The Osceola County-based bank’s holding company, CenterState Banks Inc., reported in early October that it had raised $86 million in a public offering and that it had repaid $28 million in TARP money accepted in December of 2008. On Oct. 23, the holding company announced that it had a Tier 1 Leverage Capital ratio of 11.7 percent and a Tangible Common Equity ratio of 11.4 percent, making CenterState one of the strongest capitalized publicly traded banks in the Southeast.

“The new capital that our holding company raised makes a statement about the confidence our investors have in our long-term future and about the opportunities that we see in the marketplace ahead of us,” Tom White, president of CenterState Bank Central Florida, said.

White said CenterState decided to repay TARP funds early because, “They had served their purpose.”

He explained that the federal government made TARP funds broadly available in 2008 to qualifying banks during a period when all financial institutions were strained by events on Wall Street. TARP funds were essentially a temporary lower-cost form of capital available at a time when the private market was virtually shut down.