Q&A with German Karaivanov | GTreasury Report

22-12-2022 | treasuryXL | GTreasury | LinkedIn |

GTreasury has compiled a market report in conjunction with PNC in order to provide actionable insights for mid-to-large companies with multinational operations and small treasury teams. The report finds that CFOs and Treasurers remain optimistic, and focus on reducing inefficiencies and streamlining operations.

GTreasury Interview Report

What will be the road ahead for CFOs and Treasurers? treasuryXL wanted to know more and held a Q&A with GTreasury’s VP of Product Management: German Karaivanov. Read below for German’s takeaways and thoughts on the report.

Q&A with German Karaivanov

 

At a high level, what are the three biggest takeaways corporate treasurers should glean from this report?

The new Pressure Points, Payments & Plans for Automation: The Road Ahead for CFOs and Treasurers survey report—conducted by Topline Strategy and commissioned by GTreasury and PNC Bank—finds corporate treasurers and CFOs are acutely focusing on three transformation goals right now. The first focus is fueling growth: treasurers and CFOs are eager to reduce costs wherever they can, but still need to be able to spur growth by improving risk management practices and getting more granular (and predictive) with their cash visibility, among other initiatives on this front.

Deploying more modernized treasury technology was also reported as essential to navigating market uncertainty—opening the door to more data-backed opportunities that can directly tie into business goals.

Also among the top-line takeaways: treasurers and CFOs are clearly ready to enter a new phase of automation for treasury functions (and across their organization’s broader financial groups). While early automation efforts had more of an ERP focus, respondents signaled that they are increasingly prepared to adopt more mature automation into their systems and apply it strategically to meet modern treasury and finance needs. 


What were the demographics of the survey?

The report surveyed 93 finance executives and corporate treasurers from more than 20 industries. Participants represented large and mid-sized enterprises in both the United States and abroad. We purposely wanted to ensure a cross-section sample that wasn’t over-pinned to any one geography or industry.


CFOs and treasurers seemed to have differing opinions in a few areas covered in the report. Was this surprising?

CFOs and treasurers are on the same page in that they’re both pressing to make treasury practices more automated, more accurate, and more efficient. But CFOs in the survey show a clear preference for prioritizing cost efficiency. Corporate treasurers, on the other hand, tend to champion improved treasury functions and operational efficiency—and that proved especially so when it comes to achieving real-time insight into cash positions. There was a clear divide here, but I don’t think it was all that surprising. More CFOs need to understand that they can have it both ways. Adding more treasury functionality, integrations, and automation will make treasury operations more efficient, both with treasury technology budgeting and with the bandwidth it frees up for treasury teams to focus on the most urgent and critical business-growth initiatives.

But even for their differences, both CFOs and treasurers do plan to leverage new banking and treasury systems to achieve their goals. Strategic technology implementations that offer process modernization and automation will reduce costs by eliminating inefficiencies and provide treasurers with optimal tooling—checking boxes for CFOs and treasurers alike.

Technology modernization is certainly a theme of the survey. In what areas do treasurers and CFOs seem especially excited about transformation?

82% of survey respondents reported payment automation as a very or extremely important focus area for their planned software projects. It was clearly the highest automation priority. CFOs and treasurers view payment automation as delivering higher staff productivity, process efficiencies, improved cash visibility, enhanced fraud protection, compliance assurance, and modernized processes aligned with the demands of the digital economy. It seems clear that payment automation will come a long way in 2023. Other high-priority focuses for software modernization projects included accounts receivable, billing, and financial planning and analysis. 

I found the results around digital transformation concerning: more than half of survey respondents said they didn’t yet have a formalized digital transformation plan even though there was a clear (and increasing) interest in making technology investments. Organizations either sticking with outdated, legacy systems are increasingly at risk as their competition advances. There’s also the internal experience: it’s easier for CFOs to hire and retain top treasury talent if their organization is using technology that makes treasurers’ jobs smoother and more efficient.

But when it comes to digital transformation, there is good news. Given the current volatile market, organizations that start their digital transformation now will likely be able to realize the benefits of their initiatives particularly quickly.

The report was conducted by a third-party, but backed by GTreasury and PNC Bank—one of the biggest banks in the United States. What is GTreasury’s relationship with PNC Bank?

