Treasurytoday Digitisation Handbook 2015

BEST PRACTICE HANDBOOK
THE TREASURERS GUIDE

TODIGITISATION
2015
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Digital treasury:
anew chapter
Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much
to so many in so short a time. Whatever you might think of
Microsofts Co-founder, or the frustrations you might encounter with
your Windows operating system on a daily basis, Bill Gates
statement about technology could not be closer to the truth.
For individuals and businesses alike, the advent of the digital world
has brought with it huge opportunities. In this new Handbook for
2015, The treasurers guide to digitisation, the latest thinking in this
space is unveiled and the most useful solutions are examined so
that treasurers can successfully navigate towards the digital
technologies that they really need and which will make a positive
difference to their business.
Throughout this Handbook, we will refer to the introduction of new
digital technologies into the treasury department as the process of
digitisation. Some people may use the word digitalisation to
describe this process, and often the two are in fact used
interchangeably across the industry.
Whichever name you use, the bottom line is that within this
Handbook, the digital world of treasury, from new transaction
banking tools and portals to the dematerialisation of trade
documentation and the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies,
comes under the microscope. We also look at some of the wider
issues impacting innovation in this space, not least the rise
of FinTech.
Of course, whilst digitisation presents significant opportunities to
streamline, improve, automate and ultimately gain cost and
competitive advantages, there are risks that accompany new
technologies and innovation too. The useful checklists, interviews
and case studies included within this Handbook will hopefully assist
treasurers in understanding these risks, and balancing them against
the potential and by no means insignificant rewards that
digitisation offers.
Treasury Today ISSN 1478-8357

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treasurytoday The Treasurers Guide to Digitisation 2015 | 1
Contents
1. TREASURY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
6. BIG DATA AND ENHANCED ANALYTICS
What is digitisation?
How is digitisation changing the role
of the treasurer?
Revolution or evolution?
The dangers of digitisation
Driving the digital agenda
Technology for all?
The app advantage
Apps for the corporate treasurer
5
5
6
6
7
8
8
8
2. TRANSACTION BANKING:
DAYOFTHEPORTAL
A new generation of portals

FX portals
Multi-bank FX portals arrive
MMF portals
Cash management in the digital age
13
13
14
15
19
27
28
29
30
30
4. DIGITISATION OF TRADE DOCUMENTS
Cant let go?

Taking it forward
Main contenders
ePresentation and the law
Will full STP ever be possible?
37
37
37
40
40
5. ISO 20022: THE WIDER APPLICATION
The SEPA factor

44
Around the world
45
More than SEPA
46
E-invoicing46
Migrating to XML
47
2 | treasurytoday The Treasurers Guide to Digitisation 2015
Technology as the enabler
51
A single version of the truth
52
Dont forget the humans
52
An interactive approach
53
7. CRYPTOCURRENCIES: INVESTING IN
THE FUTURE OF FINANCE
How do cryptocurrencies work?
61
A game changer?
61
Some big barriers
62
Regulating the unknown
63
Building blocks
64
Beyond theory
65
Meet the coins
65
8. THE FINTECH REVOLUTION
3. UPWARDLY MOBILE:
DIGITALPAYMENTSAND COMMERCE
The death of cash?

Near field communication
Global variation in digital payments
Impact of mobile on treasury
Outlook on mobile solutions
Barriers51
FI creativity
67
Accelerating ideas
69
A collective response
71
9. CYBER SECURITY: BE PREPARED
Types of cyber threat
73
Who might attack you?
74
Maximum protection
74
Mobile security: top tips
75
Business continuity in a digital world
78
10. TMS: AN EVOLVING LANDSCAPE
Built to fit
83
TMS functions may include
83
ERP: the holistic view
84
System selection and implementation
85
Mapping treasury boundaries
86
Demonstrations86
Putting it all together
87
INTERVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES
John Laurens
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
10
Laura Milani
16
32
Ronni Horrillo
Assistant Treasurer
Liquidity Management Marketing Manager
Terry Beadle
Nick Howden
Asia Pacific Technology, Media and Telecom
Sector Head, Treasury and Trade Solutions
Head of Global Transaction Services
22
Global Corporate Treasury Business Manager
Alex Goraieb
54
Head of Market Development, FX,
Steve Pulley
Global Managing Director of Org ID,
Marie-Laurence Faure
48
Head of Electronic Banking Channels
Damian Glendinning
Karine Amas
Corporate Treasurer, Lenovo, Singapore
eBAM Product Manager
Fraser Lee
Assistant Treasurer, Vodafone
Jiameng Yu
Tony McLaughlin
76
Assistant Treasurer, Vodafone
Regional Cash Product Head, Asia Pacific,

Treasury and Trade Solutions
LISTINGS
CHECKLISTS
Big Data checklist
53
Bloomberg90
Fending off cyber threats
75
BNP Paribas
Ten steps that treasurers should take when

evaluating their TMS
90
Bolero91
87
Citi91
DBS92
Thomson Reuters
92
Editorial independence
Full responsibility for the editorial content of the Handbook rests with Treasury Today.
Treasury in the
digital age
What is digitisation and precisely how is it impacting the day-to-day work of the
corporate treasury function? In this opening Section, we look at the drivers behind
digital treasury, as well as exploring some of its most common incarnations.
What is digitisation?
Although the word digitisation is frequently used in day-to-day business conversation, its definition is
versatile and often changes depending on who is asked and in what context. It therefore seems pertinent
to start with the literal meaning of the word. According to the Collins English dictionary, digitisation is a
noun of the word digitise which means to transcribe (data) into a digital form so that it can be directly
processed by a computer.
It could be argued that this process is something which has been happening for decades and in many
respects this is true. The first treasury management system (TMS) for example, emerged in the mid-1980s,
inspired by the advent of personal computers and this required digital data to function. The term Big Data
became popular at the turn of the century and electronic payments have been occurring in the corporate
space for decades. Digitisation or as some say, digitalisation, can therefore be seen as just a natural
progression inspired by the advent of technology. So, why is there now so much focus on digitisation?
We are beginning to enter the second stage of digitisation, says Enrico Camerinelli, Senior Analyst EMEA
at the Aite Group. Companies already understand that they can move from paper to digital and from
unstructured data towards more constructed data. What they are now beginning to understand and explore
is how this gives them the power to understand the past in order to predict the future. We are entering the
age of treasury intelligence systems, of using the digital environment to provide strategic intelligence.
But corporates cannot just simply jump to the second stage of digitisation. Before this level can be
reached, digital tools and digital thinking must be applied to streamline and automate existing treasury
processes. As Rajesh Mehta, Regional Head, Treasury and Trade Solutions EMEA at Citi explains:
Corporates are using digitisation to take their integration with counterparties to the next level and removing
friction between themselves and the bank, for example. From this, corporates can leverage improved
connectivity to drive efficiency and eliminate the low-value processes that proliferated in the wake of the
financial crisis. After that, they can then begin using digitisation to drive business intelligence.
Of course, to obtain the benefits brought by digitisation, treasurers must choose the right tools. And solutions
are being offered from a range of different sources, so the decision is not always straightforward. These tools,
such as apps, portals and mobile devices, must therefore also be considered as part of wider definition of
digitisation. As George Zinn, Corporate Vice President and Treasurer at Microsoft explains: One aspect of
this digitisation is reflected in how we leverage technology to enhance productivity in a mobile work place.
These technologies include devices which allow us to stay connected and productive no matter where we are,
our intelligent cloud, both Azure and Office 365, keep all our devices like PCs, tablets and phones synced.
How is digitisation changing the role of the treasurer?

In many aspects the focus on digitisation directly correlates with the ever-expanding role of the corporate
treasurer, something that arguably began at the turn of the century, but which has rapidly accelerated
post-crisis. Where traditionally the treasurers primary focus was in transactional matters bank
relationship management, funds procurement (mainly short-term) and the investment of surplus cash the
remit of treasury is now much wider. Activities such as risk management, corporate finance and financial
control are all now commonly found in treasury functions. But more vitally, the treasurer is expected to be a
strategic business partner constructing and co-ordinating a coherent treasury policy to make best
Treasury in the digital age
The sheer scale of the worlds digital transformation means that it has changed many aspects of human life, from
how we communicate to how we spend our time. It has also changed how business is conducted creating
new models, processes, opportunities but also risks. So, how has digitisation impacted the treasury, where are
we today, where have we come from, and perhaps more importantly, where are we going? These are just some
of the questions that Treasury Today seeks to answer in this Handbook.
Section 1
Today, the number of connected mobile devices exceeds the global population. We live in a truly digital world.
And at the heart of digitisation is the internet, which is used by an estimated 3.17 billion people with web
giant Google conducting over 4 million search queries per minute. All of this has happened within 60 years of
the worlds first general purpose computer, ENIAC, being created in 1946.
Section 1
possible use of a companys assets and the latest treasury products, services and trends and then
communicating this to the board.
The following highlight a few key areas where digitisation has influenced the role of a corporate treasurer:
Leveraging Big Data

Although digitisation itself hasnt actually changed the role of the treasurer, it has helped treasury
leaders to be more effective strategic business partners. For example Zinn points out that assets at
Microsoft has grown to over $108bn, and the treasury has taken on a broader mandate supporting the
myriad of businesses, yet the headcount of the team has expanded very little. Digitisation has allowed
us to do this, he comments. Not only has it eliminated many laborious day-to-day manual processes
but it has also allowed us to leverage the data using Microsoft Power BI embedded in Excel to drive
business intelligence and make critical decisions quickly and in the moment.
Driving straight through processing

