- Key insight: Midland States’ decision to dismiss veteran CFO Eric Lemke comes as its turnaround program appears to be gaining traction.
- Supporting data: As the bank exited several national lending businesses, its community-banking loan portfolio grew in 2025.
- Expert quote: “While this is a surprising announcement and undoubtedly a difficult decision, we can understand the reasoning behind seeking new CFO leadership given Midland States’ challenging last few years.” — Piper Sandler analyst Nathan Race
Midland States Bancorp in Effingham, Illinois, has terminated its chief financial officer and tapped its controller as an interim replacement.
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The $6.5 billion-asset bank did not disclose why it decided to part ways with Eric Lemke, who had served as CFO since November 2019, and had joined the company in 2018 as director of assurance and audit.
Claire Stack has taken over as interim CFO, the company said in a Friday securities filing. Stack joined Midland States five months ago from the furniture maker Steelcase, where she had served as corporate controller.
Midland States struggled with accounting issues in 2025 after its auditing firm determined the company made errors in accounting for loans originated by third-party lending partners. As a result, Midland States was late in filing its 2024 annual report and the required interim financial report for the three months ending June 30, 2025.
As part of the cleanup process, the bank restated its year-end financial statements for 2022 and 2023, as well as a number of quarterly reports from 2023 and 2024.
Nathan Race, a Piper Sandler analyst who covers Midland States, attributed the termination to a desire “to move forward with new CFO leadership” as the bank “enters this year with the vast majority of its previous challenges seemingly in the rearview mirror.”
“While this is a surprising announcement and undoubtedly a difficult decision, we can understand the reasoning behind seeking new CFO leadership given Midland States’ challenging last few years that included restating results from 2022 to 2024 and various credit quality difficulties,” Race wrote in a note to clients.
Lemke did not respond to a request for comment. Ludwig declined to comment.
Lemke’s departure comes as Midland States is engaged in a major strategic makeover. Since 2024, the company has sold two national consumer lending portfolios and
As Midland States has exited noncore national business lines, it has sought to focus more sharply on its community banking franchise. The company reported community bank loans totaling $3.3 billion on Dec, 31, 2025, up 4% from a year earlier.
The revamp appears to be gathering steam. Excluding losses connected to the discontinued business lines, Midland States said it would have earned $11.9 million in the fourth quarter, instead of the reported loss totaling $5.3 million.
In February, Midland States disclosed that Patriot Financial Partners, a prominent private equity firm focused on community banks, had acquired a stake in the company through open-market purchases. Midland States appointed James Deutsch, a Patriot senior partner and former community bank CEO, to a seat on the board of directors.
Instances of banks firing their chief financial officers are comparatively rare. The most high-profile recent example involved Royal Bank of Canada, which