For corporate treasury teams, the question of whether to issue a Request for Proposal for transaction banking services is almost never straightforward. An RFP can be a useful tool for driving clarity, competition, and better terms. It can also burn months of internal bandwidth and strain relationships if the timing or intent is off.

When a Treasury RFP Does Make Sense

There are specific situations where a formal RFP is not only appropriate but necessary. Organizational change is the most common trigger. Mergers and acquisitions introduce competing banking relationships, duplicated services, and misaligned structures that demand a fresh evaluation. Rapid growth—especially expansion into new markets—can stretch existing banking arrangements well past their original design.

An RFP can also serve as a tool for rebalancing share of wallet among lending partners, making sure credit commitments and operating services are properly aligned. In other cases, the motivation is more strategic: implementing a new product, adopting new technology, or preparing infrastructure for future scale.

And sometimes the reason is simply good governance. Periodic due diligence on pricing, service quality, and market competitiveness is not an act of disloyalty toward your banks. It is a responsibility.

If you are unsure whether your current bank fees reflect market rates, an independent bank fee benchmark can establish a clear baseline before you decide whether a full RFP is warranted.

How to Get Real Value from a Bank RFP

The most effective RFPs start with clarity of purpose. Clearly communicating goals, priorities, and constraints sets the foundation for meaningful responses. Without that, proposals tend to converge around generic offerings. Banks respond to specificity.

Successful organizations focus on what actually matters to them:

• service quality
• operational simplicity
• technology capabilities
• pricing transparency
• long-term partnership fit

Testing systems, whiteboarding real-world scenarios, and mapping services in detail helps eliminate surprises down the line. Involving banking partners early to validate assumptions and pricing can also reveal gaps that might otherwise only appear during implementation.

One point worth emphasizing: an RFP should not be a box-checking exercise designed to confirm a decision you have already made. If the outcome is predetermined, the process loses credibility with every bank at the table. Openness to change is where real value lives.

Organizations that enter the process with market-level benchmarks and clear data on their current fee landscape are in a far stronger position to evaluate what they receive.

What Actually Wins in a Bank Proposal

Despite what some teams expect, the proposals that stand out are rarely the most complex. Overly intricate structures—especially those that introduce manual processes—often work against a bank’s chances rather than for them.

What resonates consistently is simplicity, clarity, and demonstrated support. Solutions that are operationally sound, clearly explained, fairly priced, and straightforward to implement tend to win. Attitude matters just as much. Teams that listen carefully, ask thoughtful questions, and tailor their approach to your actual operating environment show partnership. Not salesmanship.

Treasury teams notice the difference. And so do we.

Choosing the Right Banking Partner After an RFP

Final decisions often come down to balancing disruption against cost, quality against convenience, and short-term savings against long-term value. The best outcomes are driven by data, not assumption. Objective scenario modeling—least disruptive, least expensive, best overall value—helps organizations see tradeoffs clearly rather than relying on instinct.

Equally important is a realistic forecast of the internal effort required to implement change. Transitions take time, resources, and coordination. Underestimating that cost can erode even the strongest business case.

This is where having an independent advisor matters. When your advisor has no bank affiliations and no commissions at stake, the recommendation is built entirely around what is right for your organization. That is the standard Redbridge holds. You can learn more about our approach to independence.

What Comes After the RFP

Once a partner is selected, the focus shifts to execution and what is next. Many treasury teams are actively exploring outsourced payments, real-time payment use cases, enhanced reporting, and the growing role of automation in fraud detection and process efficiency. The RFP is not the finish line. It is the point where real progress begins.

Ongoing monitoring of bank fees and service levels is just as important as the negotiation that set them. Without consistent oversight, the terms you fought for can quietly erode. Tools like HawkeyeBSB exist for exactly this purpose: keeping visibility over what you are paying and what you are receiving, month after month.

For teams that accept payment cards, payments optimization is another area where post-RFP value often sits untouched. Interchange, scheme rules, and acquiring economics are worth reviewing on a regular cycle.

The Real Question Behind Every Bank RFP

The question is never simply “to RFP or not to RFP.” The question is whether you have the visibility and data to know what your banking relationships are actually costing you, whether those costs reflect what the market offers, and whether your current structure still serves the business you are today.

When approached with intention and grounded in real data, an RFP becomes a catalyst for smarter decisions and stronger partnerships. When approached without preparation, you end up paying for services you don’t need and can wake up to some nasty surprises post implementation.

Redbridge helps treasury teams answer these questions with clarity and confidence, backed by 25 years of data and over $3.5 billion in bank fees across hundreds of corporate-bank relationships. If an RFP is on your radar—or if you are not sure whether it should be—we should talk.