GTreasury’s partnership with PNC Bank is a strategic alliance, one that enables us to bring a range of cash and FX risk management products to the market as part of PNC’s extensive digital channels and services.

 

Thank you for reading!

 

Download the market report

Interview | 8 questions for Dinesh Kumar, Treasury Strategy Consultant

20-12-2022 | treasuryXL | Dinesh Kumar | LinkedIn |

 

Meet our newest expert for the treasuryXL community, Dinesh Kumar.

Dinesh is specializing in architecting and leading large scale treasury technology transformations helping clients embrace the power of technology.  He supports group wide treasury projects in the further development of a broad range of methods and processes in the related treasury IT systems, e.g., improvement of cashflow planning, FX management and treasury reporting.

He involves in designing overall organizational strategy in the field of treasury technology application services, including evaluating new processes, models, pricing, and tools and related competitive offerings delivered treasury Service providers.

Dinesh has successfully led large treasury transformations projects utilizing SAP S/4 HANA across US, Australia, and Middle East region.

 

We asked Dinesh 8 questions, let’s go!

INTERVIEW

 

 

1. How did your treasury journey start?

After finishing my studies in Finance, I started working on stock and option trading platforms at a stock broker firm. I learned the basic concepts of stocks and options. I also built up experience at  the front office, middle office, and back office. During my time at this stock broker firm I received a lot of exposure working on trading platforms.

After 2 years, I got a chance to work on a SAP treasury implementation for a giant telecom company. I worked on Money Markets, Derivatives, Forex and Cash Management. Since then I am working on Treasury transformation projects for various clients in various countries.

 

2. What do you like about working in Treasury?

 

I love the diversity of challenges. You are dealing with the financial heart of the company and need to make sure that the right amount of blood reaches every cell. I was more into technology so turning treasury operations into systems was always challenging. I worked for many international clients, I had the opportunity to learn how different companies from different sectors and industries adapt their treasury operations and cash management as per various country regulations.

 

3. What is your Treasury Expertise and what expertise gives you a boost of energy?

 

I have been working in various roles on different Treasury projects, from interim roles to system implementations. My core treasury expertise areas are the selection and implementation of Treasury Technology (i.e., SAP, Payment Hubs, SWIFT, integration with Trading Platforms), Treasury Analytics and Insight, Technology Integration and Optimization, and Application Managed Services.

 

4. What has been your best experience in your treasury career until today?

 

For me, it’s working with different geographies, different people and cultural diversity that I personally feel is the greatest experience so far.

 

5. What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learned as a treasurer?

 

“Sound treasury management begins with a robust treasury policy”.

 

6. How have you seen the role of Corporate Treasury evolve over the years?

 

Treasurers play a unique role in managing a large portion of the balance sheet. In addition to the detailed understanding of the organization in which they operate, they are closest to macro-economic developments, particularly financial markets, and can offer valuable insights to support corporate strategy.

Increasingly over the last 10-15 years treasurers have been asked to play a bigger role, as a strategic partner to the board, advising on how best to build the business line with funds available. Treasurers, certainly in the larger companies, are now much more visible in the board room, recognized for the skills and knowledge they can bring to the table.

 

7. What developments do you expect in corporate treasury in the near and further future?

 

More and more treasurers are getting involved in ESG initiatives. Not only financing them but also embedding them into treasury processes and spearheading departmental sustainability projects. When discussing ESG in corporate treasury, green financing is often mentioned as one of the main instruments to support ESG goals.

I sense that treasurers generally are now exploring options other than multiple spreadsheets, excel data, and month-end accounting and reporting much more than they used before Covid. They are devoting more time and energy to enterprise digitalization and process automation. This is enhancing their ability to support the business round the clock from the office or virtually.

With the help of technologies like AI, we can make fact-based decisions much more rapidly in terms of resources available. Such advances are helping us to analyze M&A opportunities more critically, and explore funding, forecasting, and hedging options more forensically, even helping predict and shape our responses to supply chain disruptions.

Technology is allowing us to think and act differently, in a good way, and as treasurers, we have to seize it.

 

8. Is there anything that you would like to share with our treasury followers that they must know from you?

 

Finance and in particular treasury operations today are very dynamic and open to many uncertainties. And all the signs are that the current turbulence will continue for some time yet, perhaps worsen considerably.

