Published: January 01, 2011
Despite a marked upturn in global market conditions over the past year, the environment remains challenging for cash and risk management providers and their clients. But there are plenty of opportunities and some of the leading providers have excelled themselves during this period by continuing to invest in their business and develop innovative products and solutions.
One such provider is Deutsche Bank, the recipient of our 2010 Awards for Innovation and Excellence in Global Cash Management and Global Risk Management. Having won these awards in 2009, Deutsche Bank’s continued top billing shows it is getting things right in the eyes of treasurers at a time when many bank relationships have been tested due to tightened credit markets.
"We are delighted to receive this recognition of our efforts over the past year from the readers of TMI. Innovation and excellence are attributes we aspire to when delivering solutions to meet our clients’ cash and risk management needs,” says Marilyn Spearing, Global Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management Corporates at Deutsche Bank’s Global Transaction Banking. “Sustained internal investment and the strength of our balance sheet have helped us to continue to win market share during and after the crisis. We are well positioned to assist our clients in dealing with whatever the global economy throws at them in the coming months and years.”
Efficient cash management and risk management are crucial at all stages of the business cycle and the experiences of the past several years have certainly heightened awareness of the importance of these disciplines. Many corporates are now looking at cash and risk management in a different, more holistic light, taking a strategic approach to developing structures that will assist in driving growth but also in providing contingency arrangements should we again experience difficulties in short-term credit markets.
Deutsche Bank’s success in this area can be attributed to a number of factors. Aside from their strong track record in investment and innovation, their Global Transaction Banking (GTB) division enjoys excellent coverage in all key markets, as well as a reputation for hiring expert and experienced staff.“We seek to match our programme of expansion with the growth plans of our key clients, as well as continually reinforcing our offering in those markets where we already have a presence,” says Spearing. “For example, we have recently opened branches in Abu Dhabi and Ukraine, a fourth in China, as well as completing the acquisition of 20% of ABN AMRO’s domestic commercial banking business – making us the fourth largest bank in the Netherlands.”
Deutsche Bank is also differentiating itself through its customer service. This goes beyond simply having local language support to looking at the whole ‘client experience’ and ease of use. “We have overhauled our onboarding process and documentation, greatly simplifying both and taking a modular approach to the latter that is delivering benefits to both new and existing clients,” continues Spearing. “We are also in the processes of redesigning many of our online platforms and portals in order to develop new channels of communication with clients. In this respect, we are taking the usability of similar systems in the business-to-consumer space as our guide and are seeking to develop transaction banking systems that are intuitive and do not require large amounts of training or large manuals to operate.”
Alongside this enhancement of its online capabilities, Deutsche Bank has also continued to develop new products and solutions to meet changing client needs. For example, the FX4Cash platform, Deutsche’s cross-currency payments solution launched in 2008, has been enhanced over the past 12 months to include the addition of receivables functionality and the expansion of currencies it covers from 75 to over 120. And further enhancements are set to follow.
“The FX4Cash initiative is a collaboration between different areas of the bank – Global Transaction Banking and Global Markets,” says Spearing. “Bringing together expertise from both of these areas– in transaction processing and foreign exchange respectively – allowed us to develop a platform that addresses a previously neglected area of cash management, the handling of large numbers of low value cross-currency payments.”
Indeed, cross-business initiatives such as this are something we are likely to see more of from Deutsche Bank.
“We are looking at how internal bank structure affects the way we address client needs,” says Spearing. “In this respect, developing synergies between different areas of the bank will be a priority in the coming years and months. And we believe that this new approach to innovation, coupled with our revolutionary attitude toward client servicing, will contribute to ensuring we maintain our position as market leaders in the global provision of transaction banking services.”
BNP Paribas Cash Management is consolidating itself day by day as one of the primary cash management players in the world, and most especially in Europe, operating its extensive network (four domestic countries - France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg), with cash management business in 23 countries and a network of over 150 European business centres. This gives the bank unique proximity to its customers and enables it to anticipate, understand and respond to their evolving needs, as well as delivering a highly personal service.
Its global offer encompasses the most commonly used payment/collection methods used by companies worldwide. For example, BNP Paribas is a leading bank in terms of SWIFTNet Solutions for corporates: today, BNP Paribas has more SWIFTNet FileAct customers than any other bank.
