Evergreen’s partnership with Narmi has allowed it to offer modern technology that supports digital account opening and banking to acquire deposits on a national scale and convert existing loan-only customers into core deposit customers.
Evergreen’s bold strategic move to increase its online savings account rate to 5.25% APY, which at the time was the highest rate available in the nation, has led to an overwhelming response from consumers and explosive deposit growth.
Evergreen’s decision to maintain its three core brand identities has encouraged customer engagement across their platform for not just loans, but all aspects of a user’s financial journey.
Evergreen Bank Group (Evergreen) is redefining what it means to be a community bank. Since its inception in 2007, the bank has distinguished itself by thinking outside the box, offering customers unique in-branch services like Shoeshine Fridays, coffee and tea lounges, and even an indoor golf simulator. Headquartered in Oak Brook, IL, Evergreen operates three branches in the Chicago metropolitan area, where it meets the retail and commercial banking needs of local communities. Beyond its commitment to local banking, Evergreen also operates a national consumer lending business.
Under the Evergreen brand, the bank provides collector car and manufactured housing loans across the country. Additionally, through its two separately branded lending divisions—FreedomRoad Financial (FreedomRoad) and Performance Finance—Evergreen offers financing for on-road and off-road powersports vehicles. Evergreen’s partnerships with some of the largest and most reputable Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have made Evergreen a top-five lender in the powersports industry, helping enthusiasts realize their dreams of motorcycle and off-road vehicle ownership. This strategic focus on niche markets has allowed Evergreen to build deep relationships with customers who are passionate about their purchases, creating a strong foundation for long-term loyalty and growth. Across its three brands, Evergreen serves over 100,000 loan-only customers, presenting a tremendous opportunity to deepen these relationships.
Despite its national ambitions, Evergreen faced significant challenges in extending deposit products to its vast customer base and to new customers. Recognizing the need for innovation, Evergreen’s leadership team has been laser-focused on leveraging technology to unlock new opportunities for deposit growth. The bank’s mission statement is clear: to be a leading tech-savvy specialty bank with a national footprint that sets the standard for digital banking excellence, making borrowing and saving simple and easy. To fulfill this mission, Evergreen needed to address several key challenges: upgrading its online and mobile banking platforms to support online account opening, acquiring deposits both locally and nationally, and converting loan-only customers into core deposit customers.
Evergreen tackled these challenges head-on by partnering with Narmi, a leading provider of digital banking solutions.
Leading the charge of digital transformation at Evergreen is Dan Inendino. Inendino joined Evergreen in 2007, a month before it officially opened, and has worked across the organization in a variety of roles - from commercial lending to retail to his current role as EVP and Chief Digital Officer, where he oversees Evergreen’s digital banking and marketing departments.
In 2022, Evergreen launched Narmi’s award-winning mobile and web-based banking platform, along with digital account opening solutions across all three of its brands. “We wanted to enhance the offerings for our existing customers while also delivering a top-tier experience for new users,” said Inendino. “We sought a partner who is forward-thinking and agile, with a strong emphasis on user experience. Additionally, we wanted a partner with an open API and Application Framework to give us the flexibility to introduce new customer-centric products and services as technology rapidly evolves. This approach ensures that we can continuously innovate and adapt, staying ahead of the curve in an ever-changing financial landscape.”
As part of this new partnership, Evergreen has been able to push the boundaries of what a community bank can achieve in the digital era, ensuring that it competes with the biggest names in online banking. Key highlights of Evergreen’s product suite, powered by Narmi, include:
"Narmi is incredibly excited to deepen our partnership with Evergreen Bank. The successful launch of all three brands demonstrates Evergreen's strong commitment to meeting the evolving needs of not only the greater Chicago community but also the entire nation. We embarked on this journey understanding Evergreen's goals to expand its national reach, and this is a significant step in that direction."
"The introduction of three distinct digital banking and account opening experiences will enable Evergreen to deliver a consistent, best-in-class experience across its customer segments while accelerating national growth for years to come. This is innovation at its finest," said Nikhil Lakhanpal, Co-Founder of Narmi.