In the critical area of treasury operations, the Microsoft treasury teams use of digitisation and Azure
based tools has enabled them to achieve extremely high levels of straight through processing. For
example, 98% of Microsofts trades are auto matched and cleared. Consider this in context of the fact
that Microsofts treasury operations team clears almost $400bn of trades each year. Leveraging
Microsoft technology has allowed the team to focus on managing counterparty risk and putting in
efficient processes to meet with the growing regulatory changes such as Dodd-Frank, EMIR, SEPA and
Basel III. The team has created automated dashboards which track key metrics to drive risk mitigation
and timely decision making; not waiting for end of the month accounting numbers but rather having real
time, aggregated, cash and position information, says Zinn.
Treasury on the move

The expanding role of the treasurer has also meant that those at a senior level are travelling a lot more
than before, but again digitisation has provided a solution to this. Tablet devices have proved very
popular with our clients, explains Munir Nanji, Managing Director and APAC Sales Head at Citi. They
have provided treasurers with the mobility they require and also allowed them to digest information
quickly and efficiently.
Revolution or evolution?
Is all this really revolutionary however, or more evolutionary? For Damian Glendinning, Corporate Treasurer
at Lenovo it is the latter: We see digitisation as moving to the modern ways of doing things and as a
company we do this whenever we can, he says. But digitisation as a whole is not revolutionary, it is just a
case of trying to find the best and most cost-effective way of doing something, and in most instances this
doesnt involve paper.
In this respect, digitisation hasnt dramatically changed the role of the treasurer, and instead just made
processes more efficient. Most of what has happened is simply taking manual systems and putting them
on a computer, he says. Although this has made work in the treasury less resource-heavy, there have
been very few processes that have been redesigned to coincide with the developments, they are just
manual processes which are automated.
The dangers of digitisation

Whilst digitisation presents treasurers with new opportunities, it also exposes them to new dangers and
concerns. As Citis Nanji explains: With lots of devices and information being passed around there is,
unfortunately, significant potential exposure to both internal and external threats and treasury cannot
escape this. Cybersecurity and education is therefore a big topic for Nanji, just as it is for many bankers,
who themselves can be exposed to a corporates sub-optimal cybersecurity. Increasingly, we are
providing advisory to clients on what they should do to protect data and improve data privacy. We also
help set up robust monitoring tools and processes for our clients treasury systems. One example is the
payment risk analytics tool which looks at past trends and flag any payment outliers so management can
decide if indeed this is usual or not.
Driving the digital agenda

Traditionally, the treasury technology space has contained limited players, with the banks and a handful of
technology vendors at the heart of this. Fingers have been pointed at certain banks with industry
commentators claiming that they only offer what they believe to be suitable for their clients in other words
tried and tested solutions. So when the term innovation is banded around, what it often actually means is
an existing product tweaked or repackaged.
The banks arent entirely at fault, however. The majority of corporates are not demanding enough, and
accept whatever the banks offer, says Glendinning. Banks then think that corporates are happy with the
solutions they are offering.
Glendinning provides the example of online banking portals a solution which the majority of corporates use.
Retail online banking platforms are excellent, so as a corporate customer, you would expect that the corporate
solution will be equally as good, if not better. But this is not the case and it is lagging far behind. Inhis opinion
this is because banks dont have the incentive to invest in corporate online banking platforms (they did in the
retail space in order to save money by removing branches). The only way to change this, in my view, is for
corporates to come together with a collective voice and demand better solutions, until then we will just get
what suits the banks.
Yet, the era of digitisation has given rise to a plethora of smaller players, with new products to bring to the
market, commonly referred to as FinTech firms. These small companies, often dotted in clusters around
the world in locations such as London, Hong Kong and Silicon Valley, are typically funded by venture capital
and are continuously developing solutions in niche areas of finance, including those that impact the
treasury. While these firms do not yet have the scale or resources to impact the big players in the market,
they have certainly made the banks sit up and take notice.
Strategic partnering
This may be where the FinTech firms rise to the fore, as they are regarded as more nimble and less bound
by legacy technology and thinking than the banks. Yet, as we are already seeing, to have an impact they
are having to partner with the banks. According to Faure: Although big banks may be more traditional in
their approach, we have the trust of the market which the smaller players often dont. It therefore makes
sense in some cases for banks to partner with these so we can leverage their strengths and vice-versa.
For Aites Camerinelli, partnering needs to happen because as it stands, there is more technology available
than is needed. Banks, vendors and FinTech companies are all pushing their own agenda rather than
addressing the real needs of corporates, he says. A spreadsheet is still the number one tool in a treasury
department and for the most part only 20% of its functionality is being used and this is the same with most
treasury technology. He argues therefore that corporates, banks and vendors may want to stop looking at
new technology and instead make the most of what they have already, so that corporates of all shapes and
sizes can obtain a greater benefit from them.
Find out more about the rise of FinTech in Section 8 of this Handbook.
Adoption of digitisation by treasurers therefore cannot be viewed through a narrow lens.

As Marie-Laurence Faure, Head of Marketing Channels Products at BNP Paribas Cash Management explains:
Overall, the treasury market is very interested in how digitisation can transform their treasury and ways of
working. But there remain some clients who are attached to the traditional ways of doing things and push back
on digital. I think in many cases this is down to the age and usage of technology in a corporates personal life.
ForFaure, these will become the minority once the next generation of treasurers rises to the top.
Section 1
And although the Mitsubishi Corporation International (Europe) treasury team and its Treasurer, Gary Williams,
have benefitted from the move to digital, he is acutely aware of the new risks that this opens up to treasury as
well. Cybersecurity is now an issue that is too big to be ignored, he says. We have seen numerous news
stories in recent months about people or organisations that have encountered this issue and this is sending
out a warning shot to corporates. For Williams, there is still a large element of the unknown when it comes to
digital. More work needs to be done exploring the systems, exposing their weaknesses and educating
treasurers about them. Cybersecurity is explored in more depth in Section 9 of this Handbook.
Section 1
Technology for all?

Another way for corporates and vendors to get the most out of their technology is by considering new
deployment models, such as cloud computing.
For instance, when treasury management systems where first launched they were installed on premise.
Whilethis allowed the solution to be built to fit, it required significant investment in the technology, its updates
and the servers. There was also a high resource cost that was required from the companys treasury and IT
teams. Today, the rise of cloud technology has been a game changer as it has removed hardware costs and
provided a much more cost-effective way for a business to obtain the technology it needs, says Citis Nanji. It
is also flexible and allows corporates to easily scale both up and down.
The inexpensive nature of most cloud solutions has, therefore, helped to level the playing field in the treasury
technology space. There used to be a huge gap between what the biggest, most sophisticated companies
could achieve with their treasury technology and those at the other end of the scale. Now, thanks to the
cloud, capabilities are becoming more equal.
The cloud has also offered treasurers a new way to work. As Microsofts Zinn outlined earlier, the cloud has
enabled the Microsoft treasury team to be able to work on the go and on a multitude of devices seamlessly.
This has provided a single source of truth for the team, allowed Microsoft to access the information they
need when they need it and enabled treasury to become value added business partners.
The app advantage

Elsewhere, the rise of mobile technology in the treasury department has also prompted the use of apps
which can be used to assist corporates in their day-to-day activities. With their low cost and user-friendly
interfaces, apps are regarded as tools accessible to all. Most banks now have a mobile banking app which
corporates can use and a plethora of other apps are available (some that may be useful can be found in the
box below.) Yet, lots of question marks still hang over the use of mobile devices and apps in the treasury
department, namely around their security and functionality all of which we will explore later in Section 3 of
this Handbook.
Despite the obvious concerns around digitisation, the message for treasurers is clear: Overall the whole
market is benefitting from the digital world, says BNP Paribas Faure. It has made solutions available to all
and it has allowed both large and small companies to develop their treasury function in line with the
changing demands of the role.
In the following Sections of this Handbook, we will delve further into the doors being opened up by
digitisation, and explore how treasurers can take advantage of this. n
Apps for the corporate treasurer

In addition to the various offerings from banks and treasury software vendors, there are also a
range of apps available in the Apple and Android app stores that the corporate treasurer might find
useful. For example:
EZ Financial Calculators (iOS, free)
This app offers corporate treasurers and other financial professionals a quick and accurate way to
perform many frequently used financial calculations including APR and ROI all from their iPhone or iPad.
Keynote (iOS, 7.99)
Imagine the scenario. You are moments away from delivering a presentation to a packed
conference room at an international treasury conference. Suddenly, important economic data is
iSpreadsheet (iOS, free) or Google Sheets (Android and iOS, free)
Bloomberg Business (iOS and Android, free)

