Standards Promote Efficiency, Flexibility
in Today's Global Business Environment

Standardization is an important tool — along with centralization and automation — helping today's treasury managers pursue core objectives such as cost reduction and greater efficiency. As globalization threatens to make banking and business transactions increasingly complicated, standards are playing a critical role in helping corporations achieve these goals.

This beneficial role of standards is clear throughout this edition of TreasuryPulse.

Catalyst for Efficiency

In our story on accelerating electronic bank account management (eBAM) initiatives, you will learn how a new set of messaging standards is helping to clear the way for corporations to circumvent the inefficient manual processes that have traditionally supported the opening, maintaining and closing of bank accounts.

When you read the story, you may be surprised to learn, from survey statistics we cite, how many companies have four or more staff members working on bank account management, and how long it's taking many companies to make simple account changes.

SWIFT, the global provider of standardized financial messaging services, plays a big part in two of our three stories. In the article on eBAM, we describe how SWIFT's April introduction of ISO 20022 XML standards to support eBAM messages is allowing the eBAM movement to gain some traction. Ultimately, eBAM growth should lead to processes that require much less staff time and effort, and enable faster completion of bank account management tasks.

Adapting to Change

Standards can also help companies manage change, such as adapting to the trend in recent years toward conducting international trade on open account rather than letter-of-credit terms.

This capability is illustrated by a story in this edition highlighting the new SWIFT Trade Services Utility (TSU). The TSU is a SWIFT resource that supports open account trade by allowing banks to electronically share data from purchase orders, invoices, bills of lading and other documents related to open account transactions. By working with TSU member banks, such as Deutsche Bank, corporations conducting open account trade can improve working capital management, risk mitigation and efficiency.

SWIFT standards for bank-to-bank exchange of open account transaction data fuel the TSU data matching and workflow engine.

Models of Success

Successful standards can become models for new standards in related areas. Such is the case with the new Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees, International Chamber of Commerce Publication No. 758, or URDG 758, the subject of our third article.

URDG 758, fashioned after the highly successful Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP) 600, is a stronger, more comprehensive and clearer set of rules for demand guarantees and counter-guarantees than its predecessor.

A Leader in Supporting Standards

Deutsche Bank is a leader in supporting global message standards and rules designed to facilitate greater efficiency in transaction banking. Our global presence and service offering have allowed our approach to remain simple. We continually strive to use our expertise and bank-wide capacity to serve our clients.