This solution showcases the relationship between Honeywell and its banking partner, Barclays, to address AML/KYC issues.

Unique approach across four types of relationship management

The challenge

In May 2016, due to a retirement, Honeywell decided to migrate the UK treasury function to the central EMEA treasury hub in Belgium. At that time, Honeywell had 70 active legal entities in the UK, utilising 119 bank accounts with one banking partner, Barclays. The Honeywell EMEA treasury team, using Six Sigma methodology, wanted to take a fresh look and where appropriate, try to improve the existing set-up.

Barclays continued to focus on servicing Honeywell via their existing service model which included some increased AML/KYC requirements for all corporate clients. The amplified work load on both sides, between two teams that were only beginning to get to know each other, was an unwelcome frustration.

Honeywell knew what it wanted from the Barclays relationship:

• Technology.
• People.
• Service model.
• Proactive and relevant engagement at all levels.
• Competitive pricing.
• Partnership.

The solution

Barclays took the opportunity to really listen to what Honeywell wanted to achieve and then hand-picked the team at the bank who were best placed to assist. Barclays took a tailored and bespoke approach that focused on their own internal values of clearly communicating and working alongside Honeywell as a partner, and Honeywell provided a succinct vision of what it needed to achieve and what its expectations were. Barclays listened to the feedback provided by Honeywell on the issues faced and worked together with key subject matter experts and senior KYC leaders in Barclays to put together a risk-based framework that catered for specific industries. The expedited on-boarding process was also introduced, where a risk-based approach was adopted to on-board additional entities where parents were known Barclays entities.

“As a result of the collaboration with Honeywell, the KYC process was streamlined and Barclays is well placed to support Honeywell with its growth agenda and apply the same framework to other large global corporates,” says Gail Erskine, Director, Barclays Corporate Banking.

Best practice and innovation

Having an open dialogue and continued discussion, letting Barclays know what was working and what wasn’t and utilising the innovation on the bank’s side to match the changing needs of the client were key factors. Abandoning the mentality of “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” and working with an ethos of “working smarter”, using innovation when and where it makes sense helped the process too.

Benchmarking Barclays against their peers and providing clear feedback enabled Barclays to align their internal processes and to assess how they service Honeywell but also to adapt these bespoke solutions in order to better meet the needs of their own client base.

This is a unique submission as the outcome improved four aspects of relationship management:

• Honeywell and Barclays’ direct relationship.
• Barclays’ relationship with their corporate client base.
• Honeywell internal stakeholder relationships.
• Honeywell treasury management/mentoring.

Ronan Clifford, Senior Treasury Manager concludes, “Our solutions have made us more efficient, leaner and have enabled us to further demonstrate the value add that treasury brings to the organisation and with the relationship management of our internal stakeholders. The approach I took allowed me to develop my own management skills by mentoring a senior treasury analyst both in the operational aspect of his role but also regarding how to manage and develop a relationship with a partner bank.”