Staying on top in todays increasingly volatile markets requires constant vigilance from the
corporate treasurer to spot signs of market stress. There are a range of apps out there providing
financial markets news, data and portfolio tracking tools, but few better than this one from
Bloomberg. One of the apps many innovative features is the ability to create personalised views of
the news by industry, region or popularity.
Treasury Today and Treasury Today Asia (iOS and Android, free)
These apps enable you to download the latest copy of Treasury Today and Treasury Today Asia for
free, as well as the full text of our weekly Treasury Insights, featuring news and analysis of the latest
treasury issues. The app every treasurer needs.
No matter what up-to-date, fully integrated, STP-enabling software one buys, treasury will always
need spreadsheets in some shape or form. With these apps the corporate treasurer can read, edit
and save Excel documents on the go.
Section 1
released that might bolster your address. Theres no desktop computer to hand but that doesnt
matter as last minute edits can be made on the slides saved on your smartphone.
Sponsor interview
DBS
John Laurens
Head of Global Transaction Services
With digitisation on the agenda for many corporates around the world, banks are designing new and innovative
solutions in order to meet the changing needs of their clients. DBS is a bank that is forging ahead in this regard
by not only offering cutting-edge digital solutions, but also by creating a digital philosophy that runs through the
core of the bank. In this interview John Laurens, Head of Global Transaction Services at DBS, an industry leader
with over 30 years of banking experience, talks to Treasury Today about DBS achievements in this space to
date and how they plan to remain at the forefront of transaction banking in Asia.
Digitisation is obviously very important to DBS, why is it so vital for a digital culture to be instilled
across the bank?
Embracing the digital world is a strategic imperative for DBS. We have invested in hardware in addition to
the SGD 600m we spend every year, we will invest a further SGD 200m over the next two years to ensure
DBS offers our customers the very latest in digital solutions. But, more importantly, we have also invested
in our people. For example, over 400 of our staff have been involved in hackathons that expose them to
the digital world and give a first-hand experience of what can be achieved with new forms of rapid product
development. These initiatives help to foster a culture that is truly digital and customer centred.
Creating a digital culture is a philosophy which runs throughout the bank and espoused by DBS CEO,
Piyush Gupta, recognising that people need banking, not banks and that the bank of the future will
function very differently. Take, for example, the fact that smartphones are becoming ubiquitous we now
walk around with two powerful computers: one in our heads and one in our hands. This has had a
fundamental impact on how business is conducted and will continue to shape banking.
What digital solutions have DBS developed recently and how do these help address the requirements
of your customers?
In the retail space, DBS has developed a mobile wallet solution, DBS PayLah!, that allows users to initiate
funds transfers via a mobile number, eliminating the need to carry physical cash.
For our SME customers, we have pioneered virtual account opening. This reduces the need to visit a
branch to open an account, allowing customers to focus their time on running their businesses.
In the transaction banking space, mobile solutions are becoming increasingly important for our clients.
Weare extremely proud of our award-winning DBS IDEAL 3.0 mobile application. This innovative mobile
banking solution delivers information management, transaction initiation and approval on the go, meeting
the needs of the modern treasurer.
At DBS, we are constantly exploring how Big Data can be employed and are using an artificial intelligence
to develop a platform to predict potential trade fraud for customers. The enhanced levels of risk
management this will deliver to clients will be significant.
Working capital management is another space which uses Big Data. We have developed a number of
tools, including real time analysis, projections of future cash flows and cash conversion cycle diagnostics.
Thisadvisory work has elevated our engagement with customers. Today, DBS acts as a key strategic
business partner to customers helping them achieve their commercial objectives.
Looking ahead, we are experimenting with a number of digital initiatives, including the use of blockchain
technology in documentary trade and payments. For instance, we are working on a solution that utilises
In some ways, digitisation and the rise of FinTech companies have fragmented the financial services
landscape. Should these companies be perceived as challengers or collaborators?
DBS is at the forefront of this trend. For example, we are directly engaged with FinTech start-ups and are
sponsors of accelerator programmes including the largest of its kind in Singapore, Startupbootcamp
which offers innovative start-ups support to develop their businesses, access industry expertise and pitch
to the growing FinTech investor community in Singapore.
The future will be digital and this is why we are investing in product development that
brings new and innovative solutions to our customers. Its our focus on the customer that
will keep DBS at the forefront of shaping transaction banking in Asia.
From my experience working with these companies as a mentor, they are typically expert in Tech but require
expertise in Fin. DBS has played a key role connecting the two, not only by providing subject matter experts,
but also by delivering banking services that enable start-ups to connect their products to clearing infrastructures.
How can digitisation help DBS leapfrog the competition and achieve its ambition of becoming the
regions number one bank?
DBS is the largest bank in Singapore and Southeast Asia. To better serve our customers, we employed a
human-centred design methodology to design and develop products and services. This process enables
DBS to keep ahead of changing market conditions, technical innovation and the resultant emerging needs
of our customers. The future will be digital and this is why we are investing in product development that
brings new and innovative solutions to our customers. Its our focus on the customer that will keep DBS at
the forefront of shaping transaction banking in Asia.
John Laurens is Head of Global Transaction Services (GTS) for DBS Bank, a position he has held
since November 2014. He is responsible for transaction banking business including cash
management, trade finance, supply chain financing, and securities and fiduciary services.
Johnhas over 30 years of banking experience, including 20 years in the Asia Pacific region.
Before joining DBS, John led HSBCs Asia Pacific Global Payments and Cash Management
business, transforming it into a high growth and high performing franchise that produced $2.2bn
revenues in 2013. Prior to his time with HSBC, he was with Citibank Australia where he was Head
of Corporate Banking and also held senior transaction banking positions with Citibank, including
Regional Head, Global Cash and Trade, Asia-Pacific. Before moving to Asia in 1994, he undertook
a variety of roles in Europe covering relationship management, global custody, investment
management and marketing.
John is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. He served on the board of SWIFT from
2011 to 2014, during which time he chaired its sub-committee overseeing the establishment of
SWIFT India. He is recognised as a leader in the transaction banking industry globally.
DBS
The rise of FinTech companies has not fragmented the financial services industry, but has driven more
collaborative and progressive behaviour. These new companies are playing a major role in bringing
transaction banking to a new age. The financial services industry should therefore embrace FinTech and
the broader trend towards digital banking.
Sponsor interview
blockchain technology to potentially allow letters of credit and their supporting documents to be exchanged
digitally and automatically, bringing the prospect of widespread trade dematerialisation closer. Another
project we have in the pipeline exploits the immutability of blockchain created data to confirm the
uniqueness of trade transactions, thus safeguarding against duplicate financing.
Transaction banking:
day of the portal
The transformative power of the internet has been especially apparent in the
transaction banking industry over the past decade. Telephone trading is now
almost becoming a relic of an old and forgotten era in the modern financial
world. Today, whether executing foreign exchange transactions, investing
liquidity, or managing your payables and receivables, most treasurers now have
the ability to do whatever is required of them digitally.
What is transaction banking? Despite the consensus that the industry is fundamental to the functioning of
the global economy, definitions are not easy to come by. But there is a broad umbrella of services that
most will agree fall into the category of transaction banking. These are: payments and cash management,
trade finance, custody, and ancillary securities services.
This trend is not just apparent in the FX sphere. Digital portals have now become the main entry point for
companies wishing to gain access to bank products and services in everything from cash management to
money funds.
A new generation of portals

While the resilient popularity of cash as a payment method means there are still some efficiencies to be
captured by corporates with respect to how payments are received into the company (see Section 3 of this
Handbook for details on the digital revolution in mobile payments and collections), greater improvements
are being realised with respect to how that money is managed once it has been received.
In the past few years, weve seen web portals for treasury management at some major banks take a giant
leap forward. Once they were simply a gateway to a bundle of separate applications, albeit with a single
sign-on. Now banking portals offer suites of integrated services that enable the kind of single platform a
treasurer could previously only get with a host terminal.
FX portals
There are two main categories of portal, multi-bank or bank agnostic and proprietary portals. Multi-bank
portals have become the favoured option of more and more corporates in recent years.
The single-bank option was first to appear. In the early days, a request for quote (RFQ) model was used.
The treasurer would log in to the banks website, state how much was needed of a required currency, and
receive within 30 seconds or so an automated quote. Once that offer was accepted all the downstream
processes, such as clearing and settlement, had to be executed offline. Continual investment by banks in
their technology has today created greater levels of automation and facilitated ever-lower latency of price
streaming, more akin to professional traders requirements, to the point where users can instantly see the
depth of liquidity in the market.
The sophistication and capability of a systems functionality today tends to be driven from the top
downwards by the needs of the financial institution (FI) and pro-trader market, but the way in which users
wish to work and interface with these systems tends to be driven from the bottom upwards by the needs of
the retail market. In other words, users want a simple, intuitive interface but with all the clever behind-thescenes trickery garnered from the top end of the market.
With the high levels of FX trade flow a system is required to handle, many pre and post-trade services have
also been integrated with platforms to try to create as much of a straight through processing (STP)
environment as possible. For corporates, trades are usually integrated up front into an order management
or trade planning system and then uploaded into the FX platform before execution, with automated booking
of these trades back into the treasury management system (TMS) or spreadsheet.
For a treasurer, the choice between a single or multi-bank platform seems obvious at face value. Why
wouldnt you sign up for a multi-bank FX portal and get the best price at the click of button? Certainly the
multi-bank portals arrival was seen by some observers as the death knell for single-bank platforms. But that
has not been the case. Why?
Transaction banking: day of the portal
These tools are continuing to evolve, though. The market is growing. New disruptive start-ups are coming
in and pitching technologies that may well, in a few years time, make the way in which transaction banking
services are delivered look very different. In transaction banking, the digital revolution is very much
underway and those who do not seek to embrace it will almost certainly get left behind.
Section 2
Looking at developments in the transaction banking space over recent years, the impact digitisation has had
across each of these functions is difficult to ignore. Where once the buy-side would have invested in money
market funds (MMFs) or hedged their foreign exchange (FX) exposures by voice trading over the telephone,
today the vast majority of such transactions are performed with a few clicks of the mouse.
Section 2
In some instances, it may be that the treasurer does not execute a sufficient number of trades to warrant
subscribing to a multi-bank portal. But there may be another factor at play too. Just as retail supermarkets
dont always come out on top for customers when factors such as service, product knowledge, advice and
even customer loyalty are factored in with price, so multi-bank portals may not always deliver best
execution for a corporate treasurer, especially for those with large or exotic needs.
Another factor often considered when trading is the need to spread the share of the corporate wallet. Quid
pro quo, a treasury may wish to ensure that its relationship banks are getting a fair share of its business
even if that means a particular FX trade is executed on a non-competitive basis. The reason is simple:
they may not want a certain bank especially one with which they have a valuable line of credit to pull the
plug on the relationship because it was deemed unprofitable.
If one thing is certain, it is that the treasurer is yet to be presented with a one-size-fits-all FX solution and
that until such a tool is made available, it is essential to understand the pros and cons of each model in
order to make the most appropriate choice in each situation.
Multi-bank FX portals arrive

