“TS Partners provides what other systems could not. They provided what our Bank and customers need today - making us more efficient and competitive.”

Darrell Milton,
Vice President of Shareholder Services, Corporate Trust Division, First Citizens Bank

First Citizens Bank

First Citizens Bank of Raleigh, NC has been providing trust services to companies and municipalities in North Carolina and the Virginias for seven decades. The Financial Services Group serves in a wide variety of roles for customers including corporate trustee, institutional trustee, custodian, escrow agent and stock transfer agent.

The Problem: System Problems Impacting Customer Relations
First Citizens had been with the same corporate trust and stock transfer software provider for ten years. Despite their longevity with the system, users found it difficult to operate. Critical system flaws over the last several years started to adversely impact customers, culminating in a major misstep with year-end tax reporting. Promised changes were never implemented. Also, customers were looking for online access, which their provider did not offer at the time.

TranStar Proves More Reliable, Flexible and Functional
With TranStar, First Citizens found the responsive, reliable corporate trust system they needed. "TranStar provides what other systems could not," explained Darrell Milton, Vice President of Shareholder Services in the Corporate Trust Division at First Citizens Bank. "TS Partners provides what our Bank and customers need today - functionality that other providers would not have developed for another two or three years. They also enable us to offer and customize many things for our clients that our competitors don't offer, making us more efficient and competitive. This helps us retain existing customers and attract new ones."

"The TranStar system, with the Windows browser, is easier for our new employees and our customers," continued Milton, whose team uses the system to process all daily and periodic functions. "Once our people learned it, they liked it much better."

Milton noted that the biggest advantage has been the flexibility in reporting. "The ability to extract data is very good. We simply download a file, convert it to Excel and send an email or disk to our customer." Flexible reporting has provided key service differentiation for First Citizens as they compete for new accounts.

For customers who prefer to have the reports faxed, TranStar implemented an interface to First Citizens' fax system. Now reports are sent directly by fax, eliminating the time and expense of printing and traditional faxing.

TS Partners Delivers
TS Partners completed the conversion directly from First Citizens' existing program, saving tens of thousands of dollars in conversion fees required by their previous provider. The groundwork was laid weeks in advance of the cutover date. "The conversion was excellent," offered Milton. "We set an aggressive schedule and they hit it. The TS Partners team was responsive and professional. It was a seamless conversion, transparent to our customers."

First Citizens and its customers are very excited about the implementation and use of LinkStar, the on-line account access portal offered with the TranStar system. Milton commented, "We believe that LinkStar will further enhance our efficiencies, allowing our customers to access their shareholder information faster and more easily. Those are imperatives for helping us retain existing customers and sell new business."

Since converting to TranStar, First Citizens has been adding new customers consistently. These subsequent customer conversions have also gone smoothly. First Citizens has been able to handle the increase in volume without additional staff because of efficiencies in the TranStar system.

Darrell Milton summarized his experience with TranStar in very positive terms: "Over the past 15 years I've used five different corporate trust systems. TS Partners' system is far superior. Our employees and customers love it and their associates provide excellent customer service on a daily basis.