Bank Relationship Management Highly Commended: EDF
Published: Aug 2010
Photo of Richard Parkinson, Gilbert Labbé, Claudie Gaudin and Marie Laurence Faure, BNP Paribas.
Gilbert Labbé
Head of Treasury
Founded in 1946, EDF Group is one of Europe’s largest energy groups, with over 38m customers across the region. The group has its key business interests in Germany, Italy, France and the UK and has almost 160,000 employees worldwide. In 2007, the group’s net income was €5.6 billion.
in partnership with
EDF has a centralised treasury that deals with several hundred bank accounts, held with 15 banks. EDF faces frequent internal organisational changes that impact bank mandates and this was creating a significant workload from both the corporate and bank point of view.
Moreover, the company found that too much time was being taken up by the account opening and maintenance process, which was completely paper-based and took up to 60 days with certain banks.
The issues that EDF encountered surrounding bank account management led them to take part in the SWIFT eBAM (electronic bank account management) initiative with BNP Paribas. The purpose of eBAM is to facilitate account administration, providing electronic standard messages (ISO 20022) for opening, maintenance (mandate management), and closing of an account.
As Gilbert Labbé, Head of Treasury, EDF, says, “We believe that eBAM is a great opportunity to benefit from standardised electronic messages to replace paper-based mandate management, a process which varies from bank to bank.”
EDF decided to test the electronic account opening process with BNP Paribas. Their vendor, Alsyon Technologies, was also associated in the project. EDF uses their bank account management solution as a single database for all their accounts and relevant mandates. Three types of XML eBAM message were tested and sent through SWIFTNet FileAct during the third quarter of 2009.
“We view eBAM as a catalyst to extend our STP procedures. It allows us to expand the range of transactions initiated electronically with our banking partners.”
This project has meant that the delays for account opening can be significantly reduced. As BNP Paribas returns to EDF the IBAN of the newly-created account in electronic format this automatically updates EDF’s bank account database. The digital signature of the eBAM XML messages also improves straight through processing (STP) and the security of exchanges, removing paper documents. EDF has realised numerous benefits including:
Cost savings.
Productivity gains.
Risk mitigation.
Compliance with industry standards.
“We view eBAM as a catalyst to extend our STP procedures. It allows us to expand the range of transactions initiated electronically with our banking partners,” concludes Labbé.
The Adam Smith Awards is the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards
