WestAmerica Mortgage Welcomes Thomas Rogus as Sales Manager and Performance Coach.

WestAmerica Mortgage Company, a subsidiary of Wintrust Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: WTFC) has announced that Thomas Rogus, a 20 year veteran of Chicago mortgage lending has joined the company as a Retail Sales Manager and Performance Coach.

Director John Morelli commented on the recent hiring: "WestAmerica is deeply committed to expanding our retail lending division through attracting and developing high performance, well trained sales professionals and we are thrilled to announce the addition of Tom Rogus to the WestAmerica Mortgage team. I have had the pleasure of personally working side by side with Tom in the past, and am confident that his extensive experience, committment to excellence, and senior level contacts throughout the Chicagoland area will allow us to maximize our potential for growing our reatil franchise in the coming years." Mr. Morelli concluded, "Tom will play a substantial role in developing great talent at WestAmerica".

Tom Rogus joins WestAmerica Mortgage from American Home Mortgage, where he managed one of the company's top retail branches. Rogus's experience spans more than 20 years in the mortgage industry. He has previously worked for a number of notable companies such as First Home Mortgage and Wells Fargo.

About WestAmerica Mortgage Company

WestAmerica has been in the mortgage banking business since 1978, and merged with Lake Forest, IL based Wintrust Financial Corporation in 2004. WestAmerica Mortgage Company has been recognized as one of the largest privately held mortgage lenders in the nation and, according to Crain’s Chicago Business, WAMC was the largest residential mortgage lender in the Chicago area based on 2002 total residential real estate loan volume.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This news release contains statements about future events and expectations, which are "forward-looking statements." Any statement in this release that is not a statement of historical fact, including, but not limited to earnings guidance and forecasts, and projections of financial results, may be deemed to be a forward-looking statement. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the Company’s actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Specific factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to: the potential fluctuations in the Company’s operating results; the Company’s potential need for additional capital, the direction of interest rates and their subsequent effect on the Company’s business, federal and state regulation of mortgage banking; the Company’s competition; the Company’s ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; and those risks and uncertainties discussed in filings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those risks and uncertainties contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-3 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.