Digital Transaction Banking ....as SIBOS 2019 draws to a close....

On the first day of Sibos
My Transaction Banker gave to me
A current account and OD facility

On the second day of Sibos
My Transaction Banker gave to me
Two virtual accounts
And A current account and OD facility

On the third day of SIBOS
My Transaction Banker gave to me
Three sweep structures
Two virtual accounts
And A current account and OD facility

On the fourth day of Sibos
My Transaction Banker gave to me
Four Cash & Trade Accounts
Three sweep and pooling structures
Two virtual accounts
And A current account and OD facility

Finally my transaction banker gave me a holistic transaction banking solution covering corporate channel acccess to payments, collections, receivables, liquidity management, FX, Balance & Transaction Reporting, Trade Finance and Supply Chain Finance...... No that will actually take 12 days of SIBOS.... and 4 days of SIBOS are tiring enough with all the numerous meetings and open theatres and panel discussion and end of day drinks and parties...

It was good to hear Deutsche Bank CEO Mr Christian Sewing, speaking after the major restructuring at the bank that Transaction Banking is the core focus area for the bank and that revenues at the 10 largest transction banks have been in the range of $15bn in the first 6 months of the year itself .

Despite the threat of fintechs, the core transaction banking space is set for growth. But what banks need to realize is that they should not push individual products but instead push solutions to their large corporate clients. Many a transaction bank struggles as they have invested in individual siloed ( maybe best of breed ) systems for Payments, Trade Finance, Supply Chain Finance, Internet Banking etc but the challenge is that they do not talk to one another and do not offer a seamless interconnected contextual user journey for the end client.

Consider an example where a corporate applied for a credit enhancement. In this case its transaction bank should be able to recommend options for inter company loans or intra day sweeps from other accounts, thereby saving the corporate valuable over draft charges.

Consider an example where a corporate approaches its bank to open multiple operating accounts in other regions for collections purposes. Its transaction bank should be able to allow the corporate to create virtual accounts for this.

Apart from this banks need to get a very deep understanding of various sectors and segments. For instance the cash flows, sales cycles, Days Sales outstanding etc can vary significantly from aviation to manufacturing to retail. For instance large retailers typically collect cash upfront and pay their suppliers on a 30 to 60 day credit period basis. Can their transaction bank offer them dynamic discounting supply chain finance products ? Having a deep sectoral understanding will allow transaction banks to offer an appropriate solution to their clients.

This is not necessarily about blockchain or AI or ML or RPA...its about "knowing your customers" and "addressing their needs" and this is best done by having an integrated digital transaction banking solution where the end client user journeys are seamlessly interwoven from payments and cash management to liquidity to trade and supply chain.

Its nearing 16:00 and time for the SIBOS Closing plenary and it will be good to hear Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and other stalwarts share their views on this SIBOS.

Look forward to Boston now....