Recap & Recording: Building supply chain resilience with automated bank guarantee management

By treasuryXL & Surecomp

15/10/2024

Enhancing Trade Finance and Supply Chain Resilience in Turbulent Times

In cooperation with our partner Surecomp, industry experts gathered to discuss Trade Finance and the critical need for supply chain resilience.

Panelist line up:

Suchi Guharoy, Global Director of Solution Consulting, Surecomp
Francois Masquelier, CEO Simply Treasury, Chair of Luxembourg Corporate Treasury Association ATEL, Chair of EACT
Sander Rijnboutt QCM, Treasury Operations Specialist, Royal BAM Group nv
Pieter de Kiewit, treasuryXL ambassador and Managing Director of Treasurer Search, will be the moderator guiding the discussion.

Recording

Key Takeaways

1. Current Economic and Political Context

Francois highlighted the impact of recent global events on supply chains, emphasizing the shift from globalization to resilience. “The whole concept of supply chain has morphed into a focus on how to be resilient and mitigate disruptions,” he noted.

2. Assessment and Automation

Suchi stressed the importance of assessing current practices and automating processes to reduce inefficiencies. “We aim to address how inefficient manual guarantee checks cause significant issuance delays,” she explained. She also highlighted the role of AI in improving operational efficiency, stating, “We’ve leveraged AI capabilities to elevate the accuracy and operational efficiency of bank guarantees.”

3. Integration and Collaboration

Sander discussed the need for integrated systems to manage trade finance instruments effectively. “It’s very important to set up a treasury management system that can support the managing of trade finance products,” he said. He also emphasized the importance of linking these systems to ERP and banking platforms for better management.

4. Future of Trade Finance:

Francois provided a visionary outlook on the future of trade finance, mentioning the potential of AI and the importance of data integration. “AI could help detect behaviors and risks, providing alerts that could be quite useful for the corporate world,” he stated. He also stressed the need for dedicated solutions to make treasurers’ lives easier, adding, “We need a dedicated solution to help us and make our life easier to save time that can be dedicated to added value tasks.”

Speaker Quotes

Suchi Guharoy

Global Director of Solution Consulting

Surecomp

“Our mission is to enable seamless, sustainable trade by providing a centralized digital hub for real-time communication and execution of trade finance transactions.”

François Masquelier

CEO

Simply Treasury

“Time, speed, security, cost resilience are becoming the key targets for efficient financial supply chains.”

Sander Rijnboutt QMC

Treasury Operations Specialist

Royal BAM Group NV

“In practice, we use our treasury management systems and do a lot of requests manually to the bank. Ideally, we should have one platform to connect those systems to each other.”

Conclusion

The discussion underscored the importance of automating and integrating trade finance processes to enhance supply chain resilience. With the right tools and strategies, treasurers can more efficiently manage the challenges posed by today’s economic environment. As Francois mentioned, “We need to be efficient to limit the use of credit guarantees because we know that it’s limited.”

Stay tuned for more insights and updates from treasuryXL and Surecomp.