SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

FORM S-8
REGISTRATION STATEMENT
Under
The Securities Act of 1933

CENTRUE FINANCIAL CORPORATION

310 South Schuyler
Kankakee, Illinois 60901
(Address of principal executive offices)

Centrue Bank 401(k) Savings Plan
(Full title of the plan)

James Lindstrom
Chief Financial Officer
Centrue Financial Corporation
310 South Schuyler
Kankakee, Illinois 60901
(Name and address of agent for service)

(815) 937-4440
(Telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

EXPLANATORY NOTE

     Centrue Financial Corporation (the “Registrant”) previously filed a Registration Statement on Form S-8 registering shares of its common stock, par value $0.01 per share (“Common Stock”) and related participation interests to be issued pursuant to the Centrue Bank 401(k) Savings Plan (the “Plan” and formerly known as the Kankakee Federal Amended and Restated 401(k) Savings Plan). This Registration Statement on Form S-8 is filed by the Registrant for the purpose of (i) reporting the merger of the Kankakee Bancorp, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan into the Plan and (ii) increasing the number of shares of Common Stock for which a Registration Statement on Form S-8 of the Registrant relating to the Plan is effective. This Registration Statement on Form S-8 relates to 50,000 shares of Common Stock, issuable pursuant to the Plan.

PART I

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE SECTION 10(A) PROSPECTUS

     The document(s) containing the information specified in Part I of Form S-8 will be sent or given to participants in the Plan as specified by Rule 428(b)(1) promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”).

     Such document(s) are not being filed with the Commission, but constitute (along with the documents incorporated by reference into the Registration Statement pursuant to Item 3 of Part II hereof) a prospectus that meets the requirements of Section 10(a) of the Securities Act. The Registrant will submit the Plan and any amendment thereto to the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) in a timely manner and has made or will make all changes required by the IRS in order to qualify the Plan.

PART II

INFORMATION NOT REQUIRED IN PROSPECTUS

Item 3. Incorporation of Certain Documents by Reference.

     The following documents previously or concurrently filed by Centrue Financial Corporation. (the “Company”) with the Commission are hereby incorporated by reference into this Registration Statement:

     All documents subsequently filed by the Company or the Plan with the Commission pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14, or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, prior to the filing of a post-effective amendment which indicates that all securities offered hereby have been sold or which deregisters all securities then remaining unsold, shall be deemed incorporated by reference into this Registration Statement and to be a part thereof from the date of the filing of such documents. Any statement contained in the documents incorporated, or deemed to be incorporated, by reference herein or therein shall be deemed to be modified or superseded for purposes of this Registration Statement and the prospectus which is a part hereof (the “Prospectus”) to the extent that a statement contained herein or therein or in any other subsequently filed document which also is, or is deemed to be, incorporated by reference herein or therein modifies or supersedes such statement. Any such statement so modified or superseded shall not be deemed, except as so modified or superseded, to constitute a part of this Registration Statement and the Prospectus.

Item 4. Description of Securities.

     Not Applicable.

Item 5. Interests of Named Experts and Counsel.

     Not applicable.

Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers.

     In accordance with the Delaware General Corporation Law, Articles Eleventh and Twelfth of the Company’s Certificate of Incorporation provides as follows:

     ELEVENTH:

     A. Each person who was or is made a party or is threatened to be made a party to or is otherwise involved in any action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative (hereinafter a “proceeding”), by reason of the fact that he or she is or was a director or an officer of the Corporation or is or was serving at the request of the Corporation as a director, officer, employee or agent of another corporation or of a partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise, including service with respect to an employee benefit plan (hereinafter an “indemnitee”), whether the basis of such proceeding is alleged action in an official capacity as a director, officer, employee or agent or in any other capacity while serving as a director, officer, employee or agent, shall be indemnified and held harmless by the Corporation to the fullest extent authorized by the Delaware General Corporation Law, as the same exists or may hereafter be amended (but, in the case of any such amendment, only to the extent that such amendment permits the Corporation to provide broader indemnification rights than such law permitted the Corporation to provide prior to such amendment), against all expense, liability and loss (including attorneys’ fees, judgments, fines, ERISA excise taxes or penalties and amounts paid in settlement) reasonably incurred or suffered by such indemnitee in connection therewith; provided, however, that, except as provided in Section C hereof with respect to proceedings to enforce rights to indemnification, the Corporation shall indemnify any such indemnitee in connection with a proceeding (or part thereof) initiated by such indemnitee only if such proceeding (or part thereof) was authorized by the Board of Directors of the Corporation.

     B. The right to indemnification conferred in Section A of this Article shall include the right to be paid by the Corporation the expenses incurred in defending any such proceeding in advance of its final disposition (hereinafter an “advancement of expenses”); provided, however, that, if the Delaware General Corporation Law requires, an advancement of expenses incurred by an indemnitee in his or her capacity as a director or officer (and not in any other capacity in which service was or is rendered by such indemnitee, including, without limitation, service to an employee benefit plan) shall be made only upon delivery to the Corporation of an undertaking (hereinafter an “undertaking”), by or on behalf of such indemnitee, to repay all amounts so advanced if it shall ultimately be determined by final judicial decision from which there is no further right to appeal (hereinafter a “final adjudication”), that such indemnitee is not entitled to be, indemnified for such expenses under this Section or otherwise. The rights to indemnification and to the advancement of expenses conferred in Sections A and B of this Article shall be contract rights and such rights shall continue as to an indemnitee who has ceased to be a director, officer, employee or agent and shall inure to the benefit of the indemnitee’s heirs, executors and administrators.

