Innovations in banking: customer service means total access.

BANCO DO BRASIL 

Banco do Bracil is the largest Latin American financial institution --offering 13,220 points of service and 3,241 branches within 2,884 cities throughout Brazil.

This tremendous access to banking information on-demand is just one of the many innovations in service that Banco do Brasil offers its customers, according to Edson Machado Monteiro, vice president of the department of Distribution & Retail of Banco do Brasil. The department serves nearly 20 million personal account and business account customers.

While Banco do Brasil, which was founded in 1808, has earned the confidence of millions of Brazilians, the bank also has substantial clientele in 21 additional countries. The institution is also planning to open new offices in Shangai, China and in Luanda, Angola, to provide support to Brazilian companies actively exporting to those markets.

One specialty of the bank is in the area of providing exemplary service to medium and small sized enterprises, Monteiro said.

"Because of the bank's size, we are able to provide service to many niche markets important to the Brazilian economy--such as the smaller-sized businesses," he said. "Of our 1.2 million business account customers, just 30,000 are large corporations."

For corporate customers, Banco do Brasil provides accounts that keep their day-to-day business running smoothly, such as facilities for assuring the payments of taxes and employee salaries. In addition, the bank offers collection services and lines of credit for companies that export frequently.

For Personal Account customers, Banco do Brasil offers several options.

"We have executive gold checking accounts, classic gold checking accounts, young account checking and other types of accounts--all of which are designed to meet the specific needs of our clients," explained Monteiro. "We also offer magnet cards, for debit and credit, along with personal credit to clients in the form of loans and account debt services."

For clients who choose to make investments through Banco do Brasil, the bank offers deposit remunerated accounts, as well as its popular savings accounts and an investment fund. Banco do Brasil also provides auto, life and capitalization insurance, along with its retirement fund, in which many of the bank's clients are invested.

Banco do Brasil, which earned US$830 million in profits in 2003, is very much focused on the service it provides to both business and personal account clients, Monteiro emphasized.

"We are constantly anticipating our clients' needs by creating new products," he said. "We now offer the Banco do Brasil Singular Account, which provides the services of a business consultant, and the Banco do Brasil Private Account, which offers clients a full financial consultancy--including a facility to make investments abroad. We are pleased to provide these new services that will benefit many of our current clients and attract many new ones."

BAC FLORIDA BANK

Providing personalized private banking services at a level rarely found in the industry is the only way to help clients realize many of the goals that are essential to their life plans, according to BAC Florida Bank.

"The cookie cutter approach to banking services that so many of the large banks use is not the way we provide service because that often does not deliver the best results for clients," said Ramon Juncosa, managing director of BAC Florida Bank Private Banking, which is focused on clients from Latin America. "We believe that clients should have all the diverse products and services they require and that we should also spend a great deal of time listening to them to properly understand their current and future needs. It is really an emotional connection that makes the difference as many of the decisions they are making are key to their life plans."

BAC Florida Bank is a federally insured bank serving international and domestic clients in the areas of real estate finance, private banking, investment services and institutional banking. The bank offers a full portfolio of private banking and investment services, giving an unparalleled ability to meet the specialized needs of its international client base coupled with an attentive personalized service.

BAC is also the leading provider of real estate loans to non-US residents, mainly focused on the needs of Latin America's buyers and investors.

"BAC has its own broker dealer and all of our private bankers are also licensed brokers," said Juncosa. "Because of this we are able to offer innovative investment products and programs that have maximum flexibility. We provide products that meet individual clients' needs--not products created for sale."

Overall growth has come for the bank because of this philosophy, Juncosa maintains.

BAC, which grew its deposits by 17% in 2003 to $700 million, is also part of the BAC Credomatic Network, comprising eight banks in Central America, the Caribbean and Panama, plus Credomatic, the largest credit and debit card issuer and processor in the region.

"We don't have the staff turnover that some of the larger banks in the region have. This allows us to provide a better continuity of service for customers, which is particularly important for international clients," Juncosa said.

BAC's high level of service continuity helps its staff to develop the deep knowledge of clients that is necessary to help them finance real estate purchases, fund their retirement and plan to educate their children, he emphasized.

"Price, quality and convenience are all important considerations for us in terms of client products and service," Juncosa added. "Our customized product offerings and banking staff reflect these values. We have a team culture that focuses on client needs in virtually every Latin American country. By offering this level of client support, we pride ourselves on accessibility and our ability to deliver on promises."

UNIBANCO 

Innovative service for business customers of Unibanco is being taken to new heights with the bank's recent launch of Unibanco Remote Collection (in Portuguese: Captura Autorizada), a payment solution that helps distribution companies safely and quickly automate their collection systems.

Unibanco Remote Collection allows the clients of distribution companies to make payments for merchandise by using a password they create and record with their bank and within a Palm Top or Mobile Collector.

For payment of orders and invoices, clients each time confirm their unique password and the payment amount so that money from their bank accounts will be released for collection by the distribution company using Unibanco Remote Collection.

"The solution saves our customers and their clients a lot of money because they do not need to use checks or cash in their transactions--everything is done electronically," said Marcio Almeida of Unibanco. "Unibanco Remote Collection also provides a higher level of security because participating businesses are not exchanging cash or checks."

While the Unibanco Remote Collection solution can be used by companies within many business sectors, it is particularly ideal for consumer goods and beverage companies because of their need to simplify collections from a huge network of clients, according to Adriana Boera of Unibanco.

"Unibanco Remote Collection is already working for Perdigao," she said.

Perdigao, which is based in Brazil, is one of the largest food companies in Latin America and one of the principal meat producers in the world, with gross sales of R$3.3 billion in 2002. The company's core business is refrigerated and frozen products, with production focused on poultry and hog slaughter, the processing of poultry and hog derivatives and ready-to-eat pasta and vegetable dishes.

"In the past, delivery drivers for companies like Perdigao would need to receive checks or cash from customers and would then be vulnerable to the possibility of robbery. Representatives of the company making bank deposits would also be vulnerable to this sort of risk," Boera said. "But with Unibanco Remote Collection, this risk is no longer there. Payment of invoices can be made electronically at the moment that an order is made or delivery is received by using a PDA or a mobile collector."

The Unibanco payment solution, which keeps client and distributor account information and passwords completely secure, also helps to reduce administrative costs, added Alan Riddell, vice president in Unibanco's New York Office.

"For the distribution company there are also the benefits of possible immediate liquidity, a reduction in paper flow, automatic indication of returned transactions and priority in receiving functions," he said. "The company's customer also experiences ease of payment, a reduction in operational costs and better time usage. One simple authorization substitutes for many of the traditional steps in the payment process."

For companies using the Remote Collection solution, Unibanco, one of the largest banks in Brazil, handles interfacing with their customers' banks to create the automated system of collection.

For further information on Unibanco Remote Collection please contact Alan Riddell in New York ([e-mail] or 1-212-207-9422), or Mercio Santos in Sao Paulo ([e-mail] or 55-11-3097-1868).