Nomentia Acquires TIPCO: A union of exceptional products and teams

08-09-2021 | treasuryXL | Nomentia |

Nomentia announced yesterday that the company has acquired TIPCO Treasury & Technology. Shortly after the news was released, we had the chance to sit down with Jukka Sallinen, CEO of Nomentia, and talk about the announcement, what does the acquisition promise for finance and treasury professionals globally, and what does the future hold for Nomentia.

The acquisition of TIPCO is the latest milestone in Nomentia’s history. What’s the reason behind the transaction?

There are a couple of reasons. First and foremost, we’ve felt that both companies share a very similar mission. We want to provide unparalleled solutions for and with our customers. TIPCO’s Treasury Information Platform (TIP) is an exceptional treasury management solution that is widely known in the DACH region, and TIPCO has been also famous for its acumen in treasury. Our combined solutions and domain expertise make us one of the strongest players in the cloud treasury and cash management space. I have no doubt that our current and future customers will benefit from our combined product portfolio. Another good reason for joining forces with TIPCO is that we’ve strongly felt that both companies have had surprisingly similar cultures – both have a very healthy obsession for providing the best solutions for our clients and we take pride in what we do.

 

Tell us more about the merged product portfolio and how treasury teams will benefit from it?

Before the acquisition, Nomentia cash management was consisting of Bank connections, Payments, Cash Forecasting, In-house banking, Bank Account Management, and Reconciliation solutions. Adding TIP to the solution mix, we can now provide robust and sophisticated cash flow forecast and cash visibility solutions, as well as solutions for trade finance, FX risk, treasury reporting and treasury workflows, and more. TIP has been always loved by the users and now all Nomentia customers will have access to TIP.

Today, it’s not feasible for treasury teams and finance teams to choose one provider for all their needs or trust that their ERP system would provide a working solution alone. Treasurers should be able to choose the solutions that can best resolve their challenges and meet their needs. To get the best outcome, finance and treasury teams often need to work with multiple vendors – taking the best solution from each. Of course, that’s not always ideal from IT’s point of view, but that’s where our team comes in to take care of the implementation plan together with the client and integrate with their existing systems and banks. We trust that a lot of our current customers will find new solutions from our updated offering that can help them to overcome their current challenges.

New customers will find that Nomentia can offer the widest cash and treasury management solution portfolio on the market to help them build better treasury processes.

 

How does the acquisition affect Nomentia’s future?

During the past year, Nomentia has taken big steps toward becoming the global powerhouse for treasury and cash management. After last year’s merger of OpusCapita and Analyste, we’ve successfully got our footprint in many new markets, and we’ve been especially growing in the DACH and Benelux regions besides continuing to be the number one choice of treasurers in the Nordics. Acquiring TIPCO and merging the two product portfolios will help us to strengthen our position in Europe even more.

Our team has been also growing significantly – it’s always great to work with people that are experts in their field and can truly help our customers to develop their operations. Together, we will exceed our customers’ expectations with our strong product portfolio and even stronger team. Personally, I am thrilled about the news and can’t wait to roll up our sleeves and get to work together with our new colleagues!

 

Read the press release to learn more

 

 

What to Consider When You choose your Bank Connectivity Strategy? 7 Important Criteria

| 01-09-2021 | treasuryXL | Nomentia |

Most organizations would benefit from some form of Bank Connectivity as a service. But just deciding on outsourcing bank connectivity won’t magically make all those connections appear. In this blog, we’ll cover 7 important criteria you should think of when evaluating different options.

1. In which banks do the majority of your payments flow?

Make a list of all banks that your organization is connected with and include all banking relationships from all your subsidiaries. We have noticed in interactions with our customers that this first step can be eye-opening at times. Often, we have an idea of the different banking relationships but then there are still local bank relations that might not be that visual to your treasury function. It also provides you with a good understanding of how many bank connections you would need and whether you would benefit from simplifying your banking landscape before implementing a bank connectivity solution. If your organization is only working with 5 banks altogether the story is very different from an organization that has relationships with 20+ banks.

After mapping this out, you might want to apply the 80/20 rule: typically, you would first set up connections to the strategic banks that cover 80% of your payment flows. A cloud-based software from a Cash Management specialist will most likely be able to provide you these connections as part of their out-of-the-box functionality.

2. Evaluate your use of local banks

Even if you expand the use of strategic banks to more countries, you might still find a set of local banks that you cannot replace. Typically, a discussion about bank connectivity increases in complexity when the long tail of local banks comes into play. That’s where you need to ask yourself why you are working with local banks. Is it for collecting money, for making payments from a regulatory point of view or because of specific needs within your local business?

Having visibility on Cash is straightforward while covering payment flows is not easily justified from a direct cost savings point of view. At the same time payment fraud plays a role in the local banks. You might want to consider a solution to replace internet banks for manual payments with a centralized solution. Then, the business case cannot be backed up by direct cost savings, but cost-efficient risk mitigation.

3. How consolidated is your banking landscape?

After mapping out all your banks in a first step, you know your strategic banks. Now it’s time to take a look at which countries are covered by these strategic banks. Would it be a good time to reduce your banking relations by using a certain set of strategic banks in more of your countries in order to reduce the number of domestic banks?

4. How many file formats and payment types do you have in use?

It is a different thing to set up credit notes and treasury payments only, as opposed to also including domestic payments, salary payments, and tax payments. We recommend having a solution for all your payment types and file formats: this is the only way to get rid of the internet banks and the tokens.

5. Are you concerned about payment fraud and information security?

You should have a solution to cover all payment types in all countries with all banks. That is the only way to have a full audit trail and control in every country. A centralized payment process enables centralized validation and control. We have covered the topic of payment fraud extensively.

In our case, having bank connectivity as a cloud service lets you benefit from a platform, which invests annually roughly 1bn$ in information security. From an information security perspective, this lets us concentrate on application-level security, which is annually audited by 3rd parties.

6. Are you interested in having transparency in your bank fees?

Modern bank connectivity solutions enable transparency in banking fees: Having bank agreements and the related fees included and matched against the banks’ reports. Even more transparency can be gained with services like SWIFT GPI: SWIFT GPI enables banks to provide bank fee information for the e2e chain. Not all banks support these features yet.

