Transaction Services is conducting a project surrounding virtual accounts, giving companies the opportunity themselves to manage any number of accounts coupled to a main account with SEB. In parallel with this, a new type of liquidity product is being introduced that combines account management and foreign exchange.
“Traditionally we in Cash Management Products have delivered account services, while Markets delivers foreign exchange,” Tommy explains. “But customers don’t necessarily buy products in that order – rather, the products are interconnected in a flow.”
With this new solution, customers can move money between accounts in different currencies and get automatic foreign exchange. The plan is also to enable self-payment solutions where customers can create rules and set parameters for automatic FX flows to suit each individual need. This is a big step on the journey to offering services that support broader value flows.
Also with respect to data processing, Transaction Services is now ready to take the next step. After having worked a long time on making information accessible and quality assuring it, they have now reached critical mass to begin creating value from it.
This will give SEB conditions to advance its positions beyond what is coupled to traditional banking.
“By coupling our internal data with external sources, we can help customers gain full control over their respective value chains,” Tommy continues. “They can thereby make smarter decisions and be more successful at doing business. Here we are creating an opening to engage ourselves in a more strategic dialogue on sustainability, for example.”
The structured data processing is also creating opportunities for new business models and services that SEB is developing in close collaboration with customers.
“We are seeing a shift in the market, where companies are going over from selling products to selling services,” Tommy says. “Based on a model where you pay for how much you use a car, a refrigerator or a lawnmower, for example, accounts and payments can also be integrated components of a service.
“To be able to develop these types of solutions, we need to have full control over the data processing, and supported by this, we are continuing to develop virtual accounts and link together accounts and foreign exchange to create entirely new services.”