Kyriba Webinar: Modernising Global Corporate Payments to Prevent Fraud

04-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

These last few months have highlighted that Payments Fraud continues to be a major problem, with fraudsters quick to leverage the global pandemic, with the amounts involved considerable.

In this session Kyriba’s Paul Simpson will be joined by Helen Alexander from SWIFT and James Bushby from MasterCard, to explain what institutional payment fraud is, with a specific focus on the technology and processes that treasury and finance teams can employ to minimise risk.

In particular, the agenda will follow:

  • What institutional payment fraud is and the internal processes and technology to consider, with SWIFT
  • How a payment hub mitigates against Fraud for Corporates, with Kyriba
  • Introduction to how MasterCard is helping fight Financial Crime

Register your place by filling in the form to your right and we will be in touch!

Date:

November 12th, 09:30- 10:30 (CET)

Contact:

KYRIBA Global Summit

| 07-10-2020 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

We are excited to invite you to the first ever Kyriba Global Summit, a free virtual event bringing together treasury, finance and IT teams from around the world to discuss their successes and the latest innovations in cash management, payments, bank connectivity, FX risk management and working capital management.

Hear successes and stories of transformation from some of the most recognized companies in the world with a globally diverse group of speakers.

REGISTER HERE

About Kyriba

Kyriba empowers CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation, while also protecting against financial risk. Kyriba’s pioneering Active Liquidity Network connects internal applications for treasury, risk, payments and working capital, with vital external sources such as banks, ERPs, trading platforms, and market data providers. Based on a secure, highly scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial and business intelligence, Kyriba enables thousands of companies worldwide to maximize growth opportunities, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce costs through advanced automation. Kyriba is headquartered in San Diego, with offices in New York, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and other major locations. For more information, visit www.kyriba.com.

Partner Interview Series | A deeper dive with Paul Simpson from Kyriba

01-09-2020 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

In the upcoming weeks, you will get inspired by the treasuryXL partner interviews. Each interview will be different, the only thing we can recommend: Learn, Discover and Enjoy!

The first interview to start with is Kyriba where we will take a deeper dive into their recent hosted webinar about Mitigating Fraud With a Corporate Payment Hub.

AN INTRODUCTION TO

 

Paul Simpson is Strategic Payments Director at Kyriba who also was one of the presenters during the webinar in July.

We asked him 9 questions and 3 bonus questions. Let’s go!


INTERVIEW

1. Can you tell us about the Corporate Payment Hub and your specific role?

My role is to promote the Kyriba Payment Hub, to make customers and prospects aware that we also have a powerful payment module. Often people think of Kyriba for TMS, but we have far more to offer, for example an anti-fraud solution in addition to payments. As part of my role at Kyriba, I look at the constantly changing payment landscape to inform treasurers and finance teams of these changes, whether that’s regulatory or technological. The Kyriba Payments Hub detangles what I call the “ERP payment spaghetti”, streamlines global bank connectivity and format transformation, whilst providing companies with real-time fraud detection. This can also accelerate ERP cloud migration projects.

2. What is the core issue the Corporate Payment Hub aims to address and how does it differentiate it from the other players in the market?

Essentially a payment hub gives our clients a single, consolidated point of access across bank accounts, giving the ability to set up payments, define different payment types and provide notification of pending approvals. Kyriba provides this visibility by consolidating payment streams from different systems – ERPs, finance, treasury, legal, capital markets and decentralised teams, thus transforming dis-aggregated processes into a single source of record for all outgoing payments, all done with built-in fraud detection. We also, uniquely, support and maintain a “bank” of over 45,000 bank formats in-house via our bank formats team. This allows the payment hub to transform payment data into bank-specific file formats and connects directly with global banks via multiple protocols, including host-to-host, SWIFT and regional networks. Other providers build each bank format for each customer at a high cost and development time. The Kyriba payment hub is designed to work across different ERP solutions, whereas ERP systems will not work across other instances.

3. Can each ERP work with the Corporate Payment Hub also when you work with multiple ERP’s located in different countries?

