In the past two years, large central state-owned enterprise groups have been in full swing to carry out the construction of treasury systems, and some small and medium-sized state-owned enterprises and private enterprises have also followed up one after another, in order to realize the digital transformation of enterprise capital management. As providers of capital information and management systems, major banks and financial software companies have stepped down to transform and upgrade their existing system functions and bank-enterprise service models.
Zhao Hongxin, General Manager of R&D Center of China Guangfa Bank
The necessity of speeding up the construction of the treasury system
1. Promote central state-owned enterprises to strengthen the unified management of financial resources such as funds
In January 2022, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting Central Enterprises to Accelerate the Construction of the Treasury System and Further Strengthen Fund Management" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). It is mentioned that "accelerate the implementation of the treasury management system, incorporate key businesses such as bank account management, capital concentration, capital budget, debt financing, and bill management into the treasury system, strengthen information collection, dynamic management and overall scheduling, and realize the intensive management and dynamic monitoring of the group's funds", and put forward the general requirements for "visible, manageable, mobilized and well-used" financial resources such as funds. The local SASAC also followed suit.
The "Opinions" put forward 11 specific requirements, including strengthening the unified management of bank accounts, strengthening the centralized management of group funds, strengthening the management of capital budget constraints, strengthening the strict management of debt financing, strengthening the standardized management of fund settlement, strengthening the efficient management of the use of bills, strengthening the management of accounts receivable collection, strengthening the management of loans and financing guarantees, strengthening the capital management of overseas enterprises, strengthening the management of supply chain financial services and strengthening the management of strategic decision support.
2. Strengthen the capital management of overseas enterprises
The "Opinions" require central enterprises with large overseas business scale to gradually extend treasury management to overseas enterprises, carry out unified management of the opening and cancellation of bank accounts of overseas enterprises, and strive to achieve global dynamic monitoring of bank accounts through direct linkage between overseas banks and enterprises; The bank accounts of overseas enterprises, offices, project departments and other institutions that have ceased to conduct business should be cleared in a timely manner; Carry out centralized management of overseas funds, and strive to carry out centralized management and overall scheduling of funds by country or region under the condition of complying with territorial foreign exchange control; Qualified enterprises should establish a "capital pool" for the integration of domestic and foreign currencies; Carry out comprehensive management of the capital budget of domestic and foreign enterprises to achieve unified global capital allocation; If conditions permit, overseas enterprises should be included in the unified platform for the group's capital settlement, and rely on overseas institutions to strive to achieve unified review and payment.
On May 19, 2023, the People's Bank of China and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange decided to launch a pilot project for the centralized operation and management of cross-border funds in local and foreign currencies of multinational companies in Beijing and Guangdong Province, optimize and integrate the relevant policy requirements of existing capital pools, cover more enterprises, increase the freedom of cross-border capital operation of enterprises, support multinational companies to carry out centralized cross-border capital operation business in RMB, and simplify the filing process and review of relevant materials for the use of funds.
3. Improve the level of enterprise management and reduce the cost of enterprise system construction
The introduction of policies related to the construction of the treasury system and cross-border capital pooling by the state is conducive to improving the efficiency and facilitation of domestic and foreign currency and domestic and foreign capital management of enterprises. At present, in order to achieve comprehensive and effective management of funds, enterprises need to invest a lot of resources to open up their own business systems and connect with various banking services. In the process of construction, it will face difficulties such as scattered accounts, inconsistent data standard service interfaces, and low informatization level of some account banks. As a result, enterprises face problems such as multi-line docking with banks and high system construction and maintenance costs. Especially for most small and medium-sized businesses, these problems will be more prominent. In addition, if the enterprise has overseas business or subsidiaries, it will also face difficulties such as local legal differences, financial differences, data security, and overseas banking system docking, which will further increase the difficulty of treasury construction.
4. Increase the means of customer acquisition for banks and improve their digital service capabilities
Central enterprises and local state-owned enterprises are the leading force of the national economy and the core customer group of the bank's corporate business. At the same time, with the development of digitalization, the demand for corporate financial services has changed, enterprises often have multiple bank accounts, and more and more small and medium-sized enterprises have begun to seek refined treasury management methods. Through the digitalization of the corporate treasury field, the unified management of multiple bank accounts and the integration of data flow, capital flow and information flow in enterprise operation are realized, so as to promote the overall improvement of operational efficiency. Banks should comprehensively sort out existing service products and channels, and improve and upgrade business and system service plans.
