The Bank of Bermuda's new state-of-the-art business banking branch is set to make life easier for small business owners and other corporate customers alike.

The branch, which was officially unveiled yesterday, has consolidated all parts of the company's business banking facilities under one roof on the second floor of its newly-renovated building on the corner of Church and Court Streets in Hamilton.

It has united the business banking branch previously located at its Par-la-Ville building, which focuses on cash processing, with business banking and the small business centre, formerly based at the bank's head office in Front Street.

The relationship managers in the small business and business banking teams have also been relocated to the new base to enable clients to meet with business banking representatives while doing their daily banking. The team of 11, backed up by eight front desk and eight support staff, operate out of pod-style desks, with emphasis being on getting out and about to see clients, while being able to link up to the bank's computer system via remote access when on the road or at home.

The bank's head of banking services Ashley Parker said that customer service would be significantly enhanced and there would be more opportunity to interact with clients by combining the two aspects of the business.

He believes that the bank's new centre for business will also make it more accessible to customers, not only via the parking facilities complete with 30 spaces on site and its convenient location on the edge of town, but also by relationship managers being able to meet up with them on a more regular basis, building onto back of the success of the opening of its retail branch on the ground floor of the same building last year.

"Today marks the important evolution of our business banking capabilities in Bermuda," he said. "Our business banking clients are an important and growing segment of the local economy.

"We recognised that we could provide a better service to our clients by not only consolidating our operations into one easily accessible location with good parking facilities, but also provide a location where business clients can conduct their business banking as well as meet with their relationship manager."

The bank laid on an open evening for its corporate customers on Monday to give them a chance to see first hand for themselves the new facilities, including a conference room with audio-visual presentation capabilities and meeting rooms for one-on-one talks with their relationship managers, as well as access to its business Internet banking online service through on-side training PCs, all of which has been about 10 months in the planning.

The branch's teller stations will also allow clients to complete wire transfers, collect change orders, place money orders, bank commercial deposits and stop payments, as well as more specialised services, such as payroll requests and bulk change orders.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, a new environmentally-friendly workstation layout aims to increase the functionality of the space by enabling client-facing staff to rotate between desks depending on their schedule.

In keeping with the bank's 'Live Green' initiative, a number of other environmentally-friendly features have been incorporated into the design, including the use of natural light, double-glazed windows which are tinted to reflect the glare of the sun, and energy efficient lighting.

It also concludes the larger overall renovation project the bank has undertaken on the premises, such as its Insight Learning Centre, upgrades to the parking lot and drive-through operations, as well as a new ATM kiosk housing three machines, a coin deposit and quick-deposit box.

The bank's staff have also been instrumental in the design of the new base, while the feedback has been good from customers, said Sean Lee, head of business and commercial banking.

Phil Butterfield, CEO of HSBCBank of Bermuda, claimed the new business centre would completely revitalise the bank's presence in that part of Hamilton allied to really taking banking into the 21st century.