Its local offer enables it to provide the full range of systems for collections, payments and major cash management solutions on domestic markets and throughout Europe. Innovation has always been at the very heart of the BNP Paribas strategy. The determination and ambition of BNP Paribas cash management are clearly demonstrated by a large number of innovative projects to enhance its global offer and simultaneously provide local solutions. Some of its major projects are as follows:
These ambitions have been realised by many successes in RFPs, a large dedicated team handles the implementation of the solutions. These customised solutions cover all regions around the world, and also a wide range of areas such as utilisation of the SWIFT network, implementation of European and worldwide cash pooling, or establishment of payment units.
The 4th Cash Management University was held in Paris at the end of November 2010. The event was a huge success, and over 250 participants discussed the key theme ‘Home and Away: Making Your Cash Work’. This provided an occasion for CFOs, group treasurers of multinationals and the cash management experts to exchange their experiences in the various modules and keep abreast of major developments in various facets of the cash management business. 
The TMI Best Bank Cash Management in Europe award represents achievement of these ambitions and sends out a clear message of continuity, confidence and quality vis-à-vis its corporate clients.
Contact:
Anne Dugied
Deputy Head of Communication for Cash
Management
A Commitment to Innovation and Excellence
“SEB is pioneering the banking industry in leveraging new 
technology, methodologies, approaches and solutions to support a changing financial landscape. This commitment to innovation impacts every aspect of our business, from the way that we interact with our customers to the design and delivery of solutions. The success of this strategy is illustrated by these Awards, which reflect a ‘clean sweep’ of this year’s TMI Awards in the Nordic region. We would like particularly to thank our clients and friends in the industry who have expressed their support for SEB by voting for us once again this year.” Lars Millberg, Head of Global Transaction Services, Corporate, SEB
The days when banks could serve their customers simply by providing finance or processing payments are long gone. The crisis has emphasised the importance of risk and liquidity management, resulting in a changing relationship between banks and their corporate customers. For example, although the most acute liquidity shortages that characterised late 2008 and 2009 have eased, liquidity remains scarce and fears of a ‘double dip’ recession still remain. This is exacerbated by the proposed Basel III requirements which will constrain bank lending even further due to the need to hold a large value of assets on the balance sheet compared with the value of loans. Consequently, treasurers are prioritising liquidity management, and seeking innovative ways to maximise their access to cash.
“Corporate treasurers and finance managers are seeking their banks’ support in finding innovative ways to access pockets of liquidity within the organisation, unlock cash ‘trapped’ in inefficient processes in trade finance transactions, accelerate the cash flow cycle and enhance financial efficiency. Having achieved this, the next step is to leverage the company’s own balance sheet, both assets and liabilities, with a view to unlocking the potential for short-term financing.” Lars Millberg, Head of Global Transaction Services, Corporate, SEB
To facilitate this structured approach to accessing liquidity, corporate treasurers and finance managers expect sophisticated cash and liquidity management solutions, intuitive technology that can be integrated with in-house systems and high quality information to facilitate process automation, such as account posting and reconciliation. In this way, a virtuous cycle is created: as banks capture and transmit more sophisticated information, they are in a position to deliver a wider range of services across the financial supply chain, facilitate greater automation and accelerate the cash flow cycle.
“SEB continues to demonstrate innovation in fulfilling our customer needs and aspirations in our approach to customer relationships, solution design and technology. We continue to pioneer in a number of areas that add direct value to our customers, such as facilitating the Benche (www.thebenche.com), leveraging our innovative approach to technology, and commitment to encouraging dialogue, collaboration and knowledge-sharing amongst the financial community.” Patrik Havander, Head of Concept and Packaging, Global Transaction Services, SEB
SEB has focused its strategy in a number of key areas that have in turn contributed to these Awards.
Firstly, the proven Corporate Financial Value Chain™ approach is a structured way to refine financial structures and processes, leveraging the bank’s skills, expertise and commitment to close, long-term customer relationships to understand their full financial supply chain, comprising areas such as working capital, risk management and technology. In this way, SEB can advise on, and deliver, solutions to their business challenges with tangible benefits.
