This technique involves the virtual offsetting of debit balances by credit balances, in order to reduce the interest paid on debit balances and increase the interest received on credit balances.

Credit and debit interest is recalculated monthly on the basis of the virtual daily net balance of accounts. Each account in the pool receives an amount of interest depending on its contribution to the offsetting process.

You can access a clear overview of your treasury position any time you wish on Fortis Bank's web-site - fortisbusiness.com - and monitor the balance in different accounts from day to day. For each account included in the notional pooling system a summary sets out the sums of credit and debit interest calculated before and after virtual balancing, which gives you a clear view on the gains made on each account during the previous month.

An additional benefit of notional pooling is its multi-currency dimension. You can easily set off accounts in various currencies. If you're short in GBP in London, and long in EUR in Brussels, we can consolidate the situation without having to sell your EUR and buy GBP or to transfer balances between accounts. That means less work and cost, and increased flexibility.