Absolutely. The Kyriba payment hub is designed to work with multiple ERP systems across different countries.

4. What are the most common fraud scams that businesses are dealing with?

Fraudsters are trying to use the current crisis to their advantage. With people working from home, for example, they may attempt to ask finance to make payment to a new bank account – knowing the sign off process is not as robust as it was when teams were all together in the office.

5. What’s the difference in Fraud Scams before COVID19 and the time we live in now?

We have research that shows the number of fraud scam attempts is up by nearly a 1,000 times since Coronavirus. The finance sign-off process for making payments are defragmented as people are working from home. This is where the Kyriba payment hub can bring standardised workflows, sign-off and approvals together to help eliminate fraud

6. What critical elements of Fraud are often overlooked by businesses?

Businesses fail to use AI and machine learning in addition to rule-based technology and processes to reduce fraud. This is a key component of the Kyriba Payment Hub

7. What has been the best experience of one of your customers working with the Corporate Payment Hub?

We are able to cut the time and cost of a customer migrating their ERP solutions to the cloud, as we can handle all the payment connectivity and formats etc “out the box”, thus saving the company many 100,000s of Euros, and 6 months or more in time, whilst also providing and standardising work flow sign off processes etc.

8. What is, in your perception, the biggest benefit of a working with the Corporate Payment Hub?

True, real-time visibility of all payments, from all systems, in one place with enhanced fraud protection and built in work flow.

9. What is your best fraud prevention advice for businesses?

Prevention is always better than cure! I always preach this. Always use combined workflow and AI / Machine learning technology together – the best of both worlds.

BONUS QUESTIONS

Have you ever experienced a fraud scam yourself? If yes, how did it impact you?

I have never experienced a fraud scam myself, the protection I had in place alerted me to a potential scam and I took action.

How are you defending yourself against payments fraud?

Every payment has to be checked via a rule and AI/Machine Learning process.

How does the future of fraud prevention look like in your perspective?

Fraudsters are getting more sophisticated, with only 6% of Corporates using machine learning/AI, they need to use the latest technology or be left behind and suffer fraud.

About Kyriba

Kyriba is the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, delivering mission-critical capabilities for cash and risk management, payments and working capital solutions.

Kyriba empowers CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation, while also protecting against financial risk. Kyriba’s pioneering Active Liquidity Network connects internal applications for treasury, risk, payments and working capital, with vital external sources such as banks, ERPs, trading platforms, and market data providers. Based on a secure, highly scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial and business intelligence, Kyriba enables thousands of companies worldwide to maximize growth opportunities, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce costs through advanced automation. Kyriba is headquartered in San Diego, with offices in New York, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and other major locations.

Visit Kyriba

Active Liquidity Podcast – How AI Protects Payments During COVID19

| 17-08-2020 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

Our Partner Kyriba has launched their podcast, in which the Chief Product Officer Thierry Truche shares his view on how AI (Artificial Intelligence) is essential as the third line of defense for finance chiefs, ensuring payments are protected during the COVID 19 pandemic. Even if you are a company that has strong fraud prevention processes in place, remote working conditions require AI to detect abnormal payments activity. Hear why Truche sees AI as a replacement for the collective intelligence that is more present in an office setting in this episode of the Activity Liquidity Podcast!

 

 

About Kyriba

Kyriba empowers CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation, while also protecting against financial risk. Kyriba’s pioneering Active Liquidity Network connects internal applications for treasury, risk, payments and working capital, with vital external sources such as banks, ERPs, trading platforms, and market data providers. Based on a secure, highly scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial and business intelligence, Kyriba enables thousands of companies worldwide to maximize growth opportunities, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce costs through advanced automation. Kyriba is headquartered in San Diego, with offices in New York, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and other major locations. For more information, visit www.kyriba.com.

 

SOURCE

Trade Finance and ICC Incoterms

| 24-06-2020 | Ger van Rosmalen | treasuryXL

Still up to date every day: “yes do not worry sir, the container will arrive within a few weeks, i hope, it is now the rain season and roads are like rivers”. Many logistics managers are not waiting for these kinds of messages and the irritation grows when they wonders what ***** of Sales has had in mind to deliver this customer on a DAP basis.

