LsSalle bank head quits after BoA takeover

CHICAGO, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- LaSalle Bank NA Chief Executive Officer Larry Richman will resign from Chicago's No. 2 bank following Bank of America Corp.'s takeover, the bank said Tuesday.

Richman, 55, will leave early next week, Bank of America said.

Richman, who spent 30 years at LaSalle, is expected to be in demand by rivals and new players looking to make inroads lending to midsize Chicago businesses, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

"I would love to be in business with him, and I'm going to do everything I can to make that happen," Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer James Tyree told the newspaper.

The diversified financial-services company has expressed interest in breaking into commercial banking.

Other banks the newspaper said may court Richman include Wintrust Financial Corp., a $9.3 billion-asset bank based in suburban Lake Forest, Ill., and PrivateBancorp Inc., a $4.3 billion-asset Chicago bank.

Wintrust Chief Executive Officer Edward Wehmer did not immediately return a Crain's call and PrivateBancorp Chief Executive Officer Ralph Mandell declined to comment.

Bank of America Monday closed on its $21 billion purchase of both Chicago's LaSalle Bank NA and Michigan and Indiana's LaSalle Bank Midwest from the Netherlands' ABN Amro Holding NA.