Citizens helps its SMB clients in three key ways, Mark Williams, head of business banking sales transformation at $217.5 billion Citizens Bank, said this week at Bank Automation Summit 2025 in Nashville, Tenn.
Citizens, he said, provides:
- Access to capital;
- Management, processing and accounting for payments and cash; and
- Risk management.
While these are the main ingredients for success with commercial clients, banks also need to be receptive to the unique needs of each SMB client, Williams said.
“What that means for a $500,000 restaurant owner is very different than a $15 million manufacturer,” he said.
“You have to craft and understand how to meet people where they’re at, seek partnerships with fintechs and [independent software vendors] and begin to look to build vertical strategies as well as second strategies,” he continued.
For example, Citizens in 2024 launched its Citizens Cash Flow Essentials payments platform. Designed specifically for SMBs with market caps of less than $5 million, it can also be used by enterprises of all sizes, Williams said. The comprehensive platform is user-friendly and doesn’t create more work for the SMBs, as a legacy treasury type of system would, he said.
Rather, “it feels like a mobile app.”
The platform is one example of how Citizens is developing products for SMBs, Williams said, adding that “there’s more work to do across the industry.”
Follow coverage of Bank Automation Summit 2025 at finainews.com.
