Managing Global Bank Accounts: It’s Easier Than You Think With eBAM

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In today's electronic world, managing your company's multiple bank accounts needn't be complicated. Through electronic bank account management (eBAM), manual and paper-based practices are being replaced by automated processes that will streamline the management of global bank accounts.

What is eBAM?
eBAM refers to the electronification and automation of the bank account management lifecycle. It's an industry-wide initiative that establishes a standard, electronic format to facilitate account management activity between a financial institution and its clients. A series of eXtensible Markup Language(XML) messages provide a framework for corporate customers to manage account opening, account maintenance, account reporting and account closing, electronically. The ISO 20022 eBAM standard is especially valuable to businesses managing hundreds of accounts, across several banking relationships and multiple locations.

Who Benefits, and How?
With eBAM, corporations will be able to open, maintain and close accounts electronically. This will help improve efficiency, increase transparency and enhance security and controls through audit reporting of account management activity. eBAM:

Expedites the creation and delivery of bank accounts and streamlines their management – for greater ease of use.
Eliminates paper from the account management request process by automating the delivery of bank account management requests. J.P. Morgan, for example, will accept requests in standard format initiated by clients through any vendor – or through proprietary software.
Uses existing direct bank connections and security credentials. There's no need to purchase new security devices from third party providers. At J.P. Morgan, we offer an open architecture, vendor agnostic eBAM solution. We accept all industry standard digital credentials and validate locally, using a customer-supplied key.
Strengthens the internal control environment over bank account management. eBam improves the internal reporting and "audit trails" for account management activities.
Offers a flexible approach. Client requests can be generated in several ways, including third-party software or proprietary systems.

Addressing Security Concerns
At J.P. Morgan, we understand our clients' concerns about security. We believe that digital interoperability will ultimately benefit our clients, as well as the industry, by employing open standards that will allow clients to use the same digital credentials across multiple banking partners. Digital interoperability will allow banks to accommodate all industry standard credentials and provide a consistent experience to all clients.

Leading the Industry In Support of Open Architecture
J.P. Morgan, an early proponent of open architecture standards, was one of the founding members of SWIFT's eBAM working group, and our firm played a leading role in advancing the development of eBAM standards. We believe that SWIFT's eBAM initiative holds tremendous market value for banks, clients and vendors – and is a natural evolution of the industry whose time has come.

For More Information
If you would like to know how your company can benefit from eBAM, contact your J.P. Morgan representative.