FirstMerit Corporation has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the US Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA) that aims to improve access to L/Cs and provide other trade advantages to US exporters.

As a strategic partner, FirstMerit will support the ITA's mission of broadening and deepening the US exporter base from the bank's area of operations in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Bank offering

FirstMerit offers US companies a comprehensive range of products and services to help them enter and compete in global markets.

These include L/Cs, documentary collections, foreign exchange advisory and payments services and US government guaranteed working capital loan schemes.

Strategic partnership

As a strategic partner, FirstMerit says it will work with the ITA on programmes of interest to the bank's customers.

Programmes are expected to cover topics such as exporting trends, geographic information and industry-specific intelligence according to a FirstMerit statement.

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