The aim of the MOLSWIFT project was to replace the many formerly used electronic banking terminals with a single robust, state-of-the-art electronic banking communication tool with the highest security standards, in order to improve control, visibility, security and efficiency in the daily banking operations.

MOLSWIFT project helps to future-proof this company’s automation journey

The challenge

Prior to this initiative, MOL faced 1,600 payment packages and 300 manual payments each month via 25 electronic banking (EB) terminals, with 11 bank groups for 246 accounts on ten ERP systems.

All the bank terminals came with different connectivity and technical requirements, with different security frameworks and various procedures to administer user rights and access. Operating and maintaining the many different EB solutions consumed significant treasury and IT resources and standardisation became imperative.

The solution

The ‘MOLSWIFT’ project was established which has covered almost 50 subsidiaries in five countries that were already centralised from a treasury back office perspective. The aim of the MOLSWIFT project was to replace the many formerly used electronic banking terminals with a single robust, state-of-the-art electronic banking communication tool with the highest security standards, in order to improve control, visibility, security and efficiency in the daily banking operations.

While seeking solutions, MOL had to take account of the given multi-ERP and multi-banking landscape – both are a result of conscious choices and could be rationalised only up to a certain extent. Therefore, a bank-agnostic solution was required, which would be able to operate with all the different ERP systems.

Zsuzsanna Ortutay, Group Treasurer explains, “We decided that the standardisation to reduce complexity in bank connectivity via SWIFT with an in-house developed middleware was by far the best option. Within the period 1st January 2016 to 30th April 2017 (Phase 1 of the MOLSWIFT project), we connected to SWIFT as the second (but by far the largest and most complex) company in Hungary and built the channel with six core bank groups maintaining 220 accounts in seven countries. At the same time the account structure was optimised and importantly, payment process efficiency and information security was greatly improved.”

The project has not been finished yet, with Phase 2 starting – new functionalities and further companies with 50 accounts at two new bank groups will be added to the successfully running solution during 2017.

Best practice and innovation

• State-of-the art connectivity 

  In order to connect various payment platforms to a single connectivity window, MOL chose the state-of-the-art cloud connectivity SWIFT Alliance Lite2 solution.

• ISO standard file format

  As a participating member of SCORE, MOL has leveraged SWIFTNet and FileAct with the ISO 20022 XML version three industry-standard file formats:

  • To initiate electronic payments using pain.001 for all relevant payment types.
  • To receive payment status reports using pain.002.
  • To receive bank statements in MT940 form via FileAct.
  • Established the MT101 messaging option via FIN.

• Tailor-made user interface

  Significant process improvement has been achieved, thanks to the graphical user interface of the middleware. The payment approval process and approval rights management have been shifted from the banks to in-house. While complying with the operational security requirements, the solution grants a faster and more efficient procedure which avoids papers and tokens.

• First class security

  To ensure the highest level of information and cyber-security for the company’s complex payment infrastructure, MOL has built an extensive, unique internal log monitoring system with alerting procedures to technical and business functions on top.

Ortutay concludes, “On the process side, relying on the internally built middleware, the level of payment and bank account transparency to finance management is something we never had before. On the security side, implementing the highest security standards with the tailor-made alerting system provides us with an exceptionally strong pillar to prevent, detect and respond to even sophisticated cyber-attacks.”