Who’s Safe, Who’s Paying, and How to Tell the Difference

The Direct Answer

Florida’s deposits — more than $800 billion, one of the largest state deposit bases in the country (FDIC Summary of Deposits, state totals as of June 30, 2025 — sit overwhelmingly in four national banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Truist, and JPMorgan Chase together hold roughly half the state’s deposits (FDIC Summary of Deposits, Florida Deposit Market Share Report)), a second tier of Florida-headquartered regional banks (SouthState in Winter Haven, EverBank in Jacksonville, BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Raymond James Bank in St. Petersburg, Seacoast in Stuart, Amerant in Coral Gables, City National Bank of Florida and Ocean Bank in Miami, Capital City in Tallahassee (FDIC BankFind Suite, institutions by headquarters state)), and some of the largest credit unions in the nation (Suncoast in Tampa, VyStar in Jacksonville, Space Coast in Melbourne, Fairwinds in Orlando, MidFlorida in Lakeland (NCUA Call Report data, ranked by total assets)). Every one of them is insured: the FDIC covers bank deposits and the NCUA covers credit union deposits, each up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution, per ownership category (12 CFR Part 330; 12 CFR Part 745) — and no Florida bank or credit union failed during the 2023 regional banking scare or since (FDIC Failed Bank List; NCUA conservatorship and liquidation records). Safety, then, is mostly a question of staying within insurance limits and structuring accounts to expand them. Rates are a different matter: the national banks pay near zero on standard savings, Florida’s credit unions and a handful of regionals pay meaningfully more, and online banks pay the most — and because no regulator collects retail rate sheets, our quarterly Florida Deposit Rate Survey (below) tracks what each institution actually pays. How to read a bank’s health, how deposit insurance really works, the institution profiles, and the rate data follow, with the source for each figure noted inline.

The Landscape: Who Holds Florida’s Money

The FDIC’s annual Summary of Deposits — the census of every bank branch and its deposits as of June 30, 2025 published each fall — describes Florida’s banking market in three layers.

The nationals. Bank of America has been Florida’s largest bank by deposits for years, followed by Wells Fargo, Truist (the SunTrust–BB&T successor with deep Florida roots), and JPMorgan Chase, which has expanded its Florida branch network aggressively. Together the four control on the order of half of Florida’s deposits, with PNC, Regions, Fifth Third, and TD holding much of the rest of the national share (FDIC Summary of Deposits, Deposit Market Share Report, State = Florida — rank by total deposits; confirm current-year percentages). Their Florida operations are branches of holding companies headquartered elsewhere; their safety is the safety of some of the largest financial institutions on earth, and their savings rates are, correspondingly, among the lowest.

The Florida regionals. A tier of banks headquartered in the state, most of them publicly traded, with total assets from a few billion to more than $60 billion (FDIC BankFind Suite; Federal Reserve National Information Center FR Y-9C for holding-company totals). They compete on relationships, commercial lending, and — sometimes — rates, and their fortunes are tied to Florida real estate and the Florida economy in a way the nationals’ are not.

The credit unions. Florida has one of the strongest credit union sectors in the country. Suncoast Credit Union, with more than a million members and total assets in the high teens of billions, ranks among the ten largest credit unions in the United States; VyStar and Space Coast are each in the top forty nationally (NCUA Call Report Quarterly Data, ranked by total assets; NCUA Credit Union Locator for member counts). Credit unions are member-owned not-for-profits, which is the structural reason they typically pay more on deposits and charge less on loans, and since 2008 they have taken deposit share from banks in Florida steadily (NCUA Call Report state aggregates compared with FDIC Summary of Deposits state totals, 2008 vs. current; League of Southeastern Credit Unions state data).

The context. Florida’s deposit base has grown faster than most states’ because of population and wealth inflows (see our domicile and Wall Street South guides), but the growth has concentrated in the nationals and the credit unions; community banks have consolidated. The number of Florida-headquartered banks has fallen by more than half since 2008 (FDIC BankFind Suite active-institution count by headquarters state, compared with FDIC Historical Bank Data for 2008) through failures — Florida led the nation in bank failures during the financial crisis (FDIC Failed Bank List, filtered by state, 2008–2012) — and, since then, through mergers.

