Banking on developers: with 11 new branches in three years, Miami-based US Century Bank looks set to reach its asset goal of $2 billion within the next five years.(FINANCIAL SERVICES)

US Century Bank, one of a new breed of community banks that have sprung up in South Florida recently, has aggressively pursued growth from its founding, and its financial statements prove it.

The Miami-based bank brought a superstar board of directors and a $22 million capital base when it opened in late 2002, and it immediately began muscling its way into the local financial services landscape. On the strength of heavy commercial lending in South Florida's hot real estate development market, the bank grew to $726 million of assets by the end of September 2005, up from $187 million in 2003.

CEO Octavio Hernandez is quick to credit his board--which includes former Union Planters Bank Group CEO Adolfo Henriques and two former directors of Hialeah-based Ready State Bank--and the management team's banking experience for the rapid growth.

"We all have a following of customers that right away moved with us," says Hernandez, who had been CEO of Coral Gables-based First Bank of Miami and Bankers Savings Bank. And because of the bank's $22 million capitalization, "We were able to make loans right away, and that is what made the difference for us," he adds.

A typical 3-year-old bank would have less than half of US Century's assets, says Scott Alaniz, a banking analyst at New York-based Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP, an investment-banking firm. In US Century's case, Alaniz says an influential board of directors who bring in additional business is a vital element of its success.

Besides Henriques, US Century's board includes such well-known South Florida business names as Century Homebuilders LLC president Sergio Pino, attorney Ramon Rasco and Sedano's Supermarkets Inc. president Manuel Herran. Rasco and Herran were Ready State Bank directors before Union Planters acquired it in 1998.

Hernandez and the bank's board have hardly been content to act like a small start-up with low loan limits, either. "In spirit we consider ourselves small .... In actuality our lending limit is $22 million per customer, so this allows us to compete with the big boys," Hernandez says.