Cole Taylor establishes residential mortgage unit led by Willie Newman

Cole Taylor Bank, a subsidiary of Taylor Capital Group Inc., has announced that it has established a new residential mortgage origination line of business. The new business will be headed up by Willie Newman, former executive vice president of ABN AMRO Mortgage Group, and a recognized industry expert with more than 24 years of mortgage banking experience. The unit will have offices in several states, with production to come from established relationships with mortgage brokers, remote retail origination sites and production from Cole Taylor's retail banking locations. The loans will not be held in the bank's portfolio, but rather sold after origination. Newman will report to Randy Conte, Taylor Capital's chief financial officer and chief operating officer, who was chief operating officer of ABN AMRO Mortgage for several years. "We expect that the addition of this new line of business will be an important new source of fee income for our organization and will provide additional earnings diversification," said Bruce W. Taylor, chairman of Taylor Capital. "We believe that this is a significant opportunity for us, and we are fortunate to be able to attract an industry leader like Willie Newman for this new line of business." "I'm delighted to welcome Willie and his team to our organization," said Randy Conte. "His leadership and industry contacts should enable us to grow this business -- which we understand very well--into a strong source of fee income for the bank. We expect to begin originating high quality, first mortgage loans in the first quarter of 2010." For more information, visit www.coletaylor.com.