China Guangfa Bank's Treasury Comprehensive Construction Plan
China Guangfa Bank mainly focuses on products and channels, providing enterprises with integrated treasury services at home and abroad, in local and foreign currencies, and providing stable technical support. While ensuring the efficient and secure transmission of data between banks and enterprises, it also improves the overall capital management efficiency and risk control level of enterprises, and strives to reduce the difficulty and cost of corporate treasury construction to obtain banking services.
China Guangfa Bank mainly focuses on products and channels, providing enterprises with integrated treasury services at home and abroad, in local and foreign currencies, and providing stable technical support
1. Provide integrated treasury services at home and abroad, at home and abroad
Build a corporate financial service platform, integrate the public service capabilities of the bank's system, and provide treasury products and services with unified standards and stable operation to various customer channels. It covers account management, fund settlement, fund concentration, bill management, international settlement, and cross-border account management.
(1) Account management. Unified management of bank accounts, including the opening, alteration and inquiry of bank accounts of the group and its subsidiaries under the unified control of the group, and the implementation of online account inquiry and dynamic monitoring. In terms of account visibility, all accounts under the group's name can be visualized; In terms of inter-bank management, it realizes cross-bank account management, collection and payment management, inter-bank fund collection and personalized report analysis, and internal valuation. In terms of account monitoring, real-time account notification, bank-enterprise reconciliation, electronic statement, and electronic receipt are actively pushed; In terms of account book management, it provides a variety of clearing methods, account book inquiry, and account book adjustment.
(2) Settlement of funds. Provide parent and subsidiary account fund settlement services for group enterprises, and provide one-stop financial services such as transfer and remittance, cross-channel approval, smart payroll, and smart payment. Transfer and remittance support single transfer and batch transfer; Cross-channel approval: Support bank-enterprise direct transaction approval in corporate online banking and corporate mobile banking; Huifa Payroll provides employee payroll and expense reimbursement services; WisePay intelligently identifies faster payment channels for customers; Intelligent identification, smart card BIN recognition, no need for a joint bank number, 7×24-hour service.
(3) Concentration of funds. Through correspondent bank payment and group fund collection, all subsidiary accounts can be visualized, funds can be traced, and the collection can be controlled. In the case that the subsidiary cannot open a bank account and has the need for external payment, our bank can provide the financial company agent bank payment service to the financial company and the settlement center of the central state-owned enterprise. For the accumulation of group funds, our bank can provide real-time zero balance, timed retained balance, timed quota, timed fixed ratio, timed full amount and other aggregation methods, such as fixed income and expenditure, over-rated expenditure, unified income and expenditure, fixed interest rate, floating interest rate, segmented interest rate and other interest calculation methods.
(4) Bill management. It meets the requirements of online management of the whole life cycle of bills issued, received, endorsed, discounted and redeemed by group enterprises, and escorts the efficient management of customers' bills. The electric ticket business supports the functions of bill issuance, endorsement, pledge, discount, ticket withdrawal, signing, and inquiry. The bill pool business supports functions such as bill pooling, bill pooling, account issuance, and bill quota sharing.
(5) International settlement. Serving the international business strategy of enterprises, relying on the "Cross-border Instantaneous Pass" series of cross-border financial products of China Guangfa Bank, it provides enterprises with international business such as international settlement, foreign exchange settlement and sales, and cross-border capital pooling. It covers instantaneous settlement, instantaneous remittance, instantaneous issuance, instantaneous receipt of orders, instantaneous tariff access, instantaneous remittance and deposit, instantaneous delivery, instantaneous convergence and financing instantaneous pass, letter of guarantee instantaneous pass, etc.
(6) Cross-border account management. The innovative service of "centralized account visualization" of CIPS can send the account information of the group's subsidiaries in the domestic and foreign branches of Guangfa Bank and the domestic and overseas branches of other banks to the group headquarters or the group finance company through the CIPS system message, so as to realize the centralized visualization of the domestic and foreign accounts of the subsidiaries of the group company.
2. Build inter-bank and cross-border information transmission channels with peers and enterprises
China Guangfa Bank can summarize the financial business information such as accounts and funds of enterprises through a variety of channels, and reach enterprises with unified standard treasury products and services. Including bank-enterprise direct linkage, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), CIPS Co., Ltd., and the use of overseas branch layout to provide enterprises with cross-border account management, fund collection and other services. Enterprises can choose one or more of these access methods according to their own management requirements and system construction.
