North Shore Bank: Debuts Correspondent Lending Program

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kate Knox

(262) 797-3323

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First-of-its-kind effort to strengthen lending power of local institutions

BROOKFIELD, Wis. – North Shore Bank today announced the launch of a new program aimed at collaborating on mortgage, business and other loans with local lenders in areas where North Shore Bank has no branches of its own. Bank officials said the “correspondent lending” program – the first of its kind in Wisconsin – is a positive for all involved, boosting the lending power of local institutions while allowing North Shore Bank to broaden its reach beyond existing locations.

“This is an exciting and viable way to strengthen the quality, customer-focused institutions that exist in many Wisconsin communities, as well as broaden our investment base and grow our business beyond bricks and mortar,” said Richard T. Nadolski, North Shore Bank’s senior vice president – Mortgage Lending. “We have seen solid interest in participating from a number of institutions around the state, and that is encouraging.”

While one or two area banks have informal and limited lending relationships with other institutions, Nadolski said North Shore Bank is the first Wisconsin bank to establish a formal program and offer all of its loan products – including single- and multi-family mortgage loans, commercial loans and more – to partner institutions.

Paul Holzem, a former Fannie Mae executive and 30-year veteran of the financial services industry who recently joined North Shore Bank as vice president – Correspondent Lending, said the program is essentially “business to business” lending.

“Let’s say a smaller lender in western Wisconsin has a customer who wants to borrow $6 million to start a business,” Holzem said. “The business plan is sound, the customer is a good risk – but the institution simply doesn’t have the asset base to extend such a large loan. In the past, that institution would have been forced to send its longtime customer to a larger, often non-Wisconsin-based, lender, then risk losing the rest of that customer’s business to the larger competitor. With our program, the local institution has a much better option.”

Under the new correspondent lending program, the local institution can partner with North Shore Bank. With the customer’s knowledge, North Shore Bank would lend the money, service the loan and share the interest. The local institution would remain the chief customer contact – retaining its customer relationships, gaining access to a significantly higher asset base and greatly expanding the scope of services it is able to provide.

“It’s a win-win situation for North Shore Bank, for our local partners and for banking consumers throughout Wisconsin,” Holzem said.

North Shore Bank plans to formalize its first partnerships later this summer and begin offering loans in early fall. For more information, contact Holzem at (608) 241-0624.

North Shore Bank, headquartered in Brookfield, was founded in 1923. It has assets of $1.8 billion, deposits of almost $1.2 billion and 41 branches throughout Eastern Wisconsin. Current office locations are in metro Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Appleton, Menasha, the Green Bay area, Burlington, Union Grove, Algoma, Two Rivers and Door County. North Shore Bank also has mortgage production offices in Madison and Tampa, Fla.