BCR Publishing
We are the leading provider of news, market intelligence, events and training for the global receivables finance industry.
Working with industry leading organisations, experts, governments and universities, BCR Publications delivers expertise in factoring, receivables and supply chain finance to a global audience.
BCR has long been a beacon of innovation and excellence in the realm of receivables finance, playing an instrumental role in shaping the industry’s international landscape. Through its comprehensive conferences, insightful publications, and thought leadership, BCR has facilitated crucial dialogues and connections among industry professionals, driving forward the development of receivables finance globally.
Simplifying Your Organization’s International Payments Requirements
01-07-2020 | XE |
There is no crystal ball that can accurately tell you the future of where a currency will trade in the short, medium or long-term. But a good international payments provider will be able to work with you to remove the complexity of foreign currency exposures and manage the risk they pose to your organization.
When looking to partner with an international payments provider, your first priority should be to evaluate the payments your business has made previously in order to get a better idea of the FX products and services that will best fit your business’ needs. And, when selecting a provider, make sure they understand your industry and the jurisdictions you are making payments to.
1. Frequency
How often are you making (or will you make) international payments? Making overseas payments costs more per transaction. The more payments you make, the more critical it is to get the cost per transaction right.
2. Amounts
The amounts you transfer affects the overall cost. Smaller amounts will have a higher margin added, therefore it’s worth determining whether you can bundle your payments to sharpen the margin you attract.
3. Timing
With exchange rates constantly fluctuating, the timing of your payments will have an impact on your overall profitability. If you do business in areas where currency valuations are highly volatile, a payments provider that can effectively advise you about the risks and opportunities of short or long-term foreign exchange contracts is ideal.
4. Industry
Each industry is different when it comes to the three factors above. Therefore, selecting a provider that understands your industry can make a big difference, as they’ll often be able to suggest the best foreign exchange service offering for your type of business.
Your business is as unique as you are. Don’t settle for generic money transfer services which treat your business as a number on a spreadsheet.
5. Geography
Finally, when selecting an international payments provider, make sure they understand any regional nuances particular to the jurisdictions you are sending your money to – this will ensure your payments go through smoothly, and in a timely manner.
Taking the time to understand these five factors is the first step in taking control of your business’s FX requirements and will put you in good stead when selecting the right provider for your business.
Tips & Tricks for optimizing Forecasting & Working capital
| 30-06-2021 | Cashforce |
The economy is poised for a rebound due to pent-up household demand coupled with historically low inventories. Businesses need to start preparing for the surge in orders and ensure they can sufficiently manage working capital and continue to finance their operations in the most efficient way.
Automating key elements of the Order-to-Cash process will allow businesses to absorb this revenue growth with their existing resources, while generating greater sums of liquidity — ensuring they can stay on top of their cash conversion cycles without the need for expensive and risky borrowing.
Watch Rob Harvey from Sidetrade alongside Nicolas Christiaen, CEO & Co-founder of Cashforce.
A few key points discussed in this session:
Are you ready for the economy to bounce back?
Watch this session on-demand Here
What is Market Data and Why should your Company take it Seriously?
29-06-2021 | treasuryXL | Arjen van der Sluis |
Working in the market data space for many years now, one of the most challenging aspects has always been to explain: What is Market data? In the early days such a question was much easier to answer as the size of the market data landscape was far less complex and much smaller. To keep it simple: market data was price and trade-related information and there were only a few data providers out there: Reuters, Telerate and exchanges. Since then, a lot has changed. Bloomberg shook up the market by offering a one-stop-shop terminal solution including trading capabilities and a Bloomberg-wide messaging system. Much data has been added since, like broker estimates, ownership data, index data and OTC instruments, to mention only a few.
More recently, everyone is talking about Alternative data or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data. These developments, along with increased market demand, have broadened the scope of market data. Nowadays a good description of market data is “all data related to the investment cycle”.
What does Market Data mean for You?
International corporations may, for example, need foreign currency, seek protection of currency swings, need short-term cash or make daily valuations of their outstanding positions. Your investment cycle will be risk adverse and your market data requirements will include Foreign Exchange and Rates information, perhaps also some counterparty company accounts or macro-economic indicators and news.
To meet these needs and to make sure you are operating under the right market conditions, corporations may have a professional setup of market data terminals from Bloomberg or Refinitiv, FX data feeds and Treasury Management Systems (TMS). All based on different commercial models and usage rights as contractually agreed with the supplier (vendor compliance).
As a market data consultant, it is in our nature to review market data costs and -usage among financial institutions. Corporate treasurers might not be looking at market data with the same perspective as we do. Nevertheless, a regular Market data health check is advisable. Questions to be asked include: “Will market data help to perform a better job, in other words, gain a competitive advantage?” or “Why pay for a full market data terminal while there are cost-effective alternatives out there?”
Among financial institutions we see a trend to apply user profiling. Your role and workflow processes should determine the type of services used and should also justify the more expensive high-tier terminal if and when opted for. More importantly, favorably priced alternative terminals are available with excellent data sets and functionality. As an alternative to Bloomberg messaging, financial institutions have started adopting Symphony as collaboration tool and to manage workflows including proprietary data sets.
In-House Systems
Regulatory pressure has led to more emphasis on risk management and the valuation process, resulting in an ever-growing number of data feed offerings. Depending on in-house requirements there may be a need for plain vanilla instruments or the more complex instruments that push the need for evaluated prices like Bloomberg BVAL. Not only pricing data, but information like entity reference data is becoming critical as well to manage your counterparty risk. In response vendors offer tailormade solutions, but it comes at a cost.
For data to feed in-house systems or databases, we see a trend among financial institutions who are moving to the cloud to lower their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or to avoid restrictive usage rights when consuming the data via a 3rd party market data vendor. It will also help them in being more flexible in response to new data requirements.
Concluding, market data is a dynamic business. Looking at market data costs and usage, by definition, you cannot compare a corporation with a financial institution. Having said that, this does not mean market data can be neglected. With market data costs rising by more than 5-10% annually and new solutions and vendors entering the market, it is worth reviewing your market data requirements regularly.
Arjen van der Sluis
The author, Arjen van der Sluis, is Senior Consultant and Partner at MDS at Work, a Dutch based Market Data Consultancy firm with specialists conducting market data projects globally for 20+ years now.
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