This blog is in Dutch language.

De frustratie van iedere logistieke of customer service medewerker is als Sales iets verkoopt zonder zich echt bewust te zijn van de gevolgen en implicaties van die afgesloten deal.

Sales wil geen risico nemen als het op betalen aankomt en heeft van de koper in de binnenlanden van een Afrikaans land wel een Letter of Credit (L/C) als zekerheid gevraagd. De koper wilde die zekerheid wel geven maar dan moesten de goederen wel op DAP basis afgeleverd worden. “Geen punt” volgens Sales.

DAP wil zeggen “Delivered at Place” dus de verkoper moet alle kosten en risico’s voor zijn rekening nemen voor aflevering van de goederen op die overeengekomen plaats ergens in de binnenlanden van dat Afrikaanse land! Sales gaat er maar vanuit dat Logistiek het wel regelt maar weet niet wat voor onmogelijke uitdaging dit is als je je realiseert dat in Afrika sommige geasfalteerde wegen zomaar 5 km buiten de stad overgaan in onverharde moeilijk begaanbare wegen! Zo ook in deze casus, de dure machine moet eerst nog afgeleverd worden in de binnenlanden van dat Afrikaanse land want daar vindt het overdrachtsmoment plaats, aflevering van de machine door afgifte van een “Goods receipt” dat later onder het L/C aangeboden moet worden om betaling te verkrijgen onder het L/C!

Het was toch echt slimmer geweest om de machine af te leveren op basis van een andere  Incoterm, liever geen E- of F-term, maar bij voorkeur een Incoterm uit de C-Groep, maar welke? Het is belangrijk dat iedereen binnen het bedrijf, Sales, Finance en Logistiek de impact begrijpen van iedere afgesproken Incoterm.

Het bepalen van Incoterms strategie bij inkoop en verkoop is maatwerk; praat er over met een specialist!

 

 

 

Ger van Rosmalen

Trade Finance Specialist

 

 

Webinar | July 16 | Mitigating Fraud With a Corporate Payment Hub

| 22-06-2020 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

In today’s changing IT environment, we see more corporates exposed to the risk of fraud, due to legacy controls and manual processes. With many companies applying a new ‘working from home’ strategy, the risk of fraud is bigger than ever before.

In today’s changing IT environment, we see more corporates exposed to the risk of fraud, due to legacy controls and manual processes. With many companies applying a new ‘working from home’ strategy, the risk of fraud is bigger than ever before.

During this webinar we will hear:

  • How does a payment hub support you in mitigating fraud?
  • What is rules based fraud detection?
  • Why is machine learning an important part of our fraud detection?
  • How does fraud detection fit in your overall payment processes?

Paul Simpson, Strategic Payments Director at Kyriba, together with Value Engineer, Alroy D’Cruz, will discuss these most important questions and will give you an insight on how Kyriba is supporting over 2,300 of your peers worldwide with our SaaS Payment Fraud solutions.

Presenters:

 

 

 

PAUL SIMPSON

Strategic Payments Director, Kyriba

 

 

 

 

 

ALROY D’CRUZ

Value Engineer, Kyriba

 

 



Submit on the registration page and save your place.

 

About Kyriba

Kyriba empowers CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation, while also protecting against financial risk. Kyriba’s pioneering Active Liquidity Network connects internal applications for treasury, risk, payments and working capital, with vital external sources such as banks, ERPs, trading platforms, and market data providers. Based on a secure, highly scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial and business intelligence, Kyriba enables thousands of companies worldwide to maximize growth opportunities, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce costs through advanced automation. Kyriba is headquartered in San Diego, with offices in New York, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai and other major locations. For more information, visit www.kyriba.com.