In such a climate treasurers need a highly dynamic approach to fulfilling both their core and strategic responsibilities. They need to anticipate and react quickly to fast-moving developments.

They should not be afraid to act decisively, even though it may not be possible to do so based on having a clear direction and end-point certainty – inaction can also cause considerable damage.

 

Want to connect with Dinesh? Click here

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Kendra Keydeniers

Director Community & Partners, treasuryXL

First cross-border Confirmation of Payee solution launched for payments between France and the Netherlands

16-12-2021 | treasuryXL |

SurePay, SEPAMail.eu and StreamMind have announced the launch of the first cross-border Confirmation of Payee solution. This service enables companies and banks to check that the account information entered matches the intended beneficiary when initiating cross-border payments between France and the Netherlands and marks an important first step towards a pan-European solution in the fight against fraud.

Confirmation of Payee is a way to give consumers, banks and companies greater assurance that their payments are being routed to the intended recipient and are not being accidentally or deliberately misdirected.

Payments across Europe have increasingly shifted to digital channels, leading to a surge in fraud cases throughout the continent due to methods such as phishing, spoofing, APP scams and CEO fraud. Additionally, fraud is becoming increasingly international, whereby fraudsters are using foreign bank accounts for fraudulent purposes.

SEPAmail.eu offers an account check solution in France for more than 90% of bank accounts and SurePay’s IBAN-Name Check solution checks 99.5% of all online payments in the Netherlands.

This allows banks, consumers and companies in France and the Netherlands to check the accuracy of the account holder. This significantly reduces fraud and errors in payments. In addition, the IBAN-Name Check increases efficiency and improves the customer journey. In the Netherlands the IBAN-Name Check is used by over 150 companies such as insurance companies, lenders, government agencies, energy companies and many others, to prevent fraud or when accepting new suppliers, customers and employees.

Three Reasons to Add Real-time Payments to Your B2B Payments Mix

15-12-2022 | treasuryXL | Kyriba | LinkedIn |

If you are reading this, you are likely already exposed to the hype surrounding real-time payments. Whether you believe in the hype or not, it is inevitable that real-time payments will become ubiquitous globally in the near term.

By Rishi Munjal
VP, Product Strategy, Payments

Source

The last two decades have shown that countries with a strong mandate for real-time payments tend to have robust adoption. For example, emerging economies like India and Brazil that have implemented central bank mandates are outpacing developed nations like the U.S in terms of customer adoption.

In 2017, The Clearing House launched the RTP® network, the U.S.’s first real-time payment infrastructure. However, the adoption of real-time payments in general remains low, currently representing 0.9% transaction volume and 0.5% spend, according to the ACI Prime Time for Real-Time report. Specifically, for B2B payments the adoption is even lower. In this blog, I will explore three simple reasons a corporation should consider real-time payments as part of its payment mix. I will stay away from industry-specific use cases, as these were covered in my previous blog.

1. Rebalance your payment mix towards lower-cost and comparable payment types.

While finance organizations strive to keep the costs of operations low, they often only consider direct costs of payments. This practice creates a distorted comparison that can become a reason for inaction. Thus, it is important to measure both direct costs (e.g., provider fees, card interchange, etc.) and indirect costs (e.g., labor, technology, and support costs).

Using industry benchmarks provides a good starting point. The 2022 AFP Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey indicates that the median cost range for sending and receiving RTP® is comparable to ACH and cheaper than wires. Replacing qualifying volume of wires with RTP® can save tens of thousands of dollars, if not more, on an annual basis. You can realize these cost savings without giving up on irrevocability—a key benefit of wires. Kyriba clients’ success stories show tangible cost and productivity gains from such a strategy. If you are receiving card payments, you can save on interchange, which can be as high as 2.5%. With real-time payments, you get instant access to good funds and avoid chargebacks.

Median cost range to pay and get paid

Source: AFP® Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey, 2022

2. Improve cash visibility and liquidity.

Complementing real-time payments with real-time balance and transaction reporting improves cash visibility. This can be especially important if you make a lot of contingent payments. This includes business activities that are dependent on treasury receiving funds. For example, treasury may want to wait until certain funds have been received before releasing a particular payment. Cash visibility can be beneficial if you are being charged intraday credit or your bank does not permit intraday overdrafts.

