How Do I Identify Business Clients Who Are Already Working with Competitors?

As Fintechs begin to offer more and more competitive services, your bank would be well-served to start monitoring what services your clients already use.

If you haven't been quite diligent in reading the news about various service providers who have started offering both financing and deposit accounts, your bank may actually be recommending a competitor.

From a retention perspective, you'll want to be sure you consider which of your current business clients are likely to be solicited for deposit accounts as they conduct day-to-day business.

Luckily, all of these competitors appear in your client's transactions.

Intuit & QuickBooks

You may think that QuickBooks is strictly an accounting package, and you might even be paying for the ability of your clients to export their transactions in QuickBooks format.

A couple years ago, QuickBooks started offering their own loans. In July of 2020, they announced QuickBooks Cash, a business operating account with higher than market interest rate.

Recognizing QuickBooks transactions is easy.

You'll see withdrawals from client accounts to pay QuickBooks' subscription charges. They have this format:
INTUIT *QB ONLI XXXXXXXXXX
You may also see both withdrawals and deposits from clients using QuickBooks' payment services. They take this format:
INTUIT PYMT SOLN/XXXXXXXX

Square

While Square was once known primarily for their cell-phone attachment that helped micro-merchants accept credit cards, they have since branched out into payments with Cash App and their own credit products.

More recently, Square even successfully became a bank, using a Utah industrial charter.

While you may see charges on many accounts as your clients make payments at other merchants who use Square, the ones to be most concerned about are deposits, meaning your client is a direct client of Square.

These are easy to recognize as well.

Deposits look like this:

Square Inc LxxxXXXXXX

Shopify

Although Shopify began as a drag-and-drop website-builder for e-Commerce sites, they have expanded significantly into offering deeper services to their merchants including financing.

In May of 2020, Shopify announced Shopify Balance, a platform that offers an account from which to manage cash flow, pay bills, and track expenses.

Recognizing Shopify transactions is straightforward as well.

Deposits look like these:

Shopify TRANSFER XXXXXX

Shopify.com TRANSFER XXXXXX

If you haven't taken a look lately, it might be worth exploring your financial institution's disintermediation risk to these direct competitors.

If the numbers are alarming, fear not. There are fintechs such FINSYNC, who offer you the ability to offer your business clients a better set of tools AND keep you at the center of the relationship inclusive of your institution's loan products and deposit accounts.