Cash Management
Sibos Amsterdam: "We are bullish on SEPA"
As part of its European expansion strategy, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is bullish on SEPA and is looking to roll out solutions that make it easier for corporates to plug into SEPA's benefits. And as more corporates join SWIFT, Carole Berndt, head, EMEA, Global Treasury Solutions, says they should have a seat at SWIFT's table.
"We are bullish on SEPA and working to package solutions for corporate clients that leverage benefits in cash and operating efficiencies and are easy to implement," said Carole Berndt, head, EMEA, Global Treasury Solutions, Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML).
Berndt is one of the few bankers I spoke to at Sibos who uses "bullish" in the same sentence as SEPA, then again SEPA is not dominating debate as it used to at this conference. BoAML believes it has an advantage over incumbent international banks when it comes to SEPA, namely it has not had to build up the legacy infrastructure historically required to service customers' payment factories in Europe, which means that it is able to provide payment services more effectively and efficiently, reducing costs to corporates..
BoAML has partnered with Accuity to make it easier for corporate customers to convert account details to the correct BIC and IBANS so they can meet SEPA payment processing requirements. While incumbent banks may argue that corporates have already realised some of the efficiencies SEPA can bring, Berndt says companies still maintain a high number of bank accounts in Europe which can be rationalised under SEPA.
But is BoAML flogging a dead horse? After all while most corporates understand the theoretical benefits of harmonised payment standards under SEPA, with no end date announced as yet, there is no clear business case for companies to migrate from existing national payment instruments to SEPA.
However, Berndt said it is leading the conversation with corporates about SEPA and that once the benefits of SEPA are fully explained to them a light goes on in their head.She said the announcement of an end date for full migration will make people rethink SEPA.
Berndt is also supportive of corporations having more of a say in how SWIFT is run. There are 600 corporates on SWIFT and if "corporates are making the investment to switch to SWIFT solutions, they should have a seat at the table," she said.
Date Posted:28th October 2010