By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our mobile app
MACHESNEY PARK — Rockford Community Bank is preparing to build its second branch, an expansion that comes about a year and a half after the financial services company began to offer personal banking in the region.
Wintrust, the parent company of Rockford Community Bank, plans to break ground at the northeast corner of Perryville and West Lane roads in March. The goal is to open the new branch by August.
Wintrust entered the personal banking market here in February 2022 with the opening of Rockford Community Bank at 1825 N. Perryville Road. Before that, it had offered mortgage services here for roughly eight years and commercial banking for about five years.
“Our community-based approach that we have laid out since we opened our other branch is working beautifully,” said Michele Petrie, regional president of Wintrust in Rockford. “People are coming in, using our free coin machine, talking to our bankers, building relationships. It’s not transactional, and that’s what we intended it to be.”
More news: Apollo Theatre in Belvidere reopens after family ‘put their heart and soul’ in renovations
The new branch will be similar to the first location on Perryville Road. It will employ eight people in addition to the 15 that work at the Rockford branch.
The bank has been enticing new customers with the help of higher yielding savings accounts and certificates of deposit that have come with rising interest rates. Right now, it has a guaranteed annual percentage yield of 5% for 12 months on new savings accounts. An 11-month CD is paying 5.35%.
The company’s goal is to provide the same or better services as larger chain banks, but with an added personal touch beyond the online technology, Petrie said.
“We’re customer fanatics,” Petrie said. “We’re a community bank focused on customers and relationships.”
Rockford Community Bank is also eyeing its next expansion, which it plans to do close to downtown Rockford. It hasn’t landed on a location for that branch yet.
More news: Lindberg Pumpkin Patch, a fall tradition for more than 4 decades, has reopened for the season
“We’re serious about serving people and making customers our focus,” Petrie said. “It’s working and we’re having a lot of fun doing it to.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas