Bank Chains (Multi-Level Payment Methods) 

This function is not available in the applications BCA and IHC.

Use

The function Bank Chains enables you to make a payment via more than one bank (for example, correspondent banks of the house bank and/or recipient bank and/or intermediary banks). Besides the sending and recipient banks, you can specify up to three further banks.

Up to now, if you wanted to make a payment to a foreign business partner for example, you specified only your house bank and the business partner's bank. These banks represent the beginning and the end of the payment flow. The house bank then had to determine which route (via which banks) the payment was to take in order to reach the bank of the payment recipient. Now you can determine the bank chain yourself. The house bank no longer has to do this. This results in faster and more cost-efficient processing of payment transactions.

Integration

In order to use the bank chains function, you must also implement the FI function (FI-AP/AR) Automatic Payment for Open Items or Automatic Payment for Payment Requests.

Scope of Functions

The payment program can determine a combination of intermediary banks for each payment. You have these intermediary banks in the system. The sequence of the intermediary banks can depend on the following factors:

·        House bank

·        Vendor's bank details

·        Customer's bank details

·        Business partner’s bank details

·        Currency

·        Payment method supplement

This is represented in the SAP System using scenarios on bank chain determination. You set these up in Customizing for Bank Accounting.

If you carry out a payment run, the bank chain is determined based on the settings you made in Customizing or in the master data. The bank chains are fixed when the payment media are generated. The following formats are currently supported:

·        S.W.I.F.T. MT 100

·        S.W.I.F.T. MT 200

·        S.W.I.F.T. MT 202

·        EDI (Basis IDoc PEXR2002)

·        Sending payment data by ALE (Basis IDOC:FIPARQ01)

Activities

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       1.      Copy one of the scenarios that was delivered with the system or define a new one.

To do this, choose the activity Define Scenario in Customizing for Bank Accounting.

       2.      Activate the scenario.

To do this, choose the activity Activate Bank Chain in Customizing for Bank Accounting.

       3.      If you want payments to be made via a bank chain and dependent on the business partner’s bank details, then you define a business partner-dependent bank chain.

On the SAP Easy Access screen choose Accounting ® Financial Supply Chain Management ® Treasury and Risk Management ® Business Partners ® Maintain Business Partner or Business Partner ® Special Functions ® Standing Instructions ® Payment Details.

For more information, see Creating Bank Chains for SAP Business Partners.