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Possible Amendments to the Withdrawal Bill see Pound Fall Sharply
| 19-12-2019 | treasuryXL | XE |
Boris Johnson will bring his Brexit bill before a new intake of MPs this week without some of concessions he made before the election. The Withdrawal Agreement Bill – the key legislation that will pave the way for the UK to leave the European Union on 31 January 2020 – is expected to come before the Commons on Friday.
Under Johnson’s plan Britain is to leave the EU on 31 January once the bill passes, at which point the transition phase with the EU kicks in. During this period, the UK is expected to leave the customs union and single market and enter new negotiated arrangements, but will follow most EU law like other member states. However, it will not have voting rights like other member states.
News on the morning of the 17th has suggested that the Brexit bill is thought to have been rewritten since the one that was backed at the second reading by the previous Parliament. The Conservatives now have a majority of 80 which means that Johnson is unlikely to bring forward concessions to his Brexit bill that he suggested he would consider at the time. Those include clause 30, allowing MPs to vote on an extension to the transition period beyond 2020 if a free trade deal was not struck in time.
With the new legislation looking to legally prevent delaying a departure beyond 2020 there is a risk that leaving with no deal is back on the table. This new amendment has seen the Pound drop over 1% against the dollar and the Euro. We are now back to the levels we were trading at before the election, with GBPUSD down from 1.35 on Friday to 1.3190 and GBPEUR down to 1.1846 from 1.20+ last week.
It is a fairly data heavy day today with UK average earnings, ILO employment data and Mark Carney speaking which could continue to see volatility in the Pound.
GBPUSD– 1.3190
GBPEUR– 1.1857
EURUSD– 1.1134
The figures are based on the live mid-market rate, correct as of 09:00 GMT on 17/12//2019, and are provided for indicative purposes only. Live mid-market rates are not available to consumers and are for informational purposes only. The rates XE quotes for money transfer can be selected via the page on XE’s website ‘Live Money Transfer rates’.
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About XE.com
XE can help safeguard your profit margins and improve cashflow through quantifying the FX risk you face and implementing unique strategies to mitigate it. XE Business Solutions provides a comprehensive range of currency services and products to help businesses access competitive rates with greater control.
Deciding when to make an international payment and at what rate can be critical. XE Business Solutions work with businesses to protect bottom-line from exchange rate fluctuations, while the currency experts and risk management specialists act as eyes and ears in the market to protect your profits from the world’s volatile currency markets.
Your company money is safe with XE, their NASDAQ listed parent company, Euronet Worldwide Inc., has a multibillion-dollar market capitalization, and an investment grade credit rating. With offices in the UK, Canada, Europe, APAC and North America they have a truly global coverage.
Are you curious to know more about XE?
Maurits Houthoff, senior business development manager at XE.com, is always in for a cup of coffee, mail or call to provide you detailed information.
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treasuryXL announces partnership with XE.com
| 12-12-2019 | treasuryXL | XE |
treasuryXL announces partnership with XE.com, The World’s Trusted Currency Authority and provider of currency data, FX Risk Management and Technology solutions for businesses
VENLO, The Netherlands, DECEMBER 12, 2019 – treasuryXL, the community platform for everyone who is active in the world of treasury, today announced the premium partnership with the world’s most trusted currency authority XE.com.
XE.com is the first major currency specialist to work with treasuryXL. As a marketplace, treasuryXL will offer XE.com market commentary and insight to her audience. Offering a continuous flow of relevant treasury content, making treasury knowledge available, results in treasuryXL being the obvious go-to platform for its’ audience. The partnership kicks off with the new ‘Treasury Topic’ environment where XE.com will have a prominent role in the FX, risk management, payments and FinTech environment.
XE.com is the world’s most popular foreign exchange website, and a leading global destination for foreign exchange rate tools and data. XE Business Solutions support companies across the world with robust responses to unpredictable currency markets; whether they rely on XE for information about currency markets, seek support when managing their FX risk, or trust them with business-critical international payments.
treasuryXL and XE.com strive for a fruitful partnership where its’ audience are top of mind making sure that (potential) clients are always up to date with the latest global currency news and benefit from a comprehensive range of currency services and products. XE Business Solutions and currency expertise provide companies with robust responses to unpredictable currency markets, so that bottom line is protected by currency risk and not impacted by it.
About treasuryXL
treasuryXL started in 2016 as a community platform for everyone who is active in the world of treasury. Their extensive and highly qualified network consists out of experienced and aspiring treasurers. treasuryXL keeps their network updated with daily news, events and the latest treasury vacancies.
treasuryXL brings the treasury function to a higher level, both for the inner circle: corporate treasurers, bankers & consultants, as well as others that might benefit: CFO’s, business owners, other people from the CFO Team and educators.
treasuryXL offers:
About XE.com
XE can help safeguard your profit margins and improve cashflow through quantifying the FX risk you face and implementing unique strategies to mitigate it. XE Business Solutions provides a comprehensive range of currency services and products to help businesses access competitive rates with greater control.
Deciding when to make an international payment and at what rate can be critical. XE Business Solutions work with businesses to protect bottom-line from exchange rate fluctuations, while the currency experts and risk management specialists act as eyes and ears in the market to protect your profits from the world’s volatile currency markets.
Your company money is safe with XE, their NASDAQ listed parent company, Euronet Worldwide Inc., has a multibillion-dollar market capitalization, and an investment grade credit rating. With offices in the UK, Canada, Europe, APAC and North America they have a truly global coverage.
