2006 GTR Trade Services and the Supply Chain’s Reader’s Poll
LCs issued subject to the eUCP are not a day to day business process yet....
By Peter Tseng taken from July/ August 2005 Documentary Credit World
An excellent potential achievement
An excellent potential achievement |
Published in People in Motion Publication
Issue January 2005.
Trade Stars Recognised in Ireland
Trade Stars Recognised in Ireland |
Published in Global Trade Review Volume 3/ Issue 3 January and February 2005.
Trade Finance looks to the Future
by Lloyd Caughey taken from “The Barclays Globe", published by Barclays Africa, Issue 11, August 2004.
IBM helps banks transform wholesale payments systems
Published in Middle East BANKER, August 2005 edition
(Used with the permission of Banker Middle East Magazine Corporate Publishing International)
Global rules, local needs
Arab Bank takes action to streamline its global
trade finance processes
By Nina Robertson
Rida Darwazeh,
IT Corporate Systems Principal at Arab Bank |
Four years ago, Jordan-based Arab Bank identified a need for the standardisation of its global trade finance business processes. The bank’s branches in its multiple markets had been using various internally developed products to perform the same tasks, and although they were functionally rich, they were based on third generation Cobol language legacy systems. As the scale of Arab Bank’s global trade finance activities had been growing rapidly, in order to support this growth the bank wanted to use a ‘similar model’ concept that would allow all trade finance activities to be carried out on a standard system across all markets. While standardised, this system would need to be easily configured to handle the different business processes conducted in different countries.
After Arab Bank had reviewed eleven different products, it selected a ‘global model’ system provided by trade finance solution provider, China Systems. Specifically, the bank implemented two of the company’s systems: CS Eximbills for the back office, and Customer Access (CAS) to enable customers to conduct trade finance transactions over the Internet.
Back office support
According to Rida Darwazeh, IT Corporate Systems Principal at Arab Bank (pictured), the CS Eximbills system can be used for all bank activities, and not just trade finance, something the bank’s previous system was incapable of doing. It can also provide an on – line interface to Equation and SWIFT, and it is sufficiently flexible to allow the bank to extend and customise business processes while adhering to bank – wide standards. “As a development tool, the new system is very powerful”, says Darwazeh. “It has enabled us to internally develop trade finance modules to cater for all trade finance activities worldwide, while at the same time meeting Arab Bank’s corporate – level requirements.”
Resolving the complexities of global trade finance required input from branches in various markets, because trade processing requires the support of localised business processes. For example, while margin processing is common in some GCC countries, such as Qatar and Bahrain, it is not in other countries, such as Cyprus. So to meet Arab Bank’s requirements, a project team comprising five specialised members of the bank’s IT and Operations department, as well as the China Systems Project team, was formed in Dubai to create a system using a component-based toolkit. This would then support all aspects of local modifications and collectively build a new Arab Bank model.
According to China Systems, the global market roll – out has brought numerous benefits to Arab Bank. For one thing there is now little vendor dependence involved, which is time and cost efficient for the bank. All necessary customisation changes were made using the trade toolkit inherent in the product, making maintenance and any further upgrades easy to perform for internal staff. Arabisation is also catered for by the system, a feature that extends from simple screen support in Arabic to complex output for customer correspondence; a major factor in Arab Bank’s decision to choose CS Eximbills.
An additional requirement that the bank made of its selection was that it should support real – time on – line interfacing with the bank’s AS/400 – based systems. The bank chose to implement CS Eximbills systems using DB2 databases that it had already installed at a global level. This means that the trade finance solution can interface with both Equation and SWIFT, enabling the bank to promptly conduct business with its customers.
Furthermore, the interface supports transaction roll – back facilities, allowing full recovery on any error conditions. “If the entries in any given transaction are not all posted successfully, then a roll – back for the posted ones will occur and a message will appear to the user to fix the transaction and repost it: a feature that did not exist in Arab Bank’s previous system,” explains Darwazeh.
An enhanced customer tool
Arab Bank has been able to automate its Web – based trade services by implementing the CAS product. For its customer – facing tools, the bank reverted to development skills at its head office in Jordan, and again created a ‘single entry, global reach’ concept. According to China Systems, CAS is thin client product that is based on toolkit design and integrated processing. A major issue confronting Arab Bank was seamless customer access to its global branches, while simultaneously supporting idiosyncratic regional processes. Now, the bank’s customers can have access to the system via the CAS module. They can enter through a single URL and based on their profiles, access one of 24 bank trade finance centres.
