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Homewood finance staff asks committee to recommend Synovus Bank as city depository after treasury review
Summary
Finance Director Lester Smith invited Synovus Bank to present treasury and fraud-mitigation services and asked the Finance Committee to recommend placing city deposits with Synovus; the committee will consider a council vote next Monday.
Homewood Finance Director Lester Smith asked the Finance Committee on Jan. 6 to recommend that the City Council approve Synovus Bank as a depository and partner to help redesign the city’s treasury controls and payments systems.
Smith told the committee the request ties to an ongoing upgrade of the city’s accounting software (Encode 9 to Encode 10) scheduled to start Jan. 20 and go live May 1, and that Synovus’s services would be implemented alongside that software work to build approval workflows into the system.
Synovus representatives described a three-part offering: a business-process review to document and flowchart receivables and payables workflows; fraud-mitigation and reconciliation services; and payments management that includes a virtual-card program and integration with accounts-payable processes. Synovus also proposed a “smart safe” program (installed and serviced by a cash-management vendor such as Loomis) to centralize cash deposits from multiple city locations and enable next-day credit and daily reconciliation.
Synovus’s team said the bank would reduce the number of city accounts (from about 30 to roughly 10), index deposit earnings to a market rate (Fed funds minus 75 basis points in their proposal), and consolidate reporting so staff could reconcile daily rather than monthly. The Synovus presentation included a pro forma showing a projected yield on deployed deposits of about 3.75% and an estimated monthly net lift of roughly $132,000 after fees, and noted an earnings-credit-rate approach (40 basis points used in the proposal) to offset fees.
Committee members asked for references and for Synovus to provide materials about other municipal clients. Jared Best, Synovus’s government solutions relationship manager, and Annie Scott, the bank’s treasury-management specialist, said Synovus serves a range of Alabama public entities and offered to supply references and follow-up documentation. Laura Clark, the local Synovus relationship lead, said the bank’s delivery model pairs a local banker with a government specialist to support municipal clients.
Smith said he is not proposing a binding multi‑year contract at this point; rather, he asked the Finance Committee to recommend Synovus as a depository to the full council. The committee was told the city council will take the item as “other new business” at its upcoming meeting on Monday for an actual vote and to designate authorized signers.
Why it matters: Smith framed the request as part of a broader effort to strengthen internal controls, reduce fraud risk, and improve day‑to‑day reconciliation for the city’s treasury function. Committee discussion focused on implementation timing, comparisons with the city’s current banking arrangement, and assurances that services would integrate with the upcoming accounting-software upgrade.
What happens next: Synovus will provide references and supporting materials to staff. Finance staff will present a formal recommendation and a draft resolution for City Council consideration as other new business at the next council meeting.
