Awards for Excellence 2002
Citibank
Citibank lands this year’s award as the best at cash management after holding off the challenge of a handful of other banks. Certainly Deutsche Bank will feel itself to be the closest competitor and Euromoney’s first cash management poll, in late 2001, showed that to be the case with those two banks way out in front of the rest.
Little has happened in the interim to alter that balance of power. Although HSBC, ABN Amro and JPMorgan can all make good cases for themselves in certain local and regional markets, on a global scale they still have some catching up to do.
Cash management is a highly competitive market. Up to one-third of corporates will look to review and then possibly change their cash managers every couple of years.
Obviously price will always be a factor in their decision-making but corporate treasurers are also looking for a cash manager that can devise payment and collection products, back them up with good client service, offer a global network and be up to speed in the latest technology, particularly the internet.
The key for Citibank’s progress, Ann Cairns, chief operating officer at Citibank, says, is being able to offer clients a worldwide service. “The marketplace is moving to much more of a global model,” she says. “The bigger corporations are centralizing their businesses and so you need to be able to deal with global institutions in all parts of the world. As cash management providers this is causing a big change for banks, particularly traditional banks that have operated in a home market.”
Citibank moved to meet this new trend early with the formation of its e-business division out of its former cash and trade business and its old e-Citi operation. “That gave us an incredible jump on the market and allowed us to win a lot of new clients,” says Cairns.
Most of all she says treasurers and CFOs want to be able to see in real time what their liquidity position is across the world. “They will want to know what their bank accounts have in them in the major currencies around the world. They want to be able to move money around and to pool it.”
In particular she singles out Citi’s e-billing system, which she says has a unique scope. “We are the only ones who have systems running in every part of the world,” says Cairns. “We have as clients a soft drinks company in Asia, BP use us in North America, we have a huge technology company in Europe that is going live with us.”
Citibank is also proud of the mandates it has won from Reuters, Federal Express, EDS and Coca-Cola in Europe, illustrating its increasing presence in the region.
Jennifer Morris
