Indianapolis-based specialty lender Oak Street Funding has added $500 million to its loan portfolio as part of a larger bank acquisition that its corporate parent, Cincinnati-based First Financial Bancorp, recently completed.
Oak Street provides cash flow-based financing to insurance agents, certified public accountants and registered investment advisers. Many of Oak Street’s clients use the funding for acquisitions, or to provide payouts for owners who are seeking an exit so they can retire.
Established in 2003, Oak Street became a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Financial when the bank acquired the specialty lender in 2015. Oak Street’s headquarters is in the Keystone at the Crossing development on the north side of Indianapolis.
First Financial has $20.6 billion in assets and operates more than 125 banking centers in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois, including nine branch locations in the Indianapolis metro area.
On Nov. 1, First Financial closed its previously announced acquisition of Westfield Center, Ohio-based Westfield Bank, in a $325 million cash-and-stock deal.
Oak Street President Alicia Chandler said Westfield also offered specialty lending, so company executives decided to move that part of Westfield’s portfolio to Oak Street.
“We felt it was appropriate for their some of [Westfield’s] lending team, their underwriters and related members to all join forces with our Oak Street team, so we can continue to often offer those nationwide solutions to those industry verticals together,” Chandler said.
Chandler said the move adds nine employees to Oak Street’s team, which will bring Oak Street’s total head count to 79. Those nine employees will continue to work out of Ohio, she said.
With the additional $500 million in loans coming to Oak Street from Westfield, Chandler said Oak Street’s total loan portfolio is now $1.5 billion.
First Financial announced the closing of the Westfield transaction on Nov. 3.
Media Contact:
Rae Hostetler
Hostetler Public Relations
Representing Oak Street Funding
317-733-8700
Rae@HostetlerPR.com