Billing of Bank Services: Business Process

The business process supported by the TWIST Standard for Billing of Bank Services is very straightforward. Its purpose is for a Financial Institution to advise its wholesale customers (i.e., corporations, governments, institutions, etc.), of the billing of services rendered. This transmission takes the form of a standard electronic statement. The best practice process involves:

• A standardised schedule of bank charges, and codes
• Electronic transmission of the details of bank charges, based on the standardised schedule of charges, from the bank to the corporate, preferably on a “pull” basis by the corporate’s Treasury Management System
• The corporate using software to record agreed bank charge tariffs, and / or budgeted and / or actual volumes, to compare these with the data supplied by the bank(s).
• Pre-authorisation of these charges by the corporate

The Bank Services Billing Standard (i.e., BSB) takes the form of a periodic statement that lists all the chargeable service events that occurred during a reporting cycle, along with detailed tax and currency information.

The BSB does not replace existing billing procedures. In addition, the BSB is not intended to replace the currently used Invoice. However, it may be used as such, subject to prior agreement between the financial institution and its customer.

Workflow and Message Delivery

The message standard as specified in this document involves a simple workflow, with the financial institution initiating a push transmission to the recipient. No supplemental messaging related to status, resend, acknowledgement, etc. has been provided for this version of the specification. Message delivery (communications protocols, security, handshaking, etc.) will occur by bilateral agreement between the two correspondents.

Steps in BSB Service Setup and Operation