7. Choose wisely

Once you go through the questions and mappings outlined above you are at a good place in making your decision for the right bank connectivity provider. It might seem tedious at times and one might think of bank connections as a mere technical thing, but they are so much more. We feel this is a perfect moment to evaluate all your processes and look at ways to harmonize them.

It’s also a great way to work closely together with your colleagues. We recommend approaching this topic in a project team between treasury, finance and IT: From an IT perspective you want to minimize the IT-footprint, finance will run the daily operations and treasury sets the policies and controls.

DOWNLOAD OUR BANK CONNECTIVITY WHITEPAPER

 

 

$20 Billion in Bank Service Fees: Are You Overpaying?

31-08-2021 | treasuryXL | Gtreasury |

By Heena Ladhani, Ecosystem Manager, GTreasury

Twenty billion dollars. That’s how many corporate treasurers in the U.S. are now forking over to banks in service transaction fees every year. It’s a big number and it’s growing every year. But there’s also vast potential for reducing that amount by optimizing the outlay for-fee services and becoming better-informed for price negotiations.

A recent survey from Treasury Strategies determined that 70 percent of corporate treasurers are reviewing their bank service fees on a monthly basis. However, the same survey determined that a fraction – just 21 percent of treasurers – will actually benchmark those service fees as part of their bank analysis and management. Among those treasurers who do use benchmarks, many only do so on a line-item basis, rather than at the product category level. A majority also don’t have processes to recognize the impact of volume on benchmark prices. In short, there is room – a lot of room – for opportunities to trim costs.

Accurate bank fee analysis backed by correctly applied benchmarking enables treasurers to preserve strong relationships with bank creditors as well. Too often, simplistic benchmark techniques give treasurers only a surface-level analysis of whether fees are in line with market averages. As a result, treasurers may falsely challenge their banks over small sums, while missing out on more appropriate and fruitful interventions – a ‘can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees’ scenario. Incomplete analysis comes with its own costs, absorbing misapplied resources and eroding creditors’ goodwill over insignificant or erroneous concerns.

Let’s look at two examples of how benchmarking, done right, can ensure treasurers’ accurate analysis and lead to optimized bank transaction costs:

Example 1: Benchmark beyond what you know

Wire transfer fees are an area in which effective benchmarking is especially ripe for opportunity. For example, suppose a treasurer’s initial internal benchmarking finds that the four banks the company uses offer rates spanning from $14 to $20. This self-benchmarking reveals the potential to move all wire transfer fees to the $14 rate. However, expanding benchmark horizons to the market at large makes clear that all the banks are charging fees well above the median.

There is no shortage of potential reasons for this, which should be investigated. The company could potentially reduce fees by using a bank portal, streamlining Fedwire, SWIFT, or CHIPS costs, opting for digitized communications, and beyond. Importantly, though, a small cost on each wire can quickly add up to significant savings. By benchmarking these fees at a more expansive scope, those savings can be found, pursued, and realized.

Example 2: True treasury management services costs are multi-dimensional

Take a hypothetical corporate treasurer examining lockbox item processing fees at two different banks. Bank X charges $0.30 per item; Bank Y charges $0.50. The treasurer’s organization directs 500 items to Bank X each month, and 5000 to Bank Y. On the surface, the treasurer’s analysis is simple: Bank Y is overly expensive and should be challenged.

A deeper and more holistic analysis, however, clarifies a more accurate picture. Factoring in bundled remittance processing services – such as monthly lockbox maintenance, daily deposit ticket charges, image and hardcopy fees, and courier fees – rewrites the story. Now it’s clear that Bank X provides a per item rate of $4.00, but Bank Y is just $3.00. The more simplistic cost benchmark analysis missed this crucial information.

That said, the analysis must also consider that volume is crucial to accuracy. Bank fees often vary by volume. Checking Bank X’s $4.00 per item rate against the market, the median benchmark price for a volume of 500 items a month is actually $5.00. The bank’s price is quite favorable at that volume. Now looking at Bank Y, the median benchmark price at a volume of 5000 is just $2.00 per item. Suddenly Bank Y is exposed as the truly expensive one.
There is a range of subsequent steps available to leverage this complete analysis into savings. The pricing may simply be too high, or active services may use overly expensive configurations. The treasurer should check for any unneeded services. Common redundancies can include receiving both electronic and hardcopies of checks, using packages featuring both electronic transmission and express mail, performing multiple daily deposits instead of a single batch, or using Fedwire rather than ACH. Accurate benchmarking makes each of these wasteful potential expenses easier to identify. Once recognized, streamlining such service costs can be simple.

When it comes to bank pricing, treasurers also have a variety of options for optimization. For example, treasury could consolidate the lockbox items to Bank Y’s lower cost. It could then restructure processing at that bank to the market’s median price. Alternatively, it could request a bid from Bank Yon on the total volume and explore that offer.

Apply robust benchmark analysis across the board

The same process for optimizing bank offers and options based on complete and accurate benchmark analysis applies to all bank services used by corporate treasury teams. All transaction processing and information services should be put to careful scrutiny to see what savings may emerge. In this way, implementing the right treasury management strategy and processes to make robust benchmarking an integrated component of regular bank fee analysis is an investment that pays equally robust dividends.

Author: Heena Ladhani is the Ecosystem Manager at GTreasury, a treasury and risk management system.  She is a FinTech professional with more than seven years of experience working with global clients to design solutions and improve processes utilizing treasury systems. She resides near Chicago.

 

How global enterprises can finally end the cycle of redundant IT-related payments projects

30-08-2021 | TIS |

This article begins by examining the current state of enterprise treasury and finance technology implementations, including the standard project timelines, core challenges, and ultimate outcomes. This is followed by an analysis that outlines an improved methodology for enterprises to follow as they seek to ensure the global optimization and standardization of their payment systems, workflows, and technologies.

Modern enterprises are stuck in an endless cycle of payment technology upgrades

 

For enterprise finance and treasury professionals, why does it feel like the road to payments automation and technology optimization is never complete?

If you’re an active practitioner, you’ve likely asked yourself this very question (or at least a variation of it) within the past few years. Perhaps it was during a very long and arduous TMS or ERP implementation, a major acquisition of a new entity, or a rationalization of your global bank relationships. In any case, your musings were probably due to the fact that these types of projects have become an all-too-regular occurrence (and a subsequent thorn in the side) for enterprises around the world.

