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Bank fee monitoring – more than just “penny pinching”
| 06-02-2018 | TIPCO | Sponsored content |
Monitoring bank fees is not a task which is particularly popular in treasury departments. The idea of working through stacks of paper in the hope of understanding confusing bank fee nomenclature doesn’t usually generate much enthusiasm. This onerous task is often delegated, or statements are just blindly signed off on by the accounts department. That’s a shame. Why? Because the systematic analysis of bank fees can not only save considerable sums of money but can also lead to real improvements in treasury processes.
Evil intentions are not the only reason behind incorrectly charged items. Banks claim that updates of their fee calculation systems are sometimes responsible for standard fees being charged rather than those which have been specially negotiated with certain clients. Simply on the grounds of human error, there is a need to regularly check whether agreed fees are always taken into account by the software that banks use.
What do you need to do to retain an overview?
First of all, you need a bank which is capable of providing you with electronic statements in either the TWIST BSB or camt.086 formats. The gentle pressure that major corporates have put on their banks in recent years has paid off. Banks are increasingly responding positively to relevant customer requests. We will be happy to provide a list of those banks which can already provide these statements and in which countries.
On the other hand, your systems need to be able to read and process these formats. While you can open the statements relatively easily in Excel, special system support is necessary in order to perform in-depth analyses. Many corporates use web-based and TMS-independent platforms for this which have specially developed to monitor bank fees. Bespoke interfaces guarantee integration into your existing system landscape. A good example of such a system is the treasury information platform TIP, which is already in use at corporates such as Deutsche Post DHL Group or Lufthansa.
How will you benefit from regular checks?
The first benefit comes from checking that agreed fees are actually charged in practice. The press of a button is all it should take to highlight all discrepancies and provide a basis for demanding reimbursement from the bank. But this is just the beginning. Once transparency has been established about the services and fees charged, it doesn’t take long to draw conclusions about suboptimal payment processes. For example, if your analysis frequently highlights expensive “non-STP” or “repair” fees, you would be well advised to take a closer look at your payment processes. Perhaps there is simply a need to update incorrect master data. On the other hand, it might be necessary to brief your personnel on correct payment processes.
A further example: document-based payment methods. If your Canadian subsidiary in-structs a bank by fax to perform 800 transfers a month, this is not only a problem for your internal audit team but generally also extremely expensive. Here is another case relevant in the context of compliance which can be highlighted by bank fee monitoring: Cash withdrawals from company accounts at a bank branch may be above board in certain cases but should certainly be queried.
Another positive side effect of a transparent overview of bank fees is a comparison between different subsidiaries: Do all your subsidiaries in a particular country pay the same fee for the same service, and if not, why not?
Another situation: Imagine that you asked the general manager of your Spanish subsidiary three months ago to close two unnecessary EUR accounts, but the account management fee keep appearing on the statements. Electronic statements can therefore help you to insist on compliance with your cash management policy.
However, this issue is not only suitable as a means of slapping the wrists of banks and in-ternal troublemakers. The systematic processing of bank statements also provides you with exactly the data you need for your next payment service RFP: The relevant products you use and volumes are presented on a silver platter; meaning that you don’t need to painstakingly collect these data from your subsidiaries. Besides the quantitative factors, the analysis of bank fees also provides you with a better impression of the quality of the services provided by your banks. Armed with these data, you are far better prepared for bank negotiations.
What will the future bring?
What might still sound far-fetched today may soon become reality: Work is already ongoing in some pilot projects to directly book fee-based information from electronic account statements in ERP systems. This is based on statements prepared using the ZUGFeRD format, a standard developed by the Forum for Electronic Invoicing Germany (FeRD), which will make it possible to send invoices in a defined PDF format which can then be automatically read and processed.
Parallel to this, the German Association of Corporate Treasurers (vdt) has formed a working group to establish an XML format proposal which meets the minimum requirements necessary for bank fees to be VAT deductible. And, in the near future, electronic statements may also include all of the key elements of banks’ year-end summaries.
Efforts to introduce electronic bank fee statements are also being intensified internationally: The Common Global Implementation (CGI) initiative, investigating the standardisation of payment formats, has set up a working group to further develop camt.086, the ISO standard for cash management statements. Numerous other initiatives in Germany, Austria and France are also regularly bringing banks, corporates and system providers together for meetings. Increasing numbers of medium and large corporates are starting relevant projects and sharing their experiences at fairs such as those of the Association of Financial Profes-sionals (AFP) in Denver and at the Finance Symposium organised by Schwabe, Ley & Greiner. This issue is also being addressed in academia, highlighted by the numerous dis-sertations and theses focussing on how theory and practice should be combined. Last but not least, system providers are increasingly integrating bank fee monitoring into their solutions.
How can you help?
