West Gate Bank Celebrates One Year in Omaha!

West Gate Bank opened their first Omaha branches in 2018 and just celebrated their first year in the Omaha market in July.

Give me a brief synopsis of what your company does.

West Gate Bank is a full-service, family-owned community bank. As a full-service bank, West Gate Bank is large enough to serve all of your banking needs, yet small enough to provide the outstanding personal service that only a community bank can deliver. We offer consumer banking, business banking, commercial lending and mortgage lending services.

Who are the owners/important executives?

Carl Sjulin is the President & CEO of West Gate Bank. The Sjulin family has owned West Gate Bank since 1980. In the Omaha market, Kristi Thornton is the Senior Vice President/Omaha Retail Market Manager and Jon Dittenber is the Senior Vice President/Chief Lending Officer.

What do you think makes you different from other companies similar to yours?

Focusing on delivering the personal service that West Gate Bank prides itself on, each location offers a full-service menu for personal and business accounts. At West Gate Bank, “Our Interest is You” is more than a slogan. We are committed to remaining family-owned and focused on serving the people of Nebraska. Our vision of servant leadership is based on a few, simple core values, including providing you with the best banking products and good, old-fashioned Nebraska customer service.

What do you like about doing business in Omaha?

Omaha is such a rapidly developing market and it’s exciting to be part of that growth. The community has been welcoming to us and we’ve enjoyed getting to know the businesses and customers around our locations. We look forward to continue building relationships with customers and partners in the area.

What kind of community organizations/groups is your business involved with?

West Gate Bank is proud to partner with the United Way of the Midlands with nearly 100% employee participation in their annual corporate fund drive last year. We are a sponsor of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce and our branch manager in Bellevue, Shelly Wachter, is on the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

What changes have you seen in the industry and your company in the past few years?

Certainly, the move into the Omaha market was a change for our company. After 50 years of being exclusive to Lincoln, it was a natural progression to move into Omaha.

Technology continues to change the banking industry, with new products and services being developed to improve the customer experience. Banks are constantly challenged to find new and improved processes to make the customer experience easier to manage through online and mobile technology.

Our mortgage department recently launched a new product, Mobile Mortgage, that offers borrowers a completely online application experience for their mortgage, residential construction, or refinance loan. Users can download the free app for Android and Apple devices in order to:

Compare different lending scenarios using various loan programs to help determine which product is the best fit
Calculate the possible savings (or cost) of refinancing a mortgage
Scan in required documents on a mobile phone and upload them quickly to expedite the loan approval process
Access mortgage calculators
Stay up-to-date on the loan process and closing

West Gate Bank Celebrates One Year in Omaha!