A Florida community bank that has grown from roughly $80 million in assets to nearly $2.5 billion since 2018 has chosen downtown Coral Gables as its entry point into Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Cogent Bank, based in Orlando, announced October 7 that it has opened a banking center at 55 Merrick Way. The office begins with three bankers and plans to grow to six over the next year.
Its focus will be high-net-worth individuals and their businesses, while bringing together three of Cogent’s specialty areas: trust services, international banking and sports and entertainment banking.
“South Florida has seen significant consolidation in the banking industry, creating an opportunity for a relationship-driven bank with local market expertise,” said Andrew Obermann, Cogent’s Miami-Dade market president.
Obermann joined the bank in May and has more than 15 years of banking experience, according to Cogent. The bank says its South Florida strategy will emphasize locally based bankers and faster decision-making.
A fast-growing Florida lender heads south
Cogent’s roots date to Pinnacle Bank, which was recapitalized and renamed Cogent in 2018. The bank says it began that chapter with about $80 million in assets and has grown without acquiring other banks.
Federal banking data show just how much it has expanded. As of June 30, Cogent reported approximately $2.45 billion in assets, $2.19 billion in deposits and $1.80 billion in net loans and leases. The bank operated 10 offices and employed more than 260 people.
Its growth has been accompanied by a push into specialty banking. Cogent has developed businesses serving industries ranging from healthcare and aviation to associations, government entities and sports and entertainment.
The Coral Gables location is its latest geographic expansion and gives the bank a foothold in one of South Florida’s largest concentrations of private wealth, professional firms and internationally connected businesses.
Trust services join private banking push
The new office will serve as the physical base for Cogent Trust Services, a business the bank launched this year to provide fiduciary and estate services to individuals and families.
The operation is led by Madelayne Cordero, managing director of trust services, whose work includes trust administration, estate planning, fiduciary services and cross-border wealth planning. Cogent says its trust team has more than 50 years of combined experience.
Cordero previously held trust and wealth-management roles at several financial institutions, including Amerant Bank, which is headquartered in Coral Gables. Cogent launched the trust business in August as an extension of its private-banking operation.
The bank will serve as corporate trustee for clients and offer the service statewide, while using Coral Gables as the operation’s South Florida base.
That puts Cogent into direct competition for a segment long served by larger private banks and established South Florida institutions: families looking not only for deposits and loans but for long-term trust and estate administration.
Athletes, entertainers and NIL deals
The Coral Gables office will also support Cogent’s sports and entertainment banking business.
The group works with professional and aspiring athletes, entertainers and others whose income often comes through contracts, endorsements or less predictable career cycles. Cogent says the unit provides personal and business banking, lending and financial education tailored to those clients.
The bank launched the specialty in 2024 and has increasingly focused on younger athletes confronting financial decisions earlier in their careers as college sports have opened the door to compensation through name, image and likeness agreements.
The South Florida team is led by Orly Garcia, Cogent’s managing director of sports and entertainment banking. According to the bank, the group works with athletes from the high school and college levels through the professional ranks, including clients connected to Major League Baseball, the NFL and NBA.
“We don’t simply want to bank the athlete or entertainer; we want to bank the person, the family and their future,” Garcia said.
Miami offers an obvious market for that effort, with major professional franchises, the University of Miami’s athletic programs and an expanding sports and entertainment economy. Cogent has not identified individual athlete or entertainer clients.
Banking consolidation creates an opening
Cogent is explicitly pitching itself as an alternative to the consolidation that has reduced the number of locally headquartered banks in South Florida.
Coral Gables has seen that firsthand.
Seacoast Banking Corporation completed its acquisition of Coral Gables-based Professional Bank in January 2023. At the time, Professional was the sixth-largest bank headquartered in South Florida, with approximately $2.2 billion in deposits and $2.1 billion in loans.
Cogent’s current deposit base is now roughly the same size as Professional’s was when it disappeared into Seacoast.
Amerant Bancorp remains headquartered at 220 Alhambra Circle. As of June 30, Amerant reported $10.3 billion in assets and $8.4 billion in deposits, making it considerably larger than Cogent.
Cogent is betting that its smaller size can be a selling point.
The bank says its strategy is to pair increasingly specialized financial services with local bankers who can make decisions without sending clients through the layers associated with much larger institutions.
Its new Merrick Way office will test whether that pitch can win business in one of South Florida’s most competitive banking markets.
