Published: January 01, 2010
In recent years, the Societe Generale network has expanded eastwards with new banking subsidiaries in Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, and the emblematic presence in Russia thanks to Rosbank. This TMI 2009 Award for Best Bank for Cash Management in Eastern Europe is the confirmation of the efforts made by Societe Generale in the region. “I am very grateful to our corporate customers for their appraisal,” said Thierry Roehm, Global Head of Corporate Cash Management. “The support of our customers leads us to pursue our commitment to provide a large and sophisticated range of solutions and services to answer their needs, at local, regional as well as international levels. This will help us win more and more requests for proposals across Eastern Europe. “
“Our strength comes from our positioning as a universal bank. Our policy is to apply our business model which proves to be successful in France, and adapt it to the local markets,“ says Serge Eveillé, Head of Sales and Marketing, International Retail Banking Division. “With the support of the expertise of the group’s business lines, Retail Banking Outside France offers an exhaustive and customised range of banking and financial products and services to all types of clients, individuals, business and corporate. Our strength is also our commercial network that allows us to be close to our 12 million individual customers and 800,000 corporate clients. This means having strong local banks, with full banking services, to meet clients’ expectations.
“This is why our development is based not only on external growth, but also on expanding our branch networks. We favour equally organic growth and external development with the support of the expertise of the group and of its business lines such as the cash management specialists of the Payment Services Department.”
“This approach is only possible thanks to the coordination of our sales teams,” says Thierry Roehm, “but it is a significant advantage for our clients, who are certain to find at Societe Generale a better understanding of their needs and organisation.”
BNP Paribas is a leader in global banking and financial services and is one of the six strongest banks in the world according to Standard & Poor’s. The group is present in over 85 countries; BNP Paribas is among the top cash management players in Europe and has a significant and growing presence in Asia and in North America. Cash management is a key strategic business for the bank. With the acquisition of Banca Nationale del Lavoro and Fortis Bank, BNP Paribas has become one of the few banks operating in four major domestic markets: France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg. BNP Paribas also has significant operations in southern Europe; in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey but also in emerging markets.
“We are strongly committed to supporting our corporate clients globally and locally. Understanding the culture, the market and the technical specifications, and having cash management experts fluent in the local language who understand the local needs and the challenges they face is vital, which means adapting our offering accordingly,” says Pierre Fersztand, Global Head of Cash Management at BNP Paribas.
“With the recent acquisition of Fortis Bank, the newly combined business is poised for future success in supporting our clients and delivering products and service innovation. In order to prove our commitment, we are creating a Global Cash Management Competence Centre in the heart of Europe, Brussels, to support our clients both locally and seamlessly across Europe. What really matters is to know and truly understand the needs of our corporate clients to enable us to customise our offer. Our clients benefit from our local and deep expertise through an extensive unique network of a large number of business centres throughout Europe. BNP Paribas and Fortis’ complementary footprints create an unrivalled mix of European coverage and local presence.
“To exchange, discuss and to offer constructive advice to our corporate clients, we will host our 4th Cash Management University on November 25-26, 2010 in Paris. This event is really unique and brings together a large number of European clients.
“BNP Paribas is proud that Treasury Management International recognises our expertise, our capabilities, our commitment and our ambition”.
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During what has been a difficult year for both banks and corporates alike, SEB is proud to have strengthened its position as the cash management bank of choice for Nordic-based companies and firms doing business in the region. Erik Zingmark, Global Head of Cash Management, SEB explains,
“We have developed cash management solutions which allow our clients to achieve the maximum visibility and accessibility over their cash. During this challenging period, optimising cash flow and liquidity is of vital importance to all companies. SEB is dedicated to strong client relationships to allow us to understand and respond to our clients’ evolving liquidity needs and equip the business to deal with good times and bad. This Award is a testimony to the enormous effort, energy and commitment which our staff have put into developing innovative solutions for our clients.”
