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When Kim Butler introduces herself to potential clients as a representative of The PrivateBank, she can usually count on a puzzled look, followed by the question, “Can you please tell me the name of the bank?”

“The name, quite honestly, is a challenge,” said Butler, managing director of the bank’s West Des Moines office, “because every big bank has a private bank within their bank.”

Her second challenge: She’s offering commercial banking services, not private banking.

A subsidiary of Chicago-based PrivateBancorp Inc., The PrivateBank has been quietly growing a commercial banking presence in the Midwest for the past two years.

Butler, a former LaSalle Bank executive with more than 20 years of banking experience in Greater Des Moines, leads one of 10 commercial loan production offices for The PrivateBank. She is one of about 200 former LaSalle executives the bank hired following ABN AMRO Bank NV’s anouncement of plans in mid-2007 to sell LaSalle to Bank of America Corp.

“It was at that time that (LaSalle’s) executive management team in Chicago was approached by Ralph Mandell, who started The PrivateBank,” Butler said. “He came to Larry Richman, who was our chairman, and said, ‘You’ve got a great commercial banking model; it fits very nicely with what we do at The PrivateBank.'”

Butler opened the West Des Moines office at 4601 Westown Parkway in February 2008.

Mandell, chairman of PrivateBancorp, launched the company in 1989 and took it public 10 years later. When he turned over day-to-day operations to Richman in 2007, The PrivateBank had more than $6 billion in assets, with 22 offices in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and Atlanta.

PrivateBancorp, which is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings today (Oct. 26), had earnings of $2.5 million in the second quarter, with revenue growth of 9 percent compared with the first quarter.

The company’s stock is traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol PVTB.

Using more than $700 million in capital raised from stock offerings and debt financing over the past two years, the bank has opened offices in Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis and Denver along with Des Moines and has grown to $11 billion in assets.

“So it’s very similar to the footprint that LaSalle had 10 years ago when they really adopted this regional banking strategy,” Butler said. Each location serves as a loan production office without operating a traditional bricks-and-mortar retail office.

Each office focuses on middle-market companies, a definition that varies depending on the size of the metro area, she said.

The West Des Moines office, which serves all of Iowa and Nebraska, focuses on commercial clients with annual revenues of at least $20 million. Its minimum loan size is $5 million.

“The advantage, in my mind, that we bring to a commercial banking relationship is that our executive management team in Chicago is very focused on the middle-market banking business,” Butler said. “My clients feel like they can pick up the phone and call Larry Richman, and they do.

“So even though we’re not a local bank, we bring our team to you. Which is a little bit different than a (Bank of America Chairman) Ken Lewis coming out and making a personal visit to one of my clients.”

Though The PrivateBank’s move into commercial banking coincided with the worst banking environment since the Great Depression, it has also presented opportunities.

“Because this commercial bank is new to The PrivateBank, we don’t have a lot of the credit troubles that a lot of our competition is dealing with,” Butler said. “So we’re still out in the market with capital to lend, looking to grow.”

In August, PrivateBancorp launched an asset-based lending arm at its Chicago offices to provide additional financial resources to middle-market companies seeking financing.

The bank’s commercial offerings include operating lines of credit, equipment financing and owner-occupied real estate financing. Some of the other regional offices provide commercial real estate lending; Butler said the West Des Moines office may add that service.

In addition to bringing over some of their former LaSalle customers, “we’ve also had some new opportunities because when there are disruptions in the market, it’s a chance for us to come in and tell our story,” she said.

“What’s really been motivating and fun about it is that in addition to returning to contacts I’ve had in the past, my Rolodex has grown tremendously since I’ve been here,” Butler said. “It really is getting back out into the market and looking for new opportunities.”