Two presentations at the ACT's Annual Conference in May neatly described many of the different aspects in managing bank relationships.

Paul Stapleton, Group Treasurer at ESB described how he uses slightly different criteria for evaluating individual banks and bank groups:

He also stressed the importance of the Bank's Relationship Manager.

Toby Shore, Corporate Treasurer and Chief Risk Officer at Dubai Aluminium described the Quality Index they have developed at DUBAL, which quantifies the quality of the products and services offered by various relationship banks.

The standardised assessment criteria that DUBAL use:

• CORPORATE FINANCE / TREASURY
  • Flexibility on loan documentation
  • Range of facilities offered, limits & competitiveness
  • Cash management solutions
  • Competitiveness in FX trades
  • Enrolment on 360 Platform
  • Responsiveness to general operational queries
  • Promptness in crediting incoming receipts
• TRADE FINANCE
  • Export finance functionality parameters
  • Scope and Geographical coverage areas
  • Pricing
  • Responsiveness to operational queries and documentation issues.

These standardized metrics and analysis allows DUBAL Treasury to:

1. benchmark each relationship bank with their peers;
2. allocate "ancillary" business such as Trade Finance, cash management services and other banking requirements based upon the rating; and
3. focus on what's important to DUBAL – security, liquidity, flexibility, diversification and partnership.

They give these assessments to their relationship banks which gives the banks:

1. a qualitative measure of how they are performing as a business partner with DUBAL vis-à-vis their peers;
2. specific improvement areas for the bank to focus on if they are seeking a greater share of DUBAL's Treasury business; and
3. positive feedback in areas where they outperform their peers.