An important and unique element of SEB’s cash management approach is the SEB Corporate Financial Value Chain™ which helps treasurers to prioritise key areas of potential added value to the company and deliver cash management enhancements with tangible and far-reaching benefits. Effective cash and liquidity management is a vital means of ensuring that companies emerge from the downturn stronger and more competitive; consequently, SEB’s value proposition has never been more compelling.
HSBC’s Global Payments and Cash Management has a presence in 20 markets across the Asia Pacific region with a dedicated team of over 830 cash management specialists across the region. HSBC provides both domestic and cross-border payments and cash management services to over 450,000 customers, including Fortune 500 multinational companies, top-tier local corporates, middle market companies, SMEs, financial institutions and government bodies.
While some banks were struggling to stay afloat during the recent crisis, HSBC leveraged its financial strength, agility and regional and global infrastructure to continue development of services that helped our customers continue to grow domestically and internationally. HSBC’s vast global footprint, combined with our comprehensive portfolio of integrated payments, receivables and integrated liquidity solutions provides our customers with full visibility and control over their working capital through all business environments.
We also continued expansion of our Asia presence, through acquisition as well as by increasing our branch and alliance infrastructure in key markets across the region and strengthening our relationships with key regulatory bodies. HSBC was the first international bank to conduct renminbi (RMB) denominated payments across all its ASEAN sites under China’s RMB trade settlement pilot scheme earlier this year.
HSBC continues to be the leading cash management bank in Asia-Pacific, working in partnership with our clients to deliver innovative, needs-driven solutions. HSBC has remained committed, amidst the challenging market environment, to working alongside our clients to improve processes and increase working capital efficiencies. As we look forward to the New Year, there is no doubt in our minds and the minds of our customers that HSBC is best placed to lead the way into the next generation of cash management solutions.
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Dub Newman, Global Treasury Executive
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is the leading US cash management provider, delivering credit and treasury products to more than 140,000 clients around the world, including multinational corporations, major financial institutions and governments. Capabilities offered to businesses include treasury management, trade finance, foreign exchange, short-term credit, commercial card and liquidity management.
In the past year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has continued to aggressively pursue innovative ways to deliver the best solutions to clients – from significant investments in new technology to creative collaborations with the industry’s leading providers. Our goal is to help companies and corporations manage cash flow – especially working capital – in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.
As part of a $1bn, five-year investment in innovation, Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2009 launched CashPro® Online, a next-generation portal that features intuitive technology. With a single point of access to global treasury, debt, investments, foreign exchange services and other financial services, commercial and corporate clients may be able to execute transactions faster and more efficiently with straight-through processing and multiple workflows.
CashPro Online builds on top-rated existing technology at the bank, where our online cash management systems have more than 500,000 users. The portal was developed with an advisory board of 19 clients, and new features include instant online support and mobile alerts. CashPro Online also can be tailored to specific company sizes and industries. Such advances allow businesses to gain a big-picture view to help with critical decisions.
Yet Bank of America Merrill Lynch doesn’t have to own every product and system to help businesses succeed. In recent months, we’ve formed strategic relationships with some of the industry’s leading providers of payments solutions.
The bank joined with First Data Corp. to form Bank of America Merchant Services. The venture will give merchants, small and large, the most comprehensive suite of solutions – from credit, debit and prepaid cards to merchant loyalty, check and eCommerce payments. Ultimately, Bank of America Merchant Services expects to process more than one billion transactions per month.[[[PAGE]]]
Bank of America Merrill Lynch also announced a strategic relationship with Bottomline Technologies, which acquired the bank’s PayMode product, operations and vendor network. PayMode facilitates the electronic exchange of payments and invoices between organisations and suppliers, and already has processed roughly $300bn in electronic transactions since its inception. The multi-year agreement will accelerate PayMode’s growth and enhanced capabilities, and the bank has made an equity investment in Bottomline to share in that success.
