VERO BEACH — Marine Bank & Trust, coming off back-to-back years of record earnings and its eighth consecutive profitable quarter, has received an A-plus financial health rating from DepositAcccounts.com.
According to DepositAccounts, which claims to be the nation’s largest and most comprehensive online publication dedicated to banking information for consumers, Vero Beach’s only locally owned bank “stood out in all of the primary evaluation categories,” including loan-to-reserve ratio (A+), deposit growth (A) and capitalization (A).
Its A-plus rating through the third quarter of 2014 put Marine Bank in the highest tier (top 13 percent) of the approximately 14,000 federally insured banks and credit unions nationwide in terms of financial health.
Marine has now earned the highest possible rating for two consecutive quarters, which DepositAccounts said “signifies its consistent performance in achieving exceptional fiduciary standing.”
The Beachland Boulevard-based bank’s resurgence comes in the wake of a successful, two-year legal battle with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which in 2011 charged Marine with unsafe and unsound banking practices as it struggled to cope with the collapse of the Florida real estate market.
The FDIC alleged that Marine had an “excessive volume of poor quality loans,” was operating “with insufficient capital in relation to the kind and quality of assets held by the bank,” and lacked sufficient diversity in its investments.
“We’re pleased with the A-plus rating from DepositAccounts.com, which reflects the health of our bank now, given our capital position and earnings results,” Marine president and CEO Bill Penney said. “And we improved our capital and earnings even more in the fourth quarter.
“So this rating just reinforces what we already knew.”
