Bank of America's new cash management portal, CashPro Online, will provide corporate treasury customers with better administrative tools and security, as well as access to more services, including foreign exchange and supply chain financing, and customizable dashboards.

“It's a benchmark industry product,” says Matt Greenough, director of cash management at Detroit-based pizza chain Little Caesar Enterprises. Little Caesar has used the bank's predecessor products, like CashPro Web, for years and Greenough, as a member of the CashPro Online advisory board, has gotten a preview of the new portal.

“Some of the other treasury applications I work with want us to change our workflow to fit their particular product or strategy,” he says. “With the Bank of America product, it works with our existing workflow and culture.”

Greenough is particularly interested in the administrative features and its stronger security and audit features. “That will give our senior management more comfort and control,” he says.

Cindy Murray, who heads up the CashPro Online product at B of A, says the new administrative features allow managers to group users by function or clone users quickly to create new access accounts.

Users will also be able to personalize their dashboards, Murray says. “They'll be able to pull information from various applications and have those applications presented up front to make usage and navigation easier.”

New security features include optional cards that generate single-use passwords and can be stored in a wallet or purse.

“I really like the potential for payments,” Greenough adds. Some of the most advanced payment capabilities won't become available until late next year. The bank is partnering with payment technology vendor Fundtech, based in Jersey City, N.J., to build a new payment hub to create centralized access. Greenough says Little Caesar is in the process of automating more of its payments and the new payments features will make that easier.

According to Marc Harrison, a consultant at Greenwich Associates in Stamford, Conn., CashPro Online is “significantly different” in usability from the products offered by other banks.

“It brings to the front a number of key Web delivery advances,” he says, such as the ability to customize the user interface and have a more collaborative environment. Harrison says CashPro Online incorporates some of the best features provided by LaSalle Bank, which Bank of America acquired in 2007.

CashPro Online can also pull in data feeds from other banks, but the lack of transactional access to competing banks means that it cannot be used as a complete multibank cash management portal, Harrison says.

Bank of America is launching CashPro Online in November. Murray says other improvements include an online knowledge base, virtual help desk and a training center with videos and podcasts.

Instant Insights /

Bank of America Rolls Out New Cash Portal

Related Stories

Recommended For You