SurePay | Prevent fraud and errors with The IBAN-Name Check for Organisations

24-02-2021 | treasuryXL |

Award-winning Fintech company, SurePay, integrates the IBAN-Name Check into your business processes. This prevents fraud and errors and allows you to realize more efficient processes.

SurePay was founded in 2016 and has been providing the IBAN-Name Check to all major Dutch banks since 2017. In the years that followed, the group of customers expanded to corporates and partners. Today, SurePay provides the Confirmation of Payee service in the UK, while at the same time introducing new services in the Netherlands. At the beginning of 2020, SurePay became a Private Company and an independent part of the Rabobank Group.

Experience the benefits of the IBAN-Name Check in your business processes

Entering, using and checking customer data is often labor-intensive. By integrating the SurePay IBAN and name check into your systems, you make your processes more efficient, safer and reduce the risk of fraud.

This way, the online registration of new customers runs more smoothly, you collect from and you pay to the right person. Moreover, you know whether you are dealing with a private or business account! Various organisations, like insurers, municipalities and energy companies already use the IBAN-Name Check for organisations. The same solution makes sure that the Covid-19 payments are delivered safely, at scale and to the right people in both the Netherlands and the UK.

2020 recap at a glance

SurePay saw a spectacular growth of 1719% in the number of checks for organisations. More than 125 organisations now use the IBAN-Name Check.

See the complete 2020 year report here.

They use the service in the onboarding process of new suppliers and customers (KYC), in claims and payout processes, in direct debit processes and in fraud investigations. This makes processes more efficient, safer and reduces the risk of fraud and misdirection, avoiding all the damage and hassle that goes with it.

The results are impressive:

  • 90% less drop-outs during onboarding
  • 80% less fraudulent onboardings
  • 50% less uncollectible invoices

Want to know more about the IBAN-Name Check for Organisations?

To know more about the IBAN-Name Check like features, roadmap, use cases and the team behind this proven solution, click on the following banner.

Thanks for reading, take care.

Mitigating Behavioural Biases in Currency Management

28-02-2023 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

This episode of CurrencyCast dives into the impact of behavioural biases in currency management and how they impact financial decisions. You’ll learn about the most common biases that can affect decision-making, including conservatism, forward rate, overconfidence, and loss aversion biases. But fear not! The episode also provides solutions to mitigate these biases and optimise your currency management strategies. 

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for informational purposes only and was originally published by Kantox (Source)

 

Discover how implementing automation solutions can help remove systematic errors and allow you to embrace foreign currencies, increasing profitability and fostering growth. 

Don’t let inherent biases affect your work – watch the latest episode of CurrencyCast and take control of your currency risk management today!

Inflexion announces acquisition of Nomentia

02-03-2023 | Nomentia | treasuryXL | LinkedIn | Inflexion is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Nomentia, a leading European treasury and cash management software provider, from current investors PSG Equity (“PSG”), a leading growth equity firm partnering with software and technology-enabled services companies, and Verdane, a European specialist growth investor named one of the region’s most active software investors. The investment is being made by Inflexion Buyout Fund VI.  

LIVE DISCUSSION | How FinTech is Revolutionizing Corporate Treasury

02-03-2023 | treasuryXL | LinkedIn | What new and exciting innovations are happening in the corporate treasury marketplace and how are FinTech’s playing a role in this space?

Hedging Intercompany Loans: A New Way to Mitigate FX Risk

03-03-2023 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn | “By using conditional stop-loss and take-profit orders, you can achieve significant savings in terms of the cost of carry.”

Uncovering the benefits of a multicurrency world

03-02-2023 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

We’re living in a multicurrency world and we’re multicurrency treasurers. You can get a head start on your competitors by simply understanding the benefits of operating with multiple currencies. Start leveraging the multicurrency world we’re in.

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for informational purposes only and was originally published by Kantox (Source)

With so many benefits to operating with the different foreign currencies out there, it is crazy to think that some companies are not taking advantage of this.

In this week’s episode of CurrencyCast we discussed why businesses should consider implementing a multicurrency approach to their FX risk strategy. This article will take a deeper dive into the benefits and give you some insight into how to be a more strategic treasurer.

