Oak Street Mortgage Expands in the Western United States

May 23, 2003 — Indianapolis, Indiana — Steve Alonso, President and CEO of Oak Street Mortgage LLC, announced today the opening of a new branch office in Plano, Texas, just outside Dallas. At the same time, Mr. Alonso announced that their partner organization Great Western Loans & Investments LP will be changing their name and begin doing business as Oak Street Mortgage. With these changes, Oak Street now spans 24 states, operating 28 offices.

"Oak Street's growth has been phenomenal. And, although we've had a presence in the Southwest through our partner, Great Western Loans & Investments, the new Dallas branch office and the name change from Great Western will boost our visibility in this region significantly," noted Alonso. "Dallas has one of the nation's fastest growing populations, so I am excited about the opportunity the Dallas office provides us in the mortgage lending market."

"The Dallas market provides a wonderful opportunity for continuing Oak Street's growth," said Richard Cieszinski, Great Western Loans and Investments Director. "We're looking forward to increasing our presence in the Dallas area as well as continuing our Great Western business under the Oak Street name. The Oak Street name gives us a company 'brand' that closely aligns with the type of customer experience we provide and will continue to provide in the future. The Southwest evokes images of the Old West, including your 'MainStreet -home-town' bank. And it's that hometown relationship that Oak Street brings to every one of our customers. The Great Western Loan & Investment team, as well as the new Dallas branch office team, has already adopted the customer focus that is Oak Street's trademark."

The new Oak Street branch office, which opens with 15 employees, is located on Plano Parkway in the city of Plano, Texas. Plano is a National Civic League All-Star City, which is reflective of the meticulous planning and development of the city as well as the positive attitude of the local business community. Customers may reach the Dallas branch by calling Oak Street's national, toll-free number, 1-800 LOAN NOW or directly at 1-800-628-6380.

Oak Street Mortgage LLC enables homeowners to reach their financial goals, from home loans, to refinancing, to debt consolidation. Oak Street's ability to provide an excellent customer experience along with an easily understandable, simple and quick loan process make them a leading player in the mortgage industry. Under the leadership of Steven Alonso, former Bank One Consumer Lending Group President, Oak Street Mortgage LLC expects to originate $1.6 billion in mortgage loans by year-end.

Oak Street Mortgage LLC is headquartered near Indianapolis at 11595 N. Meridian, Suite 400, Carmel, IN 46032.

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April 7, 2003 — Indianapolis, Indiana — Steve Alonso, President and CEO of Oak Street Mortgage LLC, announced today the opening of a new branch office in Creve Coeur, Missouri, just outside St. Louis. With this additional branch office, Oak Street now spans 23 states, operating 26 offices.

"I am excited about the opportunity the St. Louis office provides us in the mortgage lending market," noted Alonso. "Oak Street's growth has been phenomenal and we've had the St. Louis market targeted as a geography for continuing Oak Street's growth. As one of the nation's top 15 urbanized areas, we look forward to bringing the Oak Street Mortgage experience to St. Louis and its surrounding areas. The St. Louis team has already adopted the customer focus that is Oak Street's trademark."

"Oak Street Mortgage is one of America's most customer-friendly financial services providers," said Sharon Robbins, Director of Marketing for Oak Street Mortgage. "With an office in the "Show Me" state, this gives us the opportunity to "show" that we deliver on a great customer experience. We believe the new St. Louis branch office will continue to build our strong brand name and company identity. We are looking forward to the opportunity to grow our business in the Southwest."

The new Oak Street branch office, which opens with 12 employees, resides in the West Park One office complex located on Olive Boulevard in the city of Creve Coeur.

Creve Coeur is a prestigious business address that houses world-class research, technology and medical facilities. Customers may reach the St. Louis branch by calling Oak Street's national, toll-free number, 1-800-LOAN-NOW.

Oak Street Mortgage LLC enables homeowners to reach their financial goals, from home loans, to refinancing, to debt consolidation. Oak Street's ability to provide an excellent customer experience along with an easily understandable, simple and quick loan process make them a leading player in the mortgage industry. Under the leadership of Steven Alonso, former Bank One Consumer Lending Group President, Oak Street Mortgage LLC expects to originate $1.6 billion in mortgage loans by year-end.

Oak Street Mortgage LLC is headquartered near Indianapolis at 11595 N. Meridian, Suite 400, Carmel, IN 46032.

