DBS Bank has launched real-time online tracking of cross-border collections for its global corporate clients.
Powered by SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (gpi), more than 240,000 DBS corporate and SME clients in Singapore and Hong Kong are said to benefit from the real-time, online tracking of their cross-border payments and collections, for no additional fee.
Raof Latiff, Group Head of Digital for Institutional Banking, DBS Bank said,
“The importance of enabling real-time tracking of cross-border payments and collections amid the landscape we operate in today cannot be underplayed as it helps businesses improve their working capital management and fosters trust with overseas counterparties. This in turn helps improve supply chain efficiencies and encourages economic growth, enabling countries to bounce back faster from the pandemic,”
DBS’ market share of SWIFT cross-border payments across its core markets increased by 4% year-on year.
Eddie Haddad, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, SWIFT, said,
“Recent developments in technology and a shift in customer expectations have led to disruption in the world we operate in. So now, more than ever, there is a need for the financial services community to band together to help corporates navigate the complexities and challenges of today’s business landscape. With the new online inbound gpi capability, corporates will gain the real-time visibility needed to give them more control of their entire payment flows.”
Traditionally, 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.
With the DBS SWIFT gpi solution, corporates can log into the bank’s online corporate banking portal, DBS IDEAL, to receive instant updates on where the incoming funds are in the cross-border payment chain.
In markets where regulations require additional information or supporting documents for cross-border transfers, corporates can use DBS DigiDocs to transmit information and supporting documents digitally and instantly.
Following the launch of this online cross-border collections solution in Singapore and Hong Kong, DBS targets to expand this to China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam in the coming months.