MB Financial Bank - Chicago, IL Review

There is new bank in the Chicagoland area.  A new bank, but one that has been a part of the Chicago landscape since 1911.  That banking institution is MB Financial Bank, my new bank.     

MB Financial Bank was formed in 2004, the result of a merger between two of Chicago's oldest medium sized, community-focused banking institutions: Manufacturers Bank formed in 1934, and MidCity Financial Corporation, whose flagship bank, The Mid-City National Bank, was founded in 1911.  The merged Chicago banking institutions became MB Financial Bank and moved it headquarters to Rosemont, IL a suburb on Chicago's northwest side just minutes from O'Hare International Airport

There are a number of reasons I have opened no less than (4) accounts at MB Financial Bank over the last year.  The main motivation was my increasing attention to making smart investing choices for my retirement.  So I moved my Roth IRA from a banking institution where is was making a measly 0.75% APY interest, to MB Financial Bank where it is currently invested in a 15-month Certificate of Deposit (CD) making 5.15% interest APY.  That is the highest return on a CD of any bank I have looked into in the Chicago area, and a lot better than what I was realizing before I moved it. 

The rate was so good in fact that I bought a standard (15 month) CD making the same rate of return; account number two.  Next I opened a standard savings account which only makes a paltry 0.5% interest.  But, I opened the account because there is no service charge and my spouse and I had been looking for local bank in which to open a savings account, one in which a minimum would not have to be maintained.  My other local bank JP Morgan Chase stipulates that a minimum balance of $100.00 be maintain in even a simple saving account, so we never opened a saving account with Chase, despite the fact that we hold three other substantial accounts with them.  When I pointed this out at a local Chase branch recently, I was told there was nothing they could do, the minimum was what it was, and could not be adjusted or waived.  Doesn't sound like "My Choice" or "My Chase" to me! 

The final and fourth account I opened at MB Financial Bank was a (free) small business checking account.  Again, here, Chase, which claims to be Chicago's number one bank for small business, failed me.  Shortly after the merger between Chase and BankOne, where my business account used to reside, I received a letter from the bank informing me that my business account would be charged eight dollars a month, if the amount on deposit fell below $4000.00 during any calendar day during the month.  Hello?  What do the words "small business" mean to you Chase?  That would mean that in order to avoid fees I would have to tie up $4000.00 of my money at all times; no thanks!     

Admittedly MB Financial Bank is a much smaller bank in comparison to JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi Group, ABN, and other national and international banking concerns in the Chicago area, but it is a bank that is much more focused on the community in which it serves: Chicago and it collar county suburbs.  

Highly competitive market interest rates, free checking and savings, free on-line banking and bill pay, and a plethora of free ATM's to choose from, my personal and business banking is now makes MB Financial Bank My (new) Bank of choice for small business banking and retirement investing.