Trade Finance and Compliance | How to properly assess risks

| 15-06-2020 | Ger van Rosmalen | treasuryXL

“As a result of the stricter regulations, the financial sector has been forced to hire large numbers of people. Then, in practice, after intensive investigation on every report, it appears that more than 99% of the cases are false alarms! This results in frustrating and mind-numbing work for highly skilled workers.”  Now the combination of Trade Finance and Compliance / AML (Anti Money Laundering) has been my focus for some time. I was always assuming that Compliance / AML supports the business (customers / products), but because of the stricter regulations, I think the business appears to be supportive of Compliance / AML.

This blog is in Dutch language.

Als je kijkt naar Trade Finance dan zie je dat de definitie vanuit de toezichthouder(s) en de vooraanstaande Wolfsberg Group een breed begrip is. Onder standaard Trade Finance Producten worden verstaan:

  • Documentair Betalingsverkeer: zoals Letters of Credit en Documentaire Incasso’s. Bij deze standaard producten wordt gewerkt met handelsdocumenten zoals facturen, vervoersdocumenten, verzekeringsdocumenten en oorsprongsdocumenten. Door banken wordt gecontroleerd of deze in overeenstemming zijn met de onderliggende handelstransactie. Daarnaast zijn deze producten onderworpen aan internationale regelgeving uitgevaardigd door de ICC Internationale Kamer van Koophandel. Deze regels samen met de gebruikelijke internationale bancaire praktijk hebben ervoor gezorgd dat de banken de “financial crime“ risico’s beter kunnen controleren.
  • Open Account: betalingen; het overgrote deel van de wereldhandel wordt afgewikkeld op “open account” waarbij er een simpele betaling plaatsvindt via het bancaire betalingssysteem voor geleverde goederen of diensten. Hier is de betrokkenheid van de banken ten opzichte van de onder punt 1 genoemde producten gelimiteerd tot de afhandeling van een zogenoemde “clean payment” en is men zich niet altijd bewust van de onderliggende transactie. Banken kunnen hier slechts de standaard AML en sanctie screening op de betaling uitvoeren.

Onder “financial crime” risico wordt verstaan o.a. witwassen, fraude, belasting ontduiking, omkoping, corruptie en terrorismefinanciering. De algemene perceptie is dat Trade Finance door de toezichthouders wordt gezien als een hoog risico. Maar in hoeverre klopt dit? Ten aanzien van “Open Account” betalingen is dit in veel gevallen juist en ben ik van mening dat we juist alert moeten zijn op het hoog risico bij “Open Account” betalingen. Echter in de gesprekken die ik had met de toezichthouder werd “Documentair Betalingsverkeer” juist gekwalificeerd als een normaal risico.

Het verschil zit hem voornamelijk in de mogelijkheden om bij documentair betalingsverkeer veel meer controles te kunnen uitvoeren”, wat bij “open account” betalingen niet het geval is. Veel van de genoemde risico’s bij Trade Finance om illegale verplaatsing van gelden te maskeren zijn bij “open account” zeer hoog. Denk hierbij aan: over-facturering, onder-facturering, meerdere facturen, te weinig verscheept, teveel verscheept, opzettelijke verduistering van het type goederen en spookverschepingen.

Al deze bovengenoemde aspecten worden bij “Documentair Betalingsverkeer” veel eerder gesignaleerd omdat de fysieke handelsdocumenten uitgebreid door de banken worden gecontroleerd. In de eerder genoemde gesprekken met de toezichthouder merk ik een grote nuancering. Waar de toezichthouder spreekt over “richtlijnen” worden deze bij Compliance afdelingen vaak vertaald in eisen en regels. Banken zeggen te voldoen aan de regels (of waren het richtlijnen?) van de toezichthouder en vaak ook The Wolfsberg Group principles.
Wat is The Wolfsberg Group? Zie hieronder de beschrijving die ik op hun website heb gevonden:

“The Wolfsberg Group is an association of thirteen global banks which aims to develop frameworks and guidance for the management of financial crime risks, particularly with respect to Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing policies”.

Saillant detail: Het verbaast mij dan weer wel dat een simpele Googlecheck snel laat zien dat alle van de 13 genoemde banken boetes hebben gekregen voor het niet naleven van hun eigen “principles”.

