Operating model

Interbank Corporate Banking, the Italian CBI, is a telematic banking service created in 1995 to allow sending payment and collection orders through standard messages and to receive all accounting data needed for cash management activities.

Therefore CBI is a service for the transport of electronic flows relevant to banking and commercial operations from a Bank, referred to as the Access Bank, to a firm being the client of the Proponent and of other Banks, referred to as the Executing bank. The service provides a telematic link between the client and the Proposing bank, or a Bank-owned Service Providers (STD), and allows for the exchange of electronic flows with the Access Bank and with all the Executing banks. The flows arranged from the firm may contain collection or payment orders, while those from the banks contain the result of collection orders the information needed for cash management.

CBI, established in the past, with the coordination of ABI, aims at guaranteeing adequate levels of service to corporate clients, also by verifying compliance to the rules. All this is carried out by the CBI Consortium. Particularly, CBI:

• centralises in a single point a firm's relations with the whole banking system
• provides a wide range of financial, information and commercial tools;
• always uses the same communication standard;
• provides a service that is tailored to the needs of the individual firm;
• allows for an integration with company procedures;
• provides a service based on cooperation among banks, without reducing competition opportunities.