Wider businesses may also benefit by triggering business activities based on contingent payments. For example, a supply chain team may want to hold on to a shipment until payment is received, accelerating their logistics process. In scenarios that need cash advance or cash-on-delivery, the buyer can make a real-time payment after inspecting the goods. Both parties win. The buyer reduces operational risk, and the seller reduces inventory and improves their working capital position.

With real-time payments, you are no longer beholden to the cut-off times, weekends and holidays. This means that payments can be made as late as possible. So, companies can meet emergency payments to meet any shortfall, and keep lower precautionary balances.

3. Speed up payment digitization and get the most value from your investments in modernization.

Payment processes are complex, and digitizing payments takes time. There are multiple reasons for this. Payment processes for large organizations often involve many roles; initiating, authorizing, and reconciling payments are typically handled by different parties, thereby drawing things out. Approval workflows can also be very complex, involving globally distributed teams. Technology teams may still have direct ownership of managing payment formats and bank connectivity.

When it comes to payment digitization, the U.S. has been behind other countries. Paper checks still account for 42% of payments disbursed by organizations, according to AFP research. The ubiquity of checks, inertia, and in some cases, tradition, continue to hold U.S. B2B payments back.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, payment digitization became even more essential. And since B2B payments are moving away from paper checks, then it only makes sense to complete those transactions as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Real-time payments leverage modern technology, especially APIs, as they transmit data instantly without the need for file downloads. By complementing real-time payments with automated bank account validation and payment policy screening corporates can set aside suspicious transactions for review while all other payments travel seamlessly. The value of payments modernization, including embracing real-time payments, lies in the endless possibilities it will bring to your future business growth.

Conclusion

Don’t dismiss real-time payments simply because they are new. Kyriba offers the most comprehensive coverage of real-time payments globally and we have taken an API-first approach, allowing CFOs and treasurers to inject real-time data-driven decision making into all financial operations. Whether you are an existing customer seeking to introduce real-time payments into your payment mix or a prospective customer seeking to digitize payments and treasury operations, we are ready to assist you in your journey. Contact us today.

Status of Real-time Payments Globally

Status of Raal-time Payments Globally

Source: Prime Time for Real-Time ACT Worldwide,2022

Click here to view all blogs by Kyriba

Footnotes:

  1. Calculated total cost for issuing a paper check on a per Item Basis (in-house or outsourced)
  2. Calculated total cost for receiving a paper check on a per item basis
  3. Initiating and receiving ACH transaction (internal and external costs)
  4. The median transaction cost for initiating and receiving RTP payments on a per item basis
  5. Calculated cost for sending and receiving wire payments on a per-item basis
  6. Total calculated cost for outgoing payments made (including personnel, IT technology, compliance, audit, etc.) via a card (procurement, T&E, and virtual) per transaction
  7. The internal median cost range for receiving credit card transactions (including personnel, IT technology, file connectivity, encryption, audit, PCI DSS compliance, etc.)
  8. The external median cost range for receiving credit card transactions (including issuer/acquirer/processor interchange, assessment, monthly fees, etc.)

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.

ESG in Treasury: What Can Treasurers Do to Impact Business Sustainability?

01-12-2022 | Anastasia Kuznetsova | treasuryXL | LinkedIn |

The expression “Money makes the world go round” probably underscores the importance of the finance community for the transition to a greener economy. Financial market participants can significantly accelerate the transition to a more sustainable world by directing capital flows to the most sustainable projects, assets and companies. 

ESG and sustainability in Treasury

What can treasurers do to impact business sustainability?

Corporate Treasurers can have a substantial impact on business sustainability by allocating capital to green projects as well as incorporating ESG factors in their risk management processes. Below I will summarize some of the instruments Corporate Treasurers could use to support companies on their way to sustainability.

ESG debt: Sustainability-Linked Financing

ESG debt is perhaps one of the most common instruments that may help companies to meet their ESG goals. For instance, to achieve environmental objectives, some companies issue green bonds. The proceeds from green bonds can only be spent on funding climate-related projects, including renewable energy, construction of green buildings, installation of air pollution control systems and etc. Most green bonds issued are “use of proceeds” bonds, which determine a range of eligible green project categories for which capital raised can be used.  These bonds are also backed by the entire balance sheet of the issuer. Project bonds are another popular type of green bonds for which the proceeds are earmarked for specifically identified projects and are exclusively backed by the project’s assets. While green bonds might be more relevant for large public companies, private companies may still add ESG debt in their capital structures by arranging green loans which serve the same purpose as their public market bond equivalents. 

