“I remember around 10 years ago when we were bidding for a large commercial cards opportunity with the US government,” says Diane Reyes, global head of liquidity and cash management at HSBC.
“It was a tough process – 18 months to gain a qualification to show we were suitable to bid for government contracts, followed by another 18 months of bidding and pitching to win the mandate.
“After three years, we won the deal. We were called to Washington with our lawyers to sign the papers under the lights of a dozen or so photographers. It was a lengthy process, but it paid off: a $400 million contract, which grew to nearly $1 billion over the life of the contract.”
As Reyes says, some of the processes have sped up over time, but the principle remains: “Transaction bankers need to be resilient and persistent to get deals done.”