BofA Merrill Adds Three Lockbox Sites in Canada
Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA Merrill) has added three new receiving sites in Canada for its proprietary lockbox service. The expansion to Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal will provide clients with same-day availability for payments received in those locations.
BofA Merrill introduced its proprietary lockbox service last year with a receiving site in Toronto. The Vancouver and Calgary sites are expected to be ready in mid-November, followed by the Montreal site in early 2014.
In a separate announcement, BofA Merrill said that it has successfully onboarded its first pilot client into production of a new file-based electronic bank account management (eBAM) system. This automation enables clients to use eBAM as the primary way to deliver requests to their banks to open and close accounts, pull account details and update signers.
The new system delivers messages using the FileAct system from financial messaging provider SWIFT. Messages are delivered using the International Standards Organisation’s extensible markup language (XML) 20022 guidelines.
“Providing timely account details directly to our clients using an automated query response method such as eBAM will significantly improve our client experience,” said Cindy Murray, head of global treasury product platforms and e-channels.
The client, USI Insurance, went through significant back office process changes and utilised a third-party vendor application. “Choosing the right eBAM application vendor was critical, but it is also important to understand each bank’s capabilities and experience early on,” said Nancy Colwell, director of treasury with USI Insurance.”