During this time of special precautions and unique needs amid the coronavirus, new stories are emerging, showing how Regions Bank teams are taking extra steps to help their customers. In our “Above and Beyond” series, we’re highlighting some of the most recent examples. Check back with Doing More Today for further examples in the days and weeks to come.
In normal times, the employees of a major healthcare company save lives. Even more so these days, the first responder employees are on the frontlines, daily fighting back the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s why an email early one Friday morning startled a company executive. Due to a glitch in the company’s payroll system, employees wouldn’t be paid that day – on time. It was an untenable position.
“My first inkling something was wrong came at 8:44 a.m. on a Friday,” the executive said. “Immediately, we reached out to Regions. I called Ron (Taylor), who passed it on to Lisa (Satterfield). From there, they jumped through hoops to resolve this.”
The company wanted to share the story, while remaining anonymous. Why? “We had almost 200 employees on the frontlines, and they weren’t getting paid without Regions’ help,” the executive explained.
Ron Taylor is a Treasury Management relationship manager based in St. Louis, who serves clients across Regions’ footprint. Learning of the problem in this particular client’s system, he brought in Lisa Satterfield, Treasury Management Analyst, knowing Regions could help them solve the issue.
We all knew this was an urgent matter and it was going to require a collaborative team effort to get it completed in time.
Lisa Satterfield, Treasury Management Analyst for Regions
“We all knew this was an urgent matter and it was going to require a collaborative team effort to get it completed in time,” Satterfield said.
The clock was ticking.
By noon, a team of Regions Treasury Management associates had to set up a Same Day Automated Clearinghouse for the nearly 200 employees affected, an intricate task under normal situations.
“I began working with our internal partners,” Taylor said. “The company was able to generate the file, with all the info we needed, which I forwarded to the correct department. Requests like these, they’re very time sensitive. Besides the sensitivity, everything has to be set up correctly. You have to know who to talk to and when in order to get this done in a quick manner so the file goes through by noon.”
Reacting quickly, Satterfield began linking in more Regions experts, including Ivonne Colin, a Commercial Cards supervisor, and Maureen McFillin, ACH Operations Manager.
“I know the magnitude of this client,” Colin said. “I know what they do and how important they are – especially at this time. So, we pushed and pushed to get this through. I was just doing my job. But when we’re needed like this, we have to be ready to respond immediately.”
McFillin said Regions’ ACH analyst updated the company file with the correct code, processed it and distributed the file to the Federal Reserve by the noon deadline, allowing the healthcare company’s employees to receive their payroll deposits.
On time. As normal.
In an anything but a normal time.
“We had to scramble to initiate that service that day,” explained Mike Gilbreath, Treasury Management’s regional executive. “Incredibly, we were able to set it up, pull it off and get this file out by the deadline, and make sure these heroes weren’t without their paychecks, especially during such a difficult time.”
