Banks Seek to Provide Efficient Service to Corporate Clients

The cash management departments at most U.S. banks are getting a facelift, with hopes on bettering services for corporate clients by connecting enterprise resource planning systems with accounting systems, according to a report from Aite Group that examines cash management at the nation’s 50 largest banks.

“Banks are trying to make the whole process more efficient,” said report author Christine Barry, Aite Group research director. “They’re looking to outsource a lot more things, like collections.”

Though the report didn’t examine collections per se, in a survey included in the report, managers at 20 percent of the 50 banks said that their collections application was the least efficient process for most of their cash management customers.

Corporate customers want more than the basic products and services that were the major staples of cash management until recently, according to Aite. Banks are broadening their product portfolios, improving customer services and offering products and services that help support corporate operations outside U.S. borders. In the meantime, banks are servicing their corporate customers from a single location, even if corporate customers have widely dispersed operations.

Aite also found that banks are putting more resources into serving middle market companies, and that cash management customers use an average of three to four products and services today, a figure expected to grow to five to six by the end of 2009.