TCM banks are beefing up their commitment to the region with innovative offerings and enhanced client services.
In a dynamic financial landscape, leading banks serving Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are distinguishing themselves by offering innovative strategies in cash management, payments, and liquidity. Underlying these achievements is an industrywide focus on digital transformation, enhanced client services, and regional market leadership.
The continuous evolution of the banks’ offerings underscores a collective commitment to supporting businesses in CEE with robust and innovative financial solutions. From leveraging advanced digital platforms to expanding cross-border capabilities and prioritizing sustainability, this year’s TCM honorees are setting new benchmarks in transaction banking, promising to ensure that their clients in the region are equipped to navigate the complexities of the global financial environment.
Best Bank for Transaction Banking | UniCredit
UniCredit, is a triple honoree as Best Bank for Transaction Banking, Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management, and Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solutions, sees the CEE region as a crucial strategic pillar.
“Fully relying on our well-established Group Payments Solutions organization, we apply a global-local approach, ensuring every CEE client is serviced with suitable and advanced solutions, supporting regulatory transitions,” says Alessandro Soru, head of payments and cash management for CEE. “For example, following recent announcements, we support Bulgaria moving to the euro, Serbia joining SEPA, and multiple other regulatory initiatives through the region.”
UniCredit is also implementing multiple payments innovations in the CEE markets. Since June, the bank’s corporate and retail clients in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania can make direct payments worldwide in exotic currencies from all channels via the bank’s UC PayFX platform.
“The same applies for knowledge sharing regarding other industrial developments,” Soru adds, “such as the digital euro and central bank digital currencies, which we constantly investigate for potential business opportunities that can be diffused across our group.”
Best Bank for Cash Management | Raiffeisen Bank International
Raiffeisen Bank International prioritizes innovation and collaboration, enhancing digital offerings and streamlining international processes such as SEPA Instant Payments (under the EU’s Single Euro Payments Area) and Swift ISO 20022 migration through its new cash management digital ecosystem.
Best Bank for Financial Institutions, Best Bank for Payments & Best Bank for Collections | ING
ING is a full-service, pan-European payment and cash management provider, boasting a strong euro-clearing position and a robust presence in CEE that makes the bank a regional gateway. Annelinda Koldewe, global head of Payments and Cash Management, emphasizes ING’s “leading positions in transaction and universal banking. We offer extensive local services to consumers and large corporations, with each client receiving a dedicated global support team.”
Via ING’s proprietary network and global partners, the bank provides broad traditional trade and working capital solutions. In trade commodity finance services, ING enhances fronting structures, structured letters of credit, export letter-of-credit confirmations, and discounting to reduce risk-weighted assets and boost competitiveness. ING’s Sustainable Supply Chain Finance solution helps buyers achieve their sustainability goals by linking performance to discount rates.
“ING actively standardizes and digitalizes processes to increase straight-through processing and reengineers customer journeys to minimize manual steps for standard offerings, allowing focus on tailor-made products for large corporates,” says Koldewe. “We’ve also developed an account bank proposition for structured finance clients.”
In 2022, Komgo Konsole became available at ING Germany and Komgo Trakk through ING Italy. ING and Komgo jointly launched an enhanced market solution, expanded to include asset distribution. Throughout 2024, ING developed and enhanced its OneWeb channel for small to midsize enterprises, substantially completed the OneWeb bank guarantee module for Belgium, and achieved same-day processing on the bank’s proprietary supply chain finance platform.
Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds | Erste Group
Erste receives praise for its strong digital capabilities and comprehensive transaction-banking solutions for short-term liquidity, along with an active asset management arm.