In the late 1990s, encouraged by the rapid uptake of the internet for business purposes (driven in
part by rising consumer confidence in web-based transactional tools), players in the banking and
technology communities saw a niche in the FX market. Corporate treasurers were typically
engaging in multiple bilateral relationships with liquidity providers. The new connectivity
technologies would enable treasurers to request and receive FX prices from multiple banks, and
place orders, all in ultra-fast time, through one central platform. A number of multi-bank platforms
hit the market around mid-2001.
For the corporate, these portals promised more than just a convenient price discovery tool. They could
also deliver workflow, enabling treasurers to see all their accounts, trades and the scope of their
portfolios in one place. With further integration into SWIFT (via the automated MT101 request for
transfer message) and the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) system, such a combination would
eventually deliver post-trade services, right through to clearing and settlement. Connectivity between
the front end of a TMS and corporate back office functions became a reality in October 2012 for
360Ts multi-bank FX trading platform, when it announced that Kyriba was to integrate it into its own
software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivered TMS.
But the early rush to join the multi-bank platform race ended almost as soon as it began for
some,with SunGards system, part of its STN Treasury unit, and Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and
J.P.Morgan Chases Atriax failing to make the grade within a year or two of hitting the market.
The(short) list of those that survived includes FXAlliance (aka FXall, a business originally owned by
a consortium of 16 banks, but since July 2012 a part of Thomson Reuters), the aforementioned
independent German-based global provider, 360T, as well as the State Street-owned Currenex.
However, the breadth of products, currencies and liquidity providers available on each of these and
later arrivals such as Bloombergs FXGO has flourished. Platforms now typically cover electronic
trading across the range of instruments including spot, forward outrights, swaps, non-direct forwards
(NDFs), options and deposits. All seek to add value in as much as users can access functions such
as market surveillance, statistical and comparative analysis and portfolio and risk management.
Thenumber of banks available to trade with will vary by platform, but most major institutions will
make themselves available in this way to their corporate clients.
At the technological heart of all multi-bank FX portals is the electronic communication network
(ECN). For web-based FX trading, this has been around since 1999, being first offered by New
York-based Matchbook FX. Multi-bank platform providers today, such as Currenex, Bloomberg,
360T, FXall and BATS recently acquired Hotspot FX, use it to stream quotes from the worlds major
banks. Because ECN is a live exchange-type order book driven by spreads on all quotes, buy-side
users (often FIs, but sometimes the pro-traders of MNCs) can actually move prices. Using an
ECN-enabled platform means traders generally enjoy improved price transparency and faster
processing than single-bank portals, whilst the highly automated process enables banks to lower
their costs and widen margins.
Since 2009, US software company Streambase has conducted a yearly survey of technology trends in the
foreign exchange market. In the 2015 survey, which polled 147 professionals involved in trading FX on both
the buy and sell sides, multi-bank platforms were found to be the most popular.
For Mitsubishis European subsidiary, which brought in its first portal around 12 years ago, that was and
continues to be the case. We chose a multi-dealer platform and one of the key reasons for that was to be
confident that we were getting the best price on our trades, notes Gary Williams, General Treasury
Manager at Mitsubishi Corporation Europe.
Treasury will still hop on the single-dealer platforms from time to time though, he explains. However, given that
the FX exposures are not enormous, those instances are, he says, few and far between. If we were to deal
something significant we would certainly use a single-dealer portal and talk to the bank direct. Thats because
showing everybody on the portal that you have a large deal on the cards can start to affect the price you
receive. Thats never a good idea.
The sentiment that the best price is only achieved through competition on a multi-bank platform is
understandably still shared by a large number of treasurers, particularly those at companies that do not
tend to find themselves making frequent large trades. In general, single-dealer portals are not our
preference because we want to make sure we get the best rate, says Dimitris Papathanasiou, Financial
Risk Manager at Coca-Cola HBC AG. We are aware that single-dealer portals have some benefits, but we
dont feel it makes sense to only go to one bank, he explains.
Some banks prefer to promote their own electronic platforms by providing better quotes there than the
multi-bank platforms. But at least when you use a multi-dealer platform you are pushing the banks to
compete with one another, so these dealers are losing our trades.
But like Mitsubishis Williams, Papathanasiou is well aware that multi-bank has its limits. There are, for
instance, certain instruments for which single-dealer platforms are better suited. Take options, for example,
which he says are not yet available to him through his multi-dealer portal. Right now most of the banks do
not price options in the multi-dealer platform automatically. The process is a bit more manual you have to
go on to the platform and put in a request, he notes. But we still get competitive pricing even outside
the platform as I will never go to just one.
MMF portals
In the MMF industry we see trends similar to those taking place in the FX portal market. Users seem to be
swinging slowly towards the independent providers like MyTreasury, ICD, and SunGard, having favoured
bank platforms since they first arrived a decade or so ago. Of those that now use portals, the number of
treasurers working with independent providers over proprietary bank offerings is rising, according to
SunGards Corporate Cash Investment Report 2014. It shows that independent, multi-bank portals are far
more commonly used than proprietary systems, with 23% of respondents using a multi-bank channel for
80-100% of their FX activities. Independent providers will always argue that they are cheaper for investors
to use but banks will often bundle together their offering with other services such as custody, cash
sweeping or asset management, which can create certain operational efficiencies.
The rationale for this preference is reasonably straightforward. Most companies have multiple accounts
with multiple banking partners and the ability to connect to these counterparties through a single channel
supports efforts to standardise processes and reduce costs (two things never far from the treasurers
mind). Using multi-bank portals is also perceived to be the best way for treasurers of ensuring that they
have received best price.
Section 2
Single-dealer or multi-dealer?
Sponsor interview
BNP Paribas
Laura Milani
Liquidity Management Marketing Manager
BNP Paribas has recently rolled out a new liquidity module for clients. What does it offer?
Connexis, BNP Paribas well-established e-banking channel, offering a web-based payment platform with
real-time account visibility, has been complemented with an interactive liquidity reporting toolkit.
Thesolution enables users to achieve many consolidated and detailed views on cash positions across
physical and notional cash pooling structures.
With real-time control over cash and reporting, treasurers can anticipate what the end of day consolidated
position will be. The toolkit also enables them to concentrate accounts on a regional and global basis and to
determine, before currency cut-off times, how much excess cash can be invested short term, or, alternatively,
what and where the shortfalls to be financed are. That view is possible not only across different countries but
also across different currencies, with the possibility to consolidate the position in a given currency.
What was the driving force behind this development?

A few years ago, BNP Paribas started delivering cash position reporting on an email basis. That service
was greatly appreciated by our clients, but it needed to evolve with technology. Its far better to have
centralised access, embedded within Connexis, with security tokens and passwords in place, as well as
the ability to set different user profiles according to different needs.
What are the main benefits of the new liquidity module?

The overall aim of this solution was to enable treasurers to achieve more in a shorter time and with
lesseffort. The immediate benefit of easy access to global cash is greater visibility and control. The
potential benefits increase as more bank accounts, denominated in more currencies and located in more
jurisdictions, are included in any analysis. Moreover, resources dedicated to establish positions can be
freed up to invest cash more effectively. Last but not least, we recognised the strategic role of corporate
treasury within the organisation and wanted to support its needs for risk assessment, as well as audit
readiness, by delivering cutting-edge reporting solutions.
Next to the aggregated cash balances view, corporate treasurers can drill down into transactions and follow
up their status throughout the day, until their completion with final booking on the account. As our system is
multi-bank, it gives visibility to pooled accounts held with BNP Paribas, as well as with third-party banks.
Users can track back all SWIFT messages received intra-day and end of day, on which basis the reported
aggregated balances have been calculated. So its very easy to make a query if you feel you are missing a
particular message and it also provides an audit trail. Elsewhere, we have worked hard to ensure the
user-permissioning is, at the same time, straightforward for clients and compliant to the highest
security standards.
A typical implementation of our Liquidity Management Module takes less than five days. The solution is
available to all BNP Paribas clients using liquidity management structures, and it is not dependent on
having a subscription to the Connexis e-banking proprietary portal as such.
How does the new liquidity module help with intercompany management?
A tailored solution enhancing intercompany lending/borrowing positions monitoring and management is
now available. A set of harmonised information, including intercompany interest statements and account
What future developments do you have planned?

