Building a relationship with your current bank can help provide additional access, benefits, and preferential treatment.
|
Your bank has a lot of services to offer down the line to help with whatever financial needs you may have. |
Try to stick with a few banks maximum so that you can build out that long-term partnership with them. |
How does Relationship Banking work?
As you start to develop rapport with your local bank, you’ll start getting a more holistic banking approach.
|
Strategic Financing Here you’re looking for the right mix of banking based on their specialty. Find one for your day-to-day, your loans, and investments. These can also overlap. |
Leverage your banking relationship As you start to grow your assets with the bank, your relationship manager will make it easier to get the best rates on loans and the highest rates on savings accounts. |
|
Better internal score Banks have their own matrix relationship scoring that gets more established with time. This will help you with refunds on fees and smoother loan transaction processing. |
Access to specialized products Eventually, you’ll reach a certain level where non-advertised, better financial products become available to you, whether it’s complex investment structures or alternative financing needs. |
How to build up the banking relationship
As you can see, there are already significant benefits, but how do you get there.
|
Continuously grow your assets As long as you’re increasing your assets with the bank in a systemic way, your relationship status with them will improve. |
Have a mix of products with your bank Don’t just go and open a checking account, but also try to keep your savings, investment, loans, credit cards, and other financial products within the same institutions(s) |
|
Maintain your accounts well. Don’t get overdraft on your account too often or miss payments for debt-based financial products. This will help with internal scoring as well. |
Combine your business banking For those with their own business, make sure to have your personal and business banking at the same bank, as this will help to grow your assets/products and account maintenance. |
Other items to consider for relationship banking eligibility
There are some areas to consider when it comes to establishing, growing, and maintaining your banking relationship.
|
It takes time. Keep in mind it can take several years to build up that relationship banking so start early and soon. |
Utilization. Don’t just get products and not use them. The more utilization you have, the more banks see you as a revenue generator. |
Don’t forget to ask If you notice you’ve got significant assets and products and don’t see any changes, then ask about it. |
FAQ
Is relationship banking important?
When it comes to getting the best financial products, this is extremely important. However, eventually, the decision to obtain a specific loan could come down to your relationship manager deciding based on the relationship alone.
When should I start?
Relationships take time, so begin as soon as you can open a bank account and use it.
What happens if I don’t see any relationship changes?
Maybe your bank is very straightforward, and there are limitations at the branch/location. Consider looking elsewhere after discussing, as many banks offer specialized opportunities for their top-tier customers through relationship banking.