Deposit Insurance: How It Actually Works

The 2023 failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic (FDIC Failed Bank List, 2023) reminded depositors that insurance limits are real. They did not touch Florida — no Florida institution failed, and Florida banks’ deposit outflows were modest (FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile, state tables, Q1–Q2 2023; public Florida bank holding company 10-Qs for those quarters) — but they sent a wave of Florida depositors to restructure accounts. The rules:

The basic limit. The FDIC insures deposits at each insured bank up to $250,000 per depositor, per ownership category (12 CFR Part 330; FDIC “Your Insured Deposits”). The NCUA’s National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund insures credit union deposits on identical terms (12 CFR Part 745; NCUA “How Your Accounts Are Federally Insured”). Both are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, and no depositor has ever lost an insured dollar under either (FDIC and NCUA public statements; FDIC history of deposit insurance).

Ownership categories multiply coverage. The $250,000 applies separately to each category: single accounts, joint accounts (each co-owner gets $250,000, so a two-person joint account is insured to $500,000), certain retirement accounts (IRAs and similar, $250,000 separately), revocable trust accounts (up to $250,000 per beneficiary, with a cap of $1.25 million per owner under the rules that took effect April 1, 2024 (FDIC final rule on trust accounts, 12 CFR 330.10 — confirm current language)), irrevocable trusts, business accounts, and others. A married couple with individual, joint, and IRA accounts and a revocable trust naming two children can hold well over $2 million at a single bank fully insured. The FDIC’s online Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) and the NCUA’s Share Insurance Estimator calculate coverage exactly (edie.fdic.gov; ncua.gov).

What is not covered. Brokerage accounts, mutual funds, annuities, life insurance, stocks and bonds, and crypto assets — even if sold through a bank — are not deposits and are not insured (FDIC “Your Insured Deposits,” “What Is Not Covered”). Money-market mutual funds are not insured; money-market deposit accounts are. Deposits at the same bank under different brand names (many banks operate online divisions under separate names) count together (FDIC BankFind — the “trade names” field shows which brands share a charter).

Spreading deposits. Beyond structuring categories, large depositors use multiple institutions, brokered CD programs, or reciprocal-deposit networks — IntraFi’s ICS and CDARS are the largest (intrafi.com) — through which a single bank places a customer’s excess funds at other member banks in insured increments. Many Florida regionals and community banks offer these; there is no public list of participants, so ask each institution (FLFN institution survey).

Florida’s public deposits. Governments and school boards in Florida deposit only with Qualified Public Depositories under Chapter 280, Florida Statutes (Online Sunshine), a collateral-pooling program administered by the Chief Financial Officer’s Bureau of Collateral Management that protects public funds above FDIC limits (Florida DFS, Division of Treasury — current QPD list). It is why a city treasurer can hold $50 million at a Florida community bank; it is not available to private depositors.

Brian’s take: No Florida bank or credit union failed in 2023, and none has since — the FDIC and NCUA failure lists are public and short. The insurance is real and the limit is $250,000 per category, not per person. Structure the accounts, run the FDIC’s estimator, and the safety question is answered. What’s left is the rate question, and that one’s worth real money.

How to Read a Bank’s Health

Every insured bank files a quarterly Call Report (FFIEC Forms 031/041) with the FDIC and every credit union files a quarterly Call Report (Form 5300) with the NCUA; both are public (FFIEC Central Data Repository, cdr.ffiec.gov; NCUA Call Report Quarterly Data). The public bank holding companies also file 10-Ks and 10-Qs with the SEC (EDGAR). A depositor does not need to be an analyst to read the five numbers that matter.

