Chris van Dijl interviewed at SWIFT gpi Day

The SWIFT gpi Day celebrated the successful launch of SWIFT gpi. As part of the event Cugavadi’s Chris van Dijl was interviewed at the final session of the conference to provide a corporate perspective on SWIFT gpi.

The final session was an interview with Chris Van Dijl, Managing Director of Cugavadi, a corporate treasury consultancy that assists many corporates in the Middle East.

Van Dijl stressed that corporates want transparency on all sides and most importantly, control. “Bank statements are fine for accountants that want to know what happened yesterday,” he said. “But a treasurer wants to know what will happen in the future. We want to know when a payment will hit the beneficiary account and how much it will cost. We need to make sure that a payment arrives before the ship enters the dock”.

He added that another big headache is bank fee analysis. While bank fees are not a decisive factor in choosing a bank, he wants the information. Control over payments is particularly important when it comes to fraud prevention and compliance, Van Dijl continued. It is critical that the company is making payments to parties that they are allowed to pay. Having a red button to stop any payment at any time is invaluable. He noted that SWIFT gpi could also allow control over and a view on subsidiaries’ activities by giving a view on payments, where they are and where they are going. “Information is power”, he said.