A company’s relationship with its bank is built on convenience, ease of use, trust and, of course, lending. Because customers and colleagues continually ask for our opinions about large “name-brand” banks and smaller, community banks, here are my top-line thoughts on the ones that excel and those that lack what you need.
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Winner: Bank of America
Bank of America wasn’t always our favorite because of its generally poor customer service to its personal banking audience. In the past year, however, we’ve seen an increase in customer satisfaction among our customers who use their business banking services. Finally, Bank of America takes the leading position with their latest online banking technology – providing most data and insight to end users among all the banks our customers are using.
Win:
- Wire information more complete than its competitors; showing end users almost all of the relevant information to each wire transfer
- Online banking search function is easier and more complete with filters
- Transaction data are retained for a longer period of time than its competitors
Lose:
- Business online banking service require separate activation and additional monthly cost
- Multiple access for owner and accounting team is harder than it needs to be to set up
Honorable Mention: Chase
Chase had been our favorite for a long time up until this year. As a national bank, Chase tends to have the latest and greatest technology with the best user interface and experience. They are in second position at the moment, primarily because even though all the data and information are easy to access, there are limited information recorded. Check images and wire information are sometimes incomplete and require end user and accounting team to dig or recall transactions that’s happened weeks or months ago.
Win:
- Easiest to set up multiple online banking access complete with access restrictions
- Best online user interface and user experience
- Offers remote deposit of checks
Lose:
- Wire fee tends to be higher than its competitors
- Pretty good amount of data retained but not as detailed as Bank of America
US Bank
US Bank uses a separate online banking platform called SinglePoint Essentials (separate service sign up and additional fees) for its business customers, which we thought it was interesting. The two system is pretty separate. The regular online banking is more of a consumer product and doesn’t allow much of a business access/integration. SinglePoint on the other hand only starts pulling data in from your bank after you’ve set up the service, which would almost always incur some data loss. User interface and experience is very old school and ledger-like and can be difficult to use.
Win:
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Their customer service representatives are generally nice and trying to help
Lose:
- Technology is segregated and not all information are synced
- Generally takes a long time to get anything set up or delivered
Citibank
Citibank is opening up more branches throughout California and had always been pretty dominant in Asian markets. While their personal banking side usually deliver a good online banking experience, their business banking portal takes you back through time.
Win:
- Great international presence means easier access to money while traveling abroad
- Citigold service means different benefits and waived fees
Lose:
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Online banking is outdated and difficult to use
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