• Dan Gill, Industry Principal, Banking & Financial Services at SunTec


• 15.05.2023 03:00 pm
#banking #billing

The corporate banking sector has faced, and is still facing, several complex challenges. It must adapt to these challenges so that it meets the needs of its increasingly discerning treasury clients.

An easily identifiable change is the speed at which corporate banking moves. Everything in business banking is getting exponentially faster as expectations overtake delivery capabilities. It’s imperative that the sector responds in positive and proactive ways to meet these expectations. 

Modernization must be applied across the banking sector if banks expect to win and retain corporate business. Customers are expecting transparency and the ability manage their liquidity and costs. Instant automated information that provides clarity into corporate bank fee information is becoming the standard. The problem is that many banks are still operating the same systems that they were 25 years ago. It has never been more important for these legacy systems to be upgraded and by a modern billing solution. 

These modern banking products are essential to both global corporates and SMEs so technology providers must offer the best possible services regardless of where a business sits in terms of its size. 

The importance of the customer lifecycle

The banking sector is being driven by its need to be more customer-centric. In banking today regardless of the business sector, being customer focused and being profitable must work together. Corporate fee billing is often a pain point, and the account analysis statement/corporate billing statement often contains errors and relegates what could be a useful tool into a source of pain. Instead of considering a monthly charge, banks must think about the lifecycle of every single one of its corporate customers.

At the beginning of every working relationship, an agreement is reached as to the terms of that new relationship. These terms might be that the corporate client will commit to maintaining a minimum balance in the account or completing a certain number of transactions. The bank can agree to preferential or discounted fees based on those commitments. Too often the bank has ineffective tools to monitor those commitments, leaving them in the dark. Despite the best intentions of the sales team when they secure that client, there is not enough done to review these terms and ensure that both parties are abiding by them. There are gaps in the current processes that are leading to revenue leakage, which can easily be filled with robust billing & tracking capabilities, such as an account analysis software solution. Thinking about the whole customer lifecycle and how best to maintain that can counter any process shortcomings.

Accessing real-time data

The account analysis process has always been driven by data and it is this data flow needs to be modernized. Customers expect a modern interface with automated dashboards and seamless data flows. The legacy systems in many banks still rely on disjointed data flows and manual interventions. Real-time account analysis with an intelligent billing solution provider can ensure that there is balance information, forecasting information and account analysis calculations on demand, even before the statement has been generated. The bank that can provide this information in real time to their treasury customers will have a significant competitive advantage.

Modern Account Analysis Solution architecture allows it to be implemented as a wraparound or “middle layer” over existing legacy systems, using APIs to capture the relevant data from multiple systems. It acts as a single-point repository for key data and possesses the analytics capabilities necessary for customized pricing and billing, including generating real-time data-driven insights. This enables relevant sales and account management teams to better manage relationships and provide customized bundling, pricing, and billing solutions that balance their corporate customer needs with the bank’s own financial imperatives around profitable growth.

Banks might not yet realize the potential of the available technology but if they begin by considering the lifecycle of their corporate customers, what is necessary for management of those accounts including accurate billing and collections via a modern, fast, and agile account analysis system, they will soon be able to turn revenue leakage into profitability.