Duizenden mensen zijn inmiddels aangenomen om 99% nutteloze checks te doen omdat we wel graag die 1% duistere praktijken boven water willen halen. Daar zijn niet alleen de banken de dupe van maar ook het grootste deel van het bedrijfsleven wat te goeder trouw zijn transacties wil afwikkelen. Belangrijk is dan ook dat bij Trade Finance transacties altijd een importeur of exporteur betrokken is, die relatie is van een bank. Het is essentieel dat de bank de ondernemer én zijn onderneming én activiteiten goed begrijpt! Toezichthouders verwachten van de banken dat zij de kennis van handelstransacties kunnen vertalen naar risico’s. Een gevolg kan zijn dat banken een intensiever contact onderhouden met klanten en er meer informatie-uitwisseling zal moeten plaatsvinden. Daarnaast is het van belang dat de beoordeling van risico’s wordt gedaan aan de hand van objectieve criteria en de persoonlijke mening van beoordelaars niet de boventoon mag voeren. Dit is onethisch en onprofessioneel.

Twee voorbeelden uit de praktijk ter verduidelijking

  1. Heel jammer dat een bank een Letter of Credit transactie van een ondernemer met een Afrikaans land niet wilde faciliteren alleen op basis van het feit dat ze amper te eten hebben in dat land!
  2. Of dat de export van gebruikte vrachtauto’s naar een politiek stabiel land ook op Letter of Credit basis niet werd goedgekeurd met als reden dat deze voertuigen zouden kunnen worden omgebouwd tot militair voertuig. Dit werd slechts gebaseerd op een persoonlijke veronderstelling en getuigt bovendien van gebrek aan kennis van zaken. Temeer ook omdat de betreffende exporteur zelf gebruik maakt van een geavanceerd Compliance/AML/Sanctie systeem vergelijkbaar met wat de banken zelf ook gebruiken en zelfs goede contacten heeft met het FIU ( Financial Intelligence Unit Nederland) inzake verdachte transacties.

Dat niet alles door systemen wordt afgevangen mag dit voorbeeld duidelijk maken waarbij een Nederlandse exporteur een “Open Account” betaling ontvangt van een Duits Ingenieursbureau en zonder “red flags” op de rekening wordt geboekt. Achteraf bleek dat de betaling weliswaar uit Duitsland kwam maar dat de goederen direct naar een (dubieuze) Scheepswerf in Rusland werden getransporteerd. Het grootste risico zie ik altijd nog bij de “open account” betalingen. En door vooral in gesprek te blijven met relaties, aandacht voor de klant, weten wat er speelt en gezond verstand laten prevaleren samen met geavanceerde (Compliance/AML/Sanctie) systemen die ongebruikelijke transacties zichtbaar maken zou Compliance in mijn ogen weer ondersteunend moeten worden aan de business (klanten en producten) en niet andersom.

Conclusie

Ook ondernemers doen er goed aan om hun eigen verantwoordelijkheid te nemen en te beseffen, dat men niet meer wegkomt met een simpele Googlecheck en wat financiële data om een relatie met een nieuwe afnemer of leverancier aan te gaan. Het is voor een bank een geruststelling als de relatie aantoont dat zij zorgvuldig te werk gaat en gebruik maakt van ook voor het MKB beschikbare Compliance/AML/Sanctie software. Toegang tot deze informatie voordat je een handtekening onder een contract zet helpt niet alleen van financiële risico’s te beperken maar beschermt ook de reputatie van de ondernemer.

De internationale handel is zeker in deze uitdagende coronatijd gebaat bij een optimaal samenspel tussen de toezichthouder met duidelijke heldere richtlijnen, banken die deze vertalen naar werkbare procedures en ondernemers die de noodzaak van extra controles begrijpen en daarnaar handelen. Zo kunnen we samen ondernemend Nederland nog beter stimuleren in dat waar we van oudsher goed in zijn, succesvol handel drijven in binnen én buitenland.