     C. If a claim under Section A or B of this Article is not paid in full by the Corporation within sixty days after a written claim has been received by the Corporation, except in the case of a claim for an advancement of expenses, in which case the applicable period shall be twenty days, the indemnitee may at any time thereafter bring suit against the Corporation to recover the unpaid amount of the claim. If successful in whole or in part in any such suit, or in a suit brought by the Corporation to recover an advancement of expenses pursuant to the terms of an undertaking, the indemnitee shall also be entitled to be paid the expense of prosecuting or defending such suit. In (i) any suit brought by the indemnitee to enforce a right to indemnification hereunder (but not in a suit brought by the indemnitee to enforce a right to an advancement of expenses) it shall be a defense that, and (ii) in any suit by the Corporation to recover an advancement of expenses pursuant to the terms of an undertaking the Corporation shall be entitled to recover such expenses upon a final adjudication that, the indemnitee has not met any applicable standard for indemnification set forth in the Delaware General Corporation Law. Neither the failure of the Corporation (including its Board of Directors, independent legal counsel, or its stockholders) to have made a determination prior to the commencement of such suit that indemnification of the indemnitee is proper in the circumstances because the indemnitee has met the applicable standard of conduct set forth in the Delaware General Corporation Law, nor an actual determination by the Corporation (including its Board of Directors, independent legal counsel, or its stockholders) that the indemnitee has not met such applicable standard of conduct, shall create a presumption that the indemnitee has not met the applicable standard of conduct or, in the case of such a suit brought by the indemnitee, be a defense to such suit. In any suit brought by the indemnitee to enforce a right to indemnification or to an advancement of expenses hereunder, or by the Corporation to recover an advancement of expenses pursuant to the terms of an undertaking, the burden of proving that the indemnitee is not entitled to be indemnified, or to such advancement of expenses, under this Article or otherwise shall be on the Corporation.

     D. The rights to indemnification and to the advancement of expenses conferred in this Article shall not be exclusive of any other right which any person may have or hereafter acquire under any statute, the Corporation’s Certificate of Incorporation, Bylaws, agreement, vote of stockholders or Disinterested Directors or otherwise.

     E. The Corporation may maintain insurance, at its expense, to protect itself and any director, officer, employee or agent of the Corporation or another corporation, partnership, joint venture, trust or other enterprise against any expense, liability or loss, whether or not the Corporation would have the power to indemnify such person against such expense, liability or loss under the Delaware General Corporation Law.

     F. The Corporation may, to the extent authorized from time to time by the Board of Directors, grant rights to indemnification and to the advancement of expenses to any employee or agent of the Corporation to the fullest extent of the provisions of this Article with respect to the indemnification and advancement of expenses of directors and officers of the Corporation.

     TWELFTH: A director of this Corporation shall not be personally liable to the corporation or its stockholders for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty as a director, except for liability (i) for any breach of the director’s duty of loyalty to the Corporation or its stockholders, (ii) for acts or omissions not in good faith or which involve intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law, (iii) under Section 174 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or (iv) for any transaction from which the director derived an improper personal benefit. If the Delaware General Corporation Law is hereafter amended to further eliminate or limit the personal liability of directors, then the liability of a director of the Corporation shall be eliminated or limited to the fullest extent permitted by the Delaware General Corporation Law, as so amended.

     Any repeal or modification of the foregoing paragraph by the stockholders of the Corporation shall not adversely affect any right or protection of a director of the corporation existing at the time of such repeal or modification.

Item 7. Exemption from Registration Claimed.

     Not Applicable.

II-1

Item 8. Exhibits.

Item 9. Undertakings.

        (1) To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to the Registration Statement to include: (i) any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act; (ii) to reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the Registration Statement which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the Registration Statement; and (iii) any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the Registration Statement or any material change to such information in the Registration Statement, provided however, that provisions (i) and (ii) of this undertaking are inapplicable if the information to be filed thereunder is contained in periodic reports filed by the Company pursuant to Sections 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act and incorporated by reference into the Registration Statement.

        (2) That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

        (3) To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.

     (b) The undersigned Registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each filing of the Registrant’s annual report pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plan’s annual report pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act) that is incorporated by reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

     (h) Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the registrant pursuant to the foregoing provision, or otherwise, the registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.

II-2

SIGNATURES

     In accordance with the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the Registrants certify that they have reasonable grounds to believe that they meet all of the requirements of filing on Form S-8 and have duly caused this Registration Statement to be signed on their behalf by the undersigned, thereunder duly authorized, in the City of Kankakee, State of Illinois, on December 7, 2004.

II-3

POWER OF ATTORNEY

     Know all men by these presents, that each person whose signature appears below constitutes and appoints Thomas A. Daiber or James Lindstrom, and each of them, his or her true and lawful attorney-in-fact and agent, each with full power of substitution and re-substitution, for him or her and in his or her name, place and stead, in any and all capacities to sign any or all amendments (including post-effective amendments) to this Registration Statement, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorney-in-fact and agent, full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in and about the premises, as fully to all intents and purposes as he or she might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorney-in-fact and agent, or any of them, or his substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

     In accordance with the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this Registration Statement was signed by the following persons in the capacities indicated on December 7, 2004.

II-4

CENTRUE FINANCIAL CORPORATION

EXHIBIT INDEX
TO
FORM S-8 REGISTRATION STATEMENT

II-5