The symbiotic relationship and enduring interdependence between banks and corporate treasury underscore the indispensable nature of effective bank relationship management (BRM) within corporate treasury departments.

To enhance this mutually beneficial partnership, both entities rely on each other's expertise and resources to navigate the intricate treasury landscape. However, by acting as strategic allies, they can meet each other’s evolving needs and forge a resilient and lasting relationship.

So how can corporate treasury and banks establish a strong and healthy long-term relationship? Here are 10 crucial questions that corporate treasury professionals should consider to ensure more effective and robust bank relationship management practices.

These questions cover vital areas such as access to capital, bank advisory services, communications, formalised call reports, bank scorecard, and share of wallet calculation. Let's explore these pivotal questions further to help you optimise BRM practices and strengthen your banking relationships:

As a treasury practitioner:

1. How well do your banking partners align with your corporation’s cash and working capital needs?

2. Are your banking partners at the forefront of making things easier for your organization’s treasury department and are they capable of scaling their services to accommodate your evolving treasury requirements?

3. How effectively do your banking partners provide advisory services tailored to your industry-specific and treasury-specific needs?

4. Are your communication channels with banking partners open, clear, and frequent to support business continuity and growth?

5. Does relevant information get mutually shared between your treasury department and banking partners?

6. Do you meet senior leaders of your banking partners semi-annually or annually to strengthen your business relationship with them?

7. Are you documenting your interactions or meetings with banking partners in formalised and structured call reports to track the progress of your banking relationships?

8. Do you utilise bank scorecards to measure your banking partners performance, as well as provide feedback to them?

9. Do you conduct share of wallet calculations to proactively manage your banking relationships?

10. Have you formalised your department’s approach to bank relationship management to ensure more effective and lasting partnerships?

The questions provided above are designed to prompt treasurers to meticulously assess their existing banking relationships and identify areas for improvement. By addressing these critical considerations, corporate treasurers can elevate their bank relationship management capabilities and cultivate closer ties with their partner banks to drive business growth.

Besides asking the right BRM questions, you can also derive value from reviewing the leading practices for bank relationship management outlined here.