Commercial International Bank is streamlining financial services by delivering structured solutions for trade transactions.
Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) offers trade finance services to clients through its extensive domestic branch network and correspondent banking relationships.
The lender’s trade finance division has witnessed considerable expansion in recent years and, as of November 2022, had initiated a total of 44,661 transactions valued at £E188bn ($6.1bn). Despite challenging global circumstances, trade finance revenue reached £E1.1bn year-to-date (YTD) in November 2022, representing an impressive 48 per cent increase from £E717m YTD in November 2021.
Capitalising on its domestic branch network of more than 200 branches and sales offices across Egypt, CIB can provide global coverage when required. The lender’s trade sales activities are conducted through three main client relationship groups, namely Global Customer Relations (GCR) or Corporate Banking, Enterprise and Governmental Relations (EGR) and the Consumer Banking or Business Banking Group (BB).
Meanwhile, CIB’s financial institutions products team specialises in delivering structured solutions to exporters, importers and banks engaged in trade transactions with CIB, including forfeiting, letter of credit (LC) refinancing and risk participation.
Technology revamp
CIB has undertaken a revamp of its online corporate portals, culminating in the launch of the CIB Business Online platform, which is a corporate portal that provides customers with a unified interface to manage their cash management, supply chain finance (SCF) and trade service requirements.
This platform has successfully provided its corporate clientele with a comprehensive suite of cash management products and services customised to meet their unique requirements, leading to a marked improvement in payment management, enhanced working capital efficiency and streamlined information management.
Noteworthy achievements
Additionally, the registration of 9,067 customers on the trade portal, with a migration rate of 42 per cent, has resulted in a considerable cost synergy reduction of £E19.7m for trade transactions. The online origination of newly issued transactions amounting to £E42.7bn for trade transactions is a significant achievement for CIB’s online trade finance platform.
The lender has developed a trade transformation programme to achieve near straight-through-processing (STP) for all trade transactions and processes. This strategic initiative is designed to significantly reduce the processing time for trade finance products and enhance customer experience, positioning CIB as Egypt’s preferred trade service bank. The trade transformation programme leverages automation and new technologies to streamline transaction processing turnaround time (TAT), reduce manual intervention, increase cost synergy, and standardise trade services by automating tracers and service level agreements (SLAs).
Furthermore, CIB’s trade transformation initiative incorporates automated client engagement through SMS/email notifications, commission and charge collection automation, and accelerating transaction processing and screening against international negative lists.
Timely delivery
It is worth noting that the lender has prioritised the prompt and efficient delivery and servicing of its diverse range of products to clients. To this end, CIB’s global transaction banking (GTB) group works closely with customers to provide a seamless transition to the CIB Business Online platform, encompassing the bank’s trade finance, cash management and supply chain finance activities.
In addition, the lender’s sales and product activities are benefiting from the support of dedicated trade operations and IT groups committed to ensuring superior processing quality, operational efficiency and minimising the TAT for each trade transaction.
Commercial International Bank has been named the Mena Trade Finance Bank of the Year at the Mena Banking Excellence Awards 2023.