BOYNTON BEACH, Fla.—After deciding not to buy a small bank here, the Seminole Tribe is now considering forming a credit union.
According to the Palm Beach Post, the Seminole Tribe made that decision after recently dropping its bid to buy tiny $111-million Mackinac Savings Bank here. In September the tribe announced its intent to buy Mackinac for an undisclosed amount of money.
That deal ending marked the third attempt by the Seminole Tribe to buy a bank. The cash-rich tribe—which brings in an estimated $2 billion a year from its Florida casinos in Broward County and Tampa—long has sought to buy a bank.
In 2000, the tribe offered $6 million for Independent Community Bank of Tequesta, but that deal never closed. More recently, the tribe negotiated last year to buy Valley Bank of Fort Lauderdale, but that sale also fell apart, and Valley Bank failed. Unlike Valley Bank, Mackinac Savings Bank is healthy.
“As we performed our due diligence, we determined that Mackinac Savings Bank is a solid financial institution with a good reputation, but it simply was not a good fit for our tribal members, who would have faced expanded lending restrictions under banking regulations,” tribe President Tony Sanchez Jr. said in a statement.
Sanchez said the tribe can make its own loans to members with fewer restrictions than it would face operating a bank. The Palm Beach Post reported that Seminole Credit Union is a name being considered if the tribe moves forward efforts to form a CU.
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