Companies increasingly make online arrangements to obtain bank guarantees for bidding competitions

Press release

3/19/2010
8:00 AM

Less than a year since its launch, the TF OnLine service is now used by dozens of corporate clients. Most often, construction companies are using the application to obtain bank guarantees in favour of their Czech partners. TF OnLine serves for requesting the issue or change, and for monitoring the current status of the processing, of bank guarantees, documentary credit, and documentary collection over the Internet.

Komerční banka's TF OnLine web application has been available for clients since August 2009. Over the eight months that have passed since its launch, it has attracted dozens of companies.

"The fulfilment of our plans has surpassed our expectations," says Jaromír Chabr, Director, Trade and Export Finance Division of Komerční banka.

TF OnLine is most frequently used by construction companies for working with the bank guarantees that they need in tendering procedures. Using TF OnLine, they can meet the requirement for bank guarantees much faster and much more easily. The TF OnLine web application is accessible without any limitation by place or time.

"For example, companies submitting their tenders to the bidding competitions for the supply of forestry work and timber sales, declared by Lesy České republiky, will use this service. Bid bonds and performance bonds are a part of the bidding competitions, in which several billion Czech crowns are at stake," adds Jaromír Chabr.

The group of users is continuously expanding. The second most important group of TF OnLine users includes food, clothing and electronic goods wholesalers who use import documentary credit for their imports, in particular from Asia. More and more frequently, KB also receives requests for import documentary credit to pay for photovoltaic panels, also imported from Asia. On the other hand, the CIS republics, India and Turkey are the most frequent export countries.

The TF OnLine application makes the handling of requests and the managing of deals much easier and faster. In addition to the simple arrangement of the web application and the considerable variability of work with running deals, clients mainly appreciate Trade Finance specialists' assistance, and not only with the implementation of the web application but also during specific transactions. A certificate on a chip card guarantees secure access; companies obtain the chip card and scanner free of charge from KB.

Komerční banka is one of the best run universal banks in Central Europe. It provides comprehensive services to clients in the areas of retail, corporate, and investment banking. The Komerční banka Group's 8,815 employees serve more than 2.7 million clients, who can use an extensive network of 398 points of sale throughout the country. Komerční banka currently operates 685 ATMs and more than 984,000 of its clients use one of direct banking channels.

Komerční banka is part of the Société Générale Group, one of the largest banking groups in the euro zone (in terms of market capitalisation), whose 163,000 employees serve more than 30 million individual clients worldwide.