Planned enhancements include data analysis through graphs and other visual tools to highlight trends and
provide real-time business insights. The setting of alerts for critical events notification is another feature
currently under development.
Sofia Meneses
Corporate Finance Director, Logoplaste
Headquartered in Portugal, industrial group Logoplaste manufactures rigid plastic packaging
for some of the most reputable companies in the world. Logoplaste manages more than 60
factories and 350 machines, with locations in 17 countries.
Since Logoplaste supplies plastic bottles just-in-time from factories installed directly on the site of
the client, the company inevitably has light local operations in each of the 17 countries where it is
present, with a central treasury team based in Portugal. Fortunately, since the companys growth
has largely been organic, it has been able to implement the same ERP (SAP) and therefore the
same ledger across all sites.
Nevertheless, the geographical fragmentation means that Logoplaste has more than 240 bank
accounts, across more than 27 banks. With all these accounts and some in difficult geographies
such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Ukraine there is a real need for visibility and control, says Sofia
Meneses, Corporate Finance Director, Logoplaste.
So, in 2013 Logoplaste began looking for a cash pool structure in Europe to help achieve these
goals of visibility and control. BNP Paribas, the companys main cash management bank and a
relationship bank for over 20 years, won the RFP. In terms of design and pricing, BNP Paribas
really hit the nail on the head. Everything is very centralised via the banks Connexis portal.
Youenter the portal and can quickly and easily see all the cash positions of all the companies,
inallthe geographies, as well as getting an instant overview of the cash pool position. No more
logging on to 20 different portals! It also allows us to see all the payments that have been inputted
across every country, even on local accounts.
Having this information at its fingertips has allowed Logoplastes treasury to not only implement
best practice, but also to add strategic value to the organisation. In addition, having this level of
visibility has allowed Meneses team to more closely monitor growing risks such as sovereign risk,
whilst the assurances provided by BNP Paribas help to minimise the threat of cyber risk.
Laura Milani joined BNP Paribas Fortis Cash Management in 2005 as Liquidity Management
Solution Sales for MNCs and international mid-cap clients. As Liquidity Management Marketing
Director she is now responsible for the marketing of global liquidity solutions at BNP Paribas Cash
Management Competence Centre in Brussels. Prior to that, Milani worked in corporate treasury for
over ten years, based in London. She has a Masters degree in business and economics and she
is ICM qualified at ACT UK.
BNP Paribas
Putting BNP Paribas technology to the test
Sponsor interview
balances, is made available real-time in one location, eliminating fragmentation and cutting down on the
treasurers workload.
Section 2
The range of fund participation in a bank portal may be limited, compared to an independent portal.
Thismay influence a treasurers decision where there is a need for portfolio diversification, although a
portfolio of around five to ten is typically used. Banks often have distribution agreements with their fund
participants which may be seen as encouraging partiality where advice is offered. Of the independents,
ICD and SunGard are permitted to offer investment advice, and are thus regulated, whereas MyTreasury is
concerned mainly with (and therefore earns its keep through) transaction processing and execution.
Banks typically offer omnibus trading portals, which means the provider will set up and manage accounts
on behalf of its users allowing trading and settlement (through a central clearing agent) to take place en
masse and anonymously. As independent portal providers, both SunGard and MyTreasury offer fullydisclosed direct trading platforms, which allow treasurers to trade directly with each fund on the platform
their independent competitor, ICD, provides a mix of direct, clearing bank facilitated and omnibus trading
which clients can use in combination.
With direct trading systems the fund provider knows who its client is. For treasurers, maintaining visibility of
share of the wallet may be important. For other traders, particularly hedge funds, anonymity may be preferred.
If using a bank portal, it may be perceived by other institutions on the treasurys bank panel as giving that bank
preferential treatment; conversely it may be the intention to overtly give that bank the business.
Broadly, the omnibus model offers simplicity and ease of use but trading authority is given away with an
omnibus account. Direct trading is more transparent and controllable. The investor opens one account with
the portal provider and the portal provider opens an undisclosed account with all of the funds, doing all the
admin such as account opening and settlement on the investors behalf. Fund providers do not have access
to their investors. A disclosed nominee account may be opened in the investors name, but this account is
still owned by the portal provider. If something happens to the portal provider or an intermediary, such as a
clearer, if the client is an undisclosed nominee its anonymity means it will not be able to approach the fund
providers. As a disclosed nominee the issue remains that the trading account actually belongs to the portal
provider and unless the client is a signatory on that account, return of funds is unlikely until the problem has
been resolved. Most omnibus portal users do not have delegated trading authority on their own accounts.
What are the benefits of MMF portals?

They save time and provide a one-stop-shop with access to multiple investment options with fully
automated sweep options available.
Portals improve portfolio management and allow the investor to diversify their investment portfolio,
manage limits and analyse holdings.
They also improve transparency and provide timely information and analytic data.
MMF portals provide streamlined options, transparency reporting and analytic tools.
They show the entire MMF market place in one application, giving a holistic overview of the short-term
investment market.
They also consolidate the need for multiple applications to trade the funds and automate the
process downstream.
In addition to analytical capabilities, vendors have also developed methods of controlling and managing
risk, as well as creating the opportunity to set credit limits with the various funds and providing in-depth
information on each funds performance and portfolio.
Cost and integration

Portals are usually free to investors and this often includes the cost of integration into the corporates treasury
system. The portal providers are remunerated by the funds themselves by way of a commission (usually a few
basis points) on each deal. Since the commission is small, investors should not be losing out on any return;
but it is worth noting that some portals will take larger commissions, thus restricting the choice of funds if you
choose not to pay these higher rates, and in order to balance out the overall cost, returns could be lower.
With the near-zero cost of using a portal (it still requires basic resources, such as person hours), some
treasurers are adapting their approach to fund investment. Traditionally, a trading desk would have carried out
ten to 15 trades a day, typically early in the morning to account for the time it takes to get confirmation that the
trade has taken place. However, since the introduction of real-time processing and automated trades via the
portals, providers have seen far more trades taking place later in the day, very close to the funds cut-off times.
Cash management in the digital age
However, this is not the case today when treasurers go to talk to any of the software-as-a-service (SaaS)
cloud-based, web-portal TMS providers in the market. Many companies that needed a system but didnt
acquire one just needed a more comfortable entry point, says Michael Fullmer, Managing Director of SaaS
treasury solutions provider Kyribas Singapore office. The ability to move to a full TMS for a few thousand
dollars a month versus spending nearly a million dollars: that is very appetising for them.
Bank connectivity and innovation

Cash management is also where the banks continue to innovate and invest in their digital offerings.
Corporate treasury departments naturally require a plethora of financial data from their banking partners in
order to execute their cash management duties. But automating and integrating all the data the
department requires on such matters as cash positions, payables and receivables and interest rates is
rarely straightforward.
How a corporate connects to its banks is, therefore, of crucial importance. There are a number of different
channels through which corporates can access data and, within those, various connectivity options, including:
Single bank proprietary connectivity.

Host-to-host connectivity.
Multi-bank connectivity via a portal or SWIFT.
The multi-bank shift

Since the last financial crisis, spreading holding cash with a number of different banks has been a common
tactic used by treasurers to minimise their counterparty risk exposures. What is more, with banking
regulation producing unintended consequences such as banking de-globalisation or balkanisation even
those who manage their counterparty risk exposures using other methods are finding they need more
banking partners to obtain global coverage. Implementing multiple proprietary electronic banking is
inefficient, however, and hardly helpful when it comes to delivering the visibility over funds that the
treasurer demands.
Instead there has been increasing interest from the corporate market in the type of enterprise-wide,
multi-currency, multi-bank cash management portals. These solutions which can be integrated with a
companys existing technology tend to cover a range of different functionalities to assist at each stage of
the cash management cycle payables and receivables, cash forecasting, and supply chain finance (SCF)
products to name but a few. Adding to the range of solutions we have, in recent years, seen the
emergence of independent SCF portals such as Taulia.
While third-party vendors have used the increasing demand for multi-bank cash management portals to
establish rivals to the banks own proprietary portals, the proprietary portal has not gone away. In fact, banks
Half a decade or so ago and, in the absence of a broad range of cloud-based treasury solutions, the TMS
was struggling to find much traction beyond the largest multinationals, particularly in less developed
regions. It was not that the treasurers of companies without a TMS were ignorant of the benefits such
technologies would bring to their operations. The issue was that companies would issue an RFP and look
at all the different systems on the market, only to walk away after being told the budget requirement. After
all, half a million dollars upfront (not to mention the ongoing cost of repairs and updates) represents a fairly
hefty initial outlay for a platform that is not even profit generating.
Section 2
It is in the area of cash management that independent providers are perhaps most established, with
treasury management systems (TMS) vendors building ever more intricate cash management modules and
dashboards into their web-portal offerings. And the advent of cloud has helped significantly here.
Chart 1: Connectivity an evolving landscape

Increasing corporate technical sophistication and international reach
Section 2
SWIFT for corporates

