Two years after spinning off its Florida bank subsidiary, F.N.B. Corp. of Hermitage, Pa., says it is opening five loan production offices in the Sunshine State.
Stephen Gurgovits, the $5.7 billion-asset F.N.B.'s president and chief executive, said in an interview Wednesday that it has no plans to open full-service branches in Florida. It wants the offices there to offset sluggish loan growth in its home market, he said.
Some former F.N.B. lenders approached the company about the possibility of opening loan production offices in Florida, Mr. Gurgovits said.
"This would not be a repeat of our former Florida strategy," he said. "It's just an opportunity to attract good talent in a familiar market where we will be able to originate a lot of loans."
F.N.B. announced Tuesday that it had opened offices in Orlando and Sarasota and plans to open offices in Fort Myers, Tampa, and Naples.
It entered Florida nine years ago and moved its headquarters to Naples in 2001. By 2003 nearly half of its assets were in Florida.
In January 2004 it spun off its Florida subsidiary, because its board believed the companies would be more valuable separately. The $5.5 billion-asset First National Bankshares of Florida Inc. was sold to Fifth Third Bancorp of Cincinnati.
