36
Wisconsin Community Banker
July/August 2014
CHANGING SCENE
tone Bank. “Our focus continues to
be on government guaranteed loans
for small and mid-sized businesses
throughout Wisconsin and the Mid-
west. It’s always good to see the num-
ber of customers we have been able
to help through alternative lending
options utilizing SBA loan programs.”
Founded in 1995, Ridgestone has
locations in Brookfield and Schaum-
burg, Ill., as well as lending teams in
Indianapolis, Green Bay, and Wausau.
The bank is the seventh most prolific
SBA lender in the nation, the number
one SBA lender in Illinois, and is the
number one SBA lender in its asset
size in Wisconsin.
Geographical Strategies
MILWAUKEE—Jay Mack, Town
Bank president and CEO, explained to
Journal Sentinel reporter Paul Gores
in June the advantages represented by
the acquisition of 11 branches from
the Troy, Mich.-based Talmer Bank.
The sale brings branches in Kenosha,
Burlington, Lake Geneva, Darling-
ton, and Monroe under ownership of
Town Bank, the Hartland-based sub-
sidiary of Wintrust Financial Corp., of
Rosemont, Ill.
“We look at Burlington and Keno-
sha as two markets that, with our
brand of small business and commer-
cial banking, we can be successful,”
Mack said in the Journal Sentinel of
June 26. “If you go west to Monroe,
Albany and Darlington, Monroe in
particular has a significant dairy base
to it … Talmer has a pretty big ag
lending group within the bank, which
we’re bringing over.”
Talmer Bancorp Inc. acquired the
11 branches in 2010 when it took
over the failed First Banking Center,
Burlington. Part of Talmer’s growth
strategy had been to take over banks
that failed.
Now, however, Talmer intends to
exit Wisconsin to focus on its core
banking franchise. The majority of
Talmer’s branches are in Michigan and
Ohio.
Although the deal announced
between Talmer and Town Bank didn’t
include the loan portfolios from the
branches—only the deposits—Mack
said he expects a transaction will be
worked out to acquire many of the
assets.
Mack also said that Wintrust
remains on the lookout for financial
institutions it could buy. He noted that
more Wisconsin banks may be look-
ing to sell amid tougher capital and
regulatory standards. “There could be
opportunities where you have banks
under a billion (dollars in assets) that
are burned out on the regs and the
compliance and the capital require-
ments, and they have older owners
and shareholders who might be inter-
ested in selling.”
WaterStone Again Named
a Top Workplace
WAUWATOSA—For the fifth
consecutive year, WaterStone Bank
was recognized by the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel in its annual “Top
Workplaces” special edition, a report
that honors organizations in Southeast
Wisconsin that make their employees
feel appreciated and part of something
meaningful.
“We have outstanding employees
at WaterStone,” said Doug Gordon,
president and CEO. “We try to reward
them with a work environment that is
friendly and flexible.”