Multi-banked
corporation
Host-to-host connectivity
e-banking portal
Single client-tobank connection
Single bank multiple

corporates in a
supply chain
Source: SWIFT
continue to see portals as the optimal delivery vehicle for most treasury management services and many are
ramping up their investments in such technology as we speak. Indeed, certain proprietary portals now give
visibility over account balances and pooling arrangements with third-party banks too. We therefore recommend
speaking to your relationship bank(s) to see what they can (or are planning to) offer in this respect.
Tailored SWIFT
An even more efficient way for corporates (of a certain scale) who wish to connect to multiple service
providers through a single channel is by joining and directly connecting to a bank co-operative network
such as SWIFT. Connecting to SWIFT, so the theory goes, can eliminate almost all a corporates bank
connectivity problems. It replaces multiple bank channels with a single, secure and standardised window
to the 8,500 bank and financial institution members on the SWIFT network.
In April 2015, SWIFT announced another 26 new corporate customers had joined the co-operative over the
previous six months, bringing the total figure of corporates groups now using SWIFT to 1,450, representing
over 28,000 underlying legal entities.
Connecting directly to SWIFT has traditionally been viewed as an expensive option for companies and, as
such the SWIFT service bureau route is the current connectivity model of choice, with over 100 providers
worldwide. SWIFT service bureaux were created originally to provide secure connectivity to SWIFT but
now the best bureaux offer much more than just connectivity: cloud-based applications for payment
factories, reconciliation, data transformation, compliance, cash forecasting, sweeping and pooling, are just
some of the additional functionalities commonly bundled into offerings.
However, despite the enduring popularity of SWIFT service bureaux, new initiatives in recent years such as
Alliance Lite and the latest edition Alliance Lite2 have, through the utilisation of cloud-technology, attempted
to tailor direct connectivity to treasuries with smaller technology budgets. Whether the current set of
offerings ignite the interest of smaller corporates remains to be seen, but SWIFT clearly has them in its
sights. The SWIFT proposition was at one point all about connectivity; we now have a broader portfolio of
offerings in the corporate space, states Neil Gray, Director Corporate Solutions, SWIFT. Everything that
we are now offering is driving adoption by the mid-tier companies.
One final recent connectivity innovation worth noting is the ongoing development of additional bankagnostic messaging systems, such as SAPs financial services system (FSN). Whilst the common
consensus is that SAPs FSN does not pose an immediate threat to SWIFT, the solution is widely viewed as
potentially beneficial for both corporates and banks alike. n
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bbg_trm@bloomberg.net or +44 20 7330 7500.
Bloomberg TRM delivers the complete treasury workflow,

integrated with industry-leading analytics and data that
finance professionals have depended on since 1982.
T IN
The Bloomberg Treasury and Risk Management

(TRM) solution automates of all your cash activities
including data collation, reconciliation, visibility,
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Sponsor interview
Bloomberg
Terry Beadle
Global Corporate Treasury Business Manager
Designed to be used
For many mid-market corporate treasurers, having a Treasury Management System (TMS) has long been
an unfulfilled desire, despite the obvious controllership and efficiency advantages in an integrated specialist
treasury platform.
One of the sticking points for many mid-market companies has been the TMSs image as the preserve of
the large corporate or multi-national: too expensive, too complex to implement, too challenging for their IT
resources and processes. This attitude is now out of date.
The market has seen a number of significant changes since the first TMS was deployed in the late 1980s.
The market grew rapidly and then contracted almost as quickly as players jockeyed for position, leaving
some very large vendors in the driving seat and quite a few casualties en route. But change is afoot.
The game changer

In November 2014, the Bloomberg TRM (Treasury Risk Management) system was announced with the
intention of providing all the core functionality and workflow required by a middle-market treasury
department. Bloombergs development team has taken a pragmatic approach to its new offering,
prioritising simplicity and connectivity as much as value and ease of access.
Here is how Terry Beadle, Global Corporate Treasury Business Manager for Bloomberg, describes
Bloomberg TRM: It is a solution that has been designed, built and delivered for a middle-market that
previously was under-served. It has waited a long time for a solution. Now it has one.
The company is now offering a pre-configured Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) package running on the
Bloomberg Professional Service platform targeted at mid-sized corporates (those in the circa $500m to
$5bn range). While their treasury departments look to move beyond spreadsheets to a more professional
system of management, they dont want the total commitment of resources demanded by some of the
other TMSs on the market.
Bloomberg TRM enables treasurers to manage their workflow from cash management, risk management,
electronic trading, hedge accounting and treasury accounting and is fully integrated with Bloombergs
news, data and analytics services. Much of what is on offer stems from the powerful Bloomberg Terminal
but has been augmented and packaged to make it more accessible to the corporate treasury department.
A new entrant
Bloomberg has a long history of working in the corporate treasury space and today has more than 8,000
customers; its TRM is therefore borne out of an acute awareness of the needs of the profession, drawn
from its work in areas such as valuation, risk management and trade execution. We looked to the future
and saw a need for a TMS for the middle market, explains Beadle.
The existing TMS market, he feels, tends to focus on the problems and issues of the largest companies.
The middle market may share many of the same issues the lack of cash visibility, the threat of Excel hell,
the confusion of multiple bank portals and so on but where a large corporate can spend its way out of
chaos, smaller companies have neither the time nor the resources to do much more than just firefight these
issues. If you were to look for a TMS to help, generally you would find that they are too complicated, too
expensive and can be very difficult to implement.
Functionality
The next step in the workflow, the risk module, integrates the risk management functionality found within
the Bloomberg Terminal. The electronic trading side incorporates Bloombergs FXGO platform for trade
execution with banks, global exchanges and connectivity to clearing and settlement engines. TRM also
has an advanced hedge accounting functionality providing a range of valuations which can be posted to the
Chart 1: TRM workflow

Whats included, how it connects
Bank data
Automated balance
reporting and
reconciliation
ERP data
Integrate planning
and receive
journalentries
Bloomberg TRM
Decision making
Oversight
Cash
management
Gain transparency by
aggregating forecasts,
balances and ERP data
Hedge
accounting
Valuation
Market-standard
valuation tools and
pre-trade analytics
Risk
management
e-Trading
Integrated multi-bank
electronic trading portal
Market data
Integrated market
data service (FX, IR
and commodities)
Treasury
accounting
Counterparty
data
Analyse and optimise

hedge strategies
Powerful analytics:
stress testing,
sensitivities and VaR
Daily cash and monthly

mark-to-market
SWIFT-enabled
confirmation and
settlement
Source: Bloomberg
Bloomberg
The Bloomberg Professional service, or Terminal, is the technical platform upon which TRM is built. As a
result, it has all the market data, valuation, news and analytics that are to be expected of Bloomberg. The
suite of functionality within Bloomberg TRM, which encompasses liquidity, exposure management and
accounting processes, includes core cash management with SWIFT connectivity (through Bloombergs
own long-standing order management channel), and is capable of integrating with electronic banking and
most ERP systems. Being browser-based, cash management can be delegated to treasury units without a
Bloomberg Terminal, such as subsidiaries or back office functions a key change from Bloombergs
traditional operating model.
Sponsor interview
Plugging this gap, he states, is the raison detre of the Bloomberg TRM. Its a simple to buy, implement
and use one-stop shop that comes with all the expected Bloomberg values, claims Beadle. To
emphasise the point of its switch on and go capabilities, he states that go-live in most cases can be
achieved in a matter of weeks and not the months or perhaps even years associated with
traditional systems.
Sponsor interview
Bloomberg
users own ERP. On the treasury accounting side it delivers comprehensive cash and month-end
accounting journals and a pre-configured standard chart of accounts and account rule mapping, based on
US GAAP or IFRS, helping to minimise implementation and testing cycles.
Mid-market corporates may already have a range of services that are addressed by a number of bank
portals, but this is very demanding to manage. Beadle notes, one of the problems for smaller companies
is that they do not necessarily have the IT capability and the budget to bring everything together. With
Bloomberg TRM, all treasury functions are highly integrated within a single package.
A key aspect of user-friendliness is TRMs pre-configuration of these functions based on standard industry
practices. Processes that are set in stone tend to come from legacy systems. The treasurers we are
aiming for will probably not have an existing TMS and will therefore tend to have a limited set of processes,
explains Beadle. We are offering a ready-made best practice model that they can migrate to either
immediately or progressively, without the need to start from scratch. TRM, he adds, is a proven platform
upon which treasurers will build.
Keeping in touch
Best practice in the TRM context has been drawn from Bloombergs experience with the beta version of the
platform. They took this to a closed group of existing clients to test and validate, with the feedback being
used to develop each aspect. We are not theoretical or academic in the way we view the market; we have
taken a practitioners approach with everything, says Beadle. Even with live clients on the full system, the
work does not stop. To develop the products, he says Bloomberg has adopted a high-touch support
model. In fact, the kind of relationship Bloomberg has with its clients allows it to engage in rolling debates
around the full product set. It helps that Bloomberg also has the scale, reach and capabilities to address
the middle market of corporate treasury across the globe; without these elements progress would be
difficult because corporates are not all neatly clustered around the worlds financial centres.
Beadle adds: We are able to have the level of face-to-face dialogue with our corporate clients that other
vendors may find difficult to achieve. At the heart of this model is the Bloomberg Corporate Symposium.
This is a regular Town Hall-style platform open for all clients to meet with each other and Bloomberg
representatives to discuss issues. The vendor also arranges webinars and is prolific in its production of
relevant white papers, commentaries and other communications.
Unprecedented economics
For a mid-sized corporate, the implementation of a TMS comes with a number of concerns that must be
addressed. Treasurers are concerned about the risk of implementation, the complexity of the product in
use and, not least, the cost, notes Beadle. TRM is a system that has been designed for the middle market
from the beginning. It is not a high-end product that we are trying to take down-market for sales leverage;
this is a product designed for the market in which it will be used, he explains. We started with the
concept that we wanted it to be simple to buy, simple to use and economical to own. We demonstrate that
TRM can be deployed within as little a one week; there is no major upfront investment because we can
show the clients requirements and needs in action straight away.
We are not theoretical or academic in the way we view the market; we have taken a
practitioners approach with everything.
For existing Bloomberg terminal clients there is a competitively-priced annual fee plus a further nominal fee
for SWIFT activity. For new clients a Bloomberg terminal is also required. The TRM fee includes up to four
browser connections to Bloomberg which can be used to enable subsidiaries and other departments to
connect to it. Crucially, it also includes the implementation cost Bloomberg is essentially taking the risk of
implementation away from the client.
It appears economic in terms of a narrow TMS offering, but considered in terms of overall terminal value,
what we are doing is increasing that value to the smaller company with the likes of built in investor relations,
The on-boarding of TRM, as Beadle explained, is typically a rapid process. This capability started with the
solutions purposeful creation as a SaaS offering, as opposed to being installed or hosted. For other
vendors, he says, typically each implementation requires the solving of an individual set of issues. What
we try to do is solve problems for many customers at once. As such, in the Bloomberg implementation
process, there is an initial process of discovery where the team will spend time with the client performing a
deep dive into their processes. This includes gathering the relevant data required for workflows, banking
details, corporate structure, accounting standards and so on, taking a matter of hours to do so.
The implementation is then scoped, documented and shared with the client and when the client is ready
the system is created. The client can validate it before going live, with all of its current records and open
trades uploaded historical data can be added if required but most clients ask for a clean point of
transition between old and new processes. There may be some external lead times, such as arranging for
transmission of electronic bank statements for example, that can delay the process. But, notes Beadle,
the banks are starting to react to us, thinking about how they can actually speed up the process.
Up and running
It is Bloombergs intention to provide continuity of care, allowing the same point of contact throughout the
early stages of the relationship, at least as far as the client reaching the point of solo flight. The learning
curve for existing Bloomberg terminal users is minimal TRM has a very similar interface but Beadle says
even non-users will be comfortable within a couple of weeks. This is another important design feature.
One of the key points of feedback we got when creating TRM is just how inaccessible some TMSs have
become as their power and flexibility has increased. They try to solve every single variation of every single
problem. The point of TRM is that it is simple; middle market treasurers want to automate and they want to
integrate and that is precisely what it does.
Having launched TRM, Bloomberg has been eager to discover just how effective its solution really is when
used in the field. It has continuous dialogue with users and a full roadmap of future developments, but the
industry response to date from clients, analysts and commentators has been remarkably positive. The
view is that it is game changing, reports Beadle. There has never really been a solution that has been
packaged and priced like this.
Terry Beadle is the Global Corporate Treasury Business Manager at Bloomberg. Since joining the
firm in 2013, he has developed the Bloomberg TRM corporate treasury solution product. Previously
managing director at Wall Street Systems, he led the corporate treasury, government institutions
and global services business. Prior to that he founded the market leading Trema Government
financial institutions business. An accountant by training, Beadle was previously a principle in the
PwC London Capital Markets management consulting practice, specialising in treasury and capital
markets systems integration.
Bloomberg
It is Bloombergs intention to provide continuity of care, allowing the same point of