As recently as 2018, data showed that the average corporate timeline for a SaaS-based TMS implementation was 10-18 months. Technology overhauls involving larger and more widely used systems, such as global ERPs, may have taken up to 3-5 years. And although these respective timelines continue to grow shorter as cloud services and other innovations rise to the forefront, projects of this magnitude still represent a massive undertaking.

During these periods, it’s common for practitioners to wind up collaborating with dozens of internal and external stakeholders, joining hundreds of calls, and spending countless hours training, testing, and configuring the new system – all while continuing to perform their core list of daily responsibilities.

The ultimate result being?

Although seasoned professionals will tell you that every implementation is different, let’s think about the bigger picture. Of course, the results of each specific project can vary drastically, sometimes for reasons far outside of anyone’s control. There may be budget constraints, bandwidth constraints, technical limitations, and even geopolitical or environmental obstructions. Employee turnover may cause undue delays as well. And yet other times, the entire project may flow smoothly and on budget from start to finish.

But looking beyond the individual success or failure of any single project, how long after each project’s completion will it be until a new technology implementation is required?

One year? Two years? Five years?

Or, in the case of global enterprises, perhaps you are simultaneously working on numerous financial technology implementations all at once, and the completion of one only results in your reprioritization of another.
Unfortunately, this endless cycle of new technology and payment upgrades is what most enterprise treasury and finance teams find themselves dealing with today, and it has become one of the primary sources of confusion and headache for global companies.

Let’s quickly evaluate the underlying complexities in more detail.

Why does global expansion often lead to excessive payments complexity?

 

Although domestic companies operating in a single country or region undoubtedly face their own degree of technology and payments complexity, the level of difficulty associated with managing a global network of systems, data, and information is exponentially greater.

What are the main reasons for this?

To begin, consider the sheer volume of payments being made across a global enterprise, including all the various locations, currencies, and payment types. For the largest companies, there may be millions of inbound customer payments occurring every day through a combination of cash, check, card, and account-to-account options like ACH and SEPA. At the same time, an equally large and diverse variety of outbound payments must be generated by the enterprise to compensate employees, vendors, and partners. And every time a new entity, industry, or market vertical is added to the mix, these volumes intensify.

Adding further complexity, consider how the payment channels and formats in use across each world region can vary broadly as well. Just to name a few, there is EBICS in Europe, NACHA in North America, SWIFT for international payments, and H2H (direct) connections that may be utilized globally. Local variations of these channels also exist in other regions, and going a step further, each of the specific banks used by an enterprise will have its own connectivity preferences for payments and information reporting. Individual clients, partners, and vendors may also request payment data to be created in specific formats such as SWIFT MT, ISO 20022, EDI, BAI, and BAI2.

Measure Payments Complexity

Finally, the diverse compliance and security standards that exist across various countries require unique filtering and monitoring workflows to be established in different regions. Although U.S. companies may be familiar in dealing with OFAC sanction lists, FBAR statutes, and data privacy laws like GDPR, the regulatory landscape in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East looks quite different. In fact, each specific country within these regions might have its own distinct set of rules and restrictions, and these protocols must closely adhere to any time that payments data and technology solutions are managed locally.

But despite all these challenges, perhaps the largest source of headache and confusion for enterprise practitioners stems from attempting to manage a disparate and unintegrated web of back-office payment solutions.

What do we mean by this?

The back-office conundrum: too many solutions and not enough integrations

 

In 2016, research from Fortune highlighted that global enterprises were undergoing merger and acquisition (M&A) activity at incredible rates, with the five most active companies absorbing 122 new entities between them on the year. Data from more recent years showcases a similar story, and at the same time, organic growth is also driving these enterprises to open new offices, enter into new markets, and expand into new world regions.

The challenge?

As these new acquisitions and locations ultimately go on to form new company entities and subsidiaries, the underlying systems used at each locality must be connected to the enterprise’s main technology stack in order to facilitate data transmission, cash and payment visibility, and other core financial functions. But for enterprises with hundreds of already-existing entities and a steady stream of new acquisitions, consider how many systems must be connected to the enterprise’s core technology stack each year. Also consider the amount of maintenance, upkeep, and investment that managing this global network of technology requires. And finally, reflect on how each of these systems will gradually become a legacy over time and need to be replaced as new technologies and solutions rise to the forefront of the industry.

We know from experience that not all of these global systems are able to connect or integrate with one another. Perhaps some solutions are too old, the budget too insufficient, or IT bandwidth is stretched too thin to prioritize the development of proper connections. As a result, it may take days, weeks, or even months for the data and information contained within these local systems to be made available across the entire enterprise. And if these siloed systems are not isolated occurrences but actually comprise a significant portion of the enterprise’s back-office infrastructure, then almost every single financial and payments-related function will be impacted.

EPO Payments Complexity

Without automated connectivity and integration, visibility to cash balances and payment statuses will take a hit. Creating a standardized compliance and security process will be almost impossible, and stewarding the company’s liquid assets will be hampered by a lack of transparency to global data.

Today, these siloed entity technology stacks and legacy systems are often the unintended result of sustained business growth. In fact, it’s almost natural for them to occur. However, with today’s speed of change in commerce and technology, it is no longer an option to leave each of these functions, systems, and geographies unconnected. Siloes trap data, reduce communication and visibility, and ultimately stifle growth. And in the world of payments and technology, a lack of visibility and automation will directly impact liquidity, profitability, and exposure to risk across the entire enterprise.

So then, for enterprises that find themselves in this situation, what is the best approach to optimization?

Introducing a new framework for managing enterprise payment maturity

 

In a perfect world, enterprises that need to connect all of their global technology and payments solutions, including bank platforms and 3rd party solutions, would simply integrate every system with every other system. This would effectively enable complete unification and connectivity across the enterprise’s entire network, and data could flow immediately and seamlessly across any department, entity, and location for real-time visibility and control.

Of course, active practitioners understand how unrealistic this approach would be. In reality, it would require an almost endless variety of custom integrations to be established across each internal system and potentially hundreds of banks and external solutions. Despite innovations surrounding APIs and other connectivity methods, this task would still be insurmountable, from both a budgetary and bandwidth perspective. And even if an enterprise did somehow manage to connect all these solutions together, the maintenance and upkeep required to sustain each integration would require a whole army of dedicated IT personnel and even more investment.

