Wintrust Bank and Armed Forces Bank honored at 25th Annual CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium

Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions has named Illinois-based Wintrust Financial Corporation (Wintrust) (Nasdaq: WTFC) and Armed Forces Bank (AFB), headquartered in Leavenworth, Kansas, as winners of its 2021 Community Impact Award. The announcement was made at the company’s 25^th annual CRA & Fair Lending Colloquium held Nov. 16-17. The award honors financial institutions for the breadth and innovative application of community development programs to benefit low- and moderate-income communities in which they do business.

Recognizing that many small businesses impacted by COVID were struggling to submit Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications, Wintrust Community Bank leaders in early 2021 authorized the creation of Wintrust PPP Resource Centers. Hosted in eight, geographically diverse community bank locations, the Centers provided onsite guidance, computers and other critical business equipment, supported by an informative resources webpage to help businesses navigate the complex PPP application process.

“Our bankers started hearing that there were some businesses that were struggling to submit because they didn’t have computers, didn’t have the right software, or they were having trouble with the portal,” recalls Ed Wehmer, Wintrust Founder and CEO. “Right away, our bankers started helping one-on-one, taking in paper applications and manually submitting them for borrowers so they could access this important CARES Act funding program. That one-on-one effort became more formalized as Wintrust’s Resource Centers came to life. In all, more than 1,000 businesses accessed our Centers, processing more than 600 applications.”

Half of all Resource Center applications came from majority minority population census tracts, and 40 percent were from low- to moderate-income census tracts, totaling $17 million in PPP loans. More than 30 knowledgeable Wintrust employees staffed the Centers and collectively volunteered over 275 hours over four months.

AFB launched its Access Loan Program in early 2021 to provide a closed-end, fixed payment installment loan to cover the variable expense needs common to many military families. New Access Loan clients receive an Access Checking Account, which provides early access to U.S military DFAS payment services, lower fees, and access to 30,000+ ATMs. Clients can add cash to their debit cards at any register at more than 4,000 Walmart locations. The Access Loan program is fully digital, featuring a highly automated, online application process available 24/7 that can often be completed in fewer than five minutes.

“Part of military life is being transferred from one duty station to another, at times with very limited notice for relocations or other expense-generating events. Military moves are never free, and military families are often far removed from family, so going home for visits or emergencies is perhaps more costly and, at times, it is difficult for military spouses to have consistency in employment due to military relocations,” says Jodi Vickery, Executive Vice President, Director of Military Consumer Lending, AFB. “AFB's Access Loan Program is providing the kinds of on-the-go interaction methods—mobile/online/chat/text—that many military clients highly prefer.”

Since its launch, 4,300 clients have benefited from the Access Loan Program in the military community globally, a strong response rate that validates the need for a responsible credit product for military families facing credit access challenges unique to a military lifestyle.

“The kind of positive influence that programs such as these are having is truly remarkable and an inspiration to the broader banking industry, demonstrating how banks can positively affect communities where they operate in very meaningful ways,” said Steve Meirink, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions. “We are honored to recognize the ingenuity of Wintrust Bank and Armed Forces Bank in creating these successful programs, and to acknowledge their ongoing care and commitment toward those they serve.”

Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions is a market leader and trusted provider of risk management and regulatory compliance solutions and services to U.S. banks and credit unions, insurers and securities firms. The business, which sits within Wolters Kluwer’s Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) division, helps these financial institutions efficiently manage risk and regulatory compliance obligations, and gain the insights needed to focus on better serving their customers and growing their business. Compliance Solutions’ CRA Wiz and Fair Lending Wiz help financial institutions manage cost and risks while managing their CRA and fair lending compliance obligations.

Wolters Kluwer’s GRC division provides an array of expert solutions to help financial institutions manage regulatory and risk obligations. Wolters Kluwer Compliance Solutions’ eOriginal® suite of purpose-built, digital lending solutions, for example, helps lenders digitize their transactions and features electronic signatures, collateral authentication and an electronic vault. Compliance Solutions’ OneSumX® for Regulatory Change Management tracks regulatory changes and organizes them to create structured, value-added content through a single data feed that is paired with an easy-to-use software solution. Wolters Kluwer Finance, Risk & Regulatory Reporting (FRR), meanwhile, is a global market leader in the provision of integrated regulatory compliance and reporting solutions. The division’s legal solutions businesses are Wolters Kluwer CT Corporation and Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions.

About Wolters Kluwer Governance, Risk & Compliance

Governance, Risk & Compliance is a division of Wolters Kluwer, which provides legal and banking professionals with solutions to help ensure compliance with ever-changing regulatory and legal obligations, manage risk, increase efficiency, and produce better business outcomes. GRC offers a portfolio of technology-enabled expert services and solutions focused on legal entity compliance, legal operations management, banking product compliance, and banking regulatory compliance.

Wolters Kluwer (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. Wolters Kluwer reported 2020 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,200 people worldwide.

About Armed Forces Bank

Armed Forces Bank is a full-service military bank committed since 1907 to serving those who serve. Its mission is to provide quality financial products and services tailored for active and retired Department of Defense personnel, both military and civilian, and their families in all 50 states and around the world. With more on-base locations than any military bank in the country and over $1.2 billion in assets, Armed Forces Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dickinson Financial Corporation, a $3.5 billion bank holding company headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. AFB’s sister bank, Academy Bank, is a full-service community bank with over 80 branch locations in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. For more, visit www.afbank.com.

About Wintrust Financial Corporation

Wintrust is a financial holding company with assets of approximately $48 billion whose common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol WTFC. Built on the "HAVE IT ALL" model, Wintrust offers sophisticated technology and resources of a large bank while focusing on providing service-based community banking to each and every customer. Wintrust operates 15 community bank subsidiaries, with over 170 banking locations in the greater Chicago and southern Wisconsin market areas. Additionally, Wintrust operates various non-bank business units that provide commercial and life insurance premium financing in the United States, a premium finance company operating in Canada, a company providing short-term accounts receivable financing and value-added out-sourced administrative services to the temporary staffing services industry, a business unit engaging primarily in the origination and purchase of residential mortgages for sale into the secondary market throughout the United States, and companies providing wealth management services and qualified intermediary services for tax-deferred exchanges.

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