Saltmarsh CPA Tampa Office Accounting, Tax and Consulting Services

2012 FBA Consumer Compliance Seminar Release Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012

Members of the Bank Advisors team attended the Florida Bankers Association's Annual Consumer Compliance Seminar at the Florida Hotel in Orlando Florida this week.

Tampa GovCon Conference Kicks Off Release Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012

Our Tampa office kicked off a two-day training event for government contractors in partnership with Solvability, Inc. today.

Jenny Clark of Solvability speaks at the Tampa GovCon Conference and Suzanne Cox, CPA of Saltmarsh leads a session at the Tampa GovCon Conference.

Look for more seminars and events hosted by Saltmarsh in the coming months by visiting the Seminars page.

Kristen Stogniew To Speak At Tampa Financial Institution Seminars Release Date: Friday, March 2, 2012

Saltmarsh Shareholder, Kristen Stogniew, will be speaking at two upcoming seminars in the Tampa Bay area. On April 17, she will present "The Dodd Frank Act and Community Bank Compliance for 2012" to the Central Florida Compliance Association. In addition, she will present two Bank Secrecy Act related topics at this year's ACFE Tampa Chapter's Fraud & Computer Crimes Seminar. More information about the events can be found below.

About the Speaker: Kristen is a Shareholder in the Financial Institution Advisory Group at Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund. She has been providing legal advice and audit services in regulatory compliance and banking operations since 1995. At Saltmarsh, she continues to provide risk management, policy and procedure drafting, compliance audit and monitoring, and related consulting in areas such as BSA, Loan and Deposit Compliance, Marketing and Retail Delivery, Trust, Governance, and ACH. Kristen also provides one-on-one mentoring and customized training to staff, management and Bank Directorate. Kristen is a Member of the Florida Bar and is an Accredited ACH Professional.

Central Florida Compliance Association
"Dodd Frank for 2012"
April 17, 2012
8:15-9:45 a.m.
Commerce National Bank & Trust
1201 South Orlando Avenue, Suite 100
Winter Park, Florida 32789

ACFE Tampa Chapter
13th Annual Fraud & Computer Crimes Seminar
May 10th & 11th, 2012
Marriott Tampa Westshore
1001 North Westshore Blvd
Tampa, FL 33607

Thursday, May 11th, 2012 (RSVP by April 13th)
8:30 – 9:20 a.m.
Topic Title: "Anti-Money Laundering Systems Data Validation"
Topic Summary: Financial institutions are finding that they can no longer rely solely on their AML system vendor’s setup processes and standard report packages. Regulators are asking for independent validation that the system accurately captures transactions, and that its filters and monitoring reports are appropriate for the specific institution. This session will guide you on performing and documenting that validation.

9:30 – 10:20 a.m.
Topic Title: "10 Steps to a Better Bank Secrecy Act Compliance Program"
Topic Summary: A discussion of current BSA enforcement and money laundering trends, and simple steps you can take to ensure your program measures up.

Suzanne Cox Appears on Tampa FOX 13 Monday, February 13, 2012

Tampa, FL -- Suzanne Cox, CPA, was recently featured in a story about stolen tax returns on Tampa's Fox 13. During her interview, she talks about how she has been a victim due to identity theft, and gives pointers on how to recognize fradulent activity.

• Watch Suzanne's Interview on Fox 13:
  "Little Help with Stolen Tax Returns"

Lee Bell Quoted in Article on Community Banking Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Lee Bell, Tampa based Shareholder, was recently quoted in an article written by Margie Manning of the Tampa Bay Business Journal regarding Tampa area community banks. Below is an excerpt of that article.

Article titled "Performance improving, with a caveat" by Margie Manning.

"Tampa Bay area community banks gained strength on their balance sheets and income statements in the third quarter. As a group they bolstered capital and made a profit compared with a net loss in prior quarter."

"However, the turnaround is attributed more to failure of a dozen of the biggest statewide money-losers than to performance improvements."

