Key qualities to look for in a business banking partner

by Michael Palmer, COO

Finding a great business banking partner is a foundational element of starting and maintaining your company's operations. With the right financial institution on your side, your organization can enjoy reliable, dependable service and a variety of financial offerings that effectively meet your needs. Let's look at some of the most important aspects of choosing a business banking partner, and how to make good decisions when the time comes.

Find the banking products and services your company needs to succeed

There are a wide variety of financial institutions that offer some level of service to businesses, but they aren't all equal. Some may only look at business banking as a sideline to their main focus on consumer banking, or they simply may not offer the specific account types that you know your organization needs. One of the first things you should do when looking into different potential partners is make sure they offer what your business needs.

TAB Bank has a full suite of banking services and products for companies looking to keep their finances safe, secure and organized. Checking and savings and money market accounts provide the basic support businesses need to accept and make payments, including debit cards and mobile and online banking. There are also certificates of deposit that provide a safe investment vehicles for companies that want to grow their cash reserves.

Is your banker also a lender?

Every company needs some level of support from a dependable financial institution. It's almost impossible to do business in the 21st century, managing everything from payroll to accounts payable and receivable, without checking and savings accounts. However, banking options by themselves sometimes aren't enough for companies, especially new and small ones. Business lending is a critical consideration when it comes time to choose a financial partner. Working capital and financing for a variety of specific projects can mean the difference between strong business growth and struggling to stay afloat. A financial institution that offers a simple, direct approval process for lending and a variety of different options can help your business much more than a bank with confusing processes and few choices.

At TAB Bank, your business has plenty of choices when it comes to finding the financing arrangement that's best for your needs. Read more about factoring, accounts receivable financing, asset based lending and trucking equipment financing.

Does your bank understand your business?

Some financial institutions offer basic products and services for business banking, but focus on providing personal banking, investment services and other offerings. Is this the type of institution you want to partner with? While they are likely competent and almost assuredly compliant with all relevant financial and privacy laws, they may not understand key context around a financing application or request to open a new account.

A bank with a long tradition of working with businesses and a focus on providing the services and support they need has more institutional knowledge and understanding of what companies need to succeed. At TAB Bank, you can see this level of knowledge displayed in our Treasury Management services, which give businesses the opportunity to choose a customized slate of options ranging from ACH origination and payroll distribution to financial balance reporting and merchant services. With two decades of experience helping companies perform to the best of their abilities under our belt, we know we can provide individualized assistance and a knowledgeable sounding board for a wide range of financial and operational decisions.

If you are looking for more in-depth information about these topics, please see our whitepaper titled, Why a Good Business Banking Partner is Critical for Organizational Success.  You can click on the tile below and gain immediate access to this content.

About the Author

As TAB Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, Mike oversees the operational and customer support teams that assist TAB’s clients with their deposit relationships with the bank. Additionally, his teams securely process all the bank’s electronic funds transfers, apply for invoice specific payments across the factoring portfolio, and process thousands of lockbox and other checks per week.

Mike is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager. Prior to his experience at TAB Bank, he spent 13 years at Wells Fargo, the last ten being spent in regulatory compliance roles focusing on international BSA/AML compliance as well as mortgage and consumer lending regulations. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Marketing from Utah State University and a Master of Business Administration from Brigham Young University. He is a graduate from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin –Madison where he completed courses necessary to achieve the Executive Leadership Certificate from the Wisconsin School of Business.

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