Secondly, SEB was one of the first banks to move away from a vertical product focus, such as Cash and Trade and Financial Supply Chain management, to a customer-focused organisation, designing solutions and delivery mechanisms to support the specific needs and aspirations of each customer segment. Thirdly, SEB has developed a strong reputation for innovation across solutions, channels and use of technology. In an intensely competitive environment, with our clients constantly seeking to lower their costs, accelerate and automate processes, and exploit new commercial opportunities for growth, innovation is essential to create competitive advantage and address today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.
“SEB has 154 years’ experience of supporting the increasingly global aspirations of our clients. We are leveraging new technologies, forming more efficient, cohesive partnerships, and adopting a fully customer-centric approach to solution design and delivery, enabling us to meet our clients’ regional and global objectives. With a culture, commitment and organisational flexibility to anticipate and respond to changing market dynamics, SEB is innovating for change, to provide the solutions and delivery channels that will support our clients’ business strategies and enable their current and future success.” Robert Pehrson, Head of Corporate Segment, SEB [[[PAGE]]]
Seeing the World through Your Eyes
“It is a real privilege for Bank of America Merrill Lynch to be named both Best Cash Management Bank and Best Financial Supply Chain Bank in North America by TMI readers for the third consecutive year. It is always an honour to receive industry awards, especially when they are voted for by the very companies that use our products and services.
“In an environment that continues to bring challenges and uncertainty, corporate treasurers are seeking partners of all types – with clients, suppliers and banks - that are progressive, innovative and well-managed. The banking crisis and subsequent economic crisis have illustrated the importance of stable, reliable banking providers that combine financial strength, a credible strategy, geographic reach, comprehensive products and services, and a commitment to their clients’ success.
“Consequently, we are finding that our clients, and indeed the wider corporate community, are excited about Bank of America Merrill Lynch. They recognise our powerful value proposition, which includes our robust balance sheet, comprehensive offering across corporate and investment banking and capital markets, a single global platform and, most importantly, our focus on client relationships. We have an active investment programme to help ensure that our clients receive the best possible service, in the countries that they need us at the best cost. This investment is not simply focused on one element of the business, but across all aspects, so that our people, products, processes, technology and geographic coverage are aligned and continually extend the boundaries of what is considered world-class.
“Since this programme was launched two or three years ago, our success has been illustrated by these TMI awards and by Greenwich Associates’ recognition of Bank of America Merrill Lynch as both Share and Quality Leader for Large Corporate Banking. It would have been very easy to divert these efforts during the crisis, but we have continued to pursue our strategy fuelled by an overwhelmingly positive response from our clients. By doing so, we have demonstrated that we are developing our business in the right way and helping our clients to navigate their way and effectively manage their liquidity through the crisis.
“Although the TMI awards recognise the ongoing achievements of Bank of America Merrill Lynch in North America, one of the factors that our clients appreciate is our geographic reach that extends across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, AsiaPac and Latin America. No matter where in the world a company is headquartered, they can leverage our global footprint and benefit from cohesive services based on a common platform. Expanding into new regions can be daunting for any company, with an often bewildering array of tax, regulatory and cultural challenges to overcome. So being able to work with a single banking partner that has a sound appreciation of a clients’ business, combined with in-depth local market knowledge, can help to considerably alleviate these concerns. Not only do we support our clients’ regional requirements across our global footprint, but we can connect their regional activities into a coordinated global banking strategy.” Dub Newman, Head of Global Treasury Sales, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Banco Santander is a retail and commercial bank, based in Spain, with a presence in 10 main markets. At the close of June 2010, Santander was the largest bank in the Eurozone by market capitalisation and, at the end of 2009, fourth in the world by profit. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1,365bn in managed funds. Santander has more than 90 million customers, 13,671 branches – more than any other international bank – and 170,000 employees. It is the largest financial group in Spain and Latin America, with leading positions in the United Kingdom and Portugal and a broad presence in Europe through its Santander Consumer Finance arm. In the first half of 2010, Santander registered EUR4,445m in net attributable profit.
More specifically in Latin America, Santander enjoys full domestic capabilities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Uruguay with extensive branch coverage and direct access to local clearing systems, thus no need for partner banks. This point is critical to deliver a quick and efficient service with full end to end monitoring of transactions processed. Santander’s strategic approach to cash management services is aligned with its fundamental competitive strength: combining strong local banks that have the widest product offering in each country, with delivering regional cash management solutions and a global relationship approach that meets customer needs.
