Finward Bancorp

Benjamin Bochnowski, as President and CEO, oversees all lending and investment activities at Finward Bancorp and its wholly owned subsidiary, Peoples Bank. The board of directors, including members of the Bochnowski family, provides governance oversight. Day-to-day credit decisions are delegated to senior lending officers within the commercial and mortgage divisions.

Finward sources commercial real estate and C&I loans through a network of branch offices and relationship managers in Northwest Indiana and the south Chicago suburbs. The bank's community positioning and generational presence in Lake County provide referral-based origination. For SBA lending, Finward participates in the Chicago SBA district's approved lender programs, generating fee income alongside loan growth.

Finward Bancorp is a publicly traded bank holding company, not a family office. It operates Peoples Bank, an FDIC-insured community bank, and files quarterly reports with the SEC. The Bochnowski family's multi-generational leadership and significant equity stake give it some family-office characteristics, but its primary function is deposit-taking and commercial lending, not managing a single family's private wealth.

Finward does not make private fund commitments. The bank only extends credit directly to borrowers through its loan portfolio. Its securities portfolio, disclosed in quarterly call reports, consists primarily of agency mortgage-backed securities, U.S. Treasury notes, and municipal bonds — all held for liquidity and interest-rate risk management rather than alternative investment exposure.

Finward's commercial loan book concentrates on income-producing CRE — multifamily apartment buildings, retail shopping centers, and industrial warehouses. C&I lending serves middle-market manufacturers, distributors, and service businesses in the southern Chicago metro. The bank also originates conforming residential mortgages for sale or portfolio retention and participates in SBA 7(a) small-business lending.

The Bochnowski family's equity position in Finward Bancorp derives from multi-generational ownership of the bank, which was founded as a mutual savings association in 1910 and converted to stock ownership in the 1990s. Benjamin Bochnowski's holdings include shares acquired through executive compensation and open-market purchases. Exact family wealth is not publicly disclosed.

Finward does not publicly disclose a trust department or wealth management division separate from its banking operations. Peoples Bank offers standard retail and business deposit products but has not marketed private wealth advisory services. Any family philanthropy by the Bochnowski family is conducted personally, not through the bank holding company.