Capital. The Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio — core capital as a share of risk-weighted assets — is the headline safety measure (Call Report Schedule RC-R; holding company FR Y-9C). Regulators consider a bank “well capitalized” above 6.5% CET1 (and above 10% total risk-based capital) (12 CFR 324.403, Prompt Corrective Action); most healthy Florida banks report CET1 well above 10%. For credit unions, the equivalent is the net worth ratio, with 7% the “well capitalized” threshold (12 CFR Part 702; NCUA Form 5300); strong Florida credit unions run above 10%.

Asset quality. Nonperforming loans as a share of total loans, and net charge-offs (Call Report Schedule RC-N for past-due and nonaccrual loans; Schedule RI-B for charge-offs; FDIC BankFind “Performance & Condition Ratios”). Below 1% nonperforming is healthy; a sharp rise quarter over quarter is the warning sign. The old Texas ratio — nonperforming assets divided by tangible equity plus loan-loss reserves — remains a useful stress gauge; it is derived from the same schedules and is published pre-computed by BauerFinancial and DepositAccounts. Anything approaching 100% is a bank in trouble, and healthy Florida banks run in the single digits or low teens.

Commercial real estate concentration. This is Florida’s particular issue. Florida banks lend heavily against commercial real estate, and regulators flag institutions where CRE loans exceed 300% of capital (2006 Interagency Guidance on Concentrations in Commercial Real Estate Lending, OCC/FDIC/Federal Reserve). The concentration is computed from Call Report Schedule RC-C loan categories against total risk-based capital; the finer breakdown — how much office, how much multifamily, how much construction — is disclosed only by public companies in the “Loan Portfolio” section of their 10-Ks. Office loans are the sector under national stress; Florida’s office markets in Miami and West Palm Beach have held up far better than most (CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield South Florida office reports), but a bank’s CRE mix is the question analysts ask first about any Florida regional. For private banks, only the broad RC-C categories are available.

Uninsured deposits and liquidity. The 2023 failures were liquidity runs on banks with high shares of uninsured deposits. The Call Report discloses the estimated share of deposits above the insurance limit for banks over $1 billion in assets (Schedule RC-O, Memoranda); below 30% is comfortable, above 50% is where SVB and First Republic lived. Pair it with the bank’s liquidity — cash, securities, and borrowing capacity relative to uninsured deposits — which public companies now routinely present as a single slide in earnings decks (EDGAR 10-Q, “Liquidity and Capital Resources”; quarterly earnings presentations).

Unrealized securities losses. Banks that bought long-term bonds at 2020–2021 yields carry paper losses that show up in accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) (Call Report Schedule RC, AOCI line; Schedule RC-B, fair value vs. amortized cost). The losses are only realized if the bank must sell; the risk is a bank whose AOCI losses approach its capital and whose deposits run. Florida banks were generally less exposed than the failed 2023 institutions, but the figure is in every 10-K.

The shortcuts. Bank-rating services — BauerFinancial (based in Coral Gables and widely used in Florida), Weiss Ratings (based in Palm Beach Gardens), and DepositAccounts’ health grades — translate these numbers into star ratings and letter grades (bauerfinancial.com; weissratings.com; depositaccounts.com). They are free or inexpensive, updated quarterly, and, for most depositors, sufficient.

Brian’s take: Five numbers tell you almost everything: capital ratio, nonperforming loans, commercial real estate concentration, uninsured deposit share, and unrealized bond losses — and every one of them is in a public Call Report schedule. Florida’s particular question is always the third one. If you don’t want to read the schedule, BauerFinancial and Weiss are both Florida companies that read it for you.

The Institutions: Profiles

(Asset figures are approximate, drawn from FDIC BankFind, the Federal Reserve NIC, NCUA Call Reports, and SEC filings, and must be confirmed against the most recent quarter before publication.)

SouthState Corporation (Winter Haven; NYSE: SSB). The largest bank headquartered in Florida, with total assets above $60 billion following its 2025 acquisition of Texas-based Independent Bank Group (SouthState 8-K and merger proxy, EDGAR; Federal Reserve approval order). Formed through the 2020 merger of CenterState (Winter Haven) and South State (South Carolina) (SouthState 10-K, “Business”), it operates across the Southeast and Texas, and its Florida franchise is among the deepest of any regional. Its scale gives it national-bank stability with a Florida headquarters.