 

Another type of ESG debt is sustainability-linked loans (SLLs), which are even more popular than green bonds and loans. The rise in popularity of SLLs may probably be explained by higher flexibility when it comes to the use of debt proceeds. Hence, the proceeds from SLLs can be spent on general corporate purposes but not exclusively earmarked for environmental projects. Moreover, SLLs are normally structured in the form of revolving credit facilities, which enables companies to fund their daily liquidity needs if they encounter a working capital deficiency. The purpose of SLLs from an ESG perspective is to encourage companies to achieve sustainability as quickly as possible. This is done by linking loan margin to a borrower’s sustainability performance. At first, sustainability performance targets (SPTs) for the borrower are established. After that, the borrower’s progress toward SPTs is monitored on annual basis via Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). If the targets are achieved, the loan’s margin will be reduced, enabling the borrower to benefit from lower interest payments. If the targets are missed, a step-up provision applies, increasing the loan’s margin and, thus, interest payments. Such an ESG Margin Ratchet provision incentivizes the borrower of SLLs to not only achieve but also maintain a certain level of ESG performance. The public markets equivalent of sustainability-linked loans is sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) whose coupon payments are reduced (increased) if SPTs are met (missed). 

 

On top of ESG-related loans and bonds, hybrid instruments such as green convertible bonds are becoming more and more popular. Thus, in 2020, Neoen, a French producer of renewable energy, issued €170M of the first ever green convertible bonds in Europe. This year, the company launched another €300M offering of green bonds convertible into new shares and/or exchangeable for existing shares.

 

Finalizing the topic of ESG debt, it is worth mentioning that when it comes to the EU’s finance providers, and particularly credit institutions who will soon have to disclose the percentage of green assets on their balance sheet under the EU Taxonomy, it is reasonable to expect that sustainability-linked debt will be favored by creditors. Specifically, being an underwriter of ESG debt could add prestige, and improve reputation and market positioning. In contrast, non-ESG debt may experience a pricing premium since such loans are likely to worsen the “greenness” of capital providers’ balance sheets.

 

A few words on FX Trading, Derivatives and ESG

Although currently ESG is not widely incorporated in foreign currency trades, some banks have already started to develop FX products that have a similar structure to SLLs. Such FX products will be linked to sustainability KPIs that will measure a company’s sustainability performance against pre-defined SPTs. If SPTs are successfully achieved, then a company may receive a rebate on its FX trades or a reduction in the required FX margin.

 

Sustainability-linked derivatives (SLDs) are another instrument that can be adopted by Treasurers to facilitate a transition of businesses to greener operations. SLDs are particularly relevant for companies, operating in “high-impact climate sectors” such as energy and agriculture. Cash flows of SLDs are connected to the sustainability performance of counterparties that is monitored via KPIs. Having met KPIs, a counterparty in a derivative transaction may receive a higher incoming payment, or be able to make a lower payment if the transaction results in a cash outflow. SLDs are OTC derivatives, meaning that counterparties can customise the derivatives’ terms and, thus, embed other ESG incentives, i.e. reduction in margin/spread, or payment of rebate upon achievement of pre-agreed sustainability targets.

 

Sustainable Supply Chain as an ESG trend

Sustainable supply chain is one of the current ESG trends, particularly among retailers whose total carbon footprint mainly consists of Scope 3 emissions, which are essentially emissions of suppliers. That is why, more and more companies are trying to encourage procurers to reduce their emissions and, hence, decarbonize the supply chain. Corporate Treasurers can make a substantial contribution to this objective by arranging sustainable supply chain finance programmes. Programmes are based on early-payment principles. As a first step, a company sets up sustainability KPIs to monitor the ESG performance of its suppliers. The performance of suppliers may be measured once or twice per year. After meeting at least one of the established KPIs, a supplier is paid earlier than originally agreed. Hence, highly sustainable procurers will effectively receive better payment terms, which should encourage more suppliers to improve their sustainability performance.

