"We always had the cheapest cost of money."

There are two ways to make money in banking: the easy way and the hard way.

The easy way means paying top dollar for deposits then lending that money back out at even higher interest rates -- usually to customers who can’t get loans elsewhere and are more likely to default.

This was the status quo for many of the 69 banks that failed in Florida during the Great Recession.

A Herald-Tribune investigation found that these banks had such a lust for growth and profits that they were willing to break some of the industry’s most fundamental rules -- as well as federal and state laws.

But one Central Florida bank survived the bust by sticking to the basics and making money the hard way.

Read more at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.