InsurBanc Names Merrill Lynch’s Tralka as President, Succeeding Herlihy

InsurBanc, the financial services provider to independent insurance agents, has named David W. Tralka as the its new president and chief executive officer.

Tralka is replacing Michael Herlihy, who served as president since the bank’s founding in 2001. Herlihy left InsurBanc to pursue new opportunities, according to officials.

Tralka has more than 20 years experience in banking and financial services. Most recently, he was with Merrill Lynch where he served as chairman of Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services, part of the Merrill Lynch Global Bank Group serving 150,000 small and mid-sized business clients.

In his tenure at Merrill Lynch, Tralka served in numerous senior management positions, including president of Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust and director of credit operations for small business lending. He began his career at Chemical Bank in New York. Tralka holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a BA in economics from Cornell University.

“InsurBanc is a fast-growing bank with tremendous potential,” said Tralka. “I am excited to join InsurBanc because we are firmly positioned for future growth and continue to be an innovative, leading provider of financial products and services for the independent agency community.”

InsurBanc became profitable in August 2004 and continues to show steady growth, according to Richard. Davis, the Massachusetts agent who is InsurBanc chairman.

“InsurBanc has undergone tremendous amounts of growth in the past year and we are well-positioned for even more,” he said.

Headquartered in Farmington, Conn., InsurBanc is the operating subsidiary of Peyton Street Independent Financial Services Corporation, a thrift holding company jointly owned by the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America and W.R. Berkley Corp. and its subsidiaries. Organized in 2001, InsurBanc is a federal savings bank, the deposits of which are insured to applicable limits by the FDIC.