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April 3, 2003 — Indianapolis, Indiana — PRNewswire, www.prnewswire.com — Since their inception in 1999, Oak Street Mortgage has become one of the leading players in the mortgage industry. They have built a solid management team and have enjoyed significant growth in the mortgage sector over the past couple years. Consequently, Oak Street currently holds a solid capital position. To leverage this position, they have made the strategic decision to diversify the company.

"We have set our course for 2003 to diversify the revenues of the company," stated Richard Dennen, Director of Business Development. "We are aggressively looking at a variety of diversification options including acquiring or starting an insurance agency, collection company, commercial finance company and a bank."

Oak Street Mortgage is actively seeking opportunities to invest growth capital in the financial services sector that will enhance the shareholder value of the organization. The key objective of Oak Street's diversification effort is to create a long term, sustainable financial services business. Along those lines, they have established a set of investment criteria which include the industries of interest, ideal company size for investment, desired structure of the investment, level of investment, preferred economics, and management team style. Oak Street Mortgage's strategy is to invest in private and public companies in the financial services sector. They seek to back management teams instilled with entrepreneurial enthusiasm and the vision to build a highly successful company that shares their core values of performance, customer and employee.

Currently, Oak Street Mortgage LLC enables homeowners to reach their financial goals-from home loans, to refinancing, to debt consolidation. Oak Street's ability to provide an excellent customer experience along with an easily understandable, simple and quick loan process make them a leading player in the mortgage industry. Under the leadership of Steven Alonso, former Bank One Consumer Lending Group President, Oak Street Mortgage LLC now spans 23 states and expects to originate $1.6 billion in mortgage loans by year-end.

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March 18, 2003 — Indianapolis, Indiana — D. Scott Clarke, Executive Director of Oak Street Mortgage LLC, announced Richard S. Dennen has been hired as Director of Corporate Development. The addition of Dennen to their Senior team is in line with Oak Street's direction for 2003, where a major focus will be to diversify the revenues of the company.

"I am excited about the opportunity Rick affords the company," noted Clarke. "Rick will be developing opportunities to expand our base mortgage business in our current markets as well as expanding geographically. In addition, Rick will be aggressively looking at diversification options such as acquisitions, investments and opportunities to expand our product offerings."

Dennen, a Certified Public Accountant with 15 years of experience working in the financial service industries, comes to Oak Street Mortgage from TWG Capital, Inc., a venture capital firm, where he most recently served as Chief Financial Officer and Director for one of the portfolio companies. He has a strong background in business development, deal structuring, negotiation and portfolio management. Dennen's position with Oak Street Investments, Director of Corporate Development, was created to capitalize on Oak Street Mortgage's solid capital position and their strategic decision to diversify the company.

Currently, Oak Street Mortgage LLC enables homeowners to reach their financial goals — from home loans, to refinancing, to debt consolidation. Oak Street's ability to provide an excellent customer experience along with an easily understandable, simple and quick loan process make them a leading player in the mortgage industry. Under the leadership of Steven Alonso, former Bank One Consumer Lending Group President, Oak Street Mortgage LLC now spans 22 states and expects to originate $1.6 billion in mortgage loans by year-end.

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February 12, 2003 — Indianapolis, Indiana — PRNewswire, www.prnewswire.com
Steve Alonso, President and CEO of Oak Street Mortgage LLC, announced today that two of their partner offices, the Great Western Loans & Investments LP in Reno, Nevada and the AABCO Mortgage Loans & Investments branch office in St. Petersburg, Florida will pilot doing business as Oak Street Mortgage.

"I am excited about the opportunity this name change provides us in the mortgage lending market," noted Alonso. "Our customers rate us highly compared to other mortgage lenders. The Oak Street name gives us a company 'brand' that closely aligns with the type of customer experience we provide and will continue to provide in the future."

"Oak Street Mortgage is one of America's most customer-friendly financial services providers," said Sharon Robbins, Director of Marketing for Oak Street Mortgage. "The Oak Street Mortgage name delivers the message that we're friendly and approachable — a down-to-earth company with real people. We believe the Oak Street Mortgage name fits the way we do business. We are looking forward to the opportunity to pilot this name with our subsidiaries." Oak Street Mortgage has grown significantly since first opening its doors in 1999. The piloting of the Oak Street name for the St. Petersburg branch office and the Reno, Nevada branch office is Oak Street's latest move in meeting their growing needs and building a brand under the Oak Street Mortgage name. The ability to leverage the brand identity across more branch offices is powerful.

