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"With
FXPartner in place, Jim
Wall
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Bank
of Los Altos To
ensure they can meet the needs of their customers, both individual and
corporate, Bank of Los Altos offers a full range of financial services,
including foreign exchange. Bank of Los Altos recognized the need for
a comprehensive and timely FX service to address the emerging global
needs of their growing corporate customer base. As their volume of FX
transactions grew, however, it became clear to Jim Wall that this service
fell short of their standards of excellence, and that it could jeopardize
some important customer relationships. Foreign
Exchange Didn’t Meet Their Service Standard Bank
of Los Altos relied on a major money center bank as its correspondent
to execute customers’ foreign exchange requests, which resulted
in three major shortcomings: lack of control; unsatisfactory customer
service; and poor rates. Bank
of Los Altos simply wasn’t a priority customer for the big correspondent
bank, and the service and response they received was poor. Operations
Manager Jill Howard recalls that "waiting on the phone from 15
to 45 minutes to place a trade was commonplace." There were further
delays before trade confirmations were received by Bank of Los Altos,
leaving their customers feeling that the bank’s service was slow.
"When customers called us with questions," Jill says, "we
didn’t have the answers — and getting them from our correspondent
bank was a painful process." Since
small trades comprise the bulk of their FX business, Bank of Los Altos
was getting unfavorable exchange rates from their correspondent. Mark-up
on rates varied from day to day, leaving Bank of Los Altos at the hands
of its correspondent for setting prices to its FX customers. While Bank
of Los Altos didn’t add any additional markup, the rates they were
passing along to their customers weren’t at all competitive. Manual
Processes Hampered Efficiency and Profitability Not
only did FX fail to measure up to the rest of their customer service,
it also hurt the bank’s overall efficiency. Like many foreign exchange
operations, Bank of Los Altos’ process was cumbersome and labor
intensive: numerous faxes regarding a single small trade; repetitive
phone calls; more faxes. In addition to being a huge time drain, the
manual process, with reliance on a third-party correspondent bank, was
error-prone. Putting out fires resulted in even more staff time and
customer service issues. Bank
of Los Altos could not risk adding a markup on top of their correspondent’s
hefty rates, and there was no way to make FX a cost-effective service.
"While we were using a correspondent bank, we never intended or
expected to make foreign exchange a profit center," Jim Wall notes.
"We viewed FX as another valued-added service to solidify certain
key relationships. But we never intended FX to erode profitability either.
The inefficiency was costing us way too much. And even though we were
offering foreign exchange with the goal of retaining and satisfying
customers, our slow response and high exchange rates were hurting our
objective." Jill
Howard adds, "Some of our more savvy customers were questioning
the rates we were passing on to them. I know we lost some business." FXPartner
Puts Excellence in FX Service Early
in 1998, Bank of Los Altos heard about FXPartner. The efficiency and
speed of Sonnet’s fully-automated system presented the perfect
solution for a community bank with limited staff and a focus on service
excellence. And when it was demonstrated that the bank could save its
customers an average of $90 per transaction through FXPartner’s
highly-competitive rates and fixed-fee pricing structure, the system
made even more sense. From
the installation in April ’98 to today, FXPartner has come through
for Bank of Los Altos. Jill Howard and her team found the system remarkably
easy to learn and use, with everything up and running smoothly in less
than two weeks. Since then, they have nothing but rave reviews for FXPartner’s
responsiveness and support. "FXPartner is just a phone call away.
No more hanging on the line either. Someone is always right there to
help." Efficiency
is up, too — way up. "We can place a trade request at 7 a.m.
if that works best for our schedule and work load," says Jill.
"Confirmation comes back to us within the hour. If there are questions,
reports are at our fingertips. To our customers, we look like we care
about their business more than ever, and that’s always our aim."
In addition, Jill says that Bank of Los Altos has been able to save
customers hundreds of dollars on trades. Now
CEO Jim Wall no longer worries about foreign exchange services damaging
the customer relationships that everyone at Bank of Los Altos has worked
so hard to develop. "As our bank continues to grow, we’ll
be getting more foreign exchange business. With FXPartner in place,
we can manage the increased volume, maintain our efficiency, and have
a cost-effective operation. Our people can spend more time on functions
that generate revenue, instead of functions that are a cost of doing
business."
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