Governance and Ethics

Integrity. Transparency. Trust.

At Northwest, these are three principles that drive the way we do business. And our record is proven through consistent recognition by Forbes as one of America’s Most Trustworthy companies, awarded based on factors that are all considered indicators of a company's accountability, responsiveness and credibility.

Here are the steps we’ve taken to strengthen and enhance our approach to corporate governance, risk management and business ethics—

Ethics at Every Level
  • Annually, employees and our Board of Directors are asked to review and acknowledge our Code of Ethics Policy.
  • We have a separate Code of Ethics that must be reviewed and acknowledged by our senior financial officers and directors.
  • Employees are required to complete annual ethics training with refresher courses throughout the year.
  • Our directors are also trained annually on the Code of Ethics by our Chief Ethics Officer.
  • Code of Ethics inquiries and dispositions are reported to the Governance Committee of our Board of Directors twice a year.
  • Employees can anonymously report concerns 24/7 online and through other mediums.
  • To ensure we’re capturing reports of potential ethical violations from external stakeholders, a formal resolution process allows us to capture feedback in-person, over the phone and online and document progress using our Enterprise Risk Management platform.
  • We do business with third parties who share our commitment to compliance and high ethical standards. Because of that, we expand our Code of Ethics to apply to third parties with whom we contract. Before we commit, all prospective third-party partners undergo extensive due diligence to determine the risk rating and appropriateness of doing business with them.
Committed to Corporate Governance 

At Northwest, we’re committed to upholding the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct. This guiding principle is also reflected in our Corporate Governance practices.  

Here are some examples: 

  • We require a majority vote for directors and annual election of directors by our shareholders.
  • We require all non-executive board members to remain independent.
  • Our executive compensation is tied to shareholder value.
  • We are committed to a strong internal audit structure.
A Strong Risk Management Framework 

At Northwest, we’re committed to strong Enterprise Risk Management— 

  • We have a board-level Enterprise Risk Committee.
  • Our Risk Appetite Statement and Enterprise Risk Management framework is established and reviewed by our directors. 
  • We align our business strategy and capital plan with our risk appetite.  
  • We have the appropriate governance and organizational structures in place. 
  • In addition to our chief risk officer, our experienced Risk Management team oversees each function adhering to applicable policies and practices, including Audit, BSA, Loan Review, Model Risk Management, Enterprise Risk Management and Third-Party Risk Management. 
  • We maintain strong risk assessments, monitoring and reporting. 
  • Related to Risk Management, we have extensive information security, data privacy, business continuity and business incident response policies and practices in place. 
Corporate Governance Documents 

These documents, which create an important corporate governance framework, reflect our core values. They are reviewed annually and updated as necessary. 

Contact our Board of Directors 

We believe it’s important that all stakeholders have access to our non-management Board of Directors. Anyone interested in communicating directly with our Board of Directors can do so by writing to: 

Board of Directors 
Northwest Bancshares, Inc.  
Attn: Corporate Secretary  
3 Easton Oval
Suite 500
Columbus, OH 43219