Moreover, Santander has heavily invested in the development of strategic products to enhance its local cash management capabilities. Santander is convinced that these products complement its unparalleled retail presence in the region with leading regional technological and operational capabilities, to become the undisputed leader in transaction banking services. The main product lines supporting these regional developments are:
Santander Global Payments:
Santander Global Payments offers the possibility of processing all payments through a single window via H2H, SWIFT or web connectivity. On top of Santander’s multi-local capabilities, this product delivers a regional solution for our customers.
Santander Corporate Information (*):
Santander Corporate Information is a solution developed to improve the visibility and control of balances and movements over accounts held in our branch network or in other financial institutions. This service is especially suitable for:
Santander Global Portal:
Santander Global Portal is a Global Web Channel for:
Account balances and transactional information can be compiled with prefixed or user-defined overviews (data can be filtered to channel the information that best meets individual requirements). The system offers payment initiation together with historic, customised account reporting and file downloading. Furthermore, the application allows a quick and easy set-up that can be securely accessed from anywhere in the world with online connectivity.
In addition to the above, leveraging on highly qualified teams, Santander’s value proposition to our customers brings highest service standards. This key asset gives the bank the ability to cope with the most stringent demands of its customers. Being in the spotlight for important centralisation projects in the region and being chosen as one of the preferred business partners for these processes in Latin America, Santander has been recognised by TMI as ‘Best Cash Management Bank in South America’.
For further information, please contact:[email protected]
*Information is less complete and non-homogeneous for accounts held in other financial institutions.
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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Having started as a trade bank with over 150 years of history, Standard Chartered continuously meet the needs of both local and multinational companies who are looking to expand and take advantage of the rapidly-growing trade corridors of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Uniquely positioned in these trade corridors, it has actively supported commodity flows from Africa to Asia and manufacturing flows in the other direction. Its cross-border network facilitates clients’ growing trade and investment flows and supply chain financing needs across these markets.
Standard Chartered Bank is committed to deepening its client relationships across its footprint. Client-centricity saw it move away from a siloed approach of product sales, some six years ago, to one that focuses on clients’ needs. This greatly enhanced the bank’s ability to tailor solutions that maximise clients’ working capital efficiency. More recently, Standard Chartered took a further step and integrated its cash and trade businesses, and also launched new solutions including Vendor Prepay. This move brought about greater streamlining of processes for both the bank and its clients.
Being close to the ground and to local regulators in its markets have enabled the bank to meet the risk management needs of its clients and take leading positions in the industry.
In China, its established presence and close working relationship with the People’s Bank of China have given Standard Chartered a head start in the pilot run of the renminbi (RMB) trade settlement programme. The bank has led in many industry firsts in RMB trade settlement, lending its capabilities to help clients tap into the growing potential of settling two-way cross border trade transactions in RMB.
In its ongoing efforts to leverage on technology and innovation, the bank recognises the importance of partnering with leading industry players such as SWIFT to deliver greater market access, global visibility and control for its clients. As a channel- agnostic bank, it offers the optimal channel mix to meet its clients’ full range of information, transaction and risk management needs.
We at UniCredit are very proud of this award which underlines our strength in supply chain finance. Thanks to our largest international banking network in Central and Eastern Europe and our profound knowledge of CEE’s market and client base, our updated IT platforms and highly skilled Trade Finance specialists we are able to serve our clients´ needs best.
Our product offering has been developed to serve and to help our clients to optimise their working capital throughout the entire supply chain and deliver successful win-win solutions to the parties involved. But technology is not a real differentiator in supply chain finance: all major SCF-banks have broadly the same offering.
Instead, differentiation is based on the ability to offer sufficient credit facilities to accommodate and mitigate risk, to introduce new investors and on-board suppliers.
Buying companies need to ensure their bank is capable of on-boarding with appropriate KYC (Know Your Customer)/AML (Anti Money Laundering). Banks need to decide how they will approach this opportunity: will they offer only that product or use it to build a relationship with those suppliers for other financial services. Also the support, active management and co-operation with core suppliers plays an important role to ensure a constant and quality-ensured supply chain. One of our strengths is the efficient management of the financial supply chain and working capital: we are able to offer SCF solutions in the 22 countries we operate in. Being one of the top three banks in most of the CEE countries UniCredit should be the first choice to set up SCF programmes in CEE.