Why we are in a multi-currency world

In this episode, we analyse a development that many find surprising, but that stands at the core of our thinking at Kantox: the multi-currency world. The prevailing view of a world dominated by a handful of currencies like the dollar and the euro is being challenged as we speak.

We’ll reveal how you can take advantage of the benefits that lie ahead in this multi-currency world and contribute to enhancing your profit margins.

How is technology pushing forward a multi-currency world

The currencies of a number of small, but well-managed economies (together with the natural rise of CNY) are gaining in importance: SEK, NOK, CAD, AUD, NZD, SGD and KRW among others.

The change is not driven in a top-down manner by macroeconomic forces. Instead, it reflects a bottom-up and microeconomic phenomenon, made possible by technology.

Today’s multi-currency world is mostly driven by corporate treasurers taking advantage of Multi Dealer Platforms such as 360T. These platforms have led to a dramatic compression of spreads, increasing liquidity beyond the major currency pairs and reducing the network effects of the USD.

For example, whereas a CAD-MXN transaction used to require two trades involving USD and CAD on the one hand, and USD and MXN on the other, now CAD-MXN can be directly and competitively traded on Multi-Dealer Platforms.

 

currency composition graph of FX reserves from IMF

 

Advantages of the multi-currency world

Back to the issue of the multi-currency world. Let me mention some of the benefits of selling in more currencies (we discussed the advantages on the contracting side earlier on):

  • FX markups. With multi-currency pricing, businesses can monetise existing FX markups.
  • High-margin sales. Companies can drive direct, high-margin sales on company websites with many different payment methods.
  • Reduced cart abandonment. Online businesses can deploy multi-currency pricing as their secret weapon to reduce cart abandonment.

Let’s take this example if you are a company operating with imports from a foreign country there could be some hesitation regarding whether to work with the local currency or not. In certain cases, using the local currency translates into better deals from a commercial perspective, as FX markups from suppliers are avoided. Also, firms get access to a wider range of suppliers.

From a liquidity management perspective, you may benefit from extended paying terms as well giving you more runway to finalise your sales. Finally, from a strictly financial perspective, there could be a wider forward discount of currency pairs which is a way to generate more positive forward points when hedging.

A strategic issue in the age of innovation

By taking FX risk out of the picture, you put your business in a position to confidently use more currencies in day-to-day operations. Additionally, if you then implement the best automation solution that will help you remove time-consuming and error-prone tasks, you could have a strong currency management strategy that becomes a great strategic asset.

On top of that, there are other bonuses to implementing technology:

  • Optimisation of interest rate differentials between currencies
  • More time to devote to value-adding tasks
  • Openness to further automation

Wrap up

Now you know all the benefits of a multicurrency world for currency managers. By empowering commercial teams to always buy and sell in the most profitable currency, the finance team acts as a strategic business enabler within the enterprise. That is the promise of the multi-currency world that is taking shape as we speak.

You are now prepared to face the future of currency management and reap all the benefits of the multiple currencies available. But to keep the ball rolling and make the most of foreign currencies, you need a tool that allows you to have full control of your FX exposure.

That’s why Kantox offers a unique currency management automation solution that enables treasurers and CFOs like you to optimise your FX workflow. Talk with our currency management experts and find out how today.

5 Treasury Trends for 2023: Managing Currencies in an Age of Uncertainty

26-01-2023 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

Scared about 2023 looking even worse than the crazy last three years? Keep calm and take a holistic approach to currency management. 

Source: Kantox

If we look back at the economic landscape of last year, treasurers and CFOs have been dealing with risky scenarios for a while. But is the future as dark as some say? Our latest episode of CurrencyCast featured the treasury trends for 2023. In this article, we will take a deep dive into those trends and give you some tips on how to tackle the challenges in this volatile landscape.

Treasury trends for 2023

Consultants and pundits are busy laying out scary scenarios for 2023. However, the future is uncertain so let’s not waste time in futurology trying to predict what’s coming.

Instead, we can focus on understanding the treasury trends of 2023. In this article, we’ll analyse those trends with a focus on currency management and give you actionable tips on how to handle any hurdles ahead.

