The Texas Access to Justice Foundation, or TAJF, the largest state-based funding source for civil legal aid, announced Wells Fargo has joined the TAJF’s Prime Partner bank program, a significant step toward making legal assistance more accessible for thousands of Texans. Funding from this program helps TAJF provide legal aid services to more than 100,000 Texans across the state each year.

Prime Partner banks and credit unions voluntarily pay higher interest rates for Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts, or IOLTA, a method of raising money for civil legal aid and to support improvements to the justice system. Prime Partner financial institutions pay 75% of the federal funds target rate on IOLTA accounts, which is well above the eligibility requirements for banks participating in the IOLTA program.