Going forward, Bank of America Merrill Lynch will continue to consult with clients on their crucial needs and the best ways to meet them. That includes providing end-to-end solutions for businesses of all sizes that want their treasury operations to function as well globally as domestically. The bank now executes more than 70,000 transactions per day worldwide, in nearly 100 currencies and with an average daily notional volume of $70bn. Those totals will grow as the full potential of the combined Bank of America Merrill Lynch is harnessed.
With our clients more focused on liquidity in the challenging economic climate, we will offer solutions to maximise working capital and create more efficient payment streams. That means accepting all file formats for payment initiation and reconcilement while striving for standardisation. It also means offering highly customised and flexible treasury solutions, as well as more self-service options, that result in lower financial and reputational risk.
Other client needs that will command the bank’s attention in the year ahead include serving the increased demand for supply chain finance solutions. Regardless of where they do business and what trade lanes they use, clients are calling for better integration of trade and supply chain processing and financing capabilities with their overall payments process.
In 2010, CashPro Online will be augmented with a payments hub that collapses multiple payment applications into one. Enhanced information reporting will allow clients to go beyond viewing numbers on a spreadsheet to organising data by map location or in other sophisticated ways based on business needs.
Through the combined Bank of America Merrill Lynch, our clients have unified global access to a financial powerhouse that can address their full range of needs. Our success depends on helping clients achieve greater automation, efficiency and customer satisfaction, and we are honoured that Treasury Management International readers have recognised Bank of America Merrill Lynch for innovation and excellence in cash management.
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Citi, the leading global financial services company, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 140 countries. Through its two operating units, Citicorp and Citi Holdings, Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com or www.citi.com.
Working capital is a precious commodity at any time and especially in an adverse business climate with an uncertain global economic outlook. As such, maximising working capital is now a key priority for corporate treasurers. A client-centric organisation and one of the first to recognise the benefit to clients of a fully integrated cash and trade business, Standard Chartered is well-capitalised and well-positioned as the leading provider of working capital services and the best cash management provider.
The bank has developed a range of integrated product and services to support end-to-end settlement, risk mitigation, liquidity management and operational efficiency on a global basis. Standard Chartered is the only bank to provide Global Notional Aggregation for interest optimisation across five regions. Client balances in multiple currencies in multiple locations can be aggregated on a global basis to maximise interest returns across participating accounts. This solution is easily implementable from a documentation, tax and regulatory-compliance perspective. Our solution also provides automated cash concentration from five regions and overnight investments into a single global location, optimising clients’ access to funds. The solution also allows for Global Revolving Operating Cash across five regions to optimise clients’ daily working capital management. Standard Chartered was also the first international bank to facilitate two-way RMB denominated trade settlements between Hong Kong and the mainland. In the area of global payments, the bank’s clients can initiate electronic and cheque cross-border payments from a single account globally for 78 major and exotic currencies with the certainty of amount and timing. This eliminates the need to maintain multiple local currency accounts globally and saving significant administrative cost and reconciliation costs.
In 2009, the bank has also invested in product innovation to ensure best-in-class cash management capabilities for its clients. Standard Chartered impressed the market with several industry-firsts. These included cross-border cross-currency notional pooling solutions which cover 16 markets as well as the industry-first Islamic liquidity management solution developed in the Middle East.
“Standard Chartered meets the needs of both local and multinational companies looking to expand and take advantage of the rapidly-growing trade corridors of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Additionally, Standard Chartered’s intimate familiarity with local regulators in our key markets give us significant first-mover advantages, as was the case with China’s RMB trade settlement initiatives,” said Chris Furness, Global Head of Cash Management, Standard Chartered Bank.
How Thought Leadership Can Reduce the Cost of Sales by Patrik Havander, Havander & Partners A focused attention on the costs incurred by the global sales and marketing processes is becoming increasingly important for corporate banks and their transaction banking departments. While the client/bank relationship remains vital, research has shown that in fact relationship selling […]
