As globalization and financial technologies evolve, the complexity of the Bank Connectivity landscape can become daunting for Corporate Treasurers. Not only do you need to get the connectivity channels right, you also need to pay attention to the format you receive information from the bank in, plan properly where it will connect among your different systems, whilst optimizing for the right pricing. In this interview, Joost Kevelam from Cobase explains the ins and outs of Bank Connectivity, as this is the core solution Cobase proposes to its customers.

What to expect:

How is Cobase servicing its client with best-in-class solutions:

Cobase has developed a full range of Treasury “Software As A Service”. The bank bonnector provides a powerful integration between banks, bank accounts and ERP systems such as Oracle Netsuite. Balance information is sent from the bank and converted for Oracle specifically. The Cobase Payment Hub is the core service they provide. It allows for the Treasurer to manually enter payments, or design advanced workflow processes in order to automate that task, along with its reporting. Cobase’s Treasury Management System enables the management of Foreign Exchange, cash Positioning and Cash Flow Forecasting on top of the integration of the Payment Hub.

What actually is Banking Connectivity?

Whilst bank account reconciliation (the task of matching the entries in your bank account against what was planned as an accounting entry) has been (and remains) a manual task performed by treasurers and accountants, bank connectivity enables all this to be automated. Bank connectivity is all about creating a link between a bank's systems and that of your company’s, so the information is transmitted in near real time and removes the operating risk of performing it manually. Bank connectivity can be executed via a variety of means: SWIFT, Host To Host, API… But each of your banks, bank accounts and even different regions of the same bank may require a specific connection and the cost can rapidly increase. Whilst the EBS remains an alternative for Treasurers to extract the banking information themselves.

How is a Bank Connectivity tool implemented in a company?

As Joost explains, it all comes down to the client’s specific requirements. A Bank Connectivity solution like Cobase’s can integrate to the ERP, TMS, Payment Hub, and so on. What information do I need from my bank, and what do I need to send it? What is the right connectivity channel? What format are my systems able to treat / extract files in? How much budget can I allocate? The effort required to implement such a solution is not to be overlooked, as you need a proper implementation team with the right skillset.

Resources:

Cobase’ website: https://www.cobase.com/
Cobase’ award winning solution article: https://www.cobase.com/news/cobase-wins-tmi-award-for-best-tms-implementation-2022
Cobase - Use Case interview - Temenos: https://treasury-management.com/articles/time-flies-so-be-the-pilot/
Joost Kevelam Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkevelam/
Joost Kevelam email address: joost.kevelam@cobase.com
PSD2 regulation: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/intro/mip-online/2018/html/1803_revisedpsd.en.html