Newsletter 12/2009
Third e-bank revolution
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Bo Harald is recognized worldwide as someone who points the way for e-banking and as a developer of e-business services. Harald, who is also known as the father of Finnish e-banking feels that an understanding of online processes is essential for Finland’s competitiveness.
“Networking markets that know no frontiers are electronifying quickly. What was not possible yesterday because of too expensive technology is today the only possibility,” Harald says.
When talking about e-bank development, Harald really means revolutions. If the first revolution saw almost all Finns transfer to handling their bank affairs on the internet, during the second revolution companies started transferring rapidly to e-invoicing.
“After the third revolution all invoicing and other documentation will be handled digitally, which will make it possible to automate functions such as bookkeeping, VAT payments and reporting to the authorities.”
Bo Harald is known as the father of Finnish e-banking.
More speed!
Finnish companies are the world’s leading users of e-banking and e-invoicing, in terms of their range, diversity and numbers of e-invoice agreements. Although the transfer to online services has happened quickly, Harald wants to push the accelerator down harder.
“Recent times have seen a quieter stage in the development work, but I believe it will soon be over. Finnish firms are at this moment global leaders in e-invoicing on the b2b side, but the introductory stage could be speeded up,” Harald says.
The pace in the third-generation e-bank stage is expected to hot up. Small companies can also now automate their bookkeeping, results and cash-flow monitoring and reporting.
Savings with e-invoicing
Transferring to a real-time economy means that e-invoicing will have to spread to consumers. The transfer will require a charge to be made on paper bills, as has happened in Finland’s neighbouring countries.
Harald cannot think of one reason for not transferring completely to e-billing. As a mass market solution, e-billing brings considerable cost savings in corporate and public-sector processes.
“In Finland alone manual billing causes costs of more than three billion euros a year. In Germany the figure is 54 billion, according to the Deutsche Bank. It has been estimated that EU costs total more than 250 euros.”
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