Online trade finance services are working well according to company executives interviewed recently in a monthly financial journal.

Time and cost savings on letters of credit (L/Cs) were highlighted in particular as a benefit of Internet banking by one of the three interviewees featured in Finance Asia.

Five years online

Finance manager for Jollibee Foods Corporation in the Philippines, Emily Triunfo, told Finance Asia that the fast food company has been using Citigroup's web banking platform for nearly five years.

She considered the online environment was valuable for cash management, payments and trade transactions.

"By going online we were hoping to reduce the time spent on processing payment instructions for local transfers and cross border transactions, opening of L/Cs and the settling of our trade transactions," she is quoted as saying.

Time and money

According to the financial monthly, Jollibee claims the online trade services are saving time and money "on phone bills, on communicating with bank personnel to obtain balances and on man-hours spent doing the paperwork that was required to order a payment or open a L/C."

The company is also saving money on bank charges and fees for cross border payments, the article says.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.