CS Eximbills has already been deployed in the Middle East, North Africa,
Western Europe and the USA. The customer – facing Web site is piloted from the Dubai branch now, and its wider roll – out is set to begin from this August.
Published in Banker Middle East, July 2001 edition
(Used with the permission of National Bank of Dubai.)
NBD from manual to high-tech in record time
The Trade Finance Department at National Bank of Dubai (NBD) has entered the high-tech age thanks to a new processing system installed by China Systems. NBD, one of the leading banks in UAE, realised two years ago that the nature of the trade finance business and market conditions had changed. To meet those new challenges and gain a competitive edge NBD decided to upgrade what had become a time consuming manual processing system.
"We had to move to something that was flexible and capable of integrating the functions to avoid duplication," said Shashinath Raghavan, Project Manager at NBD.
NBD looked for solutions that would cover all business functions across the trade finance department and could also meet the bank's requirements in terms of functionality. Key issues include improving workflow and eliminate duplication. The system would also have to be user-friendly.
The bank began the process through a gap analysis of systems available from software suppliers specialising in the area of trade finance. The aim of that analysis was to determine what was on offer and how best they met the bank's requirements. After a six to eight month evaluation period, which included site visits to banks around the world to observe how well the system performed in a real-life environment, NDB turned to China Systems' Eximbills solution.
The software company is the largest provider of trade finance banking solutions in the world, with a client list that covers 250 banks in 75 countries. The Eximbills solution automates all trade finance activities, from document preparation, calculation of commissions and foreign exchange to accounting, S.W.I.F.T. messaging and management reporting. As a result, NBD has dispensed with its PC-based system and now has a fully integrated department that can issue letters of credit and perform other tasks through a single entry input.
"NBD had a very manual, paper-bound process," said Digby Bennett, regional sales manager for China Systems. "It's a difficult concept for a bank to automate because it's not like a normal debit or credit, retail or even treasury side, it's a very client-oriented part of the business."
The benefits of the change are clear to see. NBD's Trade Finance staff is now based on one floor in the bank's head office overlooking Dubai's Creek and Raghavan is pleased that the new system has not only managed to improve workflow within the department, but also eliminated costly and time-consuming duplication.
"A major advantage of the system is that it's very user-friendly, since the system utilises a screen browser it's very easy to comprehend for users," Raghavan added. "The users had some initial training, but they got up to speed very quickly and we've had good staff feedback." Two business consultants and one integration consultant from China Systems were on hand throughout the implementation process and helped with initial staff training. The bank made sure that trade finance staff were involved in the process from day one and were not just presented with a new system at the end and told to get on with it.
In an unusual move, the manager of NBD's trade finance department was relieved of operational duties to be involved in the project. The benefit, according to Raghavan, is that the business side was fully aware of what Eximbills system was capable of and what the department needed to get out of it. Raghavan also served as the bank's in-house project manager.
"Anyway you look at it this was a successful project, from the IT side, and from the user side, from the time scale to completion," said China Systems' Bennett. In addition, "user acceptance was high."
Another aspect that added to the success of the project was, according to Raghavan, that the China Systems consultants seemed as knowledgeable about the business as the bank's own staff, no doubt helped by the fact that they are mostly ex-bankers with experience of working within trade finance. "It was a major factor in the success of the project because they could talk to the business users in their own language," he added.
The system went live in May last year and completed in the first quarter this year. Both companies believe The project's success can be attributed to the fact that problems that came up were well managed and resources well allocated on site, helped by the fact that project management was kept in-house.
"A bank project manager can pull in resources much more powerfully that an outsider can," Bennett commented.
As a result of installing the Eximbills solution NBD can boast improved volumes and processing times. Another major advantage is the automated S.W.I.F.T. output, which means that a single entry input captures all necessary data to process, record and report on the transaction. This automated process resulted in improved staff efficiency and reduced processing times.
At the end of the two-year project, NBD is currently in the process of changing host systems and making sure the new trade finance system fits in with its new call system. A China Systems consultant will be on site for a few months longer to oversee a system upgrade and the new host integration. The project finished on time and within budget.
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