Authored by Jayant Row in Banking 
Published on 04-19-2009

If you are in business you almost certainly need the services of a bank as an extension of your business activities in all spheres from buying materials or services, paying staff and customers and other support required to conduct your business on a day to day basis. Generally a business would prefer to choose a single bank especially if it is a small business. This allows the staff and their customers and vendors to deal with only one entity so that operations are smoother. A bank should provide quality, the right attitude, have a good reputation, charge reasonably for its services, and be conveniently located while also providing security and reliability.

The bank should have a list of fees that are reasonable and should not make it a point to charge for every small service that it provides. They should issue checkbooks to you free of charge and not insist on a minimum balance and allow you occasional dips in your account, as you are ensuring them of continued use of their services for a long time to come.

The bank should be able to easily provide you a short term loan at short notice. Such exigencies continually occur in business and it is always very difficult to maintain a perfect balance between expenditure and receivables. In such a case the bank should be able to offer you a short term loan without insisting too much on collaterals. You naturally cannot expect such treatment from a bank immediately until you have done business with them for some time and proved your credentials. Once these credentials are established a bank should be able to give you unsecured loans at reasonable interest rates.

Your bank should have ATM services and sufficient number of them in the city where you stay so that you are not completely dependent on their working hours and can operate at your convenience. If ATMs are plentiful you can use their facilities where ever you are when you are making your business calls.

Bank staff should be courteous and efficient while dealing with you or your representatives and should expeditiously attend to the need of your business for depositing or clearing of checks and in obtaining bank statements so necessary for the business. They should assist you in understanding your statements and in the paperwork for any other bank related business. Banking hours should be convenient and suitable to your business hours.

On your part you must ensure that you follow all the rules and regulations that each bank has. Refrain from overdrawing your account; ensure that your loan or other payments due to the bank are always made in time and provide the bank with any information they may ask from you along with necessary documentation during your dealings with them.

It is best if you can do business with a bank that has a 24 hour on line facility. This will help you to cut down a lot of paper work and also ensure that your banking operations can be conducted at any time, especially if your customers and vendors are also similarly linked up.

Look for a bank that has good cash management services and can help you with automatic payroll disbursements, transfer of months and 24 hour depository services, so that you can deposit the cash from your business any time of the day.

Above all see that the bank that you do link up with has a good reputation for its dealings and confidentiality as this is very important to your business. If they have experts who can advice you in your particular business segment that would be the icing on the cake.