An alternative solution?

Given the fragmented systems landscape that exists across most global enterprises, the most effective way to achieve a holistic view of (and control over) every siloed process, system, and geography is by implementing a single Enterprise Payments Optimization (EPO) layer that sits above all other solutions in an enterprise’s technology stack. Rather than connect every platform with every other, each solution need only connect to the EPO platform instead. This drastically simplifies the process of integrating new solutions with an enterprise’s tech stack, and also automates the process of transmitting payments data between any system that is connected to the EPO platform, including those used by different entities, offices, and departments.

Although the adoption of an EPO platform requires some up-front legwork, using a vendor like TIS ensures that the complexity of connecting to banks and performing other technical functions is almost entirely outsourced. This means that formerly difficult and time-consuming tasks that were managed by internal IT teams (such as configuring and maintaining the links between external banks and internal ERPs, HR systems, and TMSs) are now managed by the EPO vendor. As formats evolve or new regulations require changes in integration, EPO vendors like TIS automatically handle the upgrades and also manage the addition of new countries, banks, and users to an enterprise’s network as growth and expansion dictate over time.

Once this type of implementation has been performed, the EPO platform can become the sole channel through which all company payment workflows and data streams are managed and controlled.

TIS Eliminates Global Complexity

As payment instructions or files from ERPs and other back-office systems pass through an EPO platform, they can be quickly transferred to the appropriate bank or end party. In addition, data can be shared with 3rd party vendors and other companies and partners within the network. Subsequent bank statements and reports can also be transmitted from the bank through an EPO platform to the various internal departments and systems where payment instructions are originating from.

Ultimately, the information stored on an EPO platform serves as the single source of truth for payments data across all corporate departments, subsidiaries, and geographies, and it prevents enterprises and their IT departments from having to manage a tangled mess of disparate back-office connections.

EPO solutions provide the perfect option to support ongoing enterprise growth and expansion

 

While the EPO orchestration strategy outlined above is very effective at breaking down geographic and entity-specific siloes, it is also the ideal platform for fostering a strategic, long-term approach to enterprise payment maturity.

Today, the technology landscape continues to evolve rapidly, as do the payment solutions and methods used by global enterprises. In the current era, this means that approximately once every decade, a company’s existing technology infrastructure will need to be overhauled. However, because various internal solutions are installed at different times and for different purposes, the upgrades and maintenance schedules for these solutions are rarely conducted in an organized and timely fashion. Sometimes, these upgrades are not completed at all. And as a result, it’s very easy for an “optimized” payment workflow and the underlying technology stack to start falling behind the curve.

This is why adopting an EPO orchestration layer is so essential for maintaining a constant state of consistency and control.

By connecting all of the various internal systems that comprise your global payments technology stack to an EPO platform, you effectively ensure that regardless of where an entity is located or what local systems are being used, the data and information stored on their platforms is never left isolated or unaccounted for. And as older or outdated enterprise payment solutions are eventually replaced by newer and more upgraded systems, connecting them to the EPO platform in a similar fashion will ensure ongoing cohesion and connectivity across your global networks, even as various technology overhauls and system migrations occur at specific entities or locations within the enterprise.

So, if you’re a treasury or finance professional working for an enterprise with significant process, system, and global complexity — complexity that is ultimately hindering your ability to operate efficiently — ask yourself whether a new approach to payments technology could be the answer.

And if that answer is yes, we invite you to consider TIS and our newly introduced Enterprise Payment Optimization (EPO) platform.

About TIS

TIS is reimagining the world of enterprise payments through a cloud-based platform uniquely designed to help global organizations optimize outbound payments. Corporations, banks and business vendors leverage TIS to transform how they connect global accounts, collaborate on payment processes, execute outbound payments, analyze cash flow and compliance data, and improve critical outbound payment functions. The TIS corporate payments technology platform helps businesses improve operational efficiency, lower risk, manage liquidity, gain strategic advantage – and ultimately achieve enterprise payment optimization.

Visit tis.biz to reimagine your approach to payments.

 

Helping Hand: Using Cashforce to Manage Growth Through M&A

24-08-2021 | treasuryXL | Cashforce

How one treasurer used Cashforce technology to improve forecasting and support growth.

When one treasurer saw that his team was getting too bogged down managing the company’s dozens of bank accounts across 25 entities, he sought out an automated cash management system, but he had a concern: the company is continually growing through mergers and acquisitions, and in the past, new accounts made everything muddy.

  • The process of integrating a new entity and any accounts it brings along can be cumbersome—and who knows if their ERP would even be compatible with the automated solution he chooses?
  • He said that Cashforce, a cash forecasting and working capital analytics solution that can work with multiple ERPs, was the answer. “Cashforce’s ability to take feeds from multiple ERP systems was big.”

New accounts, new problems. 

Before turning to Cashforce, the treasurer had significant capital committed to grow the business through acquisitions. He only had two or three people managing this aspect, and he said the company’s TMS offered little assistance.

  • “Cash is our lifeline,” he said. “To me, the most important thing is knowing how much cash we have and where it is.
    • “We’re not over-leveraged, but we’re leveraged,” he said, so finding a cash management solution that provides quick access to every detail was crucial.
  • But the treasurer said his company doesn’t expect accounts that come with newly acquired companies to work with its preexisting ERP system. Cashforce, which can take data feeds from new ERP systems, was the key.
  • “We needed a cash management solution that integrated with our current ERPs and future ERPs to be able to feed data into the tool,” he said.

Feel the force.

Because Cashforce can take those inputs, the treasurer said it could work. But would it actually save enough time, and free up cash through efficient management of working capital? The solution, he said, had four clear advantages that made cash forecasting “a lot more accurate” in just six months:

  1. Ease of use, with data visualization tools that teams can use without having to dig into reams of numbers.
  2. The ability to drill down into the data into transaction-level detail.
  3. The ability to take these now automatically generated data-driven insights to management instead of spreadsheets.
  4. The ability to view daily bank positions.

Feel the force. 

Because Cashforce can take those inputs, the treasurer said it could work. But would it actually save enough time, and free up cash through efficient management of working capital? The solution, he said, had four clear advantages that made cash forecasting “a lot more accurate” in just six months:

  1. Ease of use, with data visualization tools that teams can use without having to dig into reams of numbers.
  2. The ability to drill down into the data into transaction-level detail.
  3. The ability to take these now automatically generated data-driven insights to management instead of spreadsheets.
  4. The ability to view daily bank positions.

