In Florida and Maine, Superregionals Prove Beneficial to Bank Customers
With the advent of superregional banks in Florida and Maine, bank customers are getting higher interest rates on deposits and new types of loans. But, some say, they also are getting less service, with the informal, personal touch that once characterized local banking vanishing along with local ownership.</br></br>For better or worse, out-of-state superregionals have changed the banking game in the two states. In Florida, more than 30% of the $86 billion in commercial-bank deposits are now held in institutions based out of state. In Maine, the five-biggest commercial banks, representing 85% of the banking assets, are owned by out-of-state institutions. Prior to 1981, there weren't any out-of-state banks in either state.</br></br>Bank Rate Monitor, a North Palm Beach, Fla., newsletter, says out-of-state institutions have consistently paid Florida depositors higher interest rates and charged lower rates on consumer loans than Florida-owned institutions. Robert Heady, the newsletter's publisher, adds that the "intrusion" by out-of-state banks has spurred the remaining locally owned institutions "to raise {deposit} rates modestly." He concludes, "Florida savers have gotten a better shake as a result of the 'carpetbaggers' entering the state."</br></br>In Maine as well, out-of-state banks are paying higher rates on deposits than local ones do.</br></br>Business borrowers in Maine and Florida generally say they are getting a wider choice of financing terms since out-of-state institutions arrived.