Cash & Liquidity Management
Published  8 MIN READ
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Leveraging the SEPA Opportunity

Leveraging the SEPA Opportunity

by Andreas Kriz, Head of Treasury, MIAG C.V. (part of METRO GROUP) with Thomas Eisenhuth, Vice President, Global Transaction Banking, Societe Generale, Frankfurt
  

“While the need for every company operating in the Eurozone to migrate to SEPA payment instruments is dominating the headlines, less attention has been given to the advantages that European harmonisation offers to optimise cash management. As Andreas Kriz, Head of Treasury, MIAG outlines below, SEPA offers a historic opportunity to review and enhance bank relationships, payments processing and cash management.

Although SEPA migration has been slow in some cases, we are now seeing companies across all industries seeking to leverage the opportunities of harmonisation and standardisation that SEPA offers. For example, centralised payments processing, often on a payments-on-behalf-of model, is becoming increasingly common. This enables treasurers and finance managers to rationalise bank accounts and relationships, simplify cash management and achieve significant operational efficiencies and cost savings. MIAG, which acts as the shared service centre for payments and working capital solutions for the METRO GROUP and its suppliers, was one of the first companies globally to centralise payments processing. In this article, Andreas Kriz, Head of Treasury, MIAG describes how the company has taken the opportunity of SEPA migration to enhance its payments processing and optimise bank relationships.”

Thomas Eisenhuth, Vice President,
Corporate Cash Management, Societe Generale