contact throughout the early stages of the relationship, at least as far as the client reaching
the point of solo flight.
Sponsor interview
valuations tools for derivatives and downstream accounting and hedge accounting, M&A and procurement
functionality, tools for developing FX exposure and risk management policies.
Upwardly mobile:
digital payments
andcommerce
If you take a quick look around you, it is likely that a smartphone or tablet
computer wont be far away. The evolving habits of todays consumers and
corporates mean that expectations for mobile applications to be available
anytime and anywhere are increasingly commonplace. So, how is this shift
impacting the treasury function?
In the previous Section of this Handbook, we looked at the way in which portal technology is transforming
everything from FX dealing to day-to-day cash management. Another digital development that is having an
increasingly significant impact on treasury operations is mobile technology. Not only is it transforming the
way that payments can be approved and from where, but it is changing the way customers interact with
and pay businesses too as mobile e-commerce, known as m-commerce, grows.
In fact, consumers appear more comfortable than ever using their mobile devices (both smartphones and
tablet computers) as a means of spending and transferring money. In 2014, for example, a retail bank
customer in the UK used a mobile payment application to put down a deposit on a house in what is thought
to be the first transaction of its kind in the world. Now, albeit slowly, this preparedness to accept mobile as
a means of payment is filtering down to corporates, with banks increasingly offering mobile services to
larger corporate clients that allow them to approve payments, check balances and even initiate payments
using their mobile handsets.
The death of cash?

Most payments industry experts admit that the demise of cash will be a long, slow burn. And it is too
difficult or too early to predict, moreover, which non-cash payments instruments will prevail. However,
cash is in the sights of financial institutions and governments as it is deemed to be expensive and
vulnerable to criminal usage. Some of the typical reasons cash is being targeted are outlined in the
Cashless Lagos Project in Nigeria, for example. Here, the government is supporting a cashless policy as
part of a drive to develop and modernise the countrys payments system.
Under the scheme, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has introduced a cash-handling charge on daily cash
withdrawals or deposits, aimed at reducing the amount of physical cash circulating in the economy and to
encourage consumers and businesses to switch to electronic payment (e-payments) transaction.
Authorities in other countries, including Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands, are also pursuing cash
reduction initiatives. For example, Canadas MintChip, announced by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2012, is a
digital currency for digital payment transactions (see Section 7 of this Handbook for more on digital
currencies), based on a secure smart card chip that can connect to computers and mobile devices.
Notwithstanding such initiatives, treasurers must accept that in nearly all markets cash is still very much an
integral part of consumer behaviour and full adoption of non-cash payments is still a very long way off.
Insome developing markets it also remains heavily ingrained in the behaviour of commercial buyers too. For
the treasurer this can be problematic, of course, given the costs and the risks associated with handling cash.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research, for instance, estimates the cost of cash handling to be
2.8% of total takings by retailers. Transaction banks do offer a range of solutions that can help in this respect,
however, including facilities such as terminals for immediate cash deposit after collection from the buyer
(removing the need to keep cash on premise).
While cash is still very much around, the global volume of non-cash payments continues to show healthy
growth (albeit slightly slower than in previous years), with the largest gain in volumes occurring in developing
markets, according to the World Payments Report 2014 (WPR14). Non-cash transactions grew by 7.7% to
reach 3,334.3 billion in 2012.
Within developing markets, China and Ukraine saw non-cash transactions grow by 30%, while in Russia the
figure was 26%. That growth far outpaced the modest increase in volumes in developed markets, which
were still suffering the effects of the financial and sovereign debt crisis. Even in developed markets, though,
the growth in non-cash payments volumes at 4.5% outpaced the rate of growth in gross domestic
product (GDP), and developed markets still accounted for about 74.5% of all non-cash payments
transactions globally.
Upwardly mobile: digital payments and commerce
Nevertheless, there are several broader shifts in the payments industry driven by the rise of e- and
m-channels that are certainly worth staying abreast of, not least the drive towards cashless transactions.
Section 3
Treasurers should speak to their individual relationship bank(s) to discover precisely what mobile services
they offer in this regard as these are constantly evolving, and vary greatly between institutions. Some banks,
for example, now have mobile treasury dashboards available that offer both transaction and analytics
capabilities on-the-go.
Debit and credit cards, says the WPR14, are the biggest driver of non-cash payments volumes globally.
They accounted for 60.7% of all non-cash payments in 2012, up from 53.4% in 2009 and 35.3% in 2001.
Debit cards alone accounted for more than one in three of all payments, partly as the use of cards for
smaller-ticket transactions becomes more widespread. WPR14 believes that the growth of online shopping
in developed markets will likely mean that the use of debit and credit cards will continue to rise in the
years ahead.
Section 3
Another driver, noted in the report, might come in the form of the new players arriving to challenge the
banks in the digital payments space. In recent years, the emergence of new providers and channels, such
as mobile commerce and near field communication (NFC) payment methods have presented a challenge to
the banks in the person-to-person (P2P) market.
These specialist payment providers have a certain advantage over the banks in that they are focused purely
on payments and can also be more flexible. This enables them to drive innovation and respond to
consumer demands to bring new products on to the market more quickly. We are also seeing crossover
from the consumer space into the commercial arena.
Some of the big names in the P2P market are:
PayPal. Bought by eBay in 2002, PayPal is a global e-commerce business that enables its users to
make payments and money transfers through the internet and since a revamp in May 2014 it has
placed an emphasis on its multi-channel approach, particularly its mobile offering.
Bill Me Later. Acquired by eBay in 2008, Bill Me Later is a PayPal service that allows users to make
payments on credit. It also offers deferred billing options with terms such as no payments for 90 days
and no interest for six months.
Travelex. Starting life as a foreign exchange (FX) operator, Travelex has evolved into a leading
strategicpayments provider, processing payments to one million beneficiaries per year through its
global network. Travelexs offering GlobalPay provides a single online system for the processing of
incoming and outgoing, domestic and international payments that can be integrated into an ERP
system. In December 2010, MasterCard purchased Travelexs prepaid card programme management
(CPM) operations. More recently, in November 2011, Western Union acquired the global businesspayments division of Travelex.
Western Union. Founded in 1851, Western Union has long provided global money transfer services,
first offering electronic money transfers in 1871. In 2009 Western Union acquired Custom House, a
global B2B payments provider offering extensive international online payments solutions across a
worldwide network.
These so-called new entrants to the payments sphere may never truly compete with the banks. But they
have proven to be competitive in certain areas, and are contributors to an evolving ecosystem in which
Near field communication

