BankUnited facts
John Kanas’ Feb. 7 letter, BankUnited Strong, criticized my comments rather than addressing the Jan. 22 article BankUnited stops making retail mortgage loans. Perhaps it’s because it is now making more loans in his home state of New York than Florida?
BankUnited has 99 percent institutional ownership, including hedge funds and other Wall Street companies. Kanas’ last bank was sold to Capital One, and many analysts and investors believe he may do this again.
Kanas stated that I “implied that the bank got $4.9 billion in a taxpayer bailout.” The story’s author made that comment, not me.
BankUnited takes nearly $13 billion in deposits out of Florida.Yet, it made only $2 billion in new business loans in Florida last year. Hopefully BankUnited will return to its Florida roots and resume critically needed retail mortgage lending here.
Kenneth H. Thomas, Miami
This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 8:46 PM with the headline "BankUnited facts."