 

 

Ger van Rosmalen

Trade Finance Specialist

 

 

7 Experts on Activating Liquidity – a Guide to Leveraging Technology to Generate New Growth

| 11-6-2020 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

Managing liquidity has never been easy, but new technologies are making it easier. With ease comes speed, accuracy and efficiency, enabling treasury to more effectively see, move and protect cash and generate increased business value. However, activating liquidity while navigating volatile markets can be difficult. So how does treasury leverage technology to activate liquidity and generate new growth, and what does it gain by doing so?

‘7 Experts on Activating Liquidity’ is a Mighty Guide, sponsored by leading global cloud treasury and finance solution provider Kyriba.  In this guide the question of how to leverage technology to optimise treasury and finance, extend visibility and controls, and maximise enterprise value is explored by asking seven treasury management experts from different industries the following questions:

  1. How does expanding the scope of treasury to be inclusive of cash, risk, payments and working capital increase enterprise value?
  2. How do you most effectively manage FX risk exposure, and why is it important to do that?
  3. What are the advantages of centralizing and standardizing global payment processes through a single system?
  4. What are the advantages of centralizing the management of free cash flow and liquidity in your organization?
  5. What level of integration is necessary to get a true, real-time view of cash and liquidity, and how would that real-time data enhance decision making and performance?

Their insights are collected in the five chapters of this eBook. In reading them, David Rogelberg, Editor, was struck by how different the challenges are for each of the expert’s business, and how they all benefit from greater visibility into cash, payments, risk and working capital.

CFOs have a tough balancing act – trying to pursue strategic growth initiatives while minding the right level of risk. And recent global events have exacerbated this challenge. The answer to solving this problem lies in Active Liquidity – an approach to treasury and finance that elevates the impact of liquidity to generate new market value, even in volatile markets.

Kyriba is excited to sponsor this eBook, in which seven treasury leaders lend their expertise to the concept of Active Liquidity and the key pieces that it encompasses – optimizing cash, payments and risk to generate business value.  Activating Liquidity puts organizations on a path to new value creation, enabling them to:

  • Expand the abilities of treasury and finance, using liquidity as a lever to build value
  • Extend visibility and controls to see, move, protect and grow cash
  • Transform data into intelligence and drive action to maximize enterprise value

This Mighty Guide aims to provide a holistic view and credible advice by exploring, comparing and contrasting a variety of viewpoints from top experts.  The insights given by these treasury executives will give a deep understanding of the benefits of Active Liquidity and how insight into global cash, liquidity and exposure can help execute treasury strategies more easily and efficiently.

Request and download free e-book:

Kyriba is a proud sponsor of this Mighty Guide.  Kyriba empowers CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation, while also protecting against financial risk. Kyriba’s pioneering Active Liquidity Network connects internal applications for treasury, risk, payments and working capital, with vital external sources such as banks, ERPs, trading platforms, market data providers, and other financial institutions. Based on a secure, highly scalable SaaS platform that leverages artificial and business intelligence on an API-enabled architecture, Kyriba enables thousands of companies worldwide to maximize growth opportunities, protect against loss from fraud and financial risk, and reduce costs through advanced automation. Kyriba is headquartered in San Diego, with offices in The Netherlands, London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Dubai and other major locations.

For more information, visit www.kyriba.com.

Do You Know Your Business’s Foreign Exchange Risks?

11-06-2020 | treasuryXL | XE |

Every business that deals with international currency has foreign exchange risk, but every organization will face a different set of issues and risk factors, depending on their operations.

The first step to building a strong FX risk management program and reducing your organization’s foreign exchange risk is knowing:

  • What your exposures are,
  • Where they come from, and
  • How they can impact your business.

Many businesses around the world drastically underestimate their foreign exchange risk level, and are unaware of many of their greatest exposures. In this next installment of our series on FX risk management for businesses, we want to take you through the steps of assessing and determining your business’s foreign exchange risks. From there, you’ll be primed to take the next step of formulating your risk management strategy.

Where does foreign exchange risk come from?

There are many ways currency market exposure and foreign exchange risk can present themselves to your organization.

