Empowering Customers

Empowering customers to achieve their financial goals. 

At Northwest, it’s our mission to empower our customers and neighbors with the knowledge and tools they need to improve their financial well-being and peace of mind. The greatest gift we can provide people is to coach them along their journey, helping them achieve their own vision of wealth and happiness.  

Through daily practice of trust, collaboration and accountability, we prepare to meet the needs of the people around us.  

We demonstrate these principles every day through financial guidance in-person, online, over the phone and by email— 

• We regularly present financial wellness topics to members of our communities through partnerships with nonprofits, schools, churches and municipalities.  
• We provide articles, calculators and learning modules to anyone, free of charge, through our online Financial Wellness Center. 
•  We regularly participate in national financial education campaigns like Teach Children to Save, Not OK That’s OK (COVID-focused campaign for homeowners) and Get Smart about Credit.   

 
Here for customers through the coronavirus pandemic 

Faced with the recent unprecedented times, we found more ways to be there for our customers. 

Providing relief for individuals and families in financial crisis 
In 2020 and 2021, Northwest provided nearly $1.5 billion in COVID-19 mortgage, home equity and consumer loan deferments. 

During April 2020, Northwest did not charge fees for the following consumer deposit transactions:

• Foreign ATM fees for customers and non-customers
• Early withdrawal penalties on certificates of deposit
• Minimum balance fees on checking, money market and health savings accounts

In the bank’s efforts to ease financial burden at the onset of the pandemic, a total of $282,109 in deposit fees were waived. Additionally, the bank waived the initial 30-day waiting period for new mobile banking customers to make remote deposits.

Working tirelessly to support businesses in need of critical funding 
In 2020 and 2021, Northwest originated 4,655 and 2,659 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans totaling $506 million and $215 million, respectively.  As part of this effort, we proactively reached out to underrepresented businesses in our footprint, especially minority-owned and women-owned small businesses. 

In addition, we positively impacted 846 unique small business customers and 321 unique commercial customers through our COVID business loan deferral program - $1.6 billion in principal and interest deferred.

Protecting our employees’ and customers’ health and safety 
Throughout the pandemic, we took a number of steps to keep people safe, including policies and practices to promote social distancing and masking and enhanced cleaning. And, employees moved between working remotely and back in the office as conditions changed, with proper social distancing and safety measures in place.

Ensuring easy, uninterrupted account access. 
During the pandemic, we invested heavily in our digital channels and employee and customer education to ensure customers could bank when, where and how they’d like. 
 

Collecting customer feedback 

We always want to know how our customers feel about banking with us.  That’s why we collect feedback in a number of ways, including our Voice of the Customer program, the JD Power Customer Satisfaction Study and a feedback form available from northwest.com.  We use what they’re saying to improve our solutions and processes and to coach our teams.  

If there’s a problem, our Resolution team collects, monitors and provides reporting on all customer complaints, which includes a root cause analysis. They partner with departments across the bank to resolve these complaints and communicate resolution steps with impacted customers.  

Simple, fast and secure digital banking 

In our increasingly virtual world, we’re on a journey to transform beyond today’s digital options to create valuable digital experiences. Powered by the latest technology and backed by our dedicated people, our latest digital enhancements, launched throughout 2021, enable us to be more connected to our customers than ever.  

• With our new, enhanced online and mobile banking, customers can tap into everything we have to offer and enjoy the freedom to bank when, where and how they want.   
• A reimagined northwest.com website features a clean, modern design and effortless navigation, so customers can easily find what they’re looking for.  
• A full suite of tools to help customers manage their financial well-being, including instant credit score checks and monitoring, recommendations to help reduce debt and enhanced ways to budget today and plan for the future.  

Security is our top priority 

We have a number of policies, solutions and education programs in place to protect our customers’ personal information: 

• Our Privacy Policy governs how we use the information we have.  
• We limit access to personal information to employees who need it.  
• We offer a robust suite of security solutions to our customers, many free of charge, including customizable text and alerts, card controls, biometric recognition for login and passcode authentication for login and transaction authorizations.  
• We also work to keep our customers safe by proactively providing the latest security tips on our website, by email, through our retail network and during live, in-person presentations. We also regularly participate in national campaigns, including Cybersecurity Awareness Month. 
• Any vendor we use, also has to undergo a thorough information and data security analysis as part of our third-party risk management process.  

Learn more at our security center. 

Committed to serving underrepresented families and businesses 

Our team seeks to engage organizations and leaders throughout the Northwest footprint to assess community needs and determine how to best use resources to meet those needs.  We’re focused on serving low-to-moderate-income (LMI) populations and underrepresented groups. After critical community needs are assessed, innovative and strategic solutions are developed to make a meaningful impact. Click here for more information.