When it comes to corporate banking services, the future is digital. Many of the corporate customers who are currently being onboarded for new accounts are explicitly looking for better digital banking experiences than their previous ones. These work all the better to help them manage their finances when doing so becomes increasingly complex. Improved digital banking experiences also allow these corporations to serve their own customers to the best of their abilities.
It’s in this context that many corporate consumers have sought out virtual account management capabilities with their banking providers. The pressure has mounted on them to increase their efficiency at managing cash and watching out for the resources in their treasury. To this end, banks have chosen to distinguish themselves by offering corporate clients an adequate technology foundation for these. In that vein, one thing you should definitely consider for your own banking institution is adding to its range of virtual account management features.
You can become more competitive and rise up to be the corporate banking provider of choice if you offer innovative new solutions for your customers. Below are the top five virtual account management features that you should consider putting in your tech stack. These improvements will go a long way in sustaining your corporate clientele as the global banking industry undergoes a technological transformation.
End-to-End Integration with Existing Corporate Banking Features
The top feature you should look for in a new virtual account management solution is frictionless integration with your existing repertoire of software. The expense of brand-new software acquisitions may be for nothing if they can’t integrate properly with what your bank already has.
Consider that you and your staff may have to follow a steep learning curve upon onboarding your new virtual account management solution. It would be a pain for a new software acquisition to disrupt the effective practices you already employ with your corporate account data. You should look for something that enhances your current account management capabilities and that can also be scaled up in the future. As banking systems grow more and more advanced, you’ll want software that can ease your transition from over-the-counter banking to hybrid and digital banking.
Automated Reconciliation Processes
One of the most hair-raising tasks your corporate clients have to deal with is their account reconciliation, or balancing bank statements to their cash accounts. For businesses that are expanding or shifting to digitally-driven experiences, it’s increasingly stressful to compare separate sets of records and see whether they’re in agreement.
The idea of saving time, effort, and significant administration costs via automated reconciliation processes will surely resonate with your corporate clients. This kind of feature will likely help them arrive at a better understanding of their capital situation and put them at ease when it’s time to reconcile records. For the added speed and accuracy it will afford to the task of bank recon, this feature may prove extremely popular with your clients.
Streamlined POBO and COBO Experiences
Another feature that’ll appeal to your corporate clients is a streamlined method for administering payments on behalf of (POBO) and collections on behalf of (COBO). It will add to your value as a banking provider if your solution can guarantee faster, smoother inflow and outflow of payments and collections.
Corporations are always looking for methods to stay on top of their COBO and POBO, especially if they’re expanding their business beyond their home localities. If your system allows them to navigate different account structures and comfortably settle their POBO and COBO, it won’t go unappreciated. Thus, this is one of the best new virtual account management features that your bank can use to its full advantage.
Virtual Account Identifiers
Your corporate clients may also be looking for greater visibility over all their individual customers’ payment routes. Though it’s not something that they have the technical language for yet, these corporations may need both the structure and the adaptability of a rules-based solution. A feature that they’ll enjoy is a virtual account identifier that helps them tag individual customers and identify the purpose of each payment.
A versatile account management solution will allow you to adjust the rules that your account identifier follows, based on the needs of an individual corporation. No longer will they be scrambling to take account of each customer payment they receive. You’ll have something in your corporate banking system that will do that for them.
Liquidity Management Features
The last feature your corporate clients may look for in your digital banking service is something that can help them in their liquidity management. Thus, it would be good for you to onboard a feature that can illustrate their real-time liquidity status and centralize all data on their assets.
With an added liquidity management feature, your corporate clients will be better equipped to determine potential liquidity risks and stay liquid throughout their operations. A top-of-the-line virtual account management solution can maintain this powerful and streamlined hybrid liquidity structure for them. It will grant your clients optimum control of their cash situation and preserve their faith in your banking services.
Final Words
Along with these five upgrades, you might enjoy additional benefits from modernizing your current account management software. Your new solution may make it easier to launch more personalized banking experiences for each of your corporate clients. Your customer service may also improve if it’s done in a stable and adaptable digital banking environment. All of these are crucial if you want your bank to stay relevant among corporate consumers and to nurture valuable business partnerships.
There’s a clamor for banks to adopt more advanced IT infrastructure so that they can keep up with today’s corporate consumers. Be better prepared to meet this challenge by understanding what your corporate clients need and investing in virtual account management.