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Hindustan Unilever
Deutsche Bank provided its client with a solution that enabled the company to support its international and domestic payments, including tax payments
Hindustan Unilever is an Indian consumer goods company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is owned by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever. HUL’s products include food, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products and water purifiers. HUL was established in 1933 as Lever Brothers and in 1956 became Hindustan Lever Limited before being renamed Hindustan India in 2007. The company employs over 16,000 people and has a distribution network that covers over two million retail outlets. According to Nielsen market research, two out of three Indians use HUL products.
The challenge
Like many of Deutsche Bank’s clients, HUL has been taking steps to align their integration strategy with global standards and with that in mind, they transitioned to industry standards like SWIFT XML ISO 20022 to facilitate initiatives around automation and standardisation. HUL were among the first to decide to implement the XML format for their payments. Their initial integration was centred on a customised XML file for payments and corresponding payment status reports. HUL looked to Deutsche Bank to process the customised XML file.
The solution
Leveraging Deutsche Bank’s powerful conversion platforms, a flexible XML integration solution was delivered to HUL and allowed the client to achieve its objectives. These included integrating HUL’s legacy bespoke XML file, processing payments via Straight Through Processing and the new XML Version 3 for HUL’s e-tax payments. This all involved capturing a large number of taxes and information in a standardised format and ensuring that the customised XML file to be processed complied with ISO 20022 standards. The entire solution was designed and developed by Deutsche Bank in partnership with HUL.
Benefits for the client
The solution provided HUL with a fully-integrated XML solution enabling the company to support all of its international and domestic payments, including tax payments. In addition, HUL benefitted from Deutsche Bank’s ability to provide conversion solutions that achieved both standard and customised conversion solutions by leveraging state-of-the-art technology platforms. HUL’s partnership with Deutsche Bank allowed the company to pay tax to multiple states and central tax authorities via global payment formats. The growing success of XML ISO 20022 has been based on the increasing market trends towards centralization, automation and standardization in the payments arena.
