Flavour of the day: “more” corporates, “more” collaboration. (Sibos Update)
15 September 2009

“The next two days will cover all flavours of the corporate to bank relationship (education, impact from crisis, case studies, what’s in it for the banks, what should be our future?)” said Marilyn Spearing, Chairperson SWIFT Corporate Advisory Group and Global Head of Trade Finance & Cash Management as she kicked off the 3rd annual Sibos forum for corporates this Tuesday at Sibos 2009 in Hong Kong. “And there is room for more.”

“More” meaning “more collaboration”, the resounding theme of the day as some 200 corporates, banks, partners and several journalists braved Typoon Koppu Level 8 winds and torrential rain to join forces. Today’s first day of the forum was a call to action for the community as banks and corporates alike underscored the importance of a community approach towards SWIFT for corporates and more partnership.

Other highlights of the day included the announcement by Luc Meurant, Head of Banking, Supply Chain and Corporate Markets, that SWIFT would be “boldly moving” into Personal Digital Identity following the Board’s recent green light.

“Demystifying SWIFT” set out the key pillars of the SWIFT for corporates offering with Martine Boutineau, Head of International Cash Management Products, Société Générale reminding the audience, “SWIFT for corporates is not only for large multinational corporates. A lot of our corporates have been using SWIFT for domestic use in recent months. SWIFT for corporates can address multiple needs and is scalable,” added Martine.

Wolfgang Ratheiser, Corporate Treasury, Johnson Controls, said SEPA was one of the driving forces for their decision to move to SWIFT.

An inspiring debate followed in the afternoon around the impact of the financial crisis on banks and corporates. “Transparency” “Visibility of cash ” “Resilience” and “Regulation” featured among the hot topics shared by the panel.

“Complexity is the biggest driver of frustration and costs,” said Dennis Tosh, Director of Global Markets and Risk Management, Ford Motor Company.

“Corporate treasury is now centre stage of every discussion. These days as a treasurer, I sleep like a baby. I wake up every two hours!” He went on to say that SWIFT gave him the visibility he needs and importantly, the ability to help mitigate risk.

Corporates and banks alike commended SWIFT for its efforts to extend the offering including EBAM (electronic bank account management) and standardization.

Yet, there is still much to do to make SWIFT for corporates easier:

WC Na, Director of Finance, Samsung Electronics Finance Group encouraged SWIFT to improve its training. “ There would be value add from SWIFT to help more in this area as the training process of staff took longer than anticipated. Admittedly, some languages of SWIFT I need to study,” Na admitted. A view seemingly shared by many from the chorus of laughter in the room that followed.

Bank readiness was also topical – fitting as there will be a dedicated session on this topic tomorrow!

Speaking from my observations on the sidelines and conversations with delegates, I feel that the first day of the Sibos forum for corporates 2009 was a success. If you braved “Koppu’’ and were in the audience, please let us know what you think! If you weren’t, we also welcome your views on the above soundbites. This community.net forum is another vehicle to encourage ‘’more collaboration”.

It’s reassuring to hear corporate treasurers reinforce the major benefit of SWIFT is visibility of their cash. But speaking of visibility, I haven’t been able to see across Hong Kong harbour all week. For those not here? The weather is nothing to write home about. (And I lost my umbrella.)