Oak Street Mortgage LLC enables homeowners to reach their financial goals — from home loans, to refinancing, to debt consolidation. Oak Street's ability to provide an excellent customer experience along with an easily understandable, simple and quick loan process make them a leading player in the mortgage industry. Under the leadership of Steven Alonso, former Bank One Consumer Lending Group President, Oak Street Mortgage LLC now spans 22 states and expects to originate $1.6 billion in mortgage loans by year-end.

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November 5, 2002 — MBA Newslink — Volume 1, Issue 80, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, by Michael Murray, www.mbaa.org

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet." —Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

What is in a name? For Oak Street Mortgage, Carmel, Ind., formerly Cresleigh Financial Services, the name makes a big difference. On November 1, Cresleigh officially changed its name to Oak Street Mortgage to promote growth for the company nationwide and as a brand name worthy of its goals for customer service.

“The name is only a name unless you put a lot of the customer experience behind it,” said Steven Alonso, president of Oak Street Mortgage and former president of Bank One Consumer Financial Services. “We've put a team together that has dissected every single piece of the mortgage process."

It was October 1999 when former Bank One executives started up Cresleigh, a subprime and Alt-A lending operation near Indianapolis. It began doing business in Midwestern states, including Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky but quickly branched out. It moved out to Florida after acquiring AABCO Loans and Investments from Crown Bank two years ago. Then, it acquired The Lending Factory in Michigan and brought together a joint venture management agreement with Great Western Financial Services in Dallas. Cresleigh also formed a joint venture title company with Nations Title called Creations. The company now originates and funds conforming, non-conforming, Alt-A and Jumbo-A products in 21 states.

Oak Street Mortgage now wants to get more into non-interest rate sensitive areas as well as continue on its current course. “Since we have this joint venture, we can really get underneath the whole title transaction," Alonso said. “Our customers define the experience they want in the mortgage business for each stage of the process.”

Cresleigh substantially increased its annual loan production and went from a group of four employees to a staff of more than 450 personnel. This year, the company has almost doubled its size again, from $521 million of loan production in 2001 to its forecast of $1 billion by the end 2002 with retail representing 80 percent of business and wholesale at 20 percent.

The growth has given the management team impetus to change its name as Oak Street Mortgage continues to diversify its business and products.

“Oak Street is more than just a name,” said Scott Clarke, executive director of Oak Street Mortgage. “It gives us the basis for a company brand aligned with the type of customer service we provide.”

According to Alonso, customer focus has been the main reason for the company's growth. Last summer, the company held focus groups with customers to determine names to go with its brand elements that include empathy, education, speed, simplicity, product array and fair price. Most customers felt that Oak Street Mortgage signified these brand elements.

All Cresleigh-named offices in 17 states then changed their name with a co-brand for one month, but the other brands in four other states have not changed. However, they should be calling themselves Oak Street Mortgage in the not too distant future as the company moves into community banking, tax and insurance businesses and the title industry.

“Ultimately, the idea is to pull everyone under the same brand umbrella," Alonso said.

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Cresleigh Financial Services Becomes Oak Street Mortgage

October 1, 2002 — Indianapolis, Indiana — Steve Alonso, President and CEO of Cresleigh Financial Services, announced on October 1 that the company will change its name to Oak Street Mortgage effective November 1, 2002.

"I am excited about the opportunity this name change provides us," noted Alonso. "Our customers rate us highly compared to other mortgage lenders. The Oak Street name gives us a company 'brand' that closely aligns with the type of customer service we provide and will continue in the future."

"Cresleigh has always strived to become one of the America's most customer-friendly financial services providers," said Scott Clarke, Managing Director. "Oak Street delivers the message that we're friendly, approachable and the type of company with real people."

To kick off the name change, a special event has been planned for October 1 at the corporate headquarters. Carmel Mayor James Brainard will attend and has declared Tuesday, October 1 "Oak Street Day" in conjunction with the celebration.

Under the leadership of Steve Alonso, former Bank One Consumer Lending, Group President, Cresleigh Financial Services now spans 22 states and expects to originate $700 million in mortgage loans by year-end.

Oak Street Mortgage LLC is headquartered near Indianapolis at 11595 N. Meridian, Suite 400, Carmel, IN 46032.

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