HNB leads in digital solutions for corporate collections management

• Says current and savings liquidity growth over Rs. 10 billion

 As the country’s leading private commercial bank in Sri Lanka, Hatton National Bank has taken a keen interest in developing its cash management business which is now a key business vertical of the bank. With HNB’s fleet of collection solutions, corporates can now outsource their entire collection management to the bank and thereby save time and cost resulting in increased cash management efficiencies. 

With a full suite of B2B and C2B collections, products which span the country comprising 252 branches, 115 real time credit Cash Deposit Machines, 500 Smart ATMs, cash and cheque collections via third party service providers; and by the bank leveraging on its electric banking platforms, such as HNB Online and Mobile Banking, is geared to provide an unparalleled collection proposition to its corporate customers.

HNB is the first local bank to introduce a state-of-the-art payments and cash management platform - HNB Online. HNB Online is designed to allow corporates to have comprehensive real-time control over their day-to-day management of collections, payments and liquidity investments. 

Enterprise-level clients are able to benefit from this platform’s enhanced performance capabilities by integrating a corporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system such as SAP and Oracle directly with HNB Online. 

From real-time information on account balances and cash flow status to automated fully-integrated payments and collections, HNB’s electronic banking platform comes with a far-reaching suite of product features that can be scaled to meet the needs of any corporate, from a vibrant new start-up to a diversified conglomerate.

Corporate Banking Deputy General Manager Ruwan Manatunga elaborated that HNB’s collection reconciliation proposition supports a fully integrated collections solution through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payments (EIPP) that provide capabilities for streamlining collections and receivable reconciliation. 

These features provide significant value to corporates that have a large daily collection volume from multiple sources. With the EDI solution, the bank makes available and extends to corporates HNB’s full 252 branch network along with 600 plus ATMs and Cash Deposit machines as collection points. 

Collection transactions across the bank’s wide ranging footprint of delivery channels are processed through EDI system where ERP account receivable modules of corporates are updated real-time.

This automation of real-time reconciliation of collection transactions help eliminate manual reconciliation requirements and as a result corporates are now able to leverage on this system to improve time critical business processes i.e. release or dispatch products and services immediately upon the real-time update of collections and reconciliation of accounts receivables.

HNB also further extends the EDI collection solution to corporates by partnering with third party service providers to collect physical cash and cheques from designated collection points. While the EDI collection system supports corporates to fully automate their collection and reconciliation of receivables through direct ERP integration, the bank also extends its Payee Partnership solution to business entities that currently are not directly integrated with an ERP. Such corporates are able to update their accounts receivables using MT940 and other means of account statements for ERP reconciliation.

PCM Head Dhananjaya Samaraweera articulated that in addition to the bank’s comprehensive collections solution suite, corporates can also benefit from HNB’s state-of-the-art PCM platform, the integrated payments solutions offered by HNB which enables its customers to outsource their entire payments process, from generating payments instructions, executing, reconciling and advising the beneficiaries of their payments. 

HNB provides a comprehensive package of payment solutions that integrate with the way customers do business, by offering a range of products. Whilst providing the ‘All electronic’ payment products such as Book Transfers, ACH, CEFT (Common Electronic Fund Transfers), RTGS and TTs, HNB also provides solutions for statutory payments such as EPF and ETF via digital channels. 

Unique to Sri Lanka, ASYCUDA Payments (customs duty) and Sri Lanka Ports Authority payments are offered through HNB’s digital channels. HNB currently is the only bank which caters to bulk processing of CEFT transactions (real-time interbank fund transfers at any time of the day) to corporate clients as well as providing cardless transactions through Pay-On-ID, which is a unique mobile wallet proposition of HNB. The bank also caters to paper-based payment products through digital channels such as off-site cheque printing, pay order printing as well as dividend printing.