EverBank (Jacksonville; private). Formerly TIAA Bank, and before that the original EverBank, the Jacksonville institution returned to private ownership in 2023 when a group of private equity investors bought it from TIAA and restored the EverBank name (TIAA and EverBank press releases, 2023; OCC approval order). With total assets in the range of $40 billion or more (FDIC BankFind), it is one of the largest Florida-based banks, historically known for competitive deposit rates and a national online deposit franchise alongside its Florida branches.

BankUnited (Miami Lakes; NYSE: BKU). Rebuilt from the 2009 failure of the original BankUnited FSB (FDIC Failed Bank List, May 2009) by an investor group, the current bank holds total assets around $35 billion (BankUnited 10-K), with a commercial and CRE-heavy book in Florida and the New York metro. Its Florida commercial lending franchise is among the largest in the state.

Raymond James Bank (St. Petersburg; subsidiary of NYSE: RJF). The banking arm of Florida’s largest homegrown financial firm, Raymond James Bank holds tens of billions in deposits — largely swept from Raymond James brokerage clients — and lends to the firm’s wealth-management and corporate clients (Raymond James Financial 10-K, Bank segment; FDIC BankFind). It is less a retail bank than the balance sheet of a national wealth-management company headquartered on Tampa Bay.

Seacoast Banking Corporation of Florida (Stuart; Nasdaq: SBCF). A Treasure Coast institution with total assets in the mid-teens of billions and a statewide branch network built through more than a dozen acquisitions of Florida community banks since 2014 (Seacoast 10-K and per-deal 8-Ks, EDGAR). A pure Florida play among the regionals, and one of the more active acquirers.

Amerant Bancorp (Coral Gables; NYSE: AMTB). Formerly Mercantil Commercebank, the U.S. subsidiary of a Venezuelan banking group before its 2018 spin-off (Amerant 10-K, “Business”), Amerant is a roughly $10 billion institution with a South Florida commercial franchise and a significant international-client base. It has expanded into Tampa and, previously, Houston.

City National Bank of Florida (Miami; owned by Banco de Crédito e Inversiones of Chile). One of the largest banks headquartered in Miami, with assets in the mid-twenties of billions (FDIC BankFind), owned since 2015 by BCI (BCI annual report; Federal Reserve approval order, 2015). A commercial and private-banking institution with a large South Florida footprint.

Ocean Bank (Miami; private). The largest independent Florida-based commercial bank in Miami, privately held, with assets around $6 to $7 billion (FDIC BankFind; Florida Office of Financial Regulation) and a long history serving South Florida’s business and international communities.

Capital City Bank Group (Tallahassee; Nasdaq: CCBG). A North Florida and South Georgia community bank holding company with roughly $4 billion in assets (Capital City 10-K), one of the oldest banking franchises in the state, with a conservative reputation and a large mortgage-banking operation.

Suncoast Credit Union (Tampa; member-owned). Florida’s largest credit union and among the ten largest nationally, with more than a million members and assets in the high teens of billions (NCUA Call Report; Suncoast annual report), serving a field of membership covering much of the western and central peninsula. Consistently among the state’s higher-rate depositories (FLFN Deposit Rate Survey).

VyStar Credit Union (Jacksonville; member-owned). The second-largest Florida credit union, with assets in the mid-teens of billions and a Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia footprint; among the forty largest credit unions in the country (NCUA Call Report).

Space Coast Credit Union (Melbourne; member-owned). Roughly $9 billion in assets (NCUA Call Report), serving the Space Coast and much of South Florida after acquiring the former Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union in 2009 (NCUA merger records).

Fairwinds Credit Union (Orlando), MidFlorida Credit Union (Lakeland), GTE Financial (Tampa), Addition Financial (Lake Mary), Achieva (Dunedin), Launch (Merritt Island), Grow Financial (Tampa). Each in the $1 billion to $6 billion range (NCUA Call Report), each regionally focused, and collectively the reason Florida’s credit union sector is among the strongest in the nation.

