Forty-five percent of corporate respondents said they would be willing to leave their current bank if they believed another bank offered better payment services, according a recent B2B payments study by SunGard.

The study captured perspectives from 171 respondents representing a wide cross-section of corporations from multiple industries and ranging in size from under $250 million to over $5 billion in annual revenue.

The study found that a typical corporation sends thousands of payments to hundreds of vendors each month, with some spending upwards of 80 hours a month processing payments internally and altogether incurring tens of thousands of dollars in annual direct and labor costs. Amid this effort, the study revealed that many corporations simply do not know about their current bank’s payments options: 48% either did not know what payments services their bank offered or skipped the question. Among those who did respond, more than 80% reported that their current bank does not offer both of the payments services they wanted most: an integrated solution and vendor enrollment services.

The apparent willingness of corporations to consider alternatives means banks can help reduce attrition risk and potentially gain new customers by expanding their payments offerings to include the services most important to corporations.

“Globally, banks continue to focus on their payments franchises,” says Nancy Atkinson, senior analyst with Aite Group. “Payments are fee-based, and were strong contributors to bank revenue during the economic crisis. By implementing the key solutions most sought after by business customers, banks will achieve cost savings and greater revenue opportunities going forward.”

SunGard’s AvantGard PayNetExchange payments platform is available to corporations directly or to banks as a service that can be integrated into a solution portfolio to offer a full spectrum of payment solutions from outsourced check printing to Automated Clearing House, SWIFT, wires, and virtual card payments. The service includes a vendor enrollment program that helps each corporation’s vendors migrate from paper check to ACH or virtual card.

To see full study (registration required)

 

 

[This article was posted on May 8, 2012, on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com.]  

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