Sovereign Bank Holds Series of Customer Information Sessions to Help Businesses Prepare for Planned U.S. Postal Service Plant Consolidation

BOSTON, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sovereign Bank, N.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, recently held a series of regional information sessions to update local companies on the upcoming changes by the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Held in Reading and Philadelphia, PA; Manhattan, NY; Bedminster, NJ; and Boston, MA; the information sessions included a presentation by Lex Litton, Senior Vice President at Phoenix Hecht, a provider of market intelligence and education for the financial services industry.  Litton has more than 30 years of experience at Phoenix Hecht and is recognized as an industry expert in USPS operations and the U.S. payment and clearing system processes.

As a result of declining mail volume, the USPS plans to consolidate mail processing facilities and to move to an increased processing schedule, these changes may delay receipt of remittance mail to companies by one to three days.  Companies that use a Lockbox service, where their provider picks up pre-sorted mail at a USPS processing center versus having a carrier deliver it to their office, should not experience this delay in receipt of their remittance mail.

"Cash flow is critical to any business and much of the process is reliant on mail service," said Mike Curran, Transactional Banking Managing Director at Sovereign.  "Sovereign Lockbox can help ensure our customers are protected from service disruptions and their operations continue to run smoothly."

With Sovereign's Lockbox service, the Bank assigns a unique P.O. Box address where a company's customers send remittance payments.  The Bank makes frequent mail pickups at the Postal facility on behalf of the company, sorts the mail on high-speed equipment, and processes the payment before depositing the checks to the company's bank account.  Remittance payments may be directed to any of Sovereign's seven nationwide lockbox processing centers located in Boston, MA; New York City, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Tampa, FL; Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and Seattle, WA.

In addition, Sovereign is helping companies by offering a discount off of new Lockbox services, and an enhanced Money Market Rate for new deposits.

"At Sovereign, we are doing everything we can to help businesses reduce their days' sales outstanding and maximize their cash flow in this economic environment," Curran added.  "Through these offers we're providing both immediate economic value as well as creating the opportunity to explore other efficiencies," he continued.

About Santander Holdings USA, Sovereign Bank and Banco Santander 
Santander Holdings USA, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, S.A., and parent company of Sovereign Bank, N.A. and Santander Consumer USA.  Banco Santander is a retail and commercial bank, headquartered in Spain, with a presence in 10 main markets: Spain, Portugal, Germany, the UK, Poland, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and the U.S.  Founded in 1857, Santander has 102 million customers, approximately 14,700 branches – more than any other international bank – and more than 189,000 employees.  For more information on Santander, visit http://www.santander.com.

Sovereign Bank, N.A. is a financial institution with principal markets in the northeastern United States. Sovereign has more than 700 branches, nearly 2,200 ATMs, and approximately 8,700 team members. For more information on Sovereign Bank, N.A. visit http://www.sovereignbank.com or call 877-SOV-BANK.

SOURCE Sovereign Bank, N.A.