How Alpina Group tackled complexity and enhanced its interest income with Cobase

When Robbin Snijders arrived at The Alpina Group in 2021, the paint was still wet on its sign. It had been created by the merger of two large Dutch insurance firms: the Voogd & Voogd Group and the Heilbron Group.

As an experienced corporate treasurer with a recent background in insurance and time at large corporates such as BT, Cisco and Footlocker, Snijders was the ideal person to establish a treasury function for the new business, starting from scratch.

His challenge was to bring clarity to what had become a very complex cash management situation. The Alpina group consisted of multiple legal entities with over 360 bank accounts and thousands of direct debits, collecting millions of Euros in monthly insurance premiums. Yet, there was no clear picture of how much cash was in the business at any time.

As a first step, Snijders began creating a weekly cash position using spreadsheets and downloaded balances - but that wasn’t a long-term solution.

Snijders needed a treasury management platform that would give instant visibility of the company’s cash but could also offer better ways to manage that cash, including generating a useful cash forecast, simplifying the payments process and, ultimately, creating a cash pool or in-house bank.

While continuing to streamline the banking structure and improve basic processes, Snijders began looking for the right solution.

After investigating other treasury management platforms, several industry contacts pointed Snijders toward Cobase. Having made that decision, Snijders worked closely with a colleague in the group’s Shared Services Centre (SSC) throughout the implementation phase.

The implementation went smoothly and was much faster than expected: the project kick-off was in February 2024, and the system was in place and delivering benefits by the end of April, making life much simpler for treasury, finance and shared services but also bringing substantial process improvements for the business as a whole.

For example, Cobase receives Alpina bank statements in the CAMT.053 XML format but transforms them into MT940 so that Alpina’s ERP and insurance platforms can handle them.

While cash visibility had been the main driver for the change, other benefits quickly became apparent.

With 1.5m customers, Alpina collects millions of direct debits each month, all of which could be handled through the Cobase platform. Payments are equally important, including both regular payments and ‘spot’ payments for insurance claim payouts. Where before these had to be auhorised in multiple bank portals, they can now be authorized at one time within Cobase, making life much easier for the SSC.

Before and during the Cobase implementation, Snijders continued to streamline and rationalise Aplina’s treasury structure.

For example, he has set up a daily sweep of all the firm’s bank accounts into one cash concentration account, allowing Alpina to generate significant interest of up to €2m a year on short-term deposits. Cobase’s ability to handle that process in the future was an important factor.

Where once there were 365 bank accounts, today there are 85, with a planned reduction to 65. Cobase continues to work with him and his team to take the process further; right now, his input is being used as part of a significant upgrade of Cobase’s cash forecasting functionality.

That type of cooperation, says Snijders, is what has made the relationship with Cobase such a success. “We really get on with their people,” he says. “That makes it easy for us, and that’s why the implementation went so well.”

By partnering with Cobase, Alpina has transformed its treasury operations, achieving significant operational efficiencies, better cash management, and enhanced forecasting capabilities. As the group continues to grow, with potential acquisitions on the horizon, its treasury function is now truly fit for the future.