Finance companies in Chicago: 13,997 locations, the exchanges and insurers based here, and who licenses whom

This report is for people checking a Chicago-area lender, bank, broker or insurer, for job seekers, and for B2B sellers whose customers are financial firms. It combines Census establishment counts, the listed companies' 10-K filings, the FDIC's bank data and the SEC's investment adviser file, and ends with the Illinois license lookups.

Chicago's finance industry at a glance

County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 52 (finance and insurance), Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area (CBSA 16980):

By size: 8,375 establishments have 1 to 4 employees, 2,893 have 5 to 9 and 1,306 have 10 to 19, for 12,574 with fewer than 20. Another 1,052 have 20 to 99. At the top, 222 have 100 to 249, 76 have 250 to 499, 43 have 500 to 999 and 30 have 1,000 or more: 371 large sites that hold a big share of the jobs.

Cook County has 56% of the establishments and 76% of the jobs. Census counts establishments with paid employees, not companies: each branch counts once, the self-employed are left out, and a corporate head office may be classified as a management office rather than in finance.

Insurance services employ more people than banks

The insurance services group covers agencies and brokers and also claims adjusting and third-party administration, which is why its pay average is lower than the other groups'. The exchanges' employee count was published but flagged as high-noise: the noise the Census Bureau adds for confidentiality changed it by 5% or more.

The listed finance companies headquartered here

Total revenues, or revenue where that is the company's top line, from each 10-K for 2025. Enova's net revenue after the change in fair value of its loans was $1,830.2 million. Bank holding companies such as Northern Trust and Wintrust are covered through their banks below.

The list leans to insurance: six of the ten are insurers or insurance brokers, and two, CME Group at 20 South Wacker Drive and Cboe at 433 West Van Buren Street, run exchanges.

The banks: two large ones and a network of charters

In the FDIC's institution data as of 30 June 2026, 92 insured banks have a main office in the metro, with $652.5 billion of assets.

Fourteen of the 92 list Wintrust Financial as their holding company in FDIC data, from Wintrust Bank in Chicago to Old Plank Trail Community Bank in New Lenox, with about $66.5 billion of assets together; Wintrust's 10-K says it runs sixteen bank subsidiaries. For sellers that matters: one holding company, many local bank presidents. Beyond the top four, 31 banks have $1 billion to $10 billion of assets and 57 have less than $1 billion.

The SEC's October 2026 adviser data adds 629 registered investment advisers with a main office in the metro, 388 of them under $1 billion of regulatory assets. The largest are Northern Trust Investments ($1,245.2 billion), Invesco Capital Management in Downers Grove ($941.0 billion) and First Trust Advisors in Wheaton ($309.2 billion).

Who licenses what in Illinois

Check the legal name on your paperwork, not the brand. Firms based in the metro's Indiana counties answer to Indiana's regulators instead.

Selling to Chicago financial firms

The insurance services group is the market most sellers overlook: 4,419 locations, most of them small agencies and brokers where a principal decides. Census counts 254 of these establishments with 10 to 19 employees and 140 with 20 to 49, the size where an agency has outgrown spreadsheets but has no IT department.

Illustrative example. The vendor, prices and results are invented; the agency counts come from Census data.

Lakefront Agency Systems (lakefrontagency.example) sells workflow automation for commercial insurance agencies. It targets the metro's 394 insurance services establishments with 10 to 49 employees, keeps the commercial-lines agencies, an illustrative 50%, and contacts the principal and the operations manager at each: about 394 people. Twenty-five clients at $15,000 a year is $375,000. Triggers are a new producer hire, an acquisition by a larger broker, or a carrier appointment. Bebop finds agencies matching a description like this and researches each one; see how to sell to small businesses for the approach.

Subject: Renewal season at [agency]

Hi [first name],

[Agency] has added [number] producers this year. More producers means more renewals, certificates and endorsements running through the same account managers.

We automate the routine commercial-lines work for Illinois agencies your size, so account managers spend their time on clients, not data entry.

Would a 15-minute look at your renewal workflow be useful?

[Your name]

Local sources

Next step: see the region's investment firms by name in private equity firms in Chicago, or its largest employers in the largest companies in Chicago.