A Florida Keys bank upgrades its computers to fight big players.

KEY WEST, Fla. -- First State Bank of the Florida Keys is installing a retail banking system to help it compete more effectively on its home turf with superregionals First Union Corp., NationsBank, and Barnett Banks Inc.

The $160 million-asset bank is investing half a million dollars in the system, which is slated to go into production on Dec. 2.

On that date, all 15,000 customer accounts will be moved to the new software, from Fiserv Inc., Milwaukee, allowing the bank for the first time to view all of a customer's relationships on one or two computer screens.

The Florida bank, which has five branches mainly on the lower keys, is the only independent bank in Key West.

|A Unique Market'

The community bank dominated the market until several years ago, when superregionals began buying up local banks. But the bank says it has also benefited from the consolidations, and that many members of the artistic community living year-round on the keys prefer to bank locally.

The bank has an A-plus rating from Sheshunoff Information Services Inc. Net income for 1992 was $2.099 million; net loans grew by 10% to $65 million. Total deposits grew 18% in 1992, to $139 million. The bank's risk-based capital ration was 19.22%, three times the regulatory requirement.

"We are in a unique market," said Antoinette deJongh Love, marketing and community relations coordinator at the bank. "The locals are very territorial, very supportive of a community bank."

And in 1991, when Barnett took over First Federal Savings and Loan, several of the thrift's executives moved to First State Bank, including Karen Sharp, now executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Replacing NCR System

The bank believes that its inhouse processing operations, in addition to its community feel, give it an advantage over its bigger rivals.

Originally, the bank had planned only to install new software that would make it easier for platform personnel to sell products. But after discussion, the bank decided to install new hardware, an AS/400 from International Business Machines Corp., and a relational data base.

The new system replaces one from NCR Corp., called Banker 80, which the bank ran on the NCR Tower computer, using software from Advanced Computer Systems, in Dayton, Ohio.

Rather than wait for a new version of the software, the bank decided to move to replace the hardware, and install the software from Fiserv.

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