Old Second Bancorp

Old Second Bancorp

Old Second Bancorp traces its roots to 1871, when it opened as the Second National Bank of Aurora — a year made infamous by the Great Chicago Fire. James Eccher has led the institution since 2015, steering a publicly traded entity (NASDAQ: OSBC) with a physical footprint stretching from Aurora through Kane, Kendall, and DuPage counties into greater Chicagoland. The enterprise is not a single-family office, but a bank holding company whose shares are widely held; its wealth originates from depositor capital and public equity markets, not a single family fortune. The bank's strategy centers on commercial banking fundamentals — commercial real estate lending, commercial & industrial loans, and residential mortgage origination — with a wealth management arm that provides trust and investment services to local individuals and businesses. Unlike family offices that write equity checks into startups, Old Second deploys capital through FDIC-insured deposits via loan officers embedded in 20+ branch locations. Its geographic concentration is striking: near-total exposure to northern Illinois, creating deep local knowledge but limited diversification. By asset size, Old Second Bancorp ranks among the larger community banks in Illinois, with total assets exceeding $5B as of late 2023 (per the firm's regulatory filings). The institution completed the acquisition of West Suburban Bancorp in 2022, folding in additional branch density. In September 2023, Old Second announced a stock repurchase program, signaling confidence in its capital position to shareholders — a conventional public-company capital allocation move. Old Second's structural differentiator lies in its public-company governance layered atop a 150-year-old community banking charter. It answers to shareholders and bank regulators simultaneously, creating a risk posture foreign to most single-family offices. The board, not a patriarch, sets strategy; the FDIC, not a family council, enforces capital adequacy.