PRESS RELEASE: REWE Group is the first Serrala customer to use standardized eBAM
In times when finance and treasury teams increasingly work from
home, digital and paperless processes become more important than ever before. This is
equally true for bank account management. Banks increasingly offer electronic messaging to
digitize and accelerate processes, however, usually this is only realized on a bilateral level with
individual clients.
In a joint project with Serrala, a global financial automation and B2B payments software
company, REWE Group, together with ING, managed to realize a fully standardized electronic
messaging which enables it to digitally interact with multiple banks. To this end, REWE Group
implemented the Serrala solution FS² eBAM which offers multilateral electronic messaging as
a standard.
“We set out to improve and digitize our bank account management and that’s exactly what we
have achieved with the SAP-embedded solution from Serrala. For accounts switched to eBAM
we are able to accelerate our processes by 90%, enhance compliance, and increase security
for our bank account and mandate management” described Benjamin Altmeyer, Head of
Treasury Process & Application Management at REWE Group the results.
“It is great to see that with this joint project with REWE Group and Serrala, yet another stateof-
the-art solution is available for corporations to transform their bank account management
into a future-proof, and sustainable, digital solution” highlighted Remko Streng, ING Head of
Transaction Services Sales – Germany & Austria, Regional Head Transaction Services Sales
CEE a.i.
Dirk Bieletzki, Serrala VP Sales DACH states: “It is impressive that the highly standardized
processes and electronic messaging of FS² eBAM proved to be a successful model for REWE.
Such standardization allows the fast and efficient replication for other companies. The
communication involved with account opening, closing, and more becomes a matter of minutes
instead of weeks.”
Instead of connecting every bank individually, REWE Group benefits from standardized
transfer protocols such as EBICS and SWIFT that are included in the solution enabling the
company to connect to any bank rapidly. The corresponding mappings for ISO20022 ACMTXML
formats are pre-set and can be implemented easily with any eBAM ready bank worldwide.
The mappings, however, also offer the flexibility to adapt them to customer or bank-specific
requirements, within the ISO 20022 message formats. The electronic messaging is not limited
to exchanging data for opening, closing, or changing bank accounts, it is equally possible to
communicate mandate information efficiently, quickly, and securely.
In a first step, REWE Group is implementing eBAM with ING, who contributed to this innovative
solution, driven by its ambition to provide digital services to their clients.
Advantages of standardized electronic messaging
Sending bank account and mandate management requests to the bank, including the
required documentation and signatures, takes minutes instead of weeks. Such rapid
processes for bank account and mandate management are particularly important for
security reasons: communications help increase control and transparency to reduce
fraud risks.
No more time-consuming implementation of electronic messaging for every single bank
connection. Thanks to the standardized eBAM, banks and corporates can
communicate 100% digitally.
Digitization helps eliminate paper-based processes, enabling secure, transparent,
compliant, and efficient bank account management especially when working from
home.
Companies benefit from enhanced auditability as they have all the information
requested by auditors, for example financial annual closings, documents and
information readily at hand.
For further details on the project, please go to the success story
About REWE Group
The cooperatively organized REWE Group is one of the leading trade and tourism groups in
Germany and Europe. In 2020, the company generated a total external turnover of around 75
billion euros. Founded in 1927, REWE Group operates with 380,000 employees in 21
European countries.
The sales lines include REWE, REWE CENTER and BILLA as well as BILLA PLUS and ADEG
supermarkets and consumer stores, the discounter PENNY, IKI, the drugstores BIPA and the
toom Baumarkt DIY stores. The company also operates convenience stores REWE To Go and
the e-commerce activities REWE Lieferservice and Zooroyal. The Lekkerland Group
comprises the wholesale activities of the business group in the area of on-the-go
consumption.Travel and tourism under the umbrella of DER Touristik Group includes the tour
operators ITS, Jahn Reisen, Dertour, Meiers Weltreisen, Travelix, Kuoni, Helvetic Tours, ITS
Coop Travel, Billa Reisen, Koning Aap, Apollo, Exim Tours and Fischer as well as more than
2,300 travel agencies (e.g. DER Reisebüro, DERPART, Kuoni, Exim, Fischer and cooperation
partners), the hotel chains Sentido, Aldiana, Calimera, Cooee, and the direct tour operator
Prijsvrij Vakanties.
About ING
ING Wholesale Banking Germany comprises the corporate clients business of ING in Germany
and is part of the ING Group’s worldwide Wholesale Banking network with offices in more than
40 countries. ING Wholesale Banking offers banking services for large, internationally
operating corporate clients. In addition to traditional banking products such as Corporate
Lending and Transaction Services, ING is a world-leading name in structured & project
financing concepts, complemented by capital market solutions. Further, ING has a strong focus
and expertise in the fields of Sustainable Finance and Innovation.
About Serrala
Serrala is a global financial automation and B2B payments software company creating digital
payment capabilities worldwide for enterprises of all sizes. We are a leading fintech helping
our customers integrate finance and treasury processes.
Offering truly differentiated ERP and cloud-native solutions, Serrala enables the Digital Office
of the CFO where all financial processes and payments are automated and optimized. Our
customers save costs, minimize risks and gain real-time insights into their world of payments.
We are the only provider offering a seamlessly integrated solution portfolio to manage all
inbound and outbound payments, treasury processes as well as related data and documents
in any IT landscape.
Today, Serrala is a fast-growing company with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and the
Middle East and over 700 employees. Serrala drives innovation for more than 2,800 customers
including more than 100 of the S&P500 companies.
Watch this video or visit serrala.com
For press inquiries please contact:
Marc-Oliver Prier
Director Marketing Content & Communications
+49 1520 2398345
m.prier@serrala.com
