Keeping UEFA running

UEFA, Europe’s football association, was facing a challenge – it needed to modernize the way it made payments. No small matter when you have 52 current accounts belonging to each member country’s football association – not to mention sponsoring and broadcasting rights, referee fees, as well as countless other bills and payments.

So UEFA, based in Nyon, Switzerland, came to UBS looking for an answer – which it found in UBS KeyDirect. First introduced in 1999 and updated in 2002, UBS KeyDirect is an online banking solution for large and medium-sized companies in Switzerland. It currently has 3,400 clients and handles 8 million transactions a year – which add up to CHF 240 billion in payments annually. It employs a permanent, direct link to each client’s accounting software. UBS KeyDirect supports a number of different national and international payment standards, such as SWIFT, giving clients a very high degree of flexibility when handling their transactions – while ensuring future compatibility with industry developments and progress. Clients can also connect their accounts at other financial institutions to the system — and still make payments to and from them using UBS’s interface. Digital certificates, using 128-bit encryption, ensure security, authorizing system users through a combination of electronic keys and codes. A hotline number, staffed during working hours, is available to help clients deal with any problems.

UEFA has used the service for a year now, and it has been paying nearly 500 of its suppliers with UBS KeyDirect. According to the association, the solution has saved time, increased productivity and helped eliminate most sources of payment error and duplication. With plans to introduce an enhanced direct debiting system next year, UBS KeyDirect itself keeps evolving and improving its offering in order to better give clients what they want. As demand for integrated online solutions between companies and their financial service providers looks set to increase, UBS KeyDirect – as the central gateway for electronic payments and account reporting – is in a great position to benefit.