Brian’s take: Florida’s biggest banks are branches of somebody else’s headquarters, and Florida’s biggest homegrown depositories are increasingly credit unions. If you want scale, use a national. If you want yield and service, the credit unions have been winning that fight for fifteen years — and Suncoast, VyStar, and Space Coast are big enough now that “small credit union” is no longer the right mental model.

No regulator collects retail deposit rate sheets, and aggregators such as Bankrate, NerdWallet, and Deposit Accounts cover Florida’s regionals and credit unions inconsistently and with a lag. This table is therefore collected directly by FLFN from each institution’s published rate sheet on a single stated date, confirmed by phone or chat where rates are tiered or promotional, for a standard retail customer with a $25,000 balance. Replace every placeholder with surveyed rates before publication; do not publish with estimates.

The context for the numbers. The rate environment shifted through 2024 and 2025 as the Federal Reserve cut its policy rate from the 5.25%–5.50% peak (FOMC statements; FRED series DFEDTARU/DFEDTARL — confirm the current target range); deposit rates followed down with a lag (FDIC National Rates and Rate Caps, monthly), and the spread between institution types persisted: national banks kept standard savings near zero, relying on convenience and inertia; credit unions and online banks competed for deposits with rates typically several percentage points higher; and Florida regionals fell between, with EverBank historically the most rate-competitive of the Florida-based banks (prior FLFN survey rounds; DepositAccounts historical rate data). The survey’s purpose is to replace that generalization with the actual number, every quarter.

How Florida Depositors Leave Money on the Table

The inertia cost. The gap between a national bank’s standard savings rate and a competitive high-yield rate has been on the order of 3 to 4 percentage points through the recent cycle (FLFN survey; FDIC National Rates vs. published online-bank rates) — $3,000 to $4,000 a year on a $100,000 balance. Most of Florida’s deposits sit in the low-rate accounts (inferred from FDIC Summary of Deposits market share, which shows the nationals’ dominance).

The relationship trap. Banks price standard savings low because customers with checking, mortgages, and direct deposit rarely move. Keeping the checking relationship at the national bank and moving the savings to a credit union or online account captures most of the yield with none of the inconvenience.

CD ladders and the rate cycle. In a falling-rate environment, longer CDs lock in yields that savings accounts will not hold; in a rising one, the reverse. A ladder — CDs maturing at staggered intervals — hedges both, and Florida credit unions have offered some of the most competitive long-term CD rates in the market (FLFN survey, 5-year CD column).

Treasury bills as the benchmark. Florida has no state income tax (Florida Constitution, Article VII, Section 5), so the usual Treasury advantage — exemption from state tax — is worth nothing to a Florida resident. That makes bank and credit union deposits relatively more attractive here than in New York or California, and it means a Florida saver’s comparison is simply the after-fee APY against the current Treasury bill yield (U.S. Treasury Daily Par Yield Curve).

Credit union membership. Nearly every Floridian is eligible to join at least one large credit union through geography, employer, or a nominal association membership; eligibility rules are on each credit union’s membership page and are rarely an obstacle (individual credit union “Join” pages; FLFN eligibility table).

Brian’s take: Florida savers have one structural edge — no state income tax means a bank rate and a Treasury rate compare head to head — and one structural problem: most of the state’s money sits in accounts paying next to nothing. Move the savings, keep the checking, ladder the CDs, and check the survey every quarter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Florida banks safe? Yes, by every public measure: no Florida bank or credit union failed during the 2023 banking turmoil or since (FDIC Failed Bank List; NCUA records), Florida institutions generally report strong capital ratios (Call Report Schedule RC-R), and all deposits are federally insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per institution, per ownership category.

What is the biggest bank in Florida? By deposits held in the state, Bank of America, followed by Wells Fargo, Truist, and JPMorgan Chase — none headquartered in Florida (FDIC Summary of Deposits). The largest Florida-headquartered bank is SouthState (Winter Haven), followed by EverBank (Jacksonville), BankUnited (Miami Lakes), and Raymond James Bank (St. Petersburg) (FDIC BankFind; Federal Reserve NIC).