Bonus: data literacy.

 An added “unofficial” benefit of Cashforce that the treasurer added was change management—the opportunity to get a once data-hesitant team to embrace the possibilities offered by analytics.

  • Though he wasn’t intending on using Cashforce to manage credit and collections, through encouraging his team to dig into the data, “one of the biggest advantages is I got my C&C manager to give me a much more accurate forecast.

 

 

How to Start Avoiding Payment Fraud from Happening

| 18-08-2021 | treasuryXL | Nomentia |

It’s 2021 and even with advancing technologies and AI detecting fraudulent behavior, payment fraud remains an ever-present Risk for any company.

The other day we met with someone who has recently been a target of Payment Fraud and is now implementing a payment factory in order to reduce the risk. We wanted to take a look at how we approach the subject with our solution. Having the right software in place is important, sure but it goes beyond technology.

Let’s start with the Software, Nomentia’s Cash Management solution has several mechanisms in place that protect you against fraud.

Here’s a Quick list

  • First of all, our software creates a single point of managing all payments. We talk a lot about centralizing, and this is just that. Our product brings all these payments into a single view. If we think of a typical case, a company might upload some payments to internet banks, some to a service bureau, use host-to-host connections for others and maybe even run some payments via SWIFT. That creates at least 5 times X channels where payments are executed. This means all payments can’t be seen from one view, which already makes it impossible to detect fraudulent or suspicious payments. But in addition, those 5 times X channels also mean 5 times X places where user rights need to be maintained and controlled.
  • This brings us also to the second point; our software comes with a comprehensive user and user rights management. Our software creates a clear structure and visibility as to who has rights to which companies and accounts and what kind of user roles they are having. We create visibility and an easy way to maintain those rights.
  • When payments are transferred from one source system such as ERP, payroll and the likes to our cloud, files cannot be altered. This creates additional security measures that protect companies from attacks.
  • Lastly, we have created capabilities to set up straight forward approval flows that ensure a segregation of duty into the way payments are done, within the users’ approval limit. Approval limits can be set for each user when working in different roles for multiple companies.

Those are the things that come built into our software. But it’s important to highlight one key fact, most fraud attempts have a human factor and that’s why it’s important to look beyond the software and take a critical look at the processes. As a matter of fact, despite all the noise about external risks, fraud and theft are more likely to be committed by an internal actor than an external actor (Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center).

In other words, if you focus on validating data for possible fraud, you probably should take steps to minimize the possibility of fraud in the first place. Otherwise, proverbially speaking, it’s winter (Northern Finland winter for that matter) and you are going out in shorts and with wet hair.

Apart from controlling user access rights, we would like to share some more tips and ideas that can help to mitigate the risk of fraud.

  • Payments that are made from ERP but rejected by the bank cannot be modified by all users. In practice this means when a payment is made from the ERP system but rejected by the bank, it bounces back where users need to review the failed payment, before sending it to the bank. Fixing the payment data on ERP master data instead of manual adjustments. This would highlight and prevent for example internal fraud attempts.
  • Consider working with your system admins to install payment templates that your end users can use. This decreases the risk for fraud and error by limiting the manual work of filling in information.
  • Make use of the full audit trail that we provide. You can see the whole lifecycle of a payment from its creation to its reconciliation, including by whom and which changes were made, who has approved and sent the payment.
  • Create clear rules on manual payment creation. We enforce a 4-eye approval flow before sending it. In manual payments, there might be a reason to have more than 2 persons approval. If you are having SSC’s in use or even multiple SSC globally. Use the standard 4-eye approval flow locally but have additional approval from another SSC to reduce the internal actor.

These are a few ideas from our side. We are always happy to hear more ideas and feedback on how we can together create safe payment processes.

DOWNLOAD PAYMENT FRAUD E-BOOK

 

 

Strength in Numbers: A Community-Based Approach to Fighting Digital Payments Fraud

11-08-2021 | TIS |

This article provides a modern review of the tactics used by cyber criminals to target enterprises with fraudulent schemes and also evaluates the primary methods used by companies for defending against digital payments fraud. This is followed by an introduction to TIS’ innovative Payee Community Screening (PCS) solution, which addresses payments fraud on a global scale by curating a community-based network of trusted beneficiaries, vendors, and bank account information that enterprises can use to verify the legitimacy of their outbound payment instructions.

Enterprise Payments Fraud in 2021 is More Elaborate & Subversive than Ever Before

Within the past year alone, thousands of finance and treasury practitioners across the world have learned through bitter experience that digital payments fraud is rarely orchestrated by your average, everyday criminal.

Rather, the vast majority of today’s technology-oriented attacks, particularly those that target large enterprises, are led by sophisticated, well-funded, and innovative fraudsters.

In many cases, these software-savvy perpetrators are working on behalf of state-sponsored actors or underground “black-hat” organizations. And because these groups are well-organized and well-funded, they can provide members with the latest technology and training. Ultimately, this has led to rapid digital innovation within the criminal underworld, and subsequently to a growing frequency of highly-orchestrated payments fraud attacks against the corporate environment.

Consisting primarily of software hacks or malware attacks, many of the most prevalent forms of fraud in existence today involve numerous layers of subterfuge and deception, which is necessary for bypassing the various security controls that organizations have in place. Common examples include the use of cleverly disguised Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes, “Man-in-the-Middle” tactics, invoicing fraud, and the use of ransomware or other forms of “system takeover” fraud.

But of course, enterprises are not entirely helpless in defending themselves.

What Payment Security Tools Does a Modern-Day Treasury Group Utilize?

If you’re operating in a role with direct access or authority over an enterprise’s outbound transactions, you could probably name a broad number of tools at your company’s disposal for detecting and preventing payments fraud.

Some quick examples?

When initially establishing internal payment protocols, most companies will require clear segregation of duties between each stakeholder in the payment process. This includes dual or multi-user approval controls for executing, reviewing, and approving payments. Other standard security components, such as the use of encrypted Wi-Fi networks or VPNs, help restrict access to the enterprise’s digital software to only trusted sources. IP safe-listing tools provide even greater control over who can access these internal systems. As users log in, configuring multifactor authentication (MFA) tokens to be used in conjunction with standard usernames and passwords is another effective technique that prevents unauthorized users or personnel from accessing payment systems via stolen credentials. Biometric versions of these MFA tokens, such as fingerprint or retinal scanners, may be leveraged for even greater security. And finally, user auditing software is often adopted by companies to help monitor the activity of various personnel within their payment systems in order to detect suspicious activity, such as a login attempt from an unknown IP address, at an odd time of day, or from an obscure world region.

