Awards for Excellence 2017
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It is not often that banks are described as ‘phenomenal’, but that is what some of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s small and medium-sized enterprise clients call it, making it a fitting repeat winner of Euromoney’s award for North America’s best bank for SMEs. Marty Arenson, president of Global Sourcing Connection, a promotional products supplier, switched to the bank in 2008 after previous experiences he says he found horrific in comparison.
“They are the best bank I’ve ever worked with,” says Arenson. The first sign that life would be different with BAML on board was when he needed funding to fulfil a multimillion dollar order from a Fortune 500 company. BAML not only agreed to provide the funding but also wanted an ongoing relationship with the firm to help it grow, hence the decision to switch banks.
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Alastair Borthwick, |
Back then Global Sourcing Connection had just $3 million of revenues. It is several times bigger than that now and has moved into a bigger bracket within BAML’s SME offering. These days it uses BAML for lines of credit and international wire services, as well as using the bank’s CashPro Online platform for fraud protection, among other things.
CashPro is just one of the many solutions BAML offers its corporate clients and SMEs are just as enthusiastic users of it as their larger cousins. The past year has been a busy time for that platform, with a vast range of enhancements, including the Balances Dashboard to allow visualization of complex information and better FX services that allow clients to manage global cross-currency payments and receipts.
The bank launched its Global Client Account Agreement in October, making the job of opening international accounts much easier. It has launched digital account opening kits for the US market, cutting some 2 million printed pages annually from its environmental footprint, as well as making the process more convenient for clients to navigate. Electronic signature services have been introduced for SME clients, with an e-vault where employees can access documents.
It is not all about technology, however. A client experience product council has generated 86 non-technology ideas to improve the way customers interact with the bank, with more than 60% of those being implemented.
Most of the bank’s SME clients will not be tapping it for complex global capital markets advice. But its ability to plug together local coverage and a global footprint brings those same clients plenty of advantages. A small US business that has a factory in Brazil and exports to Hong Kong can find solutions at BAML for every piece of the puzzle, many of which leverage the bank’s offerings for its much bigger clients.
The personal touch provided by relationship managers is valued too. “You would think the biggest bank in America would be horrible to work with, but not once has that thought ever crossed my mind,” says Arenson. “We owe so much of our success to the support that they provided us. It was like being with an incubator.”
