Jessy Kadimadio
Founder & Managing Director
Every mandate starts with understanding what the client is actually trying to achieve. My role is to bring the right people around the table, structure the requirement clearly and remain involved as the transaction develops.
Banking Built Around the Business
Sutterson Reed was approached by an internationally active entrepreneur whose existing banking arrangements were no longer suited to the scale and geographic reach of the business.
The requirement went beyond opening another corporate account. The group expected substantial cross-border payment activity across multiple currencies, alongside investment-related flows and a wider need for banking relationships capable of supporting future growth.
Before approaching institutions, Sutterson Reed reviewed the expected activity, ownership structure, jurisdictions involved, source of funds and anticipated banking requirements. The objective was to determine which institutions were realistically capable of supporting the relationship rather than simply accepting an application.
Several banking routes were considered across Europe, including institutions specialising in international corporate clients and more traditional private banking relationships capable of supporting the entrepreneur personally alongside the business.
The exercise quickly demonstrated that transaction volume alone does not determine banking appetite. Geography, counterparties, currencies, business model and the quality of the information presented can materially influence how an institution views a prospective relationship.
Our role was therefore to structure the case clearly, identify the right banking environments and coordinate the initial discussions before any formal onboarding process began.
One Business, Several Banking Needs
International businesses rarely require one banking relationship for everything.
Day-to-day payments, foreign exchange, treasury, investment flows and the personal banking requirements of the entrepreneur can each sit more naturally with different institutions.
The value of the mandate was therefore not in finding a single bank prepared to say yes. It was in separating the requirements, understanding which institutions were suited to each part and building a banking architecture capable of developing with the client.
Sutterson Reed established several viable routes and coordinated the initial assessment process before the client elected to pursue an alternative relationship independently.
For the Private Office, the mandate reinforced a principle we encounter frequently: the larger and more international a business becomes, the less likely it is that one banking relationship will answer every requirement.
Certain details relating to this mandate have been withheld or generalised to preserve client and counterparty confidentiality.