Demand for integrated financial supply chain services accelerating

A survey undertaken by Misys and Finextra shows that the days of having separate business units responsible for cash management, payments and trade finance are well and truly over. Ninety percent of banks have created a single transaction banking group or plan to in the near future. While many are still challenged by complexity in their IT environments, this shows a consistent strategy across the industry of becoming much more aligned with corporate customers' needs.

Mobile channel development is a growing trend, with 45% of banks ranking this a priority in the coming year, while 63% saying that expanding self-service channels such as mobile would be part of their strategy over the next three years.

"The majority of people perform their personal banking online and increasingly via mobile devices," says Tim Tyler, global product manager, Misys. "This is becoming the norm for consumers. Corporate treasurers and transaction banking professionals now expect all their services from banks to be available to them via the same channels as their personal banking services."

Financial supply chain solutions are more widespread and mature in the market, with 88% of respondents saying their bank has, or will soon offer, financial supply chain services for corporates. But there is still work to be done, with most of these banks expressing dissatisfaction with the sophistication and packaging of their current solutions.

As open account trade continues to rise in most markets, there is increasing interest in the new Business Payment Obligation (BPO) instrument to achieve better standardization and reduce risk. At the same time, more than half of banks are demanding simpler ways to manage regular updates to existing standards. Both of these results are good news for SWIFT, given its current involvement with the International Chamber of Commerce to develop the BPO, and its work with member banks and corporates on the MyStandards platform.

The responses from 105 professionals in the trade finance, payments and cash management industry located in 40 countries highlighted the stronger strategic focus on customer service and channel and product innovation. It also provided evidence of the ever-increasing number of banks which have integrated their transaction banking businesses.

http://www.misys.com/media/136574/2012_10_29_-_misys_transaction_banking_survey_results_-__final.pdf