Rising demand from corporates is ensuring that this issue remains firmly at the top of credit institution agendas. While banks of course are keen to pass on the necessary investment costs to their customers, don’t let yourself get caught up in any discussions on this issue. After all, you don’t pay other suppliers to send you electronic invoices that you can understand.
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Digital currency – to bitcoin a phrase
| 05-02-2018 | treasuryXL |
Theft
Yet another hack in the cryptocurrency world– this time of NEM at Coindesk – led to the theft of around USD 500 million. Security seems to be a factor and is having an effect on confidence and sustainability.
Lack of regulation
As a currency and industry that is still very young, there is a lack of proper regulation. When compared to legal tender currencies there is a distinct lack of consumer protection and regulatory framework. Losing all your savings is a high risk that is prevalent in an industry that is so lacking in clear and concise regulations. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a regulatory agency in the United States, recently subpoenaed Bitfinex – a cryptocurrency exchange – for possible price manipulation. Their currency – Tether – is supposed to be backed by traditional money, though it appears that Tether has been created without the backing of physical money.
Intervention
The Indian Finance Ministry has spoken about banning cryptocurrency – China is looking at blocking access to exchanges. In South Korea illegal foreign exchange trading using cryptocurrency has been discovered. Possible government intervention is detrimental to the development of digital currency.
Futures market
Whilst it is still too early to report in great detail, opinion is being voiced that the introduction of futures contracts are having an adverse impact on the pricing of cryptocurrency.
Banning
Major US banks have started banning their customers from buying cryptocurrency with their credit cards. The banks are worried about the price volatility and people purchasing investment products via credit.
Lack of commercial acceptance
Until cryptocurrency is accepted by major retailers, it will not be seen as a genuine alternative to fiat currency. Yet again, the price volatility appears to be holding back major stores in embracing the digital coins.
Obsolescence
As a pioneer in the cryptocurrency world, Bitcoin is starting to shows its age. Its file size – 1 megabyte containing about 2500 transactions – is being superseded. Bitcoin cash is 8 times larger and far quicker. It is taking a lot of time for transactions to be verified and the costs to send Bitcoin has increased dramatically – more than USD 100.
Bitcoin is still up around 700 per cent from the beginning of 2017, but the enthusiasm and positive belief seem to be evaporating as the market becomes more mature.
If you want more information please feel free to contact us via email [email protected]
Cash Pooling – where is the money
| 01-02-2018 | François de Witte |
The main objectives of the cash & liquidity management are to:
One of the most important techniques to achieve a better utilization of the available cash is the “cash pooling” or, in other words, the concentration of the cash to make it centrally available. The commonly used techniques in the market are the following:
In the present article, we will outline the current types of cash management tools, their advantages and the attention points.
Manual cash concentration: Intercompany payments
For companies, who have only a limited number of accounts to overview, it is recommended to set up a manual cash pooling. In this case, the treasurer overviews daily or weekly the balances of the different accounts, and when there are important debit or credit positions, he will initiate manual payments to balance the positions, and or to concentrate them on the central treasury account. If during the day, important movements take place, the treasurer can make some additional intra-company payments to balance the debit and credit positions. In order to avoid float, it is recommended to use the urgent payments clearing.
The main advantages of the manual cash balancing are the following:
However there are some drawbacks / attention points:
Automated cash concentration
The automated cash concentration, also called cash balancing, is a pooling technique requiring a physical transfer of funds to or from the participating accounts to concentrator account. The pooling movements are operated automatically by the bank
The most commonly used cash concentration is the zero balance cash balancing, as illustrated in the drawing down below. In this solution, the balances of the participants are daily or weekly swept to a concentrating account.
Figure 1: Outline of the zero balance cash balancing
There are several advantages to this system, such as:
However there are also drawbacks / attention points:
Notional cash pooling
The Notional cash Pooling is a cash pooling where there is no movement of funds. In such a pooling the credit balances of the participants are offset against debit balances of the participants. Hence the net balance of the group is used to calculate the debit or credit interest paid or received.
The system has a flat structure, which means that all the participating Accounts are basically equal to each other. However usually corporates designate one account as the treasury Account, which is then used to manage the system.
Figure 2: Outline of the notional cash pooling
The main advantages of the notional pooling are the following:
However there are also attention points:
Legal and tax aspects of cash pooling
Setting up a pooling requires some preparation, and some legal and tax issues need to be addressed, such as:
When setting up such structures, in particular when different countries are involved, you need to foresee a due diligence with legal/tax advisors and banks
For cash balancing with different legal entities, a requirement is also to be able to manage intercompany loan administration. There are banks and providers who come up with solutions in this area.
François de Witte
Founder & Senior Consultant at FDW Consult and Senior Expert – Product, Business development and sales manager at Isabel Group