Under orders from its regulator to increase capital by the end of next quarter, Seacoast National Bank in Stuart, Fla., is getting a boost from the Treasury Department.
Seacoast's parent company, the $2.2 billion-asset Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida, said last week in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it has been approved to receive a $50 million capital infusion from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
In the same filing, Seacoast Banking disclosed that a week earlier its bank had signed a formal agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to reduce its level of problem loans and increase its total risk-based capital ratio to 12% of assets by March 31. At Sept. 30 the bank's ratio of risk-based capital to assets was 11.58%, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Seacoast's problems can be traced largely to the real estate downturn. In the first nine months of this year the bank lost $21.5 million after earning $9.7 million a year earlier, according to FDIC data. More than 4.4% of its loans were past due at Sept. 30.
