont 30 days to raise capital or sell itself to another financial institution March 26.

The FDIC described the bank as “critically undercapitalized”.

Officials at AmericanFirst Bank could not be reached for comment.

TheStreet.com and SNL Financial ranked the bank as one of Florida’s top 20 undercapitalized banks in February. The bank got a zero rating on a five-star scale by BauerFiancial Inc. for the fourth quarter

Bad loans made up 15.8 percent of AmericanFirst Bank’s portfolio in the fourth quarter. Bad loans at banks statewide are at 5.89 percent.

The bank had nearly $82 million in deposits in the fourth quarter, but lost $7.7 million.

AmericanFirst had 18.9 percent in non-performing loans, with $12 million in noncurrent loans and leases at the end of 2009, up from $2 million in 2008.