CFOs and corporate treasurers need to be well prepared for the upcoming challenges and opportunities as they manage currencies. The top five priorities in the corporate treasury space for 2023 are:

  1. FX volatility
  2. Shifting interest rate differentials
  3. Liquidity management
  4. Cash flow visibility
  5. Automation

FX volatility

In the past year, the financial markets have seen high levels of FX volatility and an unstable economy that seems to point towards a recession. Trends of high inflation, banks’ rising interest rates, political instability, and more will remain in the new year.

Hence why, it is fair to say that currency managers need to be well-prepared to face interrelated risks affecting FX rates. Companies dealing with foreign currencies will have difficulties accurately forecasting cash flows.

However, there is no reason to panic yet. There are a few strategies that corporate finance professionals can implement to tackle FX volatility; we will explain them later.

Shifting interest rate differentials

Shifting interest rate differentials are a likely scenario in 2023 as central banks act to tame inflation, each at its own pace. The good news is that companies can optimise such interest rate differentials across the entire FX workflow. Here are a couple of examples:

– With favourable forward points, pricing with the forward rate improves the firm’s competitive position without hurting budgeted profit margins.

– With unfavourable forward points, pricing with the forward rate helps managers avoid losses on carry and the temptation of excessive pricing markups.

– Finally, the cost of hedging can be lowered by delaying hedging execution with the help of automated conditional FX orders.

 

Liquidity management

In addition, the current emphasis on strong liquidity management will persist well into 2023. Liquidity management allows the treasury team to have a wider view of the company’s resources and be financially agile.

This will give any treasury professional the required accurate insights on the cash projections. And ultimately, help the business be prepared for potential liquidity risks that may arise.

Cash flow visibility

Avoiding less-than-stellar cash flow visibility will be top of mind for treasurers in 2023. As economic cycles could be disrupted again, companies need to be able to get ahead of the curve and reduce deviations in their cash flow projections.

However, we believe that the importance of having accurate cash flow forecasts is somewhat overstated, at least when it comes to currency risk management.

To understand why this is so, the treasury team should consider how the different cash flow hedging programs deal with this concern:

– In firms with dynamic prices, forecasting accuracy is not much of a concern because firm sales/purchase orders have a very high occurrence probability.

– In firms with steady prices across several campaign/budget periods, layered hedging programs build the hedge rate in advance instead of protecting an FX rate.

– In firms with steady prices for a single campaign/budget period, conditional orders to protect the budget rate provide managers with time to update their forecasts.

For better cash flow visibility in the new year, companies will need to consider their ability to implement hedging programs that best suit their needs.

Automation

In 2023, the role of the corporate treasurer will require professionals to improve their technological skills. The traditional treasury function is shifting towards an automated digital infrastructure that enables increased efficiency and faster processes.

To manage currency risk in the new year, treasurers will need to move away from siloed systems and wasting time on manual tasks. Instead, they need to look for a solution that is able to automate the entire FX workflow.

Tools that are able to connect, via APIs, to their treasury management system and other data sources, for updated reports that give accurate insights into their FX exposure.

Facing the challenges

Now you know the treasury trends that will be dominating 2023 for corporate treasurers. But we also want to give you some tips on how currency managers should act in the face of such challenges.

As we like to emphasise at Kantox, currency management is much more than currency risk management. And currency risk management, in turn, is more than just the act of executing a hedge. Let us see this in more detail.

Consider the case of automated conditional orders to protect a budget rate. To the extent that the underlying levels are not hit, no trades are executed. Yet, you are still actively managing your firm’s exposure to currency risk.

Delaying hedges may lead to netting opportunities that ultimately result in less, not more, hedging transactions. The results are:

  • Less trading costs
  • Savings on the carry in the event of unfavourable forward points
  • Less cash immediately set aside for collateral requirements

The right approach for 2023

Pundits predicting a catastrophic 2023 may turn out to be right. Then again, they might not. In any case, the priority for currency managers is to take a holistic view of currency management that allows them to:

  • Embrace the entire FX workflow
  • Avoid silos and have commercial and finance teams work hand in hand
  • Take advantage of the profit margin-enhancing opportunities offered by currencies

As you have seen, corporate treasurers will need to be well-prepared for all the interrelated risks of the turbulent economic landscape. With the help of the right automation tools, the treasury function can have a strong currency management strategy that helps them storm the weather outside.

