ANZ reshapes local cash management landscape

ANZ has recently been recognised by prestigious international publications for its trade finance and transaction service capabilities in Vietnam and the Greater Mekong region. How can your corporate customers benefit from such award winning services?

We are very pleased to have recently received recognition in Vietnam and the Greater Mekong for our Trade Finance and Cash Management services.

Our award winning cash management solutions help our corporate clients save on costs and build scale while increasing speed and improving accuracy. Our presence and connectivity in Asia, including Vietnam and the Greater Mekong, is our key competitive advantage. We can seize on inbound and outbound opportunities in the region, this benefits our clients driven by regional trade and capital flows.

The Asset Triple A Award recognised us for helping our clients in reducing their FX and Commodity related risks, associated with their trade related borrowings in Vietnam. The trade finance product is quite standard, any bank can offer this, but we combined this with other bank products and leveraged our understanding of the local regulatory environment, to create a unique, multi-product solution. This differentiates us from other banks, as well as addresses the client’s objectives.

For the Global Finance innovation recognition, the key issue for our clients was the costs, this includes not just the direct financial cost but also those related to productivity and efficiency, associated with their manual process around receivable reconciliation. They were concerned that these costs would only increase as their business grew. We again leveraged our in-depth understanding of client business, combining it with our bank products as well as unique technology from Australia, to automate the reconciliation of their receivables. We are the first bank in Vietnam to have gone live with such a solution.

As the local financial market and clients are expecting increasing regional trade, thanks to the AEC formation last year, what are some specific products that ANZ have developed to support the cross-border trade? How competitive are they in comparison to other banks’ products?

As I mentioned earlier, the key issue is not just products, though you do need competitive product capability on the ground. And, ANZ, as a major bank, has the required local and cross border trade product capability for Vietnam and the region.

What’s more important is how you can put together these products with your understanding of your clients needs, your local knowledge, and how you can leverage your network, to create a solution which helps deliver the clients objectives.

ANZ is the only major foreign bank in Vietnam with a presence in all 5 Greater Mekong markets. Therefore, as local companies expand to other markets in the Greater Mekong, we can help them through our local knowledge of all 5 markets, our local product capability, and our on-the-ground ability to create tailored solutions. It is the same for companies looking to expand to other parts of Asia Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand.

Cash management has become increasingly important for enterprises in Vietnam, how do you think banks can help with this?

The key issue for corporations is how to increase their growth and profitability, and that’s where solutions in cash management can help.

Let me first of all talk about the challenges faced by corporations, this applies in varying degrees to markets across Asia.

The core business for corporations is to have a value proposition in terms of goods and services they sell. It is important to have efficient treasury and finance operations, which can partner with the rest of the organisation, to drive growth and profitability. This in turn, means having the required efficiency, automation and transparency, which support the overall corporate objectives to make decisions related to liquidity, where payable and receivables management is efficient and scalable.

This is where cash management solutions provided by banks come into play. I earlier provided the example of receivables management. Corporate can either make an upfront investment to have an automated solution in place, which is scalable and controls costs as business grows, or they can have a manual process, which relies on information sent from the banks. This will possibly require more people as the business grows, and could also compromise speed of response and accuracy. Similarly, on payables management, companies can either spend their time and resources on making payments themselves or, on the other hand, link their finance systems with the bank to outsource this part of their business, thereby making them more efficient.

Another important aspect of cash management is communication with banks, which helps with the transaction and information flow. While proprietary internet banking systems are most common in Vietnam, some companies are moving one step ahead and relying on Host to Host and SWIFT channels to communicate with banks. These channels provide the possibility of promoting further efficiency and productivity for the corporation.

What is the future focus for ANZ services for your corporate clients?

Our business environment is becoming more challenging and interconnected, and technology is introducing significant changes. As a result, our clients’ focus is changing, they expect the banks to not only sell relevant solutions but also advise them how the changes in the environment impact their business.

Our focus has changed from selling plain vanilla products, where pricing is the competitive advantage, to value added solutions which can make material difference to our clients. We are also strengthening our channels, the mechanism for clients to communicate with banks for their transactions. Whereas in the past we have focused on internet banking, our clients are now moving to other forms of connectivity with more value added for them. We are focused on leveraging our network, especially in the Greater Mekong region, to help clients expand into new markets as a result of trade liberalisation.

In short, our focus for our clients in the Vietnamese market remains unchanged, but we have to recognise the changing environment and the competitive pressures, not only from the global banks, but also regional and local ones. Therefore, we will continue to work on our value proposition, consolidate our platforms, build our capabilities, stay close to customers, deliver relevant solutions, and leverage our home market advantage and regional footprint, to stay ahead of our competitors.

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