RBS wins The Banker's Innovation in Trade and Supply Chain Finance award
September 2013

The Banker names Innovation in Technology and Transaction Banking Awards 2013

RBS was given the Innovation in Trade and Supply Chain Finance award for its e-Invoicing solution and is the first bank to incorporate e-Invoicing with the Supply Chain Finance process.

Removing paper from the invoicing process is not only environmentally friendly, it reduces costs and, even more importantly, it speeds up payments. In a challenging economic climate, where many businesses have been struggling, the ability to be paid quickly has become critical for corporates and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

And looking toward longer term trends, electronic invoicing is an inevitable goal of the industry. One day, it will be the norm for buyer and finance solutions to be electronic and automated, but too often the process is hampered by paper and manual intervention. RBS was given the Innovation in Trade and Supply Chain Finance award for its e-invoicing solution and is the first bank to incorporate e-invoicing with the supply chain finance process. The e-invoicing capabilities have been linked with MaxTrad, RBS's web-based platform.

With e-invoicing, many of these stages have been removed. Where previously an invoice was created, printed and posted, now it can be sent electronically. Previously the invoice was received days later in the post, manually entered into a system, approved and then finally the supplier would be paid. E-invoicing makes it possible to create, send, receive and process invoices and purchase orders online. The manual steps are taken out of the process and days can be saved.

In the past, it could have taken 15 days for an invoice to be processed, and now approval for invoices is possible in one to five days. This delay meant that businesses were missing out on the opportunities of dynamic discounting, or receiving better business terms for early payment. Because of the onerous paper-based process, SMEs and corporates were being denied access to cash and lower funding costs.

The e-invoicing solution links the client's invoicing system to the systems of their suppliers and customers, who do not need to replace their in-house systems as the e-invoicing solution is accessible from any internet browsers. The customers receive the electronic invoices online, which can be downloaded and imported into their in-house accounting system. Purchase orders can be sent electronically to suppliers, which they in turn can convert into invoices. The solution also reconciles purchase orders and invoices and so problems can be identified easily. And the solution gives the users real-time information with status reports. Buyers and suppliers are able to track orders,invoices and payments and they can easily see the real-time status of their invoices.

For more information please contact Duygu Tavan, duygu.tavan@ft.com +44 (0)20 7775 6210.