Treasury Payments Security

When all combined together with regular employee testing and training, these various security techniques have proven very effective for combating most forms of digital treasury and payments fraud in existence today. And in the years ahead, these tactics are expected to remain as core features of most enterprise’s fraud prevention strategies.

However, suppose that the criminals targeting your organization are not launching direct attacks against your internal payment systems or architecture, but instead decide to infiltrate the operations of your suppliers and partners.

Their reasoning?

Although your enterprise might have the appropriate defenses in place for preventing direct hacks and internal breaches, are your controls just as effective at identifying anomalous activity that is perpetrated through the guise of a trusted vendor?

For a surprising number of enterprises today, the simple answer is no.

Successful Fraudsters Learn How to Operate Outside the Purview of Enterprise Visibility

Although many of the fraud attacks that garner widespread media attention are those that result in millions or billions of losses in a single swoop, these are not the only types of attacks that organizations should be worried about.

In reality, many of the attempts perpetrated by criminals are not targeting billions of dollars. Instead, they focus on extracting smaller amounts of funds over time, often by disguising their activity through the lens of normal business operations.

Take, as an example, fake invoices submitted by criminals that are designed to mimic one of the thousands of vendor or supplier payments that a global enterprise makes every month.

Usually, vendors are submitting invoices to enterprises via email, an online e-commerce platform, or via an ERP system. Subsequent payments are then delivered from the enterprise to the various recipients whose invoices have been approved, usually as an account-to-account transaction that goes directly to the bank account listed in the invoice.

However, suppose that a criminal is able to infiltrate the email account, e-commerce platform, or payment system used by one of your vendors. And over time, the criminal monitors the activity and communication that occurs between this vendor and your enterprise and learns how to mimic the workflow, presentation, and delivery of new invoices for payment.

In this scenario, the criminal knows that your company is receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of new invoices from a variety of vendors every day. They also know the average dollar amount of each invoice delivered by particular vendors, as well as the frequency and timing of their submissions. And if an email account or e-commerce platform has been hacked, they have also probably been studying the language and messaging that the vendor uses to correspond with you.

After taking time to evaluate these invoicing and communication processes, the criminal will create a falsified invoice using the same email address or payment platform that you’re familiar with. The invoice will probably be for the same amount and to the same beneficiary that you’re used to paying, but with a slight variation to the underlying bank account details.

The typical result being?

Unless you are actively tracking and inspecting the vendor records, bank account numbers, and beneficiary details for EVERY payment initiated by your enterprise to your global network of partners and vendors, then catching these attempts will be incredibly difficult.

But if your company cannot catch this errant invoice the first time, then what is going to stop the criminal from submitting numerous invoices over and over, or even going on to target other vendors within your network and duplicating the process on a broader scale?

It might sound like an Ocean’s 11 heist on paper, but in reality, these types of attacks occur all the time. In fact, a single instance of invoice fraud cost Amazon nearly $20 million in 2020. Other forms of fraud, such as BEC schemes, cost a combined $12.5 billion for organizations in the same timeframe, and these numbers are not decreasing over time.

Instead, they are continuing to rise.

Introducing a New Way to Quickly Identify Suspicious or Fraudulent Payment Details

Although subversive types of fraud attacks like the invoice example above are difficult for large companies to identify, suppose there were a way to quickly scan all vendor and supplier payments in real-time against a global library of beneficiary and bank account data?

Going a step further, what if you could also scan outbound transactions being delivered to first-time vendors against a community ledger of payments data in order to verify that the underlying account details and remittance info have never been flagged as suspicious or fraudulent by other enterprises?

With this functionality, the threat of fraud being perpetrated through more obscure and subversive channels become much easier to identify, and they go a long way in protecting your enterprise against attacks that spawn through exposures related to your partners, vendors, and suppliers.

This suite of tools is exactly what TIS is now providing enterprise clients with our innovative Payee Community Screening (PCS) solution.

Developed in direct response to a noted increase in invoice and BEC fraud, TIS’ PCS network works by aggregating payments data across our trusted community of global enterprises and bank partners. As new payments are submitted by various enterprises through TIS, this module compares the underlying beneficiary and bank account information against a comprehensive record of all other transactions executed through the system, including those made by other enterprises in the network.

In practice, this validation process effectively protects against four fundamental threats:

  1. If you are making payments to a new beneficiary or bank account for the first time, an alert will be generated by the system warning you that an additional review of the information is recommended.
  2. If you are making payments to a beneficiary which is completely unknown to other members of the PCS network, then the payment is flagged and a review workflow is initiated.
  3. For new vendors that you are paying for the first time, if the invoice and payment details do not match what other enterprises in the network have used to pay the vendor (i.e. a different bank account number was provided to your enterprise than what was provided to other enterprises in the network), then the payment is flagged and a review workflow is initiated.
  4. If the beneficiary or bank account details provided in an invoice ever match with a known criminal, sanctioned, or otherwise fraudulent party, the payment is automatically flagged and a review workflow is initiated.

In this way, by inspecting every outbound payment initiated by your enterprise in real-time against a global library of payments information, enterprises can strengthen their security controls by accessing a much broader pool of data and information than what is available in-house. To date, TIS’ network has managed over 11 billion payments globally across 11,000+ banks and 15 million+ distinct beneficiaries, which makes our library of payments information virtually unparalleled in the market. And now with the addition of PCS to our solution suite, we can better protect our enterprise clients from fraud by confirming the validity of every outbound transaction they are attempting to make.

TIS Payee Community Screening

In an environment where subterfuge and deception are a criminal’s main assets, these community screening techniques are essential for ensuring that fraudsters cannot bypass your controls simply by infiltrating those of a different company within your network. They also ensure that as soon as fraudulent or suspicious payment info is identified by one enterprise, the data can be quickly shared across all other enterprises in the network for purposes of quickly halting subsequent payments to that account or beneficiary.

