Multibank Relationship Management in Middle East and Africa

14 Multibank Relationship Management in Middle East and Africa Own BIC (Bank Identifier Code) vsMultiple Bilateral bank host-to-host / API connections MNCs have the option to establish their own BIC or maintainmultiple bilateral connections with banks. Best practice among MNCs is normally to have both. Own BIC primarily for statements aggregation and bilateral Connections with key banks for Payment Initiation and other services. • Own BIC By obtaining a unique BIC, MNCs can centralise their financial messaging, streamlining communication with all their banks through a single identifier. This approach seeks to enhance efficiency and provides greater control over transaction processes. However, it requires an investment in infrastructure and ongoing maintenance. Limited services supported by SWIFT are also perceived as disadvantage alongside with setup cost. Alternatively, MNCs can use their global banks to aggregate SWIFTmessages to and from local and regional banks and deliver them in standardised format to the MNC (such as Citi’s Infopool solution). Depending on number of banks andmessages, this can be more cost-effective compared to setting up andmaintaining own BIC. • Multiple Bilateral Connections MNCs can establish individual connections with each bank. While this may reduce initial set-up costs if implemented only with a few banks, it can lead to increased complexity inmanaging multiple communication channels and higher operational risks. The key benefit of bilateral connections is the possibility for MNCs to consume broader scale of services and in real time via API. The possibility of having a single bank with standardised connectivity across multiple markets is perceived by MNCs as a key advantage of global banks operating inMEA and areas where many regional bank’s capabilities are still lagging. Many corporations cooperating with Citi prefer to centralise connectivity for bank statements with Citi via solution Infopool and centralise payment initiation to as few of banks as possible. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)/ Treasury Management System (TMS) providers support multi-banking functionalities across multiple countries and currencies. For centralisation of FX or trade finance multi-banking platforms are also available, but we still have not seen thembeing commonly used by MNCs inMEA.