By Dan Freed
(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp (N:BAC) sees continued room to grow in international cash management, a low margin business that can lead to lots of other revenue opportunities with corporate clients, Chief Operating Officer Tom Montag said at an industry conference on Wednesday.
Montag said the second-biggest U.S. bank believes it has a No. 1 position in its home country, partly the result of increased targeting of mid-sized companies in local markets.
Montag said the investment banking fee pool for "middle market" U.S. companies with annual revenue of between $5 million and $2 billion is "quite comparable to any international fee pool that you would look at."
Referring to middle market companies, he added, "we want to be their cash manager around the world."
But B of A also wants more assignments managing cash for large multinationals.
"We've invested in our cash management portal to be able to be a better international portal," he said. "We've been winning mandates that we heretofore had not won."
The increasing push in cash management by Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co (N:JPM) and some regional players in recent years has put pressure on Citigroup Inc (N:C), which long dominated the business.