Case Study: WaFd Bank achieves rapid commercial lending scale and 51% loan growth with nCino

WaFd Bank - Customer Case Study

WaFd Bank, a Seattle-based regional bank with $18.7 billion in assets and 234 branches across eight states, set out to modernize after decades as a lean, monoline mortgage lender. Facing falling interest rates, rising compliance costs and competitive pressure from larger banks and fintech, WaFd needed a digital-first strategy to diversify into commercial banking, scale commercial lending, gain real-time visibility into origination, and improve customer experience (NPS).

In March 2020 WaFd implemented nCino’s commercial loan origination platform, which enabled rapid PPP processing—over 6,500 loans in four weeks, nearly half to new customers—and real-time reporting to manage workload. The bank grew loan production from $4.1B in 2019 to $6.2B in 2020 (a 51% increase, with three quarters commercial) and raised its NPS to 51, accelerating its transformation into a full-service commercial bank while maintaining strong customer satisfaction.

WaFd Bank

Brent Beardall

Chief Executive Officer