 

Sustainability Objectives and KPIs

Almost all the above-mentioned ESG products require the establishment of sustainability targets and KPIs. This unfortunately cannot be done by Treasurers on their own but instead should be done at the strategic level by company management. Sustainability targets must be ambitious, meaning that their achievement would require a substantial transformation of business models, e.g. switching to more sustainable suppliers; divestment or restructuring of high-carbon footprint units. Practice shows that not all management teams are capable of setting ambitious targets relevant to the business. Thus, the least Treasurers could do, besides the arrangement of ESG debt or other sustainability-linked products, is to question the adequacy of the chosen sustainability objectives within their organisations. In other words, Treasurers could make sure that the answer to the question “Why did your company set up its net-zero objective?” is not “Because everyone does it” but “Because it is relevant for our core business operations”.

 

Thank you for reading!

 

 

Anastasia Kuznetsova

 

 

 

What will be the Treasury Trend of 2023?

30-11-2022 | treasuryXL | LinkedIn |

As 2023 is approaching, we explored what Treasurers are particularly looking forward to in treasury for next year. What will be the Treasury Trend of 2023? Are treasurers curious to know what is going to happen in the area of Market and FX Risk Management, or just what the developments are going to be in e-commerce related to Treasury? Or will the understanding of APIs in Treasury be the story of 2023, or the role of Treasury within companies? We sought it out!

We thank Huub Wevers and Kim Vercoulen for sharing their views with us.

What will be the Treasury Trend of 2023?

As 2023 is approaching, we explored what treasurers are particularly looking forward to in treasury for next year. What will become the trends in treasury management next year?Are treasurers curious to know what is going to happen in the area of Market and FX Risk Management, or just what the developments are going to be in Ecommerce related to Treasury? Or will the understanding of APIs in Treasury be the story of 2023, or the role of Treasury within companies? We sought it out! This topic was also the subject of discussion during the last webinar together with Nomentia, you can find the recording here.

Question: What are you particularly interested in that will develop in 2023 in treasury?

treasury trends 2023

First observation

We see that Market and FX Risk Management stands out a little, and that there is less focus on trends in e-commerce and Treasury. What do those within treasuryXL say about this, and what are they looking forward to for next year?

View of treasuryXL experts

Huub Wevers (Nomentia)

Huub is especially interested in the developments in APIs for Treasury for in 2023.

“My personal interest is in the focus on APIs, which is good, as APIs offer new functionalities and convenience for treasurers”

With the current political and economic turmoil, it makes sense that market risk is back on the agenda. Interest rates are rising and emerging markets are becoming riskier. My personal interest is in the focus on APIs, which is good, as APIs offer new functionalities and convenience for treasurers. However, it is a jungle because everyone promises APIs, but few deliver on them, and the few that do make them have no standards.

We also see APIs that are ‘disguised’ file connections. This makes sense, because an API means linking two applications and this can be done through authentication, security and then exchange of a file. We see this a lot with Payment Service Providers. Getting reporting files for matching purposes, for example.

The webinar the other day was interesting because Niki and I represent two different areas of treasury that are important to Patrick, a very experienced treasurer, namely market risk and technology. Together with Pieter as moderator, it was fun to hear the different perspectives and experiences!

Kim Vercoulen (Treasurer Search)

Kim is especially interested in the developments of Market and FX Risk Management for in 2023.

” Important question for the treasurer will remain what to do about this.”

I chose for Market and FX Risk Management. I think especially with inflation and higher interest rates, this is going to have an impact on the treasurer’s work within the treasury department.

This is obviously all going to play through on companies’ costs, and pressure on selling prices will also increase. Important question for the treasurer will remain what to do about this.

How this will affect the treasury market compared to the current year remains to be seen. That is what we are going to witness at Treasurer Search.

Recording Panel Discussion | Treasury Trends for 2023

28-11-2022 | treasuryXL | Nomentia | LinkedIn |

Recently, we had a panel discussion about a few major treasury trends for 2023 together with Nomentia and experts Pieter de Kiewit, Patrick Kunz, Niki van Zanten, and Huub Wevers. If you didn’t get the chance to attend the webinar, you can find the recording here.