(1) Direct linkage between banks and enterprises. With more than 20 years of service experience, China Guangfa Bank has served nearly 10,000 parent and subsidiary companies of the group, with stable and efficient channel operation, supporting a variety of docking methods to meet the diversified docking needs of enterprises. The self-developed RTP technology framework and mainstream JSON packets are used to make the technology independent and more secure. Support the docking of mainstream financial system software in the market; Guarantee important customers, provide independent server resources for central state-owned enterprise customers, and make transactions more efficient; It supports multiple modes of docking, including front-end machine + Key shield, front end end machine + CA certificate, and away front end machine + CA certificate.
The bank-enterprise direct connection mode can realize the efficient connection between the internal business system of the enterprise and the banking and financial service system, and support customized development, with comprehensive function coverage and convenient operation. However, the cost of investment is high, and the investment in daily operation and maintenance is large, especially the need to open up different standards and interfaces of various banks.
（2）SWIFT。 China Guangfa Bank has established a secret custody relationship with major commercial banks around the world through SWIFT, and can exchange information with various banks through SWIFT collateral messages, supporting customer remittance, foreign exchange trading, collection, precious metals, letters of credit, letters of guarantee, traveler's checks, bank accounts, cash management and other business scenarios. Enterprises can realize the treasury management function by sending and receiving corresponding SWIFT messages.
The advantage of the SWIFT method is that it can use a unified message standard to connect with more than 11,000 banks, securities institutions, financial market infrastructures and corporate users around the world, and effectively solve the problem of inter-bank account fund management through the host bank. The core strength of SWIFT lies in its standardized messaging standards and extensive information communication network. However, there are some disadvantages to the SWIFT approach. First, the timeliness is not as good as the direct connection between banks and enterprises; second, in terms of security, it may be affected by geopolitics and sanctions; Third, due to the limited packet types and formats, the supported business scenarios are limited, and customized development is not possible.
（3）CIPS。 China Guangfa Bank is a direct participant in the RMB cross-border payment system, providing RMB agency clearing services for 85 indirect participating banks and Hong Kong dollar agency clearing services for 8 indirect participating banks. It is the first batch of pilot banks in China for CIPS standard transceivers, the first commercial bank in the industry to realize the simultaneous launch of standard transceivers at home and abroad, the first batch of commercial banks in the industry to carry out CIPS Hong Kong dollar clearing, and the first commercial bank in the industry to realize the direct connection of CIPS payment lens services for overseas branches.
CIPS standard transceiver is a message communication component between direct participants, indirect participants and enterprises developed by cross-border clearing companies, which has the advantages of internationalization, standardization, intensification, flexible use and easy expansion, supports payment, billing, letter of credit, institution management, exchange optimization and other services, and provides GUI page operation and API interface docking. In 2022, China Guangfa Bank was the first in the industry to launch CIPS standard transceiver messages to provide enterprises with "centralized account visualization" services and help them build their treasury systems.
The advantage of CIPS is that it provides cross-border multi-currency payment and clearing services at the same time, as well as information transmission and message standard services similar to SWIFT, and the message and system construction has the advantage of being a latecomer. With the internationalization of RMB and the construction of the "Belt and Road" and other national strategies, CIPS's global coverage and business volume have grown rapidly. When expanding overseas business, group enterprises can make full use of the extensive promotion of CIPS in the overseas branches of Chinese banks to quickly realize the effective management of cross-border accounts and funds.
3. Provide stable and reliable technical support
China Guangfa Bank has provided technical support for the construction of the treasury that is independent and controllable, flexible and agile, stable and reliable, and adaptable to information and innovation. The first is the unified application R&D platform (RTP), which is a set of technical frameworks covering front, middle and back services, which can quickly respond to business needs, support the business system research and development of China Guangfa Bank, and is the technical foundation for treasury construction. The second is the enterprise-level distributed application cloud platform (ACP), which is a service platform with elastic scaling, rolling service upgrades, and self-healing capabilities for service failures, supporting the rapid delivery of Guangfa Bank's business system and serving as the service foundation for treasury construction.
