Western Independent Bankers (WIB), a trade association of more than 130 community banks, announced today that it endorsed LendKey, a Lending as a Service platform, as its exclusive auto-­lending partner.

WIB will now endorse LendKey’s auto lending solution to community banks across the Western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the U.S. Territories.

LendKey provides a lending platform and essential infrastructure for community financial institutions to efficiently and profitably launch online lending programs. LendKey clients currently leverage its platform and services to create loan programs, and participate in lending ecosystems, covering private student loans, student loan refinancing, home improvement loans and auto loans.

Betty House, senior vice president of product development and CTO of WIB, stated:

“We are thrilled to expand LendKey’s role as a WIB Endorsed Program partner. We’ve been working with LendKey since 2014, and have witnessed how seamlessly they can launch and manage online lending programs for our member banks. We’re expanding our relationship not only because of LendKey’s industry-­leading technology, but also for the marketing and customer service channels they provide to lenders. It’s really a full-­scale, end-­to-­end solution.”

LendKey was carefully evaluated as part of WIB’s endorsement program and found to provide high-­quality, value-­ added products and services that enhance banks’ competitive advantage and provide significant efficiencies. WIB will provide marketing support and endorse the auto-­lending program to its members through direct mail, online, its member magazine and annual conferences.

Vince Passione, CEO of LendKey, added:

“We’re honored to expand our relationship with WIB and its member banks. Our mission is to enable community financial institutions to enter and succeed in online lending. We’re doing this by arming banks with our turn-­key lending platform, our customer support centers and our marketing expertise.”