RZB
Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) regards both Austria, where it is a leading corporate and investment bank, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as its home market. In CEE, RBI operates an extensive network of subsidiary banks, leasing companies and a range of other specialised financial service providers in 17 markets.
RBI’s experts help you to analyse your market risk and develop tailor-made solutions to hedge your currency, interest or commodity risk. RBI supports you from the evaluation of your risk tendency, to the selection of suitable products for you, to active after-care and ongoing monitoring of your trades.
RBI sales teams act as a ‘Centre of Competence’ for all matters on the topics of treasury and investment banking and are your link to the international currency, interest, securities and commodity markets.
RBI is the only Austrian bank with a presence in both the world’s financial centres and in Asia, the group’s further geographical area of focus.
In total, more than 59,000 RBI employees service about 15 million customers through around 3,000 business outlets, the great majority of which are located in CEE.
RBI is a fully-consolidated subsidiary of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB). RZB indirectly owns around 78.5% of the common stock; the remainder is in free float. RBI’s shares are listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. RZB is the central institution of the Austrian Raiffeisen Banking Group, the country’s largest banking group, and serves as the group head office of the entire RZB Group, including RBI.
Putting risk management first – Why RBS remains the bank of choice
In the current economic climate, risk management remains a key strategic focus for RBS, and an important concern for our clients. We support best practice in risk management to ensure that any services we offer our clients not only satisfies their requirements but is engineered to remain competitive as their business grows.
At RBS, we have looked at widening our product capabilities to make sure that all of our services come with risk management tools. Frequently, this means treasurers are provided with more detail and an easier way to monitor cash balances regionally. By providing clients with a more sophisticated and streamlined management information, we enable them to make more risk conscious decisions.
Our regular discussions with corporate treasurers and CFOs highlight the fact that counterparty risk, the cost and availability of credit and the preservation of value remain high on their agenda. In the current economic climate, treasurers are favouring multi-banking in order to spread their company’s exposure to counterparty risk, and they are looking to technology to deliver this efficiently, without reducing the visibility of data, control, convenience or cost effectiveness.
We support best practice in risk management to ensure that the services we offer our clients not only satisfy their current requirements but are engineered to remain competitive as their business grows.
Continued innovation
The control and transparency that automation of processes delivers are certainly valued by treasurers, along with cost effectiveness and efficiency. For example, where a portal is used, changes to treasury and investment policies and limits for authorisation and execution of investments can be immediately implemented. Similarly, automating liquidity management through cross-border or in-country sweeps reduces the opportunity for mismanagement or fraud on company accounts.Our discussions with treasurers demonstrate that incremental improvements in the use of technology can deliver important risk management benefits, as well as increased efficiency and cost effectiveness. Whenever manual processing is eliminated or data mining time reduced, opportunities for loss are also reduced, and treasurers gain more time to use their expertise to ‘future-proof’ their treasury operations.
There’s an ever-stronger demand for company boards to understand and receive frequent updates on financial risks and strategies, including more detail on day-to-day financial operations and future cash flows. Treasurers have confirmed a significant increase in both the detail and frequency of reports they prepare for their boards, with the spotlight particularly on liquidity and debt funding as well as counterparty risks.
Stronger corporate governance
In addition to formal reporting, treasurers say they are responding to an increasing frequency and range of ad hoc enquiries from their boards – such as questions about counterparties or greater detail on internal matters such as pension provisions. Our discussions with treasurers show they are most interested in pragmatic, transparent solutions that will help them cut through the complexity of the current environment in which they must operate.
At RBS, we have looked at widening our product capabilities to make sure that all of our services come with risk management tools. Frequently, this means treasurers are provided with more detail and an easier way to monitor cash balances regionally. By providing clients with a more sophisticated and streamlined management information, we enable them to make more risk-conscious decisions in a timelier manner. We also help to support corporate requirements with rich data in standard formats and automated processing. Every reduction in manual tasks frees time and focus for other important or strategic treasury tasks.
In this climate, we continue to revolutionise our approach. Our clients trust us to help them develop solutions that address their needs. Our innovation and market leadership in risk management practices is strengthening yet further, and we continue to leverage this around the world.
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