Expertise and Services

We invented and developed the use of PBAs and are acknowledged experts in this field.

2001

The first ever Project Bank Account was set up and used by us on the £41m Andover North Site Prime Contract for Defence Estates where we were the appointed Prime Contractor.

The PBA used on Andover received critical acclaim from National Audit Office for "ensuring timely payment of all parties and mitigating the risk of contractors unfairly withholding payments from their supply chain".

2006

We were appointed specialist adviser to the Office of Government Commerce in the development of their 'Guide to Best Fair Payment Practices'.

We developed the trust agreement that sits alongside the PBA and provides insolvency protection for the supply chain. This is now adopted by OGC as the generic standard and included in their 'Guide'

2007

We approached Barclays and Bank of Scotland and worked with them to develop their PBA products. Bank of Scotland's PBA product was launched in January 2008 and Barclays will follow in April 2008.

Today

We are currently commissioned by the OGC to monitor the take up of fair payment practices and PBAs across the public sector over the next 3 years.

We are working with the authors of the main standard forms of contract, JCT, NEC3 and PPC2000 to develop Project Bank Account versions.

In Summary

Our specialist knowledge in all aspects of project banking ideally place us to provide support and training to clients and contractors who are proposing to use a Project Bank Account for the first time.

Our services

Training

Where a client uses a PBA for the first time the project team (client, consultants, contractor and supply chain) need to receive training to make sure that the potential benefits are to be realised.

Our training programme is not only designed to provide advice on how to set up and operate a PBA it also addresses all the associated issues. Such issues include:

  • how to give the tendering supply chain the confidence that the PBA process will make a difference and provide payment certainty;
  • changes to procurement documents to introduce the PBA arrangements to the tendering teams; and
  • amendments to appointment terms and conditions to formalise the operation and use of the account.

Our training is designed to educate the entire project team in a collaborative way to explain in simple and memorable terms how to unlock the benefits that will flow from improved payment certainty including:

  • Payment certainty with all payments made electronically by the bank
  • Reduced tender prices, circa 2.5% in return for increased payment certainty
  • Further savings in overheads associated with debt chasing and administration
  • Improved trust & collaboration resulting in better projects and value for money
  • Better productivity/fewer disputes, hard to quantify but likely to be substantial

Monitoring and Modelling

We can act as advisors to project teams throughout the implementation of PBAs on projects, services include providing on call support, periodic stand back reviews and progress monitoring. The actual requirement will be customised to suit the teams particular needs.

We can also carry out sensitivity modelling to demonstrate the cash flow benefits for projects utilising PBAs.