Florida

Gulf Coast Community Bank in Florida agreed to sell itself last month after spending six frustrating years trying to tackle credit issues and angling for a settlement tied to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart has agreed to buy GulfShore Bancshares in Tampa, Fla.

Regulators have pressed banks to watch out for rising concentrations of commercial real estate loans. Some banks have paid heed, but others are skyrocketing past recommended thresholds.

OptimumBank Holdings in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has appointed a former Florida credit union CEO, John H. Clifford, to its board.

CenterState Banks in Davenport, Fla., has agreed to buy Platinum Bank Holding Company in Brandon, Fla., in a $83.9 million cash-and-stock deal.

First Bancshares in Hattiesburg, Miss., has agreed to buy two banks in Alabama and Florida and it announced plans for a capital-raise to fund the deals.

Bank of Commerce in Sarasota, Fla., will change hands following a bankruptcy auction.

Community bankers say that reclassifying "reciprocal deposits" as a less risky type of deposit will help them to compete with large banks. Some deposit brokers are crying foul, arguing that the proposed legislation would put them at a competitive disadvantage. Observers, meanwhile, say the bill is so narrowly written that it would hardly affect competition.

Park National in Newark, Ohio, has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that its loan-loss accounting underplayed credit problems at a troubled acquisition.

Pilot Bank in Tampa, Fla., has recruited Rita Lowman, the chief operating officer of C1 Bank in St. Petersburg, Fla., to be its COO.