Leading Question

Community banks and credit unions are benefitting from big-bank consumers fed up with fees. Some may be impulse decisions, but Southwest Floridians tend to transfer accounts after researching and weighing the benefits versus the inconveniences of switching.

While Bank Transfer Day—fueled by Facebook to get people to move to not-for-profit credit unions—brought media attention, that November event didn’t send droves to those institutions.

“People just don’t change their banking relationships. There has to be a reason for them to change,” says Gary L. Tice, chairman and CEO of First National Bank of the Gulf Coast. “Generally speaking, that day was not what everyone had anticipated it to be.”

The region has a sophisticated clientele that will make a conscious decision to move their money after looking at bank ratings and their capabilities, says Keith Short, president of the Lee and Collier County markets for Iberia Bank. “It’s not the type of clientele that gets that riled up to create a line out the door to move or make a statement.”

Still, the increase in checking accounts might help reverse a national trend of community banks losing deposit share to bigger institutions. Defecting consumers are expected to withdraw about $185 billion in deposits from the nation’s 10 largest banks in 2012, according to research by cg42, a Connecticut-based management consulting firm.

Iberia accounts rose from 158,276 at the end of December to 265,322, as of September 2011. Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union reports that more than 45,000 new checking accounts were opened in 2011 (as of the end of November), compared with 39,000 total new accounts in 2010.

“Generally a lot of it has to do with the awareness of these fees that have come about because of media attention,” says Greg Pasanen, Suncoast’s regional vice president. “I think we’ve just reaped the rewards.”