Some of the most common causes of foreign exchange risk include:

  • Importing. Does your business import any products or materials from overseas? If fluctuations in the market cause the value of your country’s currency to drop, then your organization’s importing costs could see a drastic increase.
  • Exporting. On the other hand, if your business sells goods and services to other countries, think about what market volatility could do for your prices. If your country’s currency increases in value, your business might not be as competitive in your market.
  • Balance sheet risk. If your organization has any subsidiaries or entities overseas that take care of some day-to-day operations, the value of their operations could change when the currency exchange rates do.

These are just a few examples of common causes of foreign exchange risk. Your business’s specific foreign exchange risk exposures will depend on what you do in your day-to-day operations and how you handle international currencies.

How do you know if your business has foreign exchange risk?

Identifying potential sources of risk is the first step. Once you’ve examined how your business deals with international currencies and whether your operations have any risk factors, you’ll need to assess the size of the risk and its potential impact.

There are three areas you’ll want to focus on:

  • Potential volatility. The markets are constantly moving, but global exchange rates can only move so far. Consider what could realistically happen and how that would affect your business, in order to get a better idea of your true exposure.
  • Net impact. Volatility could have a negative effect on your business, but your business could also see an increase in revenue from certain market fluctuations. Don’t just consider one element of the risk: look at the bigger picture.
  • Time. How far ahead have you planned? And on the other hand, how far ahead can you realistically plan while still making accurate, useful assessments?

How can you combat foreign exchange risk?

If some of these questions are making you feel overwhelmed, don’t worry. You’re not the only one who feels this way. Many businesses of all sizes around the world have found that they don’t have the expertise, time, or resources to fully assess their currency risk exposure and create a comprehensive risk management strategy that can fully address their risk profile.

A foreign exchange specialist can give your organization the expert guidance that it needs to create a plan to combat your foreign exchange risk and minimize the impact of market motion. At Xe, we’ve spent more than 25 years in the global currency markets. We understand foreign exchange risk, and we want to help you and your business do the same.

Over 13,000 businesses each year lean on us for expert guidance and support in assessing and combating foreign exchange risk. Are you ready to manage your risk Visit our Business page for more information about our offerings and to take the first steps in enhancing your organization’s foreign exchange risk management.

 

Get in touch with XE.com

About XE.com

XE can help safeguard your profit margins and improve cashflow through quantifying the FX risk you face and implementing unique strategies to mitigate it. XE Business Solutions provides a comprehensive range of currency services and products to help businesses access competitive rates with greater control.

Deciding when to make an international payment and at what rate can be critical. XE Business Solutions work with businesses to protect bottom-line from exchange rate fluctuations, while the currency experts and risk management specialists act as eyes and ears in the market to protect your profits from the world’s volatile currency markets.

Your company money is safe with XE, their NASDAQ listed parent company, Euronet Worldwide Inc., has a multibillion-dollar market capitalization, and an investment grade credit rating. With offices in the UK, Canada, Europe, APAC and North America they have a truly global coverage.

Are you curious to know more about XE?
Maurits Houthoff, senior business development manager at XE.com, is always in for a cup of coffee, mail or call to provide you detailed information.

 

 

Visit XE.com

Visit XE partner page

 

 

 

 

Source

What does experience in Treasury get you?

10-06-2020 | Niki van Zanten

In the wonderful world of Treasury there is an easy and digestible answer for most things, but to cover the full context requires general elaboration. In other words, there are always main points but fine-tuning is equally important and the devil is in the details.

Keeping this in mind, let’s get right into attempting to answer the headline question of this blog and unravel what experience can mean for you in financial risk management with the following points

  • The answer before the analysis
  • The right analysis and additional validation
  • Speed when needed and a reserved approach 
  • An actual opinion
  • Leadership in crisis
  • Holistic approach to Finance and ability to see what’s really going on

The answer before the analysis

At school you have the smart kids who have the answer for tough questions (lets say for conversation sake a math equation which looks like this 3(1-2x)=-9, where question is what x is*) and get there by taking the necessary steps** to come to the correct answer. This is what you are taught and it leads to the desired result. Then, there is a second group who shout out the right answer immediately but skipped all the steps involved. The teacher will disapprove of this behavior as it’s not how you are taught to handle a mathematical problem. Also not all kids can be taught to handle problems this way. If experience were to be molded into these group of kids, it would perhaps be one who can answer the question immediately and then explain this steps in retrospect. In financial markets this combination is very valuable as going for the process can be cumbersome and hard to explain, unless you see what will happen at the beginning.

