What is bank connectivity in treasury?
Bank connectivity is how a company's treasury, ERP and payment systems exchange data with its banks: receiving balances and statements, sending payment files and getting status updates. The main channels are bank APIs, host-to-host file transfer, SWIFT for corporates and, in parts of Europe, EBICS. It underpins cash visibility, automated payments and reconciliation across many banks.
Also calledbank integrationcorporate-to-bank connectivityhost-to-hostEBICS
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- Channels
- API, host-to-host, SWIFT, EBICS
- Data
- Statements, payments, status
- Feeds
- Treasury system and ERP
How bank connectivity works
Each channel suits a different scale. Bank APIs and open banking give real-time balances and transactions and are quick to set up, though coverage and formats vary by bank. Host-to-host connections transfer files directly between the company and one bank over secure file transfer, common for high payment volumes. SWIFT lets a company use one connection to reach many banks worldwide, and EBICS is the standard channel for corporate banking in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. Over these channels travel payment files such as pain.001 and statements such as camt.053, MT940 or BAI2. Treasury systems sit on top, normalise the data from every bank and pass it to the ERP. Embat connects to banks through APIs, EBICS, SWIFT and host-to-host, and Panax pulls balances across banks and entities.
Common questions
What is EBICS?+
The Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard, a protocol for exchanging payment and statement files between companies and banks, used mainly in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland.
When does a company need SWIFT connectivity?+
Usually when it banks with many institutions across several countries and wants one secure channel to all of them, rather than separate connections to each bank.
How is bank connectivity different from a bank feed?+
A bank feed brings transactions into accounting software for bookkeeping. Corporate bank connectivity also sends payments and statuses, covers many banks and entities, and feeds treasury systems.
Treasury software with bank connectivity
Part of Accountio’s accounting technology coverage · Glossary
