A new standard for cash management reporting is coming that will streamline communications between banks and corporations, and provide greater uniformity, global capabilities and better interoperability with back-office systems, supporters say.

The X9 Accredited Standards Committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is nearing the end of its two-year effort to upgrade and expand the BAI-2 format, last updated 10 years ago and widely used for reporting account balances, transactions, lockbox details and controlled disbursement details. X9 expects to publish the new standard, known as the Balance and Transaction Reporting Standard (BTRS) in the first quarter of 2012.

BTRS "is a major standard that will impact corporations" says David Repking, senior product manager at J.P. Morgan Treasury Services, who chaired the X9 Codes Working Group.