Kantox is the currency management automation solution that covers the entire FX workflow so you can improve your profit margins and leverage foreign currencies.

Book a free strategy session with our currency management specialists to learn more.

Hedging Strategies 101: Layered Hedging

16-01-2023 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

Avoid the cliff and protect your cash flows! When volatility is at an all-time high, the right currency hedging strategy can set you apart. And save your business from an uncertain future. Transform your FX risk with a layered hedging strategy that will help you withstand unexpected changes in FX markets and protect your margins.

When implementing an FX hedging program, finance professionals responsible for risk management must be aware of the ins and outs of their business. This will be the starting point to uncover potential gaps in the hedging strategy and also opportunities to implement the program that fits perfectly.

Let’s understand how a layered hedging program works and how it could fit with your FX strategy.

Why is a layered hedging strategy important?

Layered hedging programs allow CFOs and Treasurers to handle the related problems of FX markets volatility, shifting interest rate differentials, and less-than-stellar cash flow visibility.

The goal of a layered hedging program is to smooth out the hedge rate over time to lower the variability of company cash flows. Additionally, a layered hedging program that is created from scratch can deal with the problem of forecasting accuracy.

Instead of ‘protecting’ an FX rate, layered hedging programs build the hedge rate in advance. And because hedges are applied in layers, in a progressive manner, you do not need a 100% accurate forecast at all.

Who can benefit from a layered hedging program?

Not all hedging programs are the same, as they tackle different goals for managing FX risk. Before you implement a layered hedging program and start dedicating time and resources, you need to think about certain conditions. These relate to your current business model -including pricing structure, the FX exposure you want to hedge, cash flows, etc.- and your company’s specific needs when it comes to FX hedging.

This type of hedging program is best suited for firms that need or desire to keep steady prices not only for one individual campaign/budget period, but for a set of campaign/budget periods linked together. In layered hedging:

(a) Prices are usually not FX-driven, meaning that the FX rate plays no role in pricing strategy.

(b) The impact of the ‘cliff’ -a sharp adverse fluctuation in currency rates between periods-, cannot be passed on to customers at the onset of a new period.

(c) The exposure to hedge is a rolling cash flow forecast for a set of periods linked together.

Unlike other cash flow hedging programs, like static hedging where prices are either frequently updated or updated at the onset of a new budget period, pricing does not act as a hedging mechanism in layered hedging programs. And that puts cash flows at risk, so a solution must be found elsewhere.

In comes the star of layered hedging, smoothing the rate.

Smoothing the hedge rate over time

The secret of achieving a smooth hedge rate over time is to create commonality between trade dates for a given value date. Take, for example, a 12-month layered hedging program. The value date of October is hedged in 12 different months, from October in the previous year down to September.

Next, the value date of November is hedged in the same manner, starting in November of the previous year down to October. And so on and so forth. Note that the two value dates -October and November- share eleven out of twelve trade dates with the same spot rate. That’s the concept of the mechanically created commonality that lies at the heart of layered hedging programs.

However, the process of ‘layering the hedges’ is not as simple as it may seem at first glance. There are some common challenges that Treasurers and CFOs face when manually performing FX risk management activities.

Common challenges in layered hedging

Before crafting the optimal layered hedging program for your business, there are three common challenges that need to be considered. These are crucial to the success of the FX hedging strategy. And they relate to the configuration of the program, the intrinsic constraints of the business, and the level of automation currently available to the team. Let’s take a closer look.

  • Configurations. Depending on risk managers’ secondary objectives, there are many possible configurations for a layered hedging program. Some of these configurations regard:

(1) The degree to which the hedge rate is smoothed, for example by adjusting the programs’ length.

(2) The optimisation of forward points. For example, hedge execution can be delayed if forward points are ‘unfavourable’.