"I don’t know that we’re seeing that banks are starting to make money that weren’t making money, but some of the banks that were losing money have continued to lose but at a slower pace or they are gone," said Lee Bell, shareholder in charge of the central Florida practice for accounting firm Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund.

The health of the banking industry is critical for small to mid-size businesses that rely on community banks for credit and other services. Stronger banks are in a better position to make loans to be used by businesses to expand and hire, increase purchases from other businesses and in turn boost the economy.

The Tampa office of Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund is located in the One Tampa City Center at 201 N. Franklin St., Suite 2720, Downtown Tampa. Call (813) 287.1111 for more information community banking.

Lee Bell Quoted in Tampa Bay Business Journal Monday, August 15, 2011

Tampa, FL -- Shareholder Lee Bell was quoted in an article reporting on community banks in the Tampa metropolitan area in the Friday, August 12 edition of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Follow link to view the entire article, including Lee Bell's quote on bank portfolios.

Hager and Stogniew Two Good Cops at the Florida School of Banking

Gainesville, FL - Monday, August 1, 2011 - Two of our banking shareholders, Alex Hager and Kristen Stogniew kicked off the 2011 Florida School of Banking for it its Junior class today on the campus of the University of Florida. Alex and Kristen covered the topics of, "How to Survive a Safety & Soundness Exam" and "How to Survive a Compliance Exam". There was no 'good cop/bad cop' here as they worked together to shed light on regulatory compliance to the future leaders of Florida banking.

Saltmarsh Technology Funnel and Community Bank Executive Forum Wednesday, October 12, 2011

On Thursday, October 6th and Friday October 7th, Saltmarsh hosted the annual Technology Funnel and Community Bank Executive Forum at the Tampa Club in Tampa, Florida. More than 50 participants heard timely information regarding technology in community banking during the Thursday session, while more than 90 bank executives gathered for Friday's event.

Industry Article: Florida bank losses top $1B for 2010 Monday, February 7, 2011

Florida’s 218 banking institutions lost a combined $1.023 billion in 2010.

The 46 banks in the Tampa Bay area posted combined losses of $74.3 million last year, a report from Saltmarsh Cleaveland & Gund said.

“Performance levels have shown little improvement since September 2010,” said Lee Bell, shareholder in the Tampa office of the accounting firm.

In 2009, Florida banks lost a combined $2.17 billion, and 58 banks in the Tampa Bay area lost a combined $289.7 million. Several banks have failed since then.

Florida Bank, headquartered in Tampa and with $839.5 million in assets, posted the biggest loss of any Bay area bank with a $42.3 million loss in 2010, more than half the total for the area’s banks.

The most profitable bank was American Momentum Bank, a Tampa bank with $663.9 million in assets. American Momentum had net income of $9.7 million for 2010.

Thirty-nine banks in the state had total risk-based capital ratios of below the 10 percent that’s considered well capitalized by regulators. In the Bay area, those banks included First Commercial Bank of Tampa Bay with a total risk-based capital ratio of 4.27 percent at year’s end; Old Harbor Bank, 4.74 percent; LandMark Bank of Florida, 5.9 percent; First Home Bank, 6 percent; SouthShore Community Bank, 6.06 percent; Cortez Community Bank, 7.52 percent; Bank of Commerce, 8.61 percent; Heritage Bank of Florida, 9.05 percent; and Freedom Bank of America, 9.4 percent.

Banks with the highest levels of nonperforming assets as a percent of assets include Southern Commerce with 27.32 percent; Cortez, 24.43 percent; First Commercial, 16.09 percent; and LandMark, 17 percent.

State of the Florida Banking Climate Presentation Thursday, May 13, 2010

Alex Hager, Saltmarsh Director of Financial Institutions Consulting, presented a “State of the Florida Banking Climate” to Gray Robinson Attorneys at Law in Tampa today and via video link to 6 of their offices simultaneously throughout Florida - about 50 attorneys in all. He presented topics involving community banks to their Banking and Finance practice.

Gray Robinson is a full-service corporate law firm with over 200 attorneys throughout 10 offices across Florida.