The partnership with Narmi has positioned Evergreen not only as a local leader but as a formidable competitor on a national scale. "We're thrilled to have successfully launched the Narmi platform across all three of our brands. This marks the first step in our broader digital transformation strategy," said Darin Campbell, President & CEO of Evergreen. "Over the past 17 years, we've built one of the strongest-performing community banks in the country. Looking ahead, we are laser-focused on executing our strategy as a tech-savvy bank with a national footprint, dedicated to providing superior products, services, and experiences for both borrowers and savers alike."
In the last twelve months alone with Narmi, Evergreen has seen incredible growth:
Evergreen has strategically maintained a smaller brick-and-mortar branch network, focusing instead on providing exceptional financial products and services. Over the years, the bank's higher yields from consumer lending portfolios have enabled it to offer competitive rates on deposit products, consistently ranking near the top of the market in the Chicago area. The bank boasts strong retail offerings, including free rewards checking accounts, high-yield CDs, and a high-yield online savings account.
Now, with the launch of Narmi’s robust online account opening platform, Evergreen has eliminated geographical barriers. Customers no longer need to live near a branch to bank with Evergreen. Narmi’s cutting-edge technology allows the bank to expand its local reach and attract new customers and deposits across the region. Even more appealing is the simplicity of the online account opening process, which is extremely consumer-friendly, taking only minutes to complete. With digital convenience at the forefront, Evergreen is revolutionizing how customers experience banking—removing friction and enabling effortless access to its high-yield products. With this advantage in hand, the question became clear: why limit the opportunity to Illinois residents?
“The Narmi platforms give us the ability to expand the Evergreen brand and acquire deposits nationally, which fits perfectly with our business model as we're already operating as a national lender,” said Inendino. “With the combination of the Narmi platform and our attractive deposit products, we feel well-equipped to compete with the major online banks.”
In August 2023, Evergreen made a bold move by increasing its online savings account rate to 5.25% APY, which at the time was the highest rate available in the nation. The response from consumers was overwhelming. This strategic rate increase underscored Evergreen’s commitment to delivering value, instantly capturing the attention of rate-conscious savers nationwide. The powerful combination of exceptional products and cutting-edge technology quickly earned Evergreen a coveted spot in DepositAccounts.com’s 10 Best Online Banks of 2024.
“We are thrilled to be recognized as one of the Top 10 Digital Banks of 2024,” said Campbell. “This achievement reflects our unwavering commitment to embracing digital transformation and enhancing the way our customers engage with their finances. It’s a testament to our forward-thinking strategy and our drive to provide superior banking experiences for all our customers, both locally and across the nation.”
From the very beginning, one of Evergreen’s top goals has been to cross-sell deposit products to its loan-only customer base. “It’s been part of our business plan every single year,” shared Inendino. However, the logistical challenges of serving a nationwide customer base had continuously delayed progress toward this objective.
Inendino explained that while digital transformation had already become a growing priority for banks even before the pandemic, it was this shift that prompted Evergreen to seek a partner who could help them meet their goals. “As digital transformation started gaining traction pre-pandemic, we began the process of identifying a suitable partner to assist us in executing this vision. Then, of course, the pandemic accelerated everything."
The Evergreen team recognized that merely offering a functional digital platform for loan customers wasn’t enough to successfully convert them into core deposit customers. The digital experience had to be more than just serviceable—it had to feel modern, intuitive, and seamless, eliminating tedious processes like requiring a driver's license or other cumbersome steps. The user experience had to align with the convenience-driven expectations of today’s customers, where any unnecessary friction could be the difference between gaining or losing a new account.
“We knew that if we were going to do this, we had to do it in a way that would compete with the big players,” said Inendino. “As a smaller community bank, we’re accustomed to our technology being functional but not necessarily sleek. Offering something purely functional wasn’t going to cut it. We needed a partner that could provide a solution that felt fresh, innovative, and ahead of its time. This commitment to quality ensured that the experience we offered wouldn’t just meet expectations but exceed them.”
