Hawthorn River, the developer of loan origination software for community banks, announced that 1st Advantage Bank has implemented the Hawthorn River Lending solution to better serve its customers by reducing the effort required to process a loan request. 1st Advantage Bank served as an advisory council member to support the initial design of Hawthorn River Lending, a powerful, yet easy-to-use, solution designed around the unique needs of community bankers.
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1st Advantage Bank, a $110M full-service community bank located in St. Peters, Missouri, sets itself apart from big banks with the unwavering belief that every customer is important. With the goal of further elevating its customer engagement, 1st Advantage Bank began seeking ways to streamline its lending functions in 2018. After assessing the software vendor landscape, the decision was made to partner with Hawthorn to develop a solution. The bank launched Hawthorn Lending earlier this year.
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“We evaluated a number of vendors,” said Joe Armour, Senior Vice President of 1st Advantage Bank. “The ideal solution just didn’t exist. Everything we reviewed was designed for big banks. We decided to fill the void by partnering with Hawthorn River.”
Jon Rigsby, CEO of Hawthorn River, said “Partnering with 1st Advantage was an exciting and valuable opportunity for our company. The perspective provided by the experienced bankers at 1st Advantage Bank enabled us to craft a solution that materially improved the lending process for 1st Advantage Bank while setting a strong foundation to expand the value proposition to banks across the country.”
The deployment of Hawthorn River could not have come at a better time for 1st Advantage Bank. Within weeks of going live, the bank was forced to close its lobbies and move to a work-from-home model due to COVID-19. Mr. Armour reflected on this timing, stating “We were better prepared to deal with COVID than our peer banks. Thanks to Hawthorn River, our team continued to process loans from home throughout the crisis. For me, this was an unforeseen return on investment that I’m thankful to have realized.”
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