(3) The distance between the average hedge rate and the spot rate.

  • Constraints. Each treasury team may face its own set of constraints, some examples include:

(1) The degree of forecast accuracy.

(2) Possible limitations imposed by liquidity providers who might not let a firm trade forward contracts that expire, say, more than two years out.

  • Automation. Needless to say, a manually executed layered hedging program can be pretty demanding, especially if many currency pairs are involved. We’ve seen companies running such programs with the help of enormous spreadsheets. This only creates two different operational risks:

(1) Spreadsheet risk, including data input errors, copy & paste errors, formatting and formula errors.

(2) Key person risk, as only a handful of individuals understand the formulas that underpin the ‘monster’ spreadsheets.

Eliminating the uncertainty

Layered hedging programs are a powerful FX risk management tool to face the trifecta of problems created by a highly volatile scenario. These hurdles include currency risk —including the risk of a cliff, as we saw recently with the GBP-USD exchange rate—, shifting interest rate differentials, and less-than-stellar cash flow visibility.

Now that you know the ins and outs of layered hedging, you can start transforming your FX risk management workflow. And forget about the challenges that may come when facing uncertainty. That’s a pretty powerful advantage in a scenario of pandemics, inflation and war!

Optimal hedging strategy with Currency Management Automation

If you want to leave behind the challenges of manual work when it comes to currency risk, consider implementing automation software.

Kantox is the only solution that streamlines the currency management process through powerful automation of the entire FX workflow. This enables businesses to reduce currency risk, protect profit margins and price more competitively.

A guide to conditional FX orders

27-12-2022 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

In this article, we look closely at conditional FX orders, a powerful tool when executing your hedging strategy, and the unique role it plays in currency management — especially when it comes to delaying the execution of hedges.

Conditional orders: a brief definition

A conditional FX order is an order to execute a spot or a forward transaction to buy or sell one currency against another—but only when a predetermined limit is reached.

Conditional orders include stop-loss (SL) and take-profit (TP) orders. While SL orders are aimed at avoiding losses beyond a certain limit, PT orders are designed to take advantage of favourable moves in currency markets.

Note two time-related aspects of conditional orders in forward markets:

(a) The tenor of the underlying forward contract is specified (it could be one month, six months, or a year)

(b) The validity of the order is specified too (it can be valid for two weeks, six months, or set on a  good-until-cancelled basis).

Conditional orders are usually set on an OCO basis: one-cancels-the-other, automatically to avoid the same exposure being hedged twice in the event of extraordinary market volatility. 

Note, too, that in the event of extraordinary market volatility, conditional orders can be executed at less favourable levels than desired. This limitation exists not only in FX but in all financial markets. 

A powerful tool for risk managers

The primary purpose of conditional orders is to provide a safety net around an FX rate that the treasury team wishes to defend.

It can be the rate used in setting prices —aka the campaign/budget rate—or a ‘worst case scenario’ FX rate.  

Say that you wish to defend the rate of EUR-USD = 1 on a spot basis while the market is trading at 1.08. In this case, it is prudent to set three SL orders, each covering a third of the exposure, at 1.02, 1.00 and 0.98, respectively.

Assuming that the three levels are hit, you are mathematically assured to defend your budget or worst-case scenario FX rate.

Time is on your side

In hedging programs designed to protect a budget FX rate, the ‘buffer’ set between the market rate towards the start of the campaign and the rate to be defended with SL orders provides risk managers with a critical resource: time

As long as the SL orders are not executed, the passing of time means that hedge execution is delayed while FX risk remains fully under control. This brings the following four systematic advantages:

(a) More time to update cash flow forecasts

(b) More savings in terms of the cost of carry when forward points are unfavourable

(c) No cash immediately needed for collateral requirements

(d) More netting opportunities

And it’s not over yet! With luck, your TP conditional orders can be hit as well. 

Backtesting conditional orders

We recently conducted a backtest of a hedging program designed to protect the budget rate of a UK-based exporter selling into emerging markets. Over a four-year period (2017-2020), the firm would have outperformed its budget rate in three of those years while equalling it in the remaining year. In one year alone, overperformance reached 5.8%.