For TIS’ enterprise clients, these tools are already becoming a pivotal component of their core security structure, and we are excited to continue deploying the solution across more global enterprises in the months and years ahead.

Learn More About How PCS Can Bolster Your Treasury & Payments Security

Although no single tool should ever be relied upon to defend against all forms of fraud, it is strongly recommended that enterprises making hundreds or thousands of vendor payments every day undergo a thorough evaluation of their payment controls. More specifically, treasury and AP teams should take time to analyze whether the threat of invoice or BEC fraud leaves them exposed, especially if a vendor or supplier within their network is compromised.

For enterprises that identify gaps, we invite you to learn more about how TIS can help.

For more information about TIS’ PCS tool, the associated benefits, and the technical aspects associated with its architecture, download our latest factsheet. You can also request a meeting with one of our payment experts or learn more about the other security-related components of our solution suite.

Stay vigilant, stay safe, and as always, thank you for reading.

About TIS

TIS is reimagining the world of enterprise payments through a cloud-based platform uniquely designed to help global organizations optimize outbound payments. Corporations, banks and business vendors leverage TIS to transform how they connect global accounts, collaborate on payment processes, execute outbound payments, analyze cash flow and compliance data, and improve critical outbound payment functions. The TIS corporate payments technology platform helps businesses improve operational efficiency, lower risk, manage liquidity, gain strategic advantage – and ultimately achieve enterprise payment optimization.

Visit tis.biz to reimagine your approach to payments.

 

Partner Interview Series: Ramon Helwegen of EcomStream, specialized in optimization of online payment solutions

10-08-2021 | treasuryXL | EcomStream |

treasuryXL are delighted to share the interview with Founder and Managing Director of EcomStream, Ramon Helwegen.

EcomStream is an independent consultancy and is specialized in optimization of online, omnichannel and marketplace payment solutions, and optimization of checkout flows.

Meet Ramon

treasuryXL are delighted to share the interview with Founder and Managing Director of  EcomStream, Ramon Helwegen. Ramon has over 20 years of experience in E-Commerce, Online Payments and IT Managed Services outsourcing at organizations such as: Verizon, GlobalCollect (Ingenico e-payments), EMS (ABN AMRO/Fiserv) and Newgen.

Ramon has then founded EcomStream in 2017. A consultancy specialized in adding value by assessing the client’s checkout and payment solution, to sell more and pay less. For online, omnichannel and marketplace businesses.

International corporates (B2C & B2B) and Twinkle100 is the main target market. Clients include: Bax Music, Kwantum, Leen Bakker, Staples Solutions and vidaXL.

Let’s wait no longer and take the deeper dive with Ramon and his personal story about EcomStream. We asked him 8 interesting questions, let’s go!

INTERVIEW

1. What is the main goal of EcomStream?

EcomStream has been founded in 2017 and provides optimization services in the field of payment and checkout for online, omnichannel and market places. Both functionally and from a cost perspective. The goal is to provide clients the opportunity to sell more at lower costs.

Many times a client is not fully aware of optimization features that can be provided by their existing providers. This is often low hanging fruit. I also make sure that clients get value for money by benchmarking and renegotiating their rates and fees. Furthermore I’m often asked to optimize the end-to-end checkout flow to make sure the risk of drop offs is reduced to a minimum, and conversion is optimized.

2. Why are clients choosing for your services?

Assurance. Clients never have to worry again about having the best deal and set-up regarding cost and conversion, and often the service is performed on a no-cure no-pay basis.

3. What would be the biggest benefit for clients when working with EcomStream?

The payment market is very dynamic and todays knowledge gets outdated quickly. With EcomStream clients have access to up-to-date knowledge and expertise, just when they need it, and are assured of having the best deal (costs and features) with their providers at all times.

4. What client profile benefits from your services?

Rule of thumb says that most value can be generated for clients in online, omnichannel or market places, who have established mature volumes for a few years already. Clients within the Twinkle250 rankings or large corporates in B2B with direct distribution models would benefit greatly. But frankly, every merchant is very welcome to have a chat to see where I can help.

5. What is the common ground between treasury and EcomStream?

Many of the decision makers that I work with are from treasury departments. However not every treasurer understands payments, fintech, checkout and conversion as much as they would like to. Treasurers are often challenged by other stakeholders in the company to come up with cost savings or additional features, or they are pro-actively looking for opportunities to improve their KPI’s. I’m there to help them and to deliver.

6. What has been your biggest challenge with EcomStream so far?

When managing your own business you don’t have the luxury where you can rely on a large established corporate, with an enormous historical track record, that backs you up. This can be challenging. Especially when getting trust and commitment from the stakeholders and decision makers at a client side, it is your own performance that counts, for each and every project, time and time again.

7. What has been your best experience since the start of EcomStream?

First of all the strength lies within the fact that EcomStream operates an independent business model. I only work for merchants, so there are no projects taken onboard for providers or other parties in the value chain. There is never a conflict of interest but always a full commitment to the merchant.

Furthermore, I’m very pleased that I have received quite some positive work references from clients. Together with an explanation of the merchant business case, these are showing on the website.

8. What will the future hold for EcomStream?

Direct (online) distribution models are getting mainstream more and more. For B2C companies but also for B2B. Often these companies originate from traditional business models and evolve towards digital / omnichannel companies with business challenges they were not aware of before. EcomStream is there for them to unlock opportunities in the field of payment and checkout optimization, so they can sell more at lower costs.

Contact EcomStream directly

Curious to know more? Ramon Helwegen is happy to tell you more about EcomStream and his experience. Contact him directly via ramon@ecomstream.nl.

 

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Are You Still Thinking About Virtual Accounts or Already Implementing POBO and COBO?

| 04-08-2021 | treasuryXL | Nomentia |

Companies are increasingly focusing on harmonising their banking landscape to obtain better visibility of Cash balances, to mitigate Fraud Risks and to improve automation and security in their treasury processes.

In a world where the next fraud attempt is lurking around every corner, no company wants to create processes with different banks, tokens, and user lists for each of their different local entities. With this harmonisation, companies start to rethink their processes, and this naturally leads to in-house banking, including POBO and COBO. This is because the question soon arises as to why, for example, not all euro payments should be handled from one account, if that were possible within the regulatory context.

