Oct. 20--SunTrust Banks Inc. has tightened its grip on Central Florida's banking market during the past year, while BB&T Corp. rose dramatically in the rankings and some other big players fell, according to new deposit figures released Monday by the federal government.

Atlanta-based SunTrust solidified its No.1 ranking in the region with an 11 percent boost in customer deposits, to nearly $10.5 billion, during the 12 months that ended June 30, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported in its annual market-share data.

It was the fifth straight year that SunTrust has ranked first, and the eighth time overall in the past decade, the data showed.

BB&T, meanwhile, jumped from 15th to fourth place in Central Florida with its acquisition of failed Colonial Bank, according to the FDIC data. The combined BB&T-Colonial reported deposits totaling nearly $4.2 billion, up 21.8 percent from the comparable data a year earlier.

Bank deposits overall rose 9.2 percent in Central Florida in the past year, as many customers turned to FDIC-insured financial institutions as a safe haven for their money during the financial crisis. Six of the region's top 10 banks increased their deposits by double-digit percentages.

That may appear to be exceptional growth, especially during a financial crisis, but a closer look at the data shows that banks in other parts of the country did much better, said Stan Smith, a finance professor and banking expert at the University of Central Florida.

U.S. bank deposits excluding the Central Florida market increased nearly 40 percent during the same period, he said. And the number of new branches increased by only 1.7 percent in Central Florida compared with nearly 20 percent elsewhere, Smith noted.

"That puts things into perspective," he said. "We used to be the fair-haired child in Central Florida when it came to bank-branch expansion. Now, not so much."

The latest figures show that Bank of America Corp. ranked second in Central Florida, with deposits of almost $8.94 billion, up nearly 15 percent. The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank was only $6 million ahead of third-place Wachovia Corp., its former crosstown rival, which became part of California-based Wells Fargo & Co. late last year.

Wells Fargo has said its consolidation with Wachovia has gone smoothly. Still, the latest data indicate that Wachovia's Central Florida branches lost nearly $500 million, or 5.2 percent, of their deposits during the 12 months that ended June 30.