Delaying hedge execution with risk under control allowed the treasury team to hedge on the back of firm commitments, providing a better hedge rate than the stop-loss orders. So there you have it: when managing currency risk, consider using conditional orders. Time will be on your side. And you’ll sleep well at night! 

P.S. If you’re drafting your upcoming budget, download our Budget Hedging report and find out how to use conditional orders.

Conditional orders

How to use pricing to create an effective hedging program

12-12-2022 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

In this article, we explore the links between pricing and creating an effective currency hedging strategy. We reveal how a simple PEG framework —Pricing, Exposure, Goals— can allow CFOs and treasurers to correctly define their FX goals, the type of exposure they need to collect and process, and the best hedging program for their business.

Pricing as a hedging mechanism

Transactional currency risk, it is often said, occurs between the moment an FX-denominated transaction is agreed upon and the moment it is settled in cash.

That’s OK, but what if the transaction was priced well before it was agreed, which is a realistic description of how things really work?

That’s why at Kantox, we developed the concept of pricing risk. pricing risk is the risk that between the moment an FX-driven price is set and the moment a transaction is agreed upon, a shift in the FX rate might impact budgeted profit margins.

Closely related to this is the idea that pricing is itself a hedging mechanism. Why? Because you can remove pricing risk by frequently updating your prices.

And that brings us to the topic of pricing parameters and hedging. 

Dynamic pricing

Let us start with dynamic pricing. There is a growing list of industries where dynamic pricing is becoming the norm: travel, chemical traders, hospitality, railways, entertainment, insurance, online advertisement, retail and even shipping.

This trend reflects the fall in transaction costs made possible by the availability of real-time data and the rise of geolocation services and payment apps.

Meanwhile, algorithms take into account supply and demand conditions, competitor pricing and other variables.

Two things need to be considered when it comes to dynamic pricing:

(a) prices are ‘FX-driven’; that is, an FX rate is systematically part of the pricing formula;

(b) prices are frequently updated, therefore leveraging the full capacity of pricing to act as a hedging mechanism. 

Other pricing models

Despite its growing popularity, dynamic pricing is not the only pricing mechanism out there. We can single out at least two other very significant models: 

1. Steady prices for individual campaigns/periods. Some businesses, like catalogue-based tour operators, keep prices stable for an entire campaign/budget period and set new prices at the start of the following period. Things to consider here:

(a) Prices are also FX-driven, just like in dynamic pricing.

(b) The pricing impact of the ‘cliff’, or a sharp FX rate fluctuation between two campaign/budget periods, is fully passed on to customers at the onset of a new period. Here too, pricing acts as a hedging mechanism, but not to the extent it does in dynamic pricing.

2. Steady prices for a set of campaigns/periods. Some firms need or simply desire to keep prices steady not only for one individual campaign/budget period but for a set of campaign/budget periods linked together. Things to consider:

(a) Prices are not FX-driven: the FX rate plays no role in pricing;

(b) The pricing impact of the ‘cliff’ cannot be passed on to customers at the onset of a new period. Pricing, quite obviously, is not a hedging mechanism in this case.

Putting it all together: the PEG framework: Pricing-Exposure-Goals

The PEG or Pricing – Exposure – Goals framework provides actionable clarity when discussing pricing and currency hedging in the context of cash flow hedging programs:

For firms with frequently updated FX-driven prices, the goal is to protect the dynamic pricing rate in all their transactions. The exposure to hedge is the company’s firm sales/purchase orders. The right program is a micro-hedging program for firm commitments.

For companies that keep steady prices during individual campaign/budget periods, the goal is to protect the campaign/budget rate. The exposure to hedge is the forecasted revenues and expenditures for that particular campaign. The right program is a combination of a static hedging program, conditional orders and a micro-hedging program for firm commitments. 

Finally, for firms that keep steady prices across a set of campaign/budget periods linked together, the goal is to smooth out the hedge rate over time. The exposure to hedge is a rolling forecast for a set of periods linked together. The right program is a layered hedging program. 

Currency Management Automation solutions allow you to reach all your goals, whatever the pricing parameters of your business.