Are you curious to know more about XE?
Maurits Houthoff, senior business development manager at XE.com, is always in for a cup of coffee, mail or call to provide you detailed information.
Visit XE.com
Visit XE partner page
How to generate an accurate cashflow forecast | 3 key factors
| 10-12-2019 | treasuryXL | Cashforce |
One would imagine that in a world where smart cities and virtual reality are becoming a part of daily reality, treasury and finance departments would have perfected their cash forecasting by now, giving the CFO a level of confidence in the numbers. Surprisingly, that doesn’t appear to be the case at all – both PwC’s & Deloitte’s Global Benchmarking studies highlighted cash and liquidity risk as the most important treasury challenge to manage.
If you look closer, it’s not difficult to see why: try managing and forecasting the cash flows of a complex internal ecosystem of multiple ERP’s, FX exposure and geographic entities, combined with increased global uncertainty, tax changes, interest rate rises, and regulatory change. Still, having an accurate cash flow forecast and understanding the underlying drivers is essential to a company’s well-being, as it can help you foresee potential problems which may arise in the year ahead. A lot of companies around the world are therefore increasing their efforts when it comes to cash flow forecasting, but with variable results and accuracy.
So what sets good cash forecasting (i.e. accurate and efficient forecasting) apart from bad cash forecasting (i.e. not transparent, inaccurate & time-consuming cash forecasting)?
KEY SUCCESS FACTOR #1: BEING ABLE TO DRILL DOWN INTO YOUR ACTUAL CASH FLOW DRIVERS BY USING TRANSACTION-LEVEL / GRANULAR DATA
A lot of Corporate Treasurers are seeking an accurate cash forecast through a delicate combination of well-chosen cash flow drivers & assumptions. But, to what extent do they have a good view of these cash flow drivers? Do they know what is really eating and feeding their cash (more than the typical high-level AR, AP, Treasury flows that your Treasury Management System will consolidate)?
There isn’t a lot of visibility, unfortunately. Why is that? The classic TMS will typically consolidate basic forecasted flows from the different OpCo’s. The problem is that these OpCo’s cash forecasts are already consolidated from the underlying business transactions. This blurs the insight in the real cash flow drivers and gives no assurance whatsoever on the quality of the data.
To build a good forecast, it is important to have clear and error-free access to the underlying business transactions. In a recent PwC study, only 6% of respondents said they made use of the inputs at the transactional level. But thanks to advances in technology, particularly big data analytics, treasurers can have instant access to the details of the underlying cash movements and are given the ability to drill down to the transaction level. In the gif below, you can see what this means in practice.
Suppose you want to know exactly what drives your company’s cash flow in a certain period. The GIF below demonstrates how easy this could be, using the right platform. Via an easy-to-use click-through interface, the user is able to gain insights per month, quarter, week and day including instant access to the transaction level details.
KEY SUCCESS FACTOR # 2: APPLYING THE RIGHT FORECASTING LOGIC IS CRUCIAL FOR A GOOD FORECAST
Cash flow forecasting is often associated with a pile of Excel sheets and manual work. Treasurers are forced to turn to Excel to calculate their forecasts, because classic Treasury Management Systems do not offer the required flexibility.
Getting insights into all your OpCo’s cash flow drivers is one thing but combining all these data sources and applying the right logic/rules to generate a good forecast is another. Let’s take the example of applying vendor payment behavior. Intuitively, it makes sense to enrich invoicing & sales order details with data on when vendors actually pay. Many companies, however, struggle to take this data into account. In general, they haven’t set up the appropriate algorithms to include in their forecasts. Hence, they face inaccurate forecasts and a lot of time is spent explaining (over and over again) why it was inaccurate.
Defining forecasting logic in a smart way is not an easy challenge. Yet, if your goal is to achieve an accurate forecast, a set of smart logic algorithms is invaluable. Again, modern technology proves to be a great asset. Progressive companies are using technology-driven, smart engines to calculate & automate their cash forecasts, taking over the manually intensive work and proposing logic that could improve the forecast in the future.
Above you can see how a smart engine works in practice. Cash flows are projected into the future (blue line) using forecasting logic. The dotted orange line represents a scenario with one or more of the underlying assumptions changed and immediately shows the impact relative to the blue line.
KEY SUCCESS FACTOR #3: A GOOD FORECAST IS ONE THAT IS USED TO DRIVE ACTION
Even if your forecast is no less than a piece of art, it might be underused, or not used at all. To make a real impact, there should be actions retrieved from the forecast results. There is a lot of potential in accurately predicting what might happen in the future and this potential should be translated into value.
There is even more value in considering multiple scenarios by changing some of the underlying assumptions (e.g. changing the day or frequency of your payment runs). When working in Excel or a TMS, changing assumptions might trigger a lot of additional manual work and is unfortunately often avoided. To get the most out of your forecasting process, it makes sense to build multiple forecasts and assess the impact of each of these scenarios on cash optimization. Driving action combined with building multiple scenarios, can transform finance departments into business partners for fueling a company’s growth.
The orange line reflects a scenario, built by the user. These views give her/him an immediate comparison between the current forecast (full blue line) and a different scenario (based on assumptions made by the user). A powerful simulation engine is able to show the impact of different scenarios in a blink. Imagine the power this can bring to a business-driven finance department.
Mark O’Toole heads up the Americas for Cashforce, a big data analytics & TMS technology provider focused on cash management, forecasting and working capital.