What is the largest credit union in Florida? Suncoast Credit Union (Tampa), with more than a million members, followed by VyStar (Jacksonville) and Space Coast (Melbourne) (NCUA Call Report).

Is my money safe over $250,000? Only if it is structured across ownership categories (individual, joint, retirement, trust) or spread across institutions or a reciprocal-deposit network. Use the FDIC’s EDIE calculator to check exact coverage (edie.fdic.gov).

Are credit unions as safe as banks? Yes. NCUA insurance is identical in amount to FDIC insurance and equally backed by the U.S. government (12 CFR Part 745), and Florida’s large credit unions report net worth ratios well above regulatory minimums (NCUA Financial Performance Reports).

Which Florida bank pays the highest savings rate? It changes quarterly — see the survey above for current figures. Historically, Florida’s large credit unions and EverBank have led the Florida-based institutions, with online banks setting the overall benchmark.

Did any Florida banks fail in 2023? No. The 2023 failures (Silicon Valley Bank, Signature, First Republic) were outside Florida (FDIC Failed Bank List), and Florida institutions experienced only modest deposit movement (FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile, state tables).

Sources

Regulatory data (primary):

FDIC — Summary of Deposits (annual, as of June 30); BankFind Suite; Failed Bank List; Quarterly Banking Profile; National Rates and Rate Caps; Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator; “Your Insured Deposits” (fdic.gov)
FFIEC Central Data Repository — bank Call Reports, Schedules RC, RC-B, RC-C, RC-N, RC-O, RC-R, RI-B (cdr.ffiec.gov)
Federal Reserve National Information Center — FR Y-9C holding company reports (ffiec.gov/nicpubweb)
NCUA — Call Report Quarterly Data (Form 5300); Credit Union Locator; Financial Performance Reports; Share Insurance Estimator (ncua.gov)
Florida Office of Financial Regulation — state-chartered institution records (flofr.gov)
Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Treasury — Qualified Public Depository program under Chapter 280, Florida Statutes (myfloridacfo.com)

Regulations and statutes:

12 CFR Part 330 (FDIC deposit insurance coverage); 12 CFR 330.10 (trust accounts, 2024 rule); 12 CFR Part 745 (NCUA share insurance); 12 CFR 324.403 (bank capital categories); 12 CFR Part 702 (credit union net worth)
2006 Interagency Guidance on Concentrations in Commercial Real Estate Lending (OCC/FDIC/Federal Reserve)
Florida Constitution, Article VII, Section 5; Chapter 280, Florida Statutes (Online Sunshine, leg.state.fl.us)

Company filings:

SEC EDGAR — SouthState (SSB), BankUnited (BKU), Raymond James Financial (RJF), Seacoast (SBCF), Amerant (AMTB), Capital City Bank Group (CCBG): 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, and merger proxies
Banco de Crédito e Inversiones annual report (City National Bank of Florida); TIAA/EverBank 2023 transaction releases; Suncoast, VyStar, and Space Coast annual reports

Rate and health data:

FLFN Florida Deposit Rate Survey (institution rate sheets, quarterly)
BauerFinancial (Coral Gables); Weiss Ratings (Palm Beach Gardens); DepositAccounts health grades and rate history
Federal Reserve FOMC statements; FRED (St. Louis Fed) policy rate series; U.S. Treasury Daily Par Yield Curve

Industry and press:

Florida Bankers Association; League of Southeastern Credit Unions; IntraFi (reciprocal deposit programs)
South Florida Business Journal, Tampa Bay Business Journal, Jacksonville Business Journal, American Banker, 2023–2026

This article is a composite of publicly available information current as of the verification date above, with the source for each figure noted inline. Institution asset sizes, capital ratios, and deposit rates change continuously; confirm current figures directly with the FDIC, NCUA, and each institution before relying on them. Nothing here is investment advice; deposit insurance coverage depends on account structure, and readers should verify their own coverage with the FDIC or NCUA calculators.