Wintrust Financial
Wintrust is a financial holding company in the United States that operates 15 chartered community banks in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Wintrust is a relatively medium-sized banking institution in the United States and it trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market with stock symbol WTFC. Wintrust is the second largest banking company in Chicago. Services. The company provides traditional retail and commercial banking services, as well as wealth management services, commercial and life insurance premium financing, and certain treasury management services such as data processing of payrolls and billings. In 2015 Wintrust began to expand into  equipment financing, both directly through its bank branches and indirectly through dealers. History. Wintrust was founded by Ed Wehmer. Wintrust was among the recipients of capital from the United States government through the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank used the 2008 financial crisis to acquire small troubled banks in the Chicago area, backed by its pre-crisis capital supplemented by TARP funds. This positioned it to become one of the area's largest retail banks by eliminating costs and deepening its geographical footprint in the area. Wintrust Financial continues to expand within its footprint area. Community  banks. Unlike most major U.S. banks, Wintrust's business strategy is to retain the identities of the community banks it acquires rather than rebranding them. However, each community bank uses the tagline, "A Wintrust Community Bank." Wintrust's 15 chartered bank subsidiaries and their respective community banks are: Subsidiaries. Its major non-bank subsidiaries are: Marketing. Wintrust is the official banking partner of the Chicago Cubs. Part of its marketing includes the giant sign atop the JumboTron at Wrigley Field; the "W" in "Wintrust" flashes after every Cubs win. Wintrust has also partnered with the Chicago White Sox for the  naming rights to club seats at Guaranteed Rate Field.