NFC is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices that enables two devices to connect
and communicate via a short-range wireless protocol when placed in close proximity to one
another, typically within four centimetres. It improves the way devices interact with one another,
speeding up connections and the sharing of information.
NFC-enabled mobile phones with contactless payment features incorporated into them can act as
a payment method by placing or waving the phone over an NFC-enabled POS terminal allowing the
devices to communicate the transaction details. In addition, an NFC connection is compatible with
other wireless technologies including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
As an alternative to devices with NFC-embedded technology, new developments are enabling NFC
functionality to be extended to mobile handsets with MicroSD slots by means of an NFC chip that
can be inserted into the slot.
banks and other providers use an increasing number of partner products and networks to meet
client requirements.
On the banking side, this healthy competition has driven a spate of digital payment solution releases in
recent years. Noteworthy banking payments solutions include:
Paym. Launched in the UK in 2014, this service has the capability to link nearly every current account
in the UK using only mobile numbers, with no account numbers or sort codes required.
MyBank. This initiative from the European Banking Association Clearing House (EBA) will enable online
consumers to authorise payment transactions via the online banking portal of their own bank on either
a domestic or pan-European basis. The first MyBank test transaction was successfully sent at EBAday
2012 in Edinburgh.
this platform is intended to provide a competitive deterrent to PayPal and other vendor-led programmes
such as Fiservs Popmoney from encroaching on the banks core payments territory.
Pingit. Originally released as a retail P2P payment mechanism, allowing customers to send payments
to each other. In 2012, UK Bank Barclays updated the app to allow consumers to pay the banks
corporate client base, using the same application.
As the above lists indicate, the UK and US are often seen as pioneers and leaders in the world of digital
payments and digital commerce. Yet, other countries and regions are also giving rise to interesting digital
and mobile payments developments and indeed boast far greater usage of mobile payments. Africa, for
instance, is particularly ripe for the growth of mobile payment platforms, with its combination of a large
unbanked population and widespread mobile phone usage. In 2010, management consultants McKinsey
estimated that 326 million people 80% of the adult population in Sub-Saharan Africa were financially
unserved. Meanwhile, GSMA, the body that represents the worlds mobile operators, has forecast that
there will be 346 million mobile users in the region by 2017.
Mobile can play a key role in getting access to the massive population in Africa that is currently unbanked,
or underbanked, and wholly dependent upon physical cash as a means of payment. M-Pesa, the Kenyan
money transfer system supported by mobile phone operators Safaricom and Vodacom is a prime example
of this. Roughly $19bn, equivalent to around 25% of the countrys GNP, is now transferred through the
medium. Other applications, such as SnapScan, which allows users to scan codes in retail stores before
paying electronically, are also proving popular.
As is the case in other regions, mobile payment proliferation for retail customers is driving demand for
corporate solutions. Mobile payment solutions also present opportunities to development and charitable
organisations as a safer and more efficient way of remitting funds. The potential benefits of the new
channel to individuals, corporates and development organisations alike in Africa are clear. Where
companies and organisations previously had to ship large quantities of physical cash to remote rural
locations, this can be done in real time through a mobile service with greatly reduced risk.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, where the payments infrastructure is still being modernised, the fact that
cards do not have a significant penetration rate opens up an enormous opportunity for mobile. The Dubai
government has been quick to realise the potential of mobile. In fact, Dubai Smart Governments mPay app
for mobile payments through smartphones (for government-related transactions) saw over Dh163m
collected in 2014, resulting in a 418% increase in collections from the previous year. The take-up of mobile
payments across the region is only expected to increase going forward.
Asia is another promising region after all, it accounts for over half of the worlds mobile devices. There is
also a significant move towards m-commerce in APAC, with over 50% of all Asia-based online transactions
in 2015 set to be made by mobile, according to Criteo. Yet, as we frequently see in the region, there is
great disparity between individual nations. This is not only as a result of varying levels of smartphone
penetration, but also because of payment infrastructure challenges in rapidly growing markets, as well as
certain cultural barriers.
Global variation in digital payments
Section 3
ClearXchange. A collaborative venture between Bank of America (BofA), Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan,
Japan and South Korea are widely recognised as advanced markets for mobile shopping, with Criteo (a
company that works with online retailers) reporting that over 45% of online retail transactions are made via
mobile devices. In fact, Japanese e-commerce sites have mobile conversion rates that double those seen
in the US. Australia is another mobile leader in the region, with impressive uptake of contactless payments.
Meanwhile, countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong and China although possessing an infrastructure
that is more than capable of supporting mobile payments have yet to encourage widespread adoption.
Others, such as Malaysia, remain largely cash-based societies and this will likely remain the case for years
to come.
Section 3
Impact of mobile on treasury

Treasurers are always looking at ways to optimise their payments and collections processes and mobile
technology is becoming more established and useful in this regard. Moreover, in a world where
companies are increasingly looking to embrace the move towards multi-and omni-channel delivery in order
to better engage with their business partners and customers, mobile is fast becoming a watchword rather
than a mere buzzword.
Mobile is a channel that has the potential to challenge existing business models and ways of managing
cash. It can make treasury processes much more efficient and lean allowing treasurers to transact
on-the-move. It can also improve cash handling, and help right down to the working capital level, as money
collected through mobile channels often comes in before it would through more traditional methods.
Treasury functions that collect payments in mobile form could also benefit from mining consumer behaviour
data, previously lost through cash transactions.
Elsewhere, mobile could also transform the way some corporates invoice customers. As an alternative to
Direct Debits (DD), invoices with a Quick Response (QR) Code allow mobile payments that are almost
instantaneous. Furthermore, these payments have a token embedded in them containing information
about the customer and the bill, thus saving the corporate on administration costs, as well as making it
easier for the customer to pay. This form of payment could bring particular benefits to regulated utilities in
billing customers who are either unable or unwilling to pay by DD.
Outlook on mobile solutions

At present, many companies feel (often wrongly) that the security risks posed by mobile technologies are too
great to justify (see Section 9 of this Handbook for more information on cybersecurity and a checklist on
mobile security). Yet, as corporates become more familiar with and trusting of mobile, the adoption of mobile
solutions will grow and the use of mobile payments across the supply chain will become more widespread.
At that point, the mobile channel will have a profound effect on the treasury function and begin to have a
material impact on corporates working capital.
For now, those treasurers not yet leveraging mobile should take the time to consider how the channel might
provide growth and efficiency opportunities for their business. Mobile is not just for banking on-the-go, or a
smart solution for merchants to improve consumer interaction; it can ultimately assist in improving key
treasury metrics, including cash visibility and days sales outstanding. So, in an ever-competitive market,
mobile is on the up. n
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E-commerce is underpinning growth for many companies around the world. As consumers become more
technology savvy, and information flows more freely across borders, e-commerce is transforming businessto-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B) and peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces. In this interview, Citi
and Google discuss how leading companies are seeking growth within the expanding e-commerce space.
What are the key trends driving e-commerce and how are companies capturing
opportunities for growth?
Citi
Industry Insight
Connecting the worlds digital marketplaces
The three major trends driving e-commerce are digitisation, globalisation

andderegulation.
Nick Howden
Asia Pacific Technology,
Media and Telecom
Sector Head, Treasury
and Trade Solutions,
Digitisation enables companies to reach buyers in more markets, more quickly, to

sell goods and services. We are seeing emerging market players take successful
domestic e-commerce platforms cross-border, creating payment gateways that
connect offshore buyers to onshore marketplaces. Leading multi-nationals
continue to globalise into new markets using digitisation to offer more convenience
to their customers, merchants and developers that improves the user experience
and helps to increase sales.
Deregulation is promoting digital trade as these easily downloaded services are
less encumbered by the tax, customs and logistical requirements associated with
the shipping of physical goods.
Globalising technology companies tend to enter a new market initially through a cross-border model,
offering credit cards as the primary form of payment which is supported by regional invoicing hubs. In Asia,
historically Singapore has been the most popular regional hub for the technology industry due to
e-commerce incentives. Other countries including Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and China are also
looking to incentivise e-commerce companies to set up regional hubs.
Once e-commerce business activity reaches a certain size, the cost of acquiring customer transactions and
paying developers cross-border compresses margins and the company may transition to an onshore
non-resident account model, using the regional invoicing entity where regulations allow. The company may
scale this non-resident model to include payments and receivables on behalf of to help reduce the number
of onshore bank accounts and to centralise flows.
Creating an onshore presence means a company can offer flexible payment options in-country beyond
credit cards that improve the buyers shopping experience, reduce the companys cost of doing crossborder business, and may increase sales. They can also open up B2C sales to consumers who may not
qualify for a credit card, or in some countries, may not have a bank account but they do increasingly have a
smartphone and can make purchases online through an e-wallet.
What do treasurers need to do differently to effectively manage their companies e-commerce flows?
Business Development teams are constantly searching for new opportunities. This creates challenges for
treasurers as local payables market practices can range from cutting-edge mobile banking solutions
through to simple ATM cash deposits. Working with a bank that has in-country presence facilitates a
rationalised bank structure and connectivity to help a treasurer quickly establish policies, control and
visibility whilst ensuring that global treasury, operational and technology standards are implemented.
Cash forecasting, funding and investments can be challenging depending on the type of customer making
the payment. Terms customers that are invoiced monthly have more predictable flows, whilst pre-paid
customers may not use a service every month and payments can therefore be more difficult to forecast.
Online store shoppers generate high volumes of small value, one off transactions to reconcile. These
payments may be made directly to a companys bank account or consolidated through a partner such as
an aggregator or network provider which can have varying settlement cycles.
Developers often prefer payments in their home currencies to provide a natural hedge against local supply chain
costs. If