Chipola Community Bank could not be accused of aggressive growth.
Founded in the Panhandle town of Marianna as First Capital Bank in October 2005, Chipola never had more than $40 million in loans on its books. But its focus on commercial developers proved its undoing.
Bad loans began to accumulate in 2009 and rapidly ate into the bank's capital.
After getting hit with a regulatory order in 2010, the bank changed its name to Chipola Community and began looking for fresh funds. In June 2012, it looked as if it might receive a $3 million infusion from a group of Latin American investors, according to the South Florida Business Journal.
Regulators stopped the deal in its tracks.
The investment group was headed by Harold Connell — the former president and chief executive of Security Bank in North Lauderdale, which had failed just a month earlier.
Connell was fined twice by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for failing to meet regulatory requirements, and for hiring a top executive who had a criminal record. So regulators thwarted his attempt to gain control of the Panhandle bank.
Though Chipola was overseen by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, regulatory reports will not be public until April 2014. The FDIC has not issued an analysis of the failure.