Setting up an in-house bank doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of several steps taken to centralise an organisation’s cash management. The six steps are:

  1. Managing corporate bank account structure. You can read more in our bank connectivity guide.
  2. Harmonising and centralising payment process. It’s also a way to mitigate the risk of payment fraud. You can read more in our payment fraud ebook.
  3. Streamlining internal payments. This is a logical next step after managing your corporate bank account structure.
  4. Establishing POBO.
  5. Establishing COBO.
  6. Centralising control over financing.

Today we would like to focus on POBO and COBO. They are the ultimate goals of a payments project because they create transparency and make cash management processes more efficient and automated. This sounds great, right? So why, then, aren’t all organisations just setting up POBO and COBO and calling it a day?

Moving from disparate processes, tools and a varied (if you want to be positive) banking landscape to a centralised treasury doesn’t happen easily. Companies might even feel hesitant about implementing on-behalf-of structures because their set-ups are too complicated. That’s an interesting point and I’d like to stress that the more complex a company is in its cash management or enterprise resource planning (ERP) structures, the more they will benefit from an on-behalf-of set-up.

Increased control, transparency, and efficiency

In the POBO model, the subsidiaries process the payment data in their systems according to internally harmonised processes, and the group treasury decides on the most cost-efficient payment method and banking connection. The group treasury is able to centralise cash outflows, which significantly enhances the safety of and control over the payment process.

COBO and POBO make it possible for the group to reach the highest level of independence from banks and maximise cost efficiency.

The benefits of POBO and COBO can be summarised into increased control, transparency, and efficiency. But there are also challenges associated with on-behalf-of structures that need to be evaluated before setting them up.

Where there’s a benefit there’s a challenge

POBO is possible for most payment types, but some are regulated in such a way that they cannot be completed by the on-behalf-of method. This is often related to tax or salary payments. Legal restrictions specific to each country can make it difficult to set up POBO and companies need to assess whether the benefits they will gain are worth the effort. There is no one true answer for all companies; it really depends on the level of complexity they are facing.

Another reason why companies might feel hesitant about implementing POBO is because they use multiple ERP systems. If that is the case, the mere idea of POBO is simply far too complicated. To be honest, when we hear that ‘excuse’ we see it as a challenge, and it makes us happy. Because this then means we can talk about payment factories –especially our payment factory solution. We can create a process that makes it possible for all entities to pay with internal bank accounts as payments-on-behalf-of. I’d even go so far as to say that the more ERP systems a company has, the more benefits it will get from POBO.

When it comes to COBO, the main challenge is that companies are dependent on their buyers to know what to collect from whom. Companies need to retrieve all accounts receivable (AR) information and maintain an overall view of account balances. In some countries that might be relatively easy, as invoices generally have a reference number. But that’s not the case in all countries. It comes back to identifying incoming payments correctly. For example, this can be achieved by matching payments to open invoices. A solution for automatic bank account reconciliation would be able to automatically match incoming payments based on information provided, for example in the message to the right AR account. We took a closer look at the topic in this blog post about how an in-house bank with modern matching solves the COBO challenge.

That said, of course, it’s not an easy task to create on-behalf-of structures, but it’s something that organisations will greatly benefit from if done correctly.

 

 

 

Refinitiv Corporate Treasury Data Insights | July 2021

27-07-2021 | treasuryXL | Refinitiv |

Andrew Hollins, Director of Corporate Treasury Proposition at Refinitiv, brings you the July 2021 round-up of the latest Corporate Treasury Data Insights.

  1. The stability of the dynamic spread between USD LIBOR and its recommended replacement SOFR raises questions about whether corporate treasurers will gain much more benefit from credit sensitive rates over and above SOFR.
  2. Under pressure from inflation, what impact on financial markets could a move in the dollar index bring?
  3. Central banks, including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, are exploring a central bank digital currency. What benefits would this bring the central banks?

Corporate Treasury Charts of the Month

Sources: USD LIBOR administered by ICE Benchmark Administration; SOFR administered by Federal Reserve Bank of New York

The dynamic spread between USD LIBOR and its recommended replacement SOFR mostly reflects the credit risk of large banks. This spread has remained stable at 13-14bps over the last few years and did not change materially during the COVID-19 related market volatility in H1 2020.

The stability of this spread, particularly during periods of stress, raises questions whether credit sensitive rates such as BSBY and Ameribor provide meaningful benefits over and above SOFR to corporate treasurers.

Tell me more

On 17 March 2021, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) announced it selected Refinitiv to publish its recommended fallback rates for cash products. Following extensive engagement, Refinitiv plans to launch prototype USD fallback rates in August 2021 and production rates in the autumn. Find out more about Refinitiv’s LIBOR Transition and Replacement Rate solutions.

LIBOR Transition Event: why does the USD cash market need fallback rates?

With the major banks expected to stop using USD LIBOR as a reference in the vast majority of new derivatives and cash products by the end of this year, the race is now on for market participants to accelerate their LIBOR transition programmes in order to ensure the ongoing and efficient functioning of financial markets.

In a recent webinar a panel of experts from Refinitiv, the LSTA, Wells Fargo and the U.S. Federal Reserve discuss the USD cash market and the need for fallback rates.

The Big Conversation: The two biggest risks for markets

Inflation may be the headline grabber at the moment, but it is the impact on bond yields and the U.S. dollar that really matter. If they don’t move, markets can tolerate higher inflation.

So far, bond yields have responded well to the inflation scare, but a move in either direction by the dollar could now be a problem. Discover analyst expectations for bond yields and the US dollar and assess the associated market risks.

U.S dollar index. Corporate Treasury Data Insights | July 2021

Data on the Data: the rise of central bank digital currency

Major central banks around the globe have taken steps towards identifying a framework for building a central bank digital currency (CBDC). A CBDC would be a new risk‑free digital form of currency issued by a central bank, which performs all the essential functions of money.

Major central banks around the globe, including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank (ECB), are exploring the common principles and key features for building a CBDC.

In this new episode of Refinitiv’s Data on the Data, Sachin Somani, Global Director of the Central Banking Customer Proposition at Refinitiv, outlines the desire for central banks to develop their own digital currency to complement their existing offerings, reduce the reliance on coins and notes, and compete with private coins in the crypto space.

 

Watch: The Rise of Central Bank Digital Currency – Data on the Data | Refinitiv

Refinitiv Corporate Treasury Newsbeat

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