Finance

The vocation of the Finance Platform has been to address cross-sector, financial matters on behalf of European active members, in particular:

• repayment of revenue received from customers by the sales company to the companies involved in transport operations (principles set out in IRS 30301, 30304 and leaflet 311) and internal audit of these repayments,
• monetary issues (conversion of currencies, loss of cashflow in connection with revenue accounting arrears, value of transactions on a given date) including matters relating to fraud,
• taxation questions relating to railway transport within the European Union and the European geographical area,
• organisation of the financial world and its development, as well as an element of financial comparison between members.

To follow these matters, UIC will distinguish sectors in line with members’ requirements.

A/ Regulations: leaflets setting out common principles for repayment of revenue relating to traffic and protection from financial risk, B/ Sharing experience and benchmarking analysis C/ Expert structures at the service of members

The Bureau Central de Clearing (Brussels Clearing House), an independent Belgian structure, provides financial clearing services for its members, which are primarily UIC members.

External Funding Unit

One important way for UIC to maintain and develop its rail technical expertise is to carry out technical projects for the benefit of its members. In this context the major role of the External Funding Unit (EFU) as part of the Finance Department is to support UIC members’ efforts by finding external sources of financing as well as providing financial, administrative and contractual assistance throughout all stages of externally funded projects.

BCC (Bureau Central de Clearing)

Il a pour objet de fournir à ses associés des prestations de services dans le domaine financier ainsi que toutes opérations commerciales nécessaires à cette fin, et plus particulièrement :

• De réduire le nombre et le montant des paiements entre ses associés par la centralisation et la compensation de leurs dettes et créances réciproques ;
• De reconnaître les monnaies nationales utilisables dans les relations financières internationales entre entreprises associées ;
• De publier périodiquement un barème de cours des monnaies reconnues ;
• D’observer les variations des monnaies reconnues et en cas de variation importante de cours, de procéder à la scission des périodes monétaires.

Working Groups

Regulations

RCF1 (The passenger accounting group)

• Responsible for regulations on passenger accounting for UIC member companies
  • Aims to standardise accounting allowing data exchanges which are more efficient and less costly in terms of Information Systems
  • Permanent adaptation of these accounting methods dependent on developments, notably in distribution.
  • Support for new entrants
    • Communication and explanation of regulations
    • Assistance in adapting revenue accounting systems
• Responsible for regulations concerning passenger fraud

RCF2 (Freight accounting - Rules governing financial relations between companies)

Remits

• Develop and update UIC Leaflet 304 - Accountancy regulations applicable to international freight and express parcels traffic
• Draw up accounting standards for all freight transport performed in accordance with CIM/CUV
• Accounting procedures Data format and data Claims handling procedures Accounting deadlines and due dates Settlement

RCF3 (Rules governing financial relations between companies)

The group is responsible for:

• Developing and updating Leaflet 311
• Finding solutions to financial issues concerning traffic services and bilateral or multilateral clearing via current accounts (BCC),
• Finding solutions to financial issues concerning supply contracts and other general services
• Addressing specific issues, e.g. financial relations, late payments, defaulting companies.

Financial services to the members

IPAAB (audit group)

This group is the audit body for international passenger traffic accounting.

It is mandated to perform audits on a representative sample of European RUs and companies required to keep accounts for relations with UIC members (e.g. Eurail GSAs) in order to establish whether international passenger traffic pricing and accounting practices meet the required standards.

Audits are performed by 2-4 people over a 4-5 day period. The audit examines all operations from the sale of tickets to the notification of balances. Audits are performed for electronic and manual accounting systems, and assess whether these conform to the prescriptions, leaflets and tariffs, and whether they meet the required degree of precision and exhaustiveness. IT specialists are also consulted to assess the distribution and accounting systems used from a technical standpoint. A detailed report is produced for each RU audited. The annual report contains a summary of all the audits performed and their main findings and recommendations. The annual report is presented to the Finance Support Group and the Passenger Forum.

The group has feight members (currently experts representing BDZ, DB, MAV, ÖBB, PKP, SBB, SNCF and TI), complemented on occasion by two IT specialists where necessary.

Benchmarking

Fiscal matters group

Remit

• To constitute a discussion forum for exchanging all types of information relating to the activities of participants;
• To enable all members to adopt common positions, in particular relating to terminology, fiscal analyses and the accounting, taxation and financial practices adopted by RUs;
• To carry out a number of taxation studies, in particular relating to VAT and deduction at source (with reference in particular to throughworking of railway rolling stock) ;
• To examine the fiscal consequences of the new organisation of international railway transport, in the context of the COTIF 1999 and the CUV in particular;
• To constitute a platform which provides an environment for defining and preparing joint strategies for approaching European and world bodies in order to obtain the views of these bodies on the fiscal regulations applicable to international rail transport or in order to carry out lobbying activities;
• Further specific subjects.

The Statistics Group

Remits

• promote cooperation and the sharing of information and experience concerning statistics between UIC members
• provide advice and information on statistics matters
• monitor developments in statistics activities in the light of restructuring at railway companies and changes in international legislation, with particular - focus on developing the international aspect of UIC’s statistics activities (statistics glossary, list of UIC statistics publications, confidentiality issues etc.)
• develop the collection, administration and distribution of statistics in line with developments in IT, enabling interactivity, speed and management of confidentiality
• expand the collection of statistics to include qualitative data whilst prioritising the quality and swift availability of statistics over quantity in the information to be provided

UIC Leaflets - Appendices