Established in 2002, before Doral was officially incorporated as a city, U.S. Century Bank became the first bank to be headquartered in the city. With a majority Hispanic board of directors, U.S. Century launched with $23 million in capital to provide financial services to local Hispanic-owned businesses. Today it is South Florida’s 8th largest community bank by assets ($2.2B), having grown steadily across the South Florida tri-county area with 10 locations, 194 employees, and a global reach.
U.S. Century began their operations in Doral to follow their target customers – industrial businesses (and their owners) involved in light manufacturing, warehousing, wholesaling, distribution, and, ultimately, international trade. Due to the city being well positioned for companies importing and exporting merchandise of all kinds, servicing these sorts of clients grew the bank’s global muscle in trade finance, mainly for Latin America.
U.S. Century provides their clients global banking resources by working with foreign correspondent banks, mostly in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Peru, offering services ranging from trade finance to personal wire transfers. “In a lot of the markets we work with the larger banks,” explains Oscar Gomez, Executive Vice President of Global Banking. “For example, in the Dominican Republic we work with three of the top four banks in the country. They have an account with us, and we do the trade financing through our credit department, giving them a [credit] line and renewing the line on a yearly basis.” Most transactions range between $1 million and $5 million with a focus on agribusiness.
For example, a large U.S. agriculture company that U.S. Century works with exports grain to customers in Ecuador. The buyer approaches his bank in Ecuador, which happens to be one of Century’s correspondent banks, which therefore has a line of credit with U.S. Century Bank. The correspondent bank is then able to provide its customer – the importer (buyer) – the financing to purchase the grain.
U.S. Century Bank offers other trade finance instruments, from letters of credit and documentary collections to supply chain financing, all designed to meet the challenges of businesses engaged in cross-border trade, while mitigating risk.
The Doral location also provides a convenient place for international clients to access the bank when in Miami. Most of their clients have businesses abroad that export to Miami or have businesses in Miami that export abroad. “It’s very good for us because of the type of customers we have [need] proximity to the airport, the expressways and so forth,” says Gomez. “A lot of times we have our customers fly in, and they’ll come right to the bank. Doral is more accessible than if they stayed in [other parts] of the county.”
Another facilitator of strong cross-border banking has been the use of technology, with customers from abroad able to access their banking services digitally. “You’ve got to have the most up-to-date technology in order to be a player in the international market,” says Gomez. At the same time, ease of travel helps maintain personal client connections. “In global finance we’ve seen that Miami, specifically Doral, is a gateway because of the size of PortMiami and the airport, one of the largest used by our customer base. It has all been very significant to our overall business.”
