Community banking success

WHERE YOUR PATH
INTERSECTS OURS

Your Story

Strong financial institutions have helped America grow since our country was founded. Independent community banks and credit unions are the bedrock of America's unique entrepreneurial society.

You've survived margin compression, competition from big-box banking, and increased regulation. Now rapid shifts in the market coupled with changing technology threaten your very existence. These new challenges demand more powerful strategies and assertive decisions, but unfortunately, many institutions are still taking a conservative approach—addressing questions of the future with answers from the past. Ironically, these safe decisions often compound risk rather than reduce it. The institutions that develop the right frameworks and tools will emerge as consolidators, while those who fall behind will continue to be pressured by shareholders.

We work with institutions like yours to make stronger and more-informed decisions that will help you to continue on the path to independence.

A History of
Performance Trust

1994

1994

2003

2005

2008

2008

2010

2010

2011

2012

2016

2017

2017

2018

2019

2020

2020

2021

2022

March 1994

Betzold, Berg & Nussbaum is founded in Wheaton, Illinois.

June 1994

First community financial institution educational course hosted in Chicago, IL.

January 2003

Company headquarters office opens in Chicago, IL.

May 2005

Firm changes name to Performance Trust Capital Partners, LLC.

April 2008

Affiliate asset management company, Performance Trust Investment Advisors, LLC forms.

September 2008

Performance Trust University® Learning Center opens.

January 2010

Institutional Group launched.

September 2010

Performance Trust's Bond accounting system, Bond Trust™ launched.

October 2011

Enterprise Shape Management™ launched.

December 2012

Investment Banking group launched.

January 2016

Capital Markets group launched.

March 2017

PT Score® Launched

September 2017

Equity Capital Markets group launched.

November 2018

Affiliate PT Capital Partners Ltd. forms in Hong Kong.

June 2019

Acquisition of Banks Street Partners and expansion of Investment Banking team.

October 2020

Chirag Shah becomes CEO.

December 2020

Performance Trust becomes an ESOP.

November 2021

Derivatives business launched.

January 2022

Shareholder Look Forward tool launched.

Our Story

Performance Trust was built on the vision and passion of our founders. A former math teacher, Rich Berg, and bank regulator, Phil Nussbaum, saw the main street mission of community financial institutions threatened by Wall Street financial engineering. Driven by an unwavering commitment to analytical truth, they exposed critical flaws in the tools used to measure risk and reward and provided analysis and insights that led to better decisions.

From its inception in 1994, our firm has been focused on two objectives: building accurate and revolutionary analytics that measure the risks and rewards of investment portfolio securities and building an educational platform that identifies ways to achieve improved results.

As time passed, our analytical capabilities grew alongside our clients and team. We now provide advice on decisions affecting the entire balance sheet and capital stack of an institution, and have expanded our expertise to helping institutional clients and capital market partners. Our analytics continue to evolve, and commitment to education has become fundamental to our business and clients. In addition to hosting custom strategy sessions for over fifty management teams per year, we also create educational programs for executive boards and other stakeholders across the country.

Today, Performance Trust is the largest full-service investment bank focused on community depository institutions. Our scale and capabilities have increased significantly, but we still get up each morning with the same mission we had in 1994:

We're here to help community financial institutions make better decisions.