How institutional clients win with individual digital banking

In this highly regulated industry, the day-to-day relationship between banks and their institutional clients is particularly important; the goal is clearly "banking at ease". Above all, the issue of "user-experience" makes the difference: the better and more efficiently the individual needs of customers are recognized and served with convenient digital features, the more satisfied customers are. Our experts from the areas of product development, payment transactions and trade finance provide an interesting insight into this topic.

Which banking solution is right for me as an institutional client, be it a bank, a fund or an insurance company? Depending on size, industry or business model, the answer can vary widely. In cash management alone, almost anything is possible from web-based dashboard tools to host-to-host direct connectivity, while for banks SWIFT still serves as the primary communication medium.

Beyond that, there are tools and services for every need imaginable: Payments and clearing, cross-border liquidity management, KYC processes, securities, financing, guarantee business, market research, and many more. The list goes on, but not every customer needs every service.

To make the most of this product diversity, transparent high-quality advisory is essential. Since the requirements are so varied and complex, B2B experts view digital banking less like a single multitool, but more like a professional toolkit: The right instrument for every task.

"At the beginning of any digital transformation, you have to be aware of the target segment and its needs," says Ferdinand Waldstein-Wartenberg, Head of Business Development, Markets & Investment Banking, RBI. "Especially in the highly digitalized world of institutional customers, this is particularly important. A bank as a customer of another bank has completely different needs than an asset manager or an insurance company. Thus, design thinking and the creation of personas is a particularly important tool for starting this journey," he explains.

"Based on extensive research, customer feedback and input from relationship managers, we put together a solution suite that meets customer needs in the most relevant areas," explains Herbert Auinger, responsible for Group Corporate Digital Transformation at RBI. 

Customers should therefore also be involved particularly early and actively in product development: This is called the so-called pilot phase in the course of 'Friends and Family Testing'. The insights gained from this help the bank to develop digital solutions that bring real ease: reduce 'time to execution', accelerate or automate processes, all while remaining transparent and user-friendly.

In payment services - the heart of digital banking - needs-based solutions are particularly important. "Institutional customers have different needs and are very heterogeneous when it comes to cash management products. While banks operate primarily in the world of SWIFT, other institutional customers, such as insurance companies, communicate via other channels. "In addition to web-based online banking, some customers also use software solutions or direct connections such as SWIFT or EBICS. Our newest channel is selected premium APIs," explains Susanne Prager, Head of RBI Cash Management.
Customers can individually agree which of these communication channels are right for them. "Many customers use not only one of the above solutions, but a combination, for example as a fallback or for authorization reasons. Here we offer all the required variants. Banks communicate with other banks only via SWIFT; for them, clearing services in different currencies, efficient and reliable account information and, above all, innovative, digital and transparent value-added services such as payment tracking are crucial."

For institutional clients, the local partner and correspondent bank network also plays an important role: Can I manage my group-wide treasury centrally or how can I process my local and international payments efficiently? 

Trade Finance is also a very innovation-driven area: "Soon we will enter the market with our in-house developed solution eTradeOn for banks - but at the same time we are also preparing multi-bank solutions developed by fintechs for the guarantee business," reports Martina Zimmerl, Head of RBI Trade Finance, "Institutional customers can cover their trade finance reporting with eTradeOn."

We asked our experts which innovations will continue to make this sector exciting in the future. In addition to APIs and real-time payments, single sign-on will be a key topic in order to provide a fast and secure entry into the banking relationship.

"This is the credo of our platform myraiffeisen.com. Especially for the needs of smaller and medium-sized institutional clients, this "single bank platform" is particularly helpful. From onboarding with eKYC specifically for institutional clients to Cash Management Billing Solution and the Digital Research Platform, all features are available through a one-time single sign-on," describes Waldstein-Wartenberg.

In addition to process automation, the topic of Artificial Intelligence will create opportunities: "For example, in the supply chain, especially with regard to money laundering and ESG, Artificial Intelligence will help.  Users also expect automated document checks, instant guarantees and the further development of multibank solutions focusing on standardized APIs to make processing even faster and more efficient in the future."

What will digital business banking look like in ten years? If you believe our experts, solutions will be even more optimized to meet customer needs. As anonymous and remote as digital banking may seem to us, behind every product innovation there are people, there are people who put one thing at the center of all their actions: Their customer.