Technology potential analysis ebam

Technology The technology that we will be discussing is a web based system call eBAM (Electronic Bank Account Management). This technology will be specifically used in the Financial Services Industry in the Corporate Banking Space. Background Historically, multinational corporations managing tens if not hundreds of bank accounts did so using manual, paper-based, time-consuming processes which varied between banks and geographies. As for keeping track of all these processes, with treasury workstations often lacking the necessary functionality, for most corporations the use of Access databases and Excel spreadsheets were as sophisticated as bank account management got. In fact, records going back more than a couple of years may have been physically stored in a range of off-site warehouses in a variety of different countries — all very well until someone needed to retrieve them. For most multinational corporations, this is still the reality today. In Asia, where for the past 30 years many companies have tended to expand into international markets without fully integrating their acquisitions, the legacy accounts and processes in place can be unwieldy. While technology has evolved at a steady pace over the last few years in other areas of corporate banking, the basic processes surrounding bank account management have remained in the dark ages, with tasks like opening an account taking over a week to complete for the majority of corporations. But with the arrival of eBAM, all that is about to change. At first glance, the premise of eBAM is disarmingly simple. It is the automation and standardization of the processes relating to bank account management and legal entity management: from the basic actions of opening, closing and maintaining accounts to workflow management. The objective of eBAM is to remove the paper from the processes and enable corporates to access and manage their records quickly and efficiently via an online interface. At the same time, eBAM solutions can act as a repository of authorized signatories. (source: Age of eBAM, Bank of America) Need When the financial crisis hit, some companies that had attached less priority to the whereabouts of their account details focused squarely on this issue and often found that the information available was less than complete. Transparency became a priority and treasurers were tasked with reporting their cash position to the CFO more comprehensively than before, which in turn exposed areas where the information available was less than complete. Tracking that information down might involve phone calls to bank contacts in a number of different countries. Even when treasurers had a good handle on where their bank accounts were, other unexpected obstacles could arise. It might transpire, for example, that individuals named as signatories on an account had left the company some time ago. These are not words the CFO wants to hear, particularly given that under Sarbanes-Oxley, the CFOs and treasurers are required to attest to the validity of the financial statements, including bank account information. At the same time, the crisis prompted treasurers to focus more closely than ever before on bank counterparty risk — a focus which continues today. Without having a clear picture of the company’s bank account structure, treasurers cannot accurately understand their counterparty exposures. Furthermore, for corporates looking for the flexibility to alter their banking infrastructure, should the need arise, a solution which streamlines the nuts-and-bolts processes like account opening and closing should be taken more seriously. Meanwhile, as treasurers continue to streamline their processes they may well be looking to carry out a review of the levels of authority given to different signatories across the company in order to ensure that these are appropriate and standardized. This is particularly the case when companies are in the process of integrating recently acquired businesses, but also in the case where companies may aim to achieve synergies across different business lines. In Asia, it appears that a number of multinational corporations are looking to become more centralized across the region, therefore the need to remove paper processes and standardize processes is particularly pertinent. At a high level, eBAM enables corporations to standardize the following bank account management activities: ,[object Object]

Adding, removing and changing signatories on accounts

Detailed and bespoke reporting

Technology potential analysis ebam

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