First Chicago fails, Wintrust takes over assets - Chicago Tribune

By Becky Yerak Tribune reporter 6:18 p.m. CDT, July 8, 2011

First Chicago Bank & Trust failed Friday, and its assets and deposits were taken over by Lake Forest-based Wintrust Financial Corp. Since April 2010, Wintrust, which has assets of $14.1 billion, has acquired six collapsed lenders with total assets of about $1.9 billion.

First Chicago is the fifth Illinois bank to fail this year.

First Chicago, which had $959 million in assets as of March 31, had been operating under regulatory scrutiny for more than a year. In April, it had fallen to "significantly undercapitalized" status and was given a deadline of early June to raise enough money to be considered "adequately capitalized." The bank, whose main investor has been a California private equity firm, was looking to raise about $50 million.

The FDIC said that Northbrook Bank & Trust Co. will assume the deposits of First Chicago. Northbrook is owned by Wintrust.

Wintrust, which has already repaid the money it borrowed under the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, has been the most active recently in picking up failed banks in the Chicago area, folding them into the 15 community banks it owns.

First Chicago Bank is the product of two community banks in the Chicago area. In the fall 2006, Labe Bank and Bloomingdale Bank and Trust joined forces to create a bank with combined assets of more than $1 billion. On Dec. 11, 2006, the bank officially became First Chicago Bank & Trust, and the holding company became First Chicago Bancorp.

It's not clear whether the First Chicago name will become available again. An earlier First Chicago was bought by Chase.

Failing this year in Illinois: Western Springs National Bank & Trust, Bank of Commerce, Valley Community Bank and Community First Bank Chicago.

According to its Web site, First Chicago has three locations in Chicago and one each in  Norridge, Park Ridge, Itasca and Bloomingdale.

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