Develops financial plans, budgets and forecasts more quickly in an environment banking complex

Argentina is not a country for bankers faint of heart. From 2020, the inflation rate has exceeded 30%. The types of foreign exchange experience huge fluctuations and governmental regulations, such as the stress tests of banks, foreign exchange controls and restrictions on dividends, impose extra burdens on administrators bank.

However, the size and growth potential of the argentine economy make it an attractive market for investors bank in the long term, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest bank in the world in terms of assets and market capitalization.

In 2019, ICBC acquired 100% of the assets in the argentine former Standard Bank Group and ICBC Argentina became one of the biggest banks in the country. The new bank has the resources to help finance large projects, such as the fourth nuclear power plant planned in Argentina.

Given the size of the bank and the complexity of the environment to bank of Argentina, the development of financial plans, budgets and forecasts is an important task that requires significant staff resources. “Our team processes the annual budgets of the bank and of each line of business, in addition to the quarterly forecasts,” says Mariano Carranza, Head of Planning, Budget and Reporting of ICBC Argentina. “In addition, we report to the management of our bank, the parent company in China, and the Central Bank of Argentina. For years, we process our work manually in over 100 sheets”.

“It is difficult for people living abroad to understand the complexity of the banking industry in this country, with so many scenarios of exchange rates, inflation rates, and macroeconomic assumptions”

“The planning team often stayed in the office until 2:00. m. and worked on weekends with all the spreadsheets open and linked to each other. They also spent a lot of time doing calculations in Excel to check the consistency of the data.”

Working with so many spreadsheets increased the possibility of errors and delays. “Many of the errors were committed when it is completed, and the sheets”.

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We are very happy with this planning tool the IBM because now we can spend more time on the analysis instead of just processing the information. We need to be more efficient as a company, and this is going to help you to save time and resources.

Mariano Carranza
Head of Planning
Budget and Reporting, ICBC Argentina

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Implementing agile and close collaboration

In consultation with KMG Analytics, ICBC Argentina implemented the platform IBM® Planning Analytics with Watson to work with its familiar interface of Excel, to unify and optimize the planning, and help ensure that all users could see and work with the same data. “With the integration, all the areas are on the same platform and connected,” says Palombella. “Everything can be consolidated very quickly.”

Initially, the solution IBM Planning Analytics with Watson was used to review the planning and financial analysis, but the functionality is subsequently extended to other applications. The bank used methods of implementing agile to add tools to manage operating expenses and human resources. On the basis of the modular and scalable architecture of the software, the bank also implemented a solution very necessary to perform the complicated bank stress tests required by the government.

Working in close collaboration with the team of planning, budgeting and reporting of the bank, KMG Analytics set up the solution IBM Planning Analytics with Watson to achieve the greatest flexibility. This allowed the team to design income statements, and balance sheets for ICBC Argentina, executives of ICBC in China, government regulators and the Central Bank of Argentina.

“The bank values the platform, IBM Planning Analytics and the ability to work with greater confidence and speed with their data,” says Palombella. “Because they are not responsible for errors and inconsistencies related to writing, or link data to spreadsheets”.

The team Carranza also used agile methods to develop processes of analysis, planning. “We are currently adding more features to the tool and the participation of all the people who enter the data,” says Carranza. “For example, we're adding the auto-adjust by inflation to the figures, which is something that we could not do with spreadsheets”.

One of the key lessons learnt during the implementation was that a close partnership with experts in analysis, planning was essential to the success. “We needed to develop a long-term relationship with our supplier of KMG Analytics and to have a contract for ongoing maintenance,” says Carranza. “You need a partner in something as big as this.”

The bank appreciates the platform, IBM Planning Analytics and the ability to work with greater confidence and speed with your data. No longer are responsible for the errors and inconsistencies related to the writing or the linkage of data to the spreadsheet.

More time for high-level analysis of

As a solution-based planning in AI, IBM Planning Analytics with Watson automates workflows for the process to be visible, and provides to all the users working spaces of analysis customizable. The tools of AI support search and natural language-based queries in multidimensional expressions (MDX) for an analysis fast and powerful, and the predictive capabilities of predictive integrated allow a more accurate forecast.

After working with IBM Planning Analytics with Watson for more than two years, ICBC Argentina has been a significant time savings associated with some of its tasks of financial reports more complicated. For example, when it was develop planning scenarios are hypothetical, the tool was able to reduce a process of two days in a matter of seconds. “With the model that we developed, only takes a couple of clicks,” says Carranza. “We are very happy with the solution.”

The generation of reports to comply with the bank stress tests required by the government used to require four weeks of staff time, but now the stress tests can be performed in two weeks, which represents a time savings of 50 %.

From a more strategic perspective, the use of the solution Planning Analytics with Watson has helped transform the department of Carranza. “As we are a cost center, we do not produce income. Just produce costs. Our main goal is to be more efficient and we have to change our internal processes to provide better services,” says Carranza. “Now, we can also devote more time to the analysis of the information, instead of simply processing information”.

Due to the dynamic banking conditions in Argentina, ICBC Argentina needs to react quickly to future regulations and changing economic circumstances. The solution IBM Planning Analytics with Watson provides the ability to optimize business processes, and scale to meet the workload. “All the years we have changes, so we will keep using the tools and incorporate more functionality, save time and save resources,” says Carranza. “With Planning Analytics, we believe that we are going in the right direction.”

About Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Argentina

Founded in 1998 as Standard Bank and acquired by ICBC in 2011, ICBC Argentina (link resides outside of ibm.com) has its headquarters in Buenos Aires and has more than 100 branches in 17 provinces. With more than 3,500 employees, the bank serves a million customers and 40,000 institutional clients. It is part of ICBC, the largest bank in the world with over 4.9 billion in assets. Founded in 1984, ICBC has its headquarters in Beijing.

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