The right analysis and the right questions

Imagine you walk into a wine shop and ask for a bottle of wine to combine with a mouth watering turbot with lobster Bearnaise sauce. The wine shop owner recommends a Montrachet**, asking no further question. You ask him, why this wine? He answers the following; because it is a thick buttery wine thus perfectly combining with the richness of Bearnaise. Also this happens to be an excellent year from an equally exceptional producer. You end up buying the bottle to return home and taste a thirteen in a dozen overpriced bottle of wine which does reasonable well with the food but has no element of surprise or the fascination one might expect.

A few question from the wine shop owner like, what kind of wine do you appreciate a lot and what do you like about it or how much is your budget would help you on the way. The best question from your side is potential, did you ever try it? If it turns out he didn’t try it and is still trying to sell it to you he has a close resemblance to a very typical sales person in the financial sector. In other words, experience enables people to ask the right question as well as create a value and advice instead of value add for the selling party only.

Speed when needed or a reserved approach

Typically, it is assumed that decision making in financial markets and Risk management requires speed. In most cases, this is correct, providing you understand of the exposure for which your are hedging as well as the derivative you are using. Put in a simple example, when hedging a 5 year INR loan, experience will tell you to do some extra due diligence on the accuracy of the underlying exposure for the simple reason that the consequences can be significant if things go wrong. Immediately, you will also realize a 5 year tenor on INR is either not liquid or the credit component is priced in at a hefty charge replacing your FX risk with an interest risk on the roll over. If you do not execute with speed, you could be exposed to the spot risk; if you execute to fast, you might hedge something not required or with a derivative which doesn’t do the job as intended. A seasoned advisor will be the best of both worlds.

An actual opinion

Experience creates a backbone as well as a level of comfort to believe what you are saying. Consequently, this boils down to the question; Why is someone trying to sell something to me? Because you need it or because they need you to make their PL? This goes into the discussion on whether an advisor has an intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. In my view, experience is not a guarantee on where motivation comes from, but it had a lot more time to positively develop. You will hear what you are better of hearing than what you want to hear. On top of that, the advise will be more holistic as it takes a while to get all the bits and pieces of treasury together, let alone how it fits across departments in a company.

Leadership in crisis 

Argentina 2018. Hefty devaluation on the currency as well as very steep and volatile interest rates combined with liquidity issues, not to forget the social and economic disaster hitting many citizens. Situations like this, attract senior management attention like Winnie the Pooh spotting a jar of honey. One might be inclined to leave the ”when to hedge or not” decision to senior management or have endless meetings discussing business mitigation. Each crisis has different triggers as well as solutions. A seasoned crisis manager does add direct value in not only identifying root cause of what’s going on, whether financial instruments actually provide relief or are a black hole of money and in putting together the right and moreover realistic guidance for the business. I am aware of the fact that people do not like hearing bad news, but not listening to it usually brings problems back on steroids. 

Holistic approach

This is a tough one. Most people will agree, the big picture is the best one to follow, but its very common across corporates to religiously hedge PL exposures. Even in cases where there are conflicts, like the cash flow at company level being different sign than the PL FX exposure, often a bogus hedge is implemented. A holistic approach and good target setting, helps you pick the strategy with the overall best results and experience.

Conclusion

These are just a few considerations on why experience can provide added value in (FX) risk management beyond the well know assumption that it provides a way to do more in less time and is a great way to also transfer knowledge down to the younger workforce.

Hope this gives some food for thought and many fruitful discussions.

 

* multiply by 3 giving 3-6X=—9 and then deducting 3 on each side reducing equation to -6X=-12 revealing the answer.

** Montrachet is one of the words most sought after white wines. Also happy to discuss wine but that’s a different beast and business proposition.

 

Niki van Zanten

FX specialist