By Becky Yerak |
Lake Forest-based Wintrust Financial, which operates 15 community
banks, said the two failed lenders it bought Friday on Chicago’s North
Side and in Naperville will plug geographic holes.

“Those are two areas we’re not in at this point in time,” Chief
Executive Ed Wehmer said Wednesday in an earnings conference call.

Last Friday, Wintrust’s Wheaton Bank & Trust bought Wheatland Bank. Its Northbrook Bank & Trust unit bought Lincoln Park Savings Bank, both with financial assistance from the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp.

The deals will add to Wintrust’s earnings immediately. In first quarter results released Wednesday, it reported earnings of $16 million, up from $6.4 million a year earlier.

Lincoln Park Savings has loyal customers and low-cost deposits, he said. “This is a fertile market,” he said. “We’ll build off of that.”

And he said Naperville is one of the state’s biggest cities.

“It’s long and narrow so it’s a hard city to bank appropriately,” he said, noting that Naperville essentially has nine business districts. Wheatland did business in the far-south end.

“The franchise is not as good as the Lincoln Park franchise, but it’s an entry for us into that market and we intend to branch out north” into all nine business districts in Naperville, up to where Wintrust’s Wheaton Bank currently operates. “We’ve always wanted to get into Naperville, and the north end of Naperville hits the south end of Wheaton Bank so it’ll fit in nicely.”

Wehmer also said the downtown Chicago commercial lending office, called Wintrust Commercial Banking, that Wintrust has opened is “off to a very good start.” In the first quarter it booked $45 million in loans, and has committed to another $45 million, giving it a pipeline of more than $200 million.

He said the office will help Wintrust be viewed as a more serious player in commercial and industrial lending as “disruption” continues to occur in the market.

Wintrust plans “profitable growth,” Wehmer said. “We’re not growing for growth’s sake.”

Wintrust continues to look at other FDIC-assisted deals, but “we’re not going to be stupid in our bids,” he said.

He said there are also many potential “unassisted” deals for banks that are tiring but not yet seized by the FDIC. But Wehmer said those aren’t as attractive as FDIC-assisted deals because the “jury is still out” on what a buyer will be getting, echoing recent comments by MB Financial Chief Executive Mitch Feiger.