Photo of Sheree Shumei Lim and Lahcen Mouzoun, Technip Energies and Julien Kopp, Deloitte.
Agnes Brault
Vice President of Treasury & Financing
Sheree Shumei Lim
Head of Treasury Business Transformation
Lahcen Mouzoun
Finance Digital Product Manager
France
Technip Energies (T.EN) is a global technology and engineering powerhouse with leadership positions in LNG, hydrogen, ethylene, sustainable chemistry, and CO2 management. The company is contributing to the development of critical markets such as energy, energy derivatives, decarbonisation, and circularity and has 18,000+ employees across 35 countries.
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The challenge
Previously, Technip Energies’ (T.EN) payment and bank communication landscape reflected the complexity of a global organisation operating across multiple regions and systems. Payment initiation was managed through several enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, treasury management systems (TMS) and payroll platforms, with bank connectivity relying on host‑to‑host links, file transfers and others.
As the company grew, the diverse environment created opportunities to streamline processes, strengthen governance and improve visibility across supplier, treasury and payroll payments. Some payment workflows relied on manual activities, while payment status monitoring, bank acknowledgements and bank account changes involved multiple systems and reconciliations. Access management and payment authorisations were administered across different environments, making oversight complex.
Against increasing payment volumes, fraud threats, regulatory and audit expectations, T.EN launched a transformation programme to modernise its global payment operations, enhance security and governance, and establish a standardised, scalable and transparent operating model. Leveraging decades of treasury expertise, Deloitte supported the design and execution of this programme, bringing to life T.EN’s ambitions into a structured, global rollout.
The solution
COBA project is a global initiative to centralise bank connectivity and embed preventive fraud controls across operations worldwide, covering major payment types.
It involves implementing two main solutions:
Bank Communication Tool (BCT).
Money Fraud Tool (MFT).
BCT standardised and secured bank communications, while MFT strengthened controls over beneficiary data and payment execution, providing complete coverage of payment flows.
T.EN’s treasury business transformation and digital teams, working with Deloitte and stakeholders, delivered the programme in phases across multiple countries/payment types to minimise operational disruption. This included configuration and integration with existing ERPs, TMS and payroll platforms, alongside the establishment of controlled and centralised user access, culminating in the seamless single ERP Cloud migration. Comprehensive end-to-end testing was conducted, including payment file validation, connectivity tests and user training, before phased go live.
“Being named Overall Winner in Best Payment Solution at the Adam Smith Awards is truly a remarkable privilege and a significant milestone of industry recognition. It reflects our teams’ collective strength, passion and commitment. It serves as a catalyst for our future ambitions – empowering us to push boundaries, seize new opportunities, and drive Technip Energies toward greater success.”
Agnes Brault, Vice President of Treasury & Financing
Best practice and innovation
The judges awarded T.EN because it was a very strong case study. Moving from a fragmented environment to a centralised payments gateway and a bank account validation tool, it achieved strong automation, centralisation, innovation and best practice, supported by good change management and delivery. It was a “great payments story”.
A key best practice was the standardisation of payment formats toward ISO 20022 XML, an internationally recognised standard. This enabled consistency across banks and regions, improved data quality, and reduced reliance on local formats and manual interventions. This helped remove legacy, high-risk processes, including manual bank-letter payments, replacing them with controlled, system-based payment execution.
In parallel, the MFT strengthened fraud prevention through automated bank account validation, continuous monitoring and fraud detection. It centralised beneficiary data, reduced dependence on manual controls and improved traceability, auditability and governance across the bank account lifecycle. Deloitte’s role in structuring these controls around T.EN’s global operating model was central to embedding them as everyday practice rather than a one‑off technology rollout.
Key benefits
Process efficiencies.
Risk mitigation.
Exceptional implementation (budget/time).
Improved visibility.
Manual intervention reduced.
The solutions delivered tangible results to T.EN’s payment operations, significantly enhancing efficiency, control and security. BCT is now being rolled out globally, enabling users to initiate and manage payments through a single, centralised platform rather than multiple e-banking portals.
This has reduced operational complexity, streamlined payment processing and improved consistency across regions and payment types. Centralised bank connectivity has enhanced control, visibility and resilience, while reducing dependency on manual processes and workarounds.
Previously, teams relied on multiple systems, e-banking portals and manual processes, often under tight timelines and lengthy approval cycles. Working with Deloitte, the COBA project fundamentally changed this, giving T.EN a safer, clearer and more consistent way of working.
François-Dominique Doll
Executive Director, Head of Global Treasury Advisory – SouthEast Asia, Deloitte
Deloitte congratulates Technip Energies on receiving recognition at the Adam Smith Awards for its outstanding treasury transformation and payment innovation journey. Through the successful delivery of the COBA programme (Bank Communication), Technip Energies has demonstrated strong leadership in strengthening payment security, centralising bank connectivity and embedding preventive fraud controls across a complex global environment. This achievement reflects a clear commitment to operational excellence, innovation and governance, while empowering teams with more secure and efficient payment processes. We are proud to have supported Technip Energies in this transformative initiative and celebrate this well-deserved recognition.
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The Adam Smith Awards are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2026 awards attracted 635 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards
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