His role as president, an unpaid, honorary position, is to serve as the industry leader for the next 12 months, maintaining communication with workers, legislators and the group's more than 300 member banks. The job will take him around the country because Florida has many banks headquartered outside the state.

The association, which merged three trade groups into one about six years ago, claims membership of 90 percent of all banks in Florida. That includes banks of all sizes: giants such as Bank of America, SunTrust and Wachovia and small banks such as Roberts'.

Roberts, 63, has built his 44-year career in community banking.

A Georgia native, he worked there five years before moving to Florida in 1965. Since then he has been president of four banks and did a stint in public office as mayor of Cross City, in Dixie County.

He said he likes the personal touch of small banks.

"We are locally owned, we are locally operated," Roberts said Monday. "We have the opportunity, perhaps, to get to know our customers better."

First National of Pasco, started by local business people in 1987, is the only bank in east Pasco that is not associated with a holding company located elsewhere. It has one office in Dade City and two in Zephyrhills.

Roberts said the connection to the community appeals to him. He and his wife, Cindy, helped found the east Pasco chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

"A bank isn't any better than the community it's in," said Roberts, a former citizen of the year in Zephyrhills and former business leader of the year in Dade City.

Alex Sanchez, the chief executive officer of the Florida Bankers Association who runs the daily operations and lobbies for the group's issues in Washington, said several issues are on the legislative agenda in the coming year. Among them are tax reform for small businesses, bankruptcy law reform and the establishment of independent regulators for the federal home loan system.

Sanchez lauded Roberts' record of community service.

"He's been committed to the industry, and that commitment is important. Bankers serve not only our industry but our communities," he said.

The group's outgoing president is Mike Fields of Bank of America. The presidency rotates among large, medium and small banks.

Roberts said the association's strength is its diversity and unity.

"We have strength in numbers," he said. "When we got in to lobby for something, we can say it's the bankers of Florida that want this, not just a local bank."

Roberts isn't the first Dade City banker to take a lead role in the industry. Hjalma Johnson, owner of the holding company East Coast Bank Corp., served five years ago as president of the American Bankers Association.