Oak Street Funding announced it has increased its lending capacity with DZ BANK AG (Deutsche Bank Zentral-Genossenshaftsbank), one of the world's largest banks with offices in key financial centers and economic regions worldwide.

Oak Street Funding, which offers commission-based commercial financing for insurance professionals, renewed and increased its credit facility with DZ BANK AG to $125 million. "DZ BANK has enjoyed an outstanding partnership with the Oak Street Funding team for over 7 years. We value the depth of knowledge of the team not only as insurance product experts, but also the strength they possess in underwriting credit and analyzing business risks. We are happy to be able to expand our relationship with OSF and look forward to continuing to grow with the company," said Jayan Krishnan, Senior Vice President at DZ BANK.

As the demand for loans to insurance agencies, brokerages, MGAs and program administrators shows no signs of slowing, the expanded credit facility gives Oak Street Funding the ability to meet the industry's growing need for capital.

"Insurance businesses are always looking for financial resources to grow, but now there's additional demand from the consolidation, succession and pre-sell initiatives of aging owners," said Oak Street Funding CEO Rick Dennen. "As we carefully evaluate the market and watch for changes, we make adjustments like this so we remain at the forefront of providing innovative capital solutions."

Oak Street Funding, which has originated more than $350 million in loans since 2003, has partnered with DZ BANK AG for the past seven years.

"DZ BANK has been a premier partner in our growth," said Dennen. "Insurance agency owners come to Oak Street Funding because we understand their business better than traditional funding sources. We feel the same way about DZ BANK, which makes this a terrific partnership."

Oak Street Funding has multiple credit facilities that allow it to make commercial loans available to insurance businesses of all sizes. Loans as small as $10,000 can help smaller agencies, while transactions exceeding $15 million can address the complex needs of larger organizations.