A bank on life support [South Florida]
First Priority Bank is certainly not the only local bank suffering from the popping of the real estate bubble and a meteoric rise in foreclosures.
But First Priority has been impacted far more than its Southwest Florida peers.
The bank reported $33.8 million in problem loans at the end of December — nearly 17 percent of its portfolio. It restated its fourth-quarter financial report, increasing losses from $7.4 million to $19 million and decreasing the bank’s all-important capital cushion from $25.9 million to $14.1 million.
IDC Publishing Inc., a Wisconsin-based financial analyst, gave First Priority its lowest rating of “1” in a year-end report. Banks with such a rating — on a scale of 1 to 300 — have the “highest probability of failure,” IDC says.