Northwest Bank continues to invest in the newest systems and technology available to provide the best security for our online banking customers, and will soon be changing our website from a .com to a .bank domain.

On Jan. 26, Northwest Bank’s website will change from www.Bank-Northwest.com to www.NW.bank. This move is significant in that .bank domains are highly gated – like .gov or .edu – and are more effective at combating online scams and duplicate websites.

“Financial institutions remain one of the most highly phished industries, and online threats continue to rise, therefore changing our website address to a .bank domain with increased levels of security is more important than ever.” said Joe Conover, president of Northwest Bank.

During the time of the change, customers will not experience any interruption in online and mobile banking services.

“If customers log into www.Bank-Northwest.com they will be redirected to www.NW.bank,” Conover said. “While website redirection will remain in place for the foreseeable future, we encourage our customers to update their bookmark(s) to our .bank site in their address book to assure them they have accessed our secure website.”

The .bank domain is a trusted, more secure platform that provides layers of protection and safeguards that can help keep customers safe from online dangers such as spoofed websites and phishing scams. There is a stringent verification process for financial institutions when applying for a .bank domain and ongoing verification must be maintained.

Northwest Bank is a $2 billion community bank that offers a full line of business, agricultural, mortgage, consumer deposit and lending services as well as wealth management services. Northwest Bank has offices located in Algona, Ames, Arnolds Park, Ankeny, Estherville, Fort Dodge, Humboldt, Le Mars, Milford, Sioux Center, Sioux City, Spencer, Spirit Lake, West Des Moines, Iowa and Omaha and La Vista, Nebraska.