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UniCredit to use SWIFT’s Trade Services Utility

Bank sees benefits in the solution’s latest release

Published on 18 September 2008
Left to right: Alain Raes, Chief Executive EMEA, SWIFT. Wolfgang Friedinger, Head of Trade Product Services, UniCredit Group. Marco Bolgiai, Executive Vice President, UniCredit Group. Claudio Comozzo, Head of Global Finance, UniCredit Group. Urs Kern, Senior Manager Trade, SWIFT. Ann Lamaire, Senior Account Director, SWIFT
European banking group UniCredit has registered its entities Bank Austria, HypoVereinsbank andUuniCredit Corporate Banking as users of SWIFT’s Trade Services Utility (TSU). In the next few months other banks in the group are expected to join.

The new release of the TSU prompted UniCredit to join because it allows the firm to offer bank payment obligations to its customers.

“TSU is getting interesting with version 2.0,” says Wolfgang Friedinger, head of trade product services, UniCredit Group. “Bank payment obligations can replace traditional letters of credit in certain, well-defined cases.”

The ability to offer bank payment obligations is particularly interesting to the bank because customers will be willing to pay for the service. “We have a real opportunity to make money out of TSU,” says Friedinger.

TSU is an integral part of UniCredit’s global trade management strategy, aimed at offering corporate customers interesting financing and service opportunities.