SunTrust: Focus of West Coast Office Outlined
Chris Rogers, group vice president of SunTrust Bank Receivables Capital Management, formerly known as SunTrust Bank Factoring, recently outlined the primary focus of the company’s new West Coast office, established last fall and moved to its permanent downtown Los Angeles location in February.
According to Rogers, the manager of the new office, SunTrust has had a substantial number of longstanding and valuable client relationships in the western region, and “we felt like there was a good opportunity to grow into the marketplace out here.”
The office’s focus is twofold, said Rogers. “We have to maintain and service the client relationships that were already existing. And we want to augment those relationships and see the number of clients and the portfolio grow. We’re excited about the Los Angeles market.”
Rogers said that SunTrust has some specific plans for the apparel industry, which has always been a core business.
“We hope that we’re going to have a positive impact on the apparel industry by providing some additional opportunities out here for relationships to seek servicing of their accounts receivables, to seek lending and to seek credit from other people in the textile business. We think that we can be an important part of that marketplace,” said Rogers.
SunTrust Bank Receivables Capital Management was established in 1939 with headquarters in Atlanta, branched out to Charlotte, N.C., then to New York City, but, said Rogers, the current economic climate made it essential to expand west.
“We felt like strategically for SunTrust, it was important to have a physical presence on the West Coast. I think that the economy in general may have experienced a little bit of a downturn, but the industries that we serve are essentially in the same economic climate as every other industry in the United States and I think that they’ll weather the storm just as well. It’s just a regular up-and-down cycle in the economy. I don’t think it’s anything that will deter what our plans are or what any of our clients have planned.”
While some companies are predicting that by the end of June there will be an upswing and an increase in spending, Rogers was hesitant to make any long-term economic forecast based on conversations with SunTrust clients.
“It’s hard for me to comment on that. I think if I could answer what the overall economy was going to do over the next six months, I’d be making a lot more money than I’m making right now. I think in general that people in almost any business that you look at would tell you that the economy this year is not as strong as it has been in the past. But I don’t think anybody’s throwing in the towel. I think that they are excited about what the future holds,” said Rogers.
In addition to the clients that were in the existing portfolio—“the traditional factoring businesses, which are the apparel, textiles and home furnishings industries”—Rogers said, the West Coast “provides tremendous opportunities to look at other types of business. SunTrust will be interested in those also.”
SunTrust Bank Receivables Capital Management, a division of SunTrust Bank, provides credit protection, receivables management, risk management and financing. The new Los Angeles office will focus specifically on factoring.