(1) The unified application R&D platform (RTP) is composed of a basic application platform architecture and a distributed platform architecture, the basic application platform helps to quickly build business systems, realizes front-end and back-end separation development, encapsulates database access, file operation, log management, exception handling, middleware management and other basic functional components, and provides security components and security capabilities that meet the high requirements of the financial industry; Integrate the unified R&D standards and technical specifications of the whole bank, adapt to the software and hardware resources of domestic information innovation, and integrate the continuous integration system of the whole life cycle of R&D. The distributed platform architecture provides bank-wide platforms such as registry center, message center, configuration center, and cache center to create a powerful distributed technology ecosystem to meet the requirements of rapid business development. Among them, the distributed task scheduling platform provides capabilities such as visual process orchestration, task context sharing, dynamic load balancing, and job fault analysis, and supports scenarios such as multi-center flexible job scheduling, rapid automatic fault transfer, and intelligent isolation of partitioned resources, with an average daily job scheduling of more than one million. The Distributed Transaction Coordination Center provides a convenient and secure distributed transaction integration solution, providing functions such as transaction process backtracking, transaction control, and transaction alarm to ensure the consistency of distributed transactions.
(2) The Distributed Application Cloud Platform (ACP) is an enterprise-level two-place, three-center application cloud platform built with the open source container orchestration system Kubernetes as the core and the design concept of small clusters and multiple tenants. First, it supports auto scaling, which combines the peak and valley changes of business volume to achieve dynamic scaling of service resources and dynamic load balancing of physical servers. Second, it supports rolling upgrades to achieve "zero downtime" and ensure business continuity while upgrading services. Third, it supports fault self-healing, transfer, and isolation, and realizes alarm and automatic switchover when services are unavailable, so as to prevent business interruption.
Promote the construction of the treasury system on a larger scale
At present, the construction of the treasury system has gradually spread from large central state-owned enterprise groups to a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises. On the basis of cash management and corporate online banking related functions, China Guangfa Bank gives full play to the basic capabilities of the industry cloud platform to explore the provision of low-cost, batch-based and standardized treasury products and services to small and medium-sized enterprises.
1. Build a treasury management cloud platform for small and medium-sized enterprises
Build a treasury management cloud platform with inter-bank management as the core to provide enterprises with unified capital management functions. Customer-centric, it provides key functions such as multi-bank account management, cross-bank fund settlement and aggregation, capital budget management, multi-bank interconnection, RPA services, etc., and integrates the channel entrance into our bank's corporate online banking. Deploy GF industry cloud platform to connect with the bank's corporate financial service platform, flexibly connect with mainstream commercial banks and enterprises, and connect with enterprise OA, ERP, finance and other systems.
Figure Diagram of the business model of the treasury management cloud platform
2. Provide full-featured treasury products and services
(1) Channel layer. The channel service portal is integrated into the corporate online banking channel of our bank, and customers can apply for opening, login and use through corporate online banking. The user system is connected with the unified users of the public financial service platform. At the same time, the website of the Treasury Cloud platform is also available for use by non-corporate online banking users.
(2) Business service layer. Based on the management of multiple bank accounts, the whole life cycle management of each commercial bank account is realized, including account opening, account movement, account status, account cancellation, etc. Strengthen the control of enterprise withdrawals around the management of enterprise capital budget, and realize the orderly management of funds. Establish a comprehensive view of fund management through investment and financing management. Through liquidity management, the management of enterprise pooled funds, the collection and allocation of inter-bank funds, etc.
(3) Interconnection interaction layer. Through multi-bank direct connection, the bank-enterprise direct connection interface of mainstream state-owned banks, joint-stock banks, local urban commercial banks, rural commercial banks, foreign-funded banks, etc., is realized, and the third-party payment platform docking is supported. Through the industry-finance interaction platform, it can connect with the ERP system and financial system of the enterprise, embed the digital treasury cloud service into the daily operation and management process of the enterprise, and create a one-stop treasury management capability for the enterprise. Realize the query of the corresponding submission data according to the data standards submitted by the local SASAC, and generate fund submission entries for data reporting. For non-directly connected accounts, it supports the manual ledger function, which can independently enter and submit data and complete data standardization. At the same time, the multi-bank direct connection capability, the industry-finance interaction platform capability, and the state-owned assets supervision and reporting capability are encapsulated into public service components for other business systems in the bank to call.
(4) Technical support layer. GF Industry Cloud Platform provides hardware basic resource support and security management and control capabilities to achieve interconnection with systems or services in the industry. Realize SaaS services for customers. Support to connect with customer ERP, finance and other platforms. At the same time, it can provide localized deployment services according to the localized deployment needs of large customers to meet the diverse demands of enterprises.
Conclusion
The construction of the corporate treasury system is an opportunity for banks to reshape the relationship between banks and enterprises, which is conducive to improving the overall digital level of banking business. In the future, China Guangfa Bank will rely on Chinese Life Group to continue to promote the digital transformation of financial technology, build a stable and efficient information system, and provide more financial services to meet customer demands.
(This article was published in the first half of April 2024)