CHICAGO: The co-founder and Managing Director of First Bank & Trust, James C. Lytle will retire December 31.
Lytle began his career in banking in 1964 at the State Bank of Evanston. While maintaining his banking career he served a term as Alderman in 1973, and then served two terms as Mayor of Evanston in 1977 and 1981. After his term in office, Lytle joined the Pioneer Bank in Chicago. In 1988, Lytle and four other managers launched an Initial Public Offering and bought the bank. In 1993 the partners sold Pioneer Bank, and Lytle, Kain and Yohanan went on to found First Bank & Trust.
The First Bank & Trust is locally owned and managed community bank and was founded in 1995 by Robert Yohanan, Howard Kain and James Lytle, with a mission to put community first, and provide personalized banking and investment services to individuals, owner-managed businesses and the not-for-profit community.
“The bank was founded to serve the community in every sense and because the community has embraced us, we have been able to grow exponentially,” said Lytle. First Bank & Trust has grown rapidly from a single location at 820 Church Street in Evanston with a dozen staff members to nine branch locations and a staff of over 100 banking and investment professionals serving Chicagoland including northern Cook and DuPage County. Recently the bank reported a third quarter earnings increase of 27% over 2013 with total deposits of $840 million compared with $766 million deposits last year.
Stephanie Kulke
