Former ABN Amro Mortgage Chief Heads New Origination Unit

Willie Newman, the former executive vice president of ABN Amro Mortgage Group, has been hired to head up the newly created residential mortgage origination unit at Cole Taylor Bank, Rosemont, Ill. The new affiliate will have offices in several states and source loans from established relationships with mortgage brokers, remote retail origination sites and the bank's retail branches. Cole Taylor Bank said it does not plan to hold the originations in its portfolio but will sell them in the secondary market. "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 Group Inc., the bank's parent company. "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." The company expects to start originating mortgage loans in the first quarter of 2010. During his time at AAMG, Mr. Newman also had the title of president of InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending. At Cole Taylor, he will report to Randy Conte, Taylor Capital's chief financial and chief operating officer. Mr. Conte at one time was COO at AAMG.