Interview with Invest – Ben Lalikos

Capital Analytics Associates, April 28, 2026

Ben Lalikos, Central Florida Market President, Cogent Bank

April 2026 — Invest: spoke with Ben Lalikos, Central Florida market president of Cogent Bank, about advising clients through shifting rates, rapid growth, and rising technology risks. “The day-to-day issue that keeps rising is fraud. As tools get more sophisticated, bad actors do too, so education is part of the job. We spend a lot of time helping clients understand what is changing and how to protect accounts,” Lalikos said.

What have been the significant milestones or strategic developments for Cogent Bank in Central Florida?

Banking can look like a commodity at the transaction level. What we work hard to differentiate is service, staying close to clients and being a high-touch advisor, not just a provider. That matters in a volatile economy with moving interest rates, trade uncertainty, and real estate cycles, especially in Central Florida, where the market continues to add people and businesses.

Our priority is helping clients make decisions with context, not noise. We try to help them steer their ships in both good times and bad. In every challenge lies opportunity, if you stay disciplined and keep looking for the opening.

2025 has been described as more wait-and-see, while 2026 feels more like action. How are you seeing that shift play out with clients?

We saw an uptick in activity in the fall of last year, including more M&A, equipment purchases, and new development. The first part of 2025 felt cautious, and that came through in client conversations. But the tone changed quickly from late summer into early fall.

At some point, business owners realized they could not wait forever. They did not abandon risk management, but they became more strategic about timing and started moving again, rather than waiting for perfect conditions that may never arrive.

What kind of growth are you seeing in the commercial real estate and small-business lending portfolio in Greater Orlando?

Overall, the market has stayed on an upward path because population growth drives business formation and expansion. Rate pressure created real headwinds, but as rates started to ease, projects that did not make sense when pricing was 100 to 150 basis points higher became financeable again. That shift showed up in both new originations and in clients revisiting projects they had paused earlier in the year.

We also saw behavior shift on the deposit side. When clients were earning strong yields on cash, more funds stayed parked. As yields began to soften, clients looked for other uses for liquidity, including acquiring assets, buying property, or paying down debt. After money sits on the sidelines long enough, demand builds, and activity resumes.

How were client needs evolving around liquidity management, refinancing strategies, and working capital?

The last 24 to 36 months brought rapid rate change. For years, when rates were near zero, many clients did not focus as much on where cash sat because it did not earn much either way. More recently, we have seen clients keep less in operating accounts and more in interest-earning reserve accounts, even if that means paying sweep costs, because the yield can justify it.

As rates shifted again, clients started redeploying cash, either toward assets or toward debt reduction. When the spread between what you are paying on loans and what you are earning on deposits narrows, refinancing, working capital, and capital allocation decisions move with it.

Which industries are showing the most momentum in Central Florida right now?

The region is more diversified than it was during the financial crisis era, when so much was tied to tourism and real estate. Today, innovation and technology have grown meaningfully, supported by universities and municipal efforts. Government contracting tied to the Space Coast is another driver that brings stability and higher-value jobs.

We are also seeing some light manufacturing and production activity strengthen as companies rethink supply chains and look for more domestic capacity. That can create opportunities not only for serving Central Florida, but for building and distributing from here more broadly.

How is Cogent Bank approaching AI and digital transformation, both for operations and client expectations?

A major focus for the last 12 to 24 months has been integration with client systems, so information flows more directly between online banking and a client’s accounting platform. That reduces manual steps and helps clients reconcile and report more efficiently, with more real-time visibility into balances, payments, and reporting data inside the tools they already use.

On the AI side, we have to be deliberate because we handle sensitive data. We look for practical use cases that improve safety and compliance. The biggest lifts are in fraud prevention and in automating pieces of compliance and monitoring that used to be far more manual.

What challenges are you watching most closely across the banking sector, and how is Cogent navigating them?

Every bank has a different mix, whether that is technology, talent, or cracks that appear when the broader economy shifts. For us, the day-to-day issue that keeps rising is fraud. As tools get more sophisticated, bad actors do too, so education is part of the job. We spend a lot of time helping clients understand what is changing and how to protect accounts.

Our high-touch model helps because we stay close to borrowers and depositors, so we can see issues earlier and respond before they become surprises.

How has population and business growth translated into capital needs and opportunities across Central Florida?

Growth creates opportunity, but it also demands infrastructure. Central Florida is reaching a stage where upgrades to roads, utilities, and capacity have to keep pace with population. Those needs will pull from multiple sources, including private capital, municipal investment, and, in some cases, public-private structures that help spread cost and risk as growth accelerates.

One advantage Orlando has is room to grow outward. Many large Florida metros run into the coast and eventually they have to push vertical construction. Central Florida can still expand in all directions, and we are seeing that in transportation improvements, including beltway connectivity that helps move people and goods around the region more efficiently.

What partnerships or community connections have been most important for Cogent in the region?

We have been active with Innovate Orlando and the broader tech community, including events like the Orlando Tech Summit. We are also engaged with groups tied to construction and development, such as the Associated Builders and Contractors, because growth here touches housing, roadways, and commercial projects across industries.

As an Orlando-headquartered bank, giving back is part of our responsibility. In 2025, we partnered with the Victory Cup Initiative and hosted an education-focused seminar with more than 50 nonprofits, helping them strengthen the operational side of their work. Even mission-driven organizations face many of the same challenges any small business does.

Looking ahead three to five years, where do you see the biggest opportunities in Orlando’s banking landscape, and how do they align with Cogent’s priorities?

We expect continued consolidation in banking. Consolidation often creates disruption for clients and employees, and when decisions move outside the community, relationship continuity can suffer. That creates opportunity for a local, established bank that can combine strong technology with relationship banking.

Our priority is to be a full-service primary bank. For a bank our size, we have an unusually broad platform, including wealth management, SBA and USDA lending, and mortgage. That allows us to support clients from startup through growth and transition, which fits Orlando’s current mix of new formation and business exits.