During this interactive live discussion we covered some of the following topics:

  • Market and FX Risk management in current times of uncertainty.
  • Top treasury technologies to consider for 2023. Will APIs deliver their promises?
  • Building the bridge between Ecommerce and treasury.
  • The rapidly changing role of treasury to facilitate business success
  • Treasury technology visions beyond 2023.
Watch the recording

 

 

[WEBINAR] FRTB – Are Banks Ready To Be Compliant?

23-11-2022 | treasuryXL | Refinitiv | LinkedIn |

Join experts across the industry for this complimentary webinar to explore how to prepare for – and comply – with the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) regulation in 2023.

DETAILS:

  • Webinar: FRTB – are banks ready to be compliant?
  • Date: Tuesday, November 29
  • Time: 09:00 EST / 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET
  • Speakers:
    • Hany Farag, Senior Director and Head of Risk Methodology and Analytics, CIBC
    • Fausto Marseglia, Head of Product Management, FRTB and Regulatory Propositions, Refinitiv, an LSEG Business
    • [Moderator] Lisa Regan, Head of Sales, EMEA, Enterprise Data, Refinitiv, an LSEG Business\
    • Volker Wellmann, Risk and Resource Manager at BNP Paribas, BNP Pariba



 

 

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Why you need to automate swap execution

22-11-2022 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

Do you struggle with having a perfect match between your currency hedging position and the cash settlement of the underlying commercial exposure? We’ll let you in on a secret: most treasurers and finance teams do. But how can you simplify this time-consuming and resource-intensive task? In this article, we show why you need to automate swap execution and how you can do it.

We reveal why this is an essential issue for treasurers, how it’s typically handled, and why automated swap execution can help finance teams play a more strategic role in the business. 

Setting the scene

Treasurers know that it is practically impossible to have a perfect match between the firm’s currency hedging position and the cash settlement of the underlying commercial exposure. That’s especially the case if those hedges were taken long before. This is why swapping is so essential.

Let us briefly see an example. If you have a ‘long’ USD forward position with a given value date and you need, say, 10% of that amount in cash right now, a swap agreement allows you to perform that adjustment.

With the ‘near leg’ of the swap, you buy the required amount of USD in the spot market while simultaneously selling —with the ‘far leg’ of the swap— the same amount of USD at the value date of the forward contract. And that’s how you adjust your firm’s hedging position.

Pain points: a resource-intensive activity

Swapping can be extremely time-consuming and resource-intensive, particularly if many transactions, currencies and liquidity providers are involved. We recently saw how a large European food producer was struggling mightily with manual swap execution, a dreadful situation faced by many, if not most, companies.

Among the most common pain points, we can cite the following three:

  • Operational risk. Many tasks are manually executed: retrieving incoming payments, selecting liquidity providers and confirming trades. The entire workflow relies on emails that circulate back and forth with spreadsheets carrying potential data input errors, copy & paste errors, formatting errors, and formula errors.
  • Lack of traceability. Lack of proper traceability hinders the process of assessing hedging performance, as swap legs are manually traced back to the corresponding forward contracts.
  • Risk of unethical behaviour. Understood as the risk that early mistakes that are not immediately reported may lead to severe losses down the road, it is prevalent throughout.

Traceability and automated swap execution

Traceability is when each element along the journey from FX-denominated entry to position to operation to payment has its own unique reference number. But how can we apply this concept to solve the problem of manual swap execution?

The answer is automated swap execution, a solution that is embedded in Currency Management Automation software. It relies on the perfect end-to-end traceability between the different ‘legs’ of a swap agreement and the original forward contract. Meanwhile, FX gains/losses and swap points are automatically calculated. It’s dead simple!

Swap automation is a powerful tool for the treasury team. At the company level, it opens the way to:

  • According to recent surveys, increasing the efficiency of treasury operations is the No. 1 expectation in tech for CFOs.
  • Using more currencies in the business to take advantage of the profit-margin enhancing possibilities of ‘embracing currencies’.
  • Taking a concrete step toward the ‘digital treasury’ is a concern voiced by many CFOs and treasurers.

At a personal level, in terms of the daily workload of members of the treasury team, automated swap execution means:

  • More time to concentrate on high-value-adding tasks such as fine-tuning and improving cash flow forecasts.
  • Reduced stress levels.
  • Increased productivity at work.

And that’s no small achievement!