One of the key decisions in this transformation was determining whether to offer deposit accounts under the overarching Evergreen brand or to maintain all three of its distinct brands.
Ultimately, the bank chose to keep the brands separate. Each of Evergreen's brands—FreedomRoad Financial and Performance Finance—has a high level of customer affinity, with strong ties to the lifestyle and communities those products serve. Customers who finance their purchases with FreedomRoad or Performance Finance have bought into not just the products but the overall culture. Each brand carries its own unique franchise value, and Evergreen wanted to continue building upon that differentiation. This strategy preserves the identity and trust each brand has cultivated, helping to foster deeper loyalty among its customer bases.
The ultimate goal is not only to increase deposits but to create long-term relationships where customers see Evergreen as their primary financial institution—not just for loans, but for every aspect of their financial journey. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and targeted marketing, Evergreen is well-positioned to turn its national loan customer base into loyal deposit customers, driving growth and deepening relationships across its brands.
GAFCU wanted to offer CDs in the CAO platform but didn’t want to have to manually send CD receipts every time an account was opened. This labor-intensive method inhibited staff from capitalizing on a channel crucial for deposit growth. Narmi's platform customizations provided a solution: automated delivery of personalized CD receipts to each account holder via email.
Asset Size: $300M
Location: Paramus, NJ
Products: Consumer Digital Banking, Digital Account Opening
GAFCU encountered difficulties promoting additional product offerings, particularly with their CD accounts. They came to Narmi for a solution that could help them effectively cross-sell their CD products.
Narmi's platform customization streamlines operations for GAFCU’s staff, and will enable GAFCU to significantly reduce manual efforts spent on tracking and sending CD receipts.
Grasshopper’s support team historically used Zendesk to manage their client support operations. However, ensuring client conversations on the Narmi support portal remained consistent with the conversations on Zendesk took valuable time away from their support team. Using Narmi’s platform customizations, Narmi built a full integration between Zendesk and the Narmi support portal, saving Grasshopper’s support team over 30 hours each week on manual tasks.
Asset Size: $820MM
Location: New York, NY
Products: Business Digital Banking
Grasshopper recognized the need to optimize their workflow by automating the connection between Zendesk and the Narmi messaging platform. This desire stemmed from a commitment to enhance operational efficiency and streamline processes.
Through this integration, Grasshopper can take full advantage of their existing tech stack. Reclaiming the 30 hours it took to copy messages from Zendesk to the Narmi platform allows Grasshopper’s support team to redirect their focus towards high-impact initiatives and delivering exceptional client experiences.
UFCU’s team was experiencing a high volume of applications that needed to be manually flagged, and they wanted to incorporate a tool into their risk management stack that could help relieve that burden. In partnership with Narmi, UFCU adopted NeuroID to automatically flag and decision for risky applications and send staff notifications when there are incidences of fraudulent activity. Now, UFCU’s staff can sit back and relax knowing that NeuroID is automatically decisioning on those risky applications, even when there’s a fraud attack.
“There were 33 applications that were declined outright on Sunday when otherwise it would have gone to Review or Accepted. This addresses Synthetic fraud which is difficult to track.”
- Russell Shugart
Asset Size: $4.5B
Location: Austin, TX
Products: Consumer Account Opening
UFCU was experiencing fraudulent applications moving to “review” or “approved” status. These applications required constant manual review, causing their staff to be bogged down and overwhelmed when there was a fraud attack.
With NeuroID catching risky applications and automatically decisioning them, UFCU’s staff saves hours every week. In the short time since implementation, Russell calculated that NeuroID saves more than 40 hours a month in manual review time and helps UFCU avoid charge-offs averaging $400 per fraudulent account. With Narmi’s close integration with NeuroID, UFCU can more reliably trust application decisions, giving them a safety net when experiencing intense fraud attacks.
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