DBS (SGX:D05) has introduced real-time online tracking of cross-border collections for companies in India through a partnership with SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (gpi).
DBS is reportedly first bank in India and the Asia-Pacific region to provide this service to customers, which should benefit around 4,000 corporate and SME customers in the country.
The DBS SWIFT gpi incoming tracking should help corporations with improving their cash forecasting by receiving the end-to-end tracking information, which was not possible just a few years back.
Corporations will have greater visibility about incoming payments. This should help with working capital management by being able to better plan back-to-back payments, “thereby improving receivables forecasting and overall cash position.” It will also help with improving accuracy for intraday credit line requirements while offering more benefits in supporting credit control, the announcement noted.
Divyesh Dalal, Head – Global Transaction Services, DBS Bank India, stated:
“At DBS, we are committed to empowering our customers with innovative digital solutions to bring efficiency in their business and achieve scale. Our incoming payment tracking capability, powered by SWIFT gpi, brings transparency and visibility to corporate treasuries and SME businesses alike. It makes FX and working capital management more predictable, thus reducing costs and optimizing cash flow.”
Dalal added:
“Coupled with our digital solutions for cross-border payments, regulatory documentation management and FX, we strive to deliver the best platform for cross-border transactions to our customers. These solutions make banking simpler and effortless, giving customers more time to focus on their business.”
Kiran Shetty, Head of India and South Asia, SWIFT, remarked:
“The globalization of economies has meant a pressing need amongst corporates operating across jurisdictions, time zones and currencies, for full and real-time visibility of their international payments. Driven by SWIFT gpi, the new inbound tracking service by DBS Bank allows corporates to see when a payment is on its way and when it is arriving at the beneficiary, which in turn reduces operational costs and frictions.”
Shetty further noted that “the initiative is part of [their] vision at SWIFT towards a future of instant and frictionless account-to-account cross-border payments, and we continue to work closely with DBS Bank and our partners in the global financial services community, to achieve this.”
This service is available by default and free of charge “for all corporate customers via DBS IDEAL- DBS’ online corporate banking portal.”
The announcement also mentioned that business customers can log into DBS IDEAL and “receive a notification when a payment is initiated to the DBS account on the SWIFT network by the remittance bank (Inward Telegraph Transfer) and upon credit confirmation.”
Customers are also able to track where incoming funds are in the cross-border payment chain “across multiple geographies.” For the markets which might need supporting documents, by using DBS DigiDocs, corporates can quickly upload relevant documents. It is “reliable, quick and hassle-free,” the announcement noted.
This should reduce the use of “paper-intensive” processes and enhance efficiency. Clients also have the option to “subscribe to Inward Telegraph Transfer (ITT) status alerts via email or mobile app,” the update confirmed.
As explained in the update, the tracking of cross-border collections “tends to be highly manual, whereby corporates often rely on a copy of SWIFT message from the remitter, which confirms their remittance instruction has been processed by their bank.”
For interim status updates, corporates have to “depend on their bank or the remitter (via remitter’s bank) to find out the latest status of the transfer across multiple banks, a process that is tedious, costly and time-consuming.” With the DBS SWIFT gpi incoming notification, clients are able to “receive digitized proof of initiation and structured payment advice, reducing manual processes.” Such new features “provide corporates with a transformed experience of both sending and receiving payments globally,” the release noted.
The feature has been “introduced across 7 DBS markets, including India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Vietnam.” DBS was also the first banking institution to introduce outbound payments with end-to-end tracking with SWIFT gpi.
