Indirect Supplier Initiative.  The indirect supplier initiative helps to expand Bank of America’s overall Supplier Development efforts by requiring its primary contractors to utilize and report spending with diverse suppliers in the fulfillment of their contract with the bank.

The indirect supplier initiative serves as an enhancement to, and not as a replacement for, existing efforts aimed at increasing meaningful opportunities for diverse suppliers to participate as direct, or primary suppliers.

What is the definition of an indirect supplier?

An indirect supplier is one that supports a direct supplier in the delivery of goods and services to a customer, in this case, Bank of America.

What are the participation criteria?

To participate in Bank of America's indirect supplier program, a supplier must:

• Minimally - use minority, women, veteran and disabled person-owned businesses as subcontractors in the production, service or delivery of the product or services provided under a primary contract.
• Optimally - create and/or develop a minority-, woman-, veteran- or disabled person-owned and managed affiliate or subsidiary company to provide all or part of the product or service.

What are the benefits of participation?

A few value–added benefits achieved in successfully implementing a Supplier Development program within your organization are:

• Provides a competitive advantage for maintaining or competing for new business with customers who value supplier diversity.
• Reduces costs by increasing competition.
• Mitigates risk by expanding the pool of qualified suppliers.

What are some steps to getting started?

Establishing a Supplier Development Program within your organization may begin with:

• Analyzing your supplier chain to identify opportunities to partner with minority-, woman-, veteran- and disabled person-owned businesses (diverse suppliers)
• Identifying and growing existing relationships with diverse suppliers partners
• Partner with a third party certification agency as a means for identifying certified diverse suppliers. Examples include a local National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) affiliate, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), and the Association of Service Disabled Veterans (ASDV).

Bank of America does not provide certification services and does not offer or guarantee the products or services of any of the certification agencies listed. By selecting on-line registration for certification, you will be leaving the Bank of America site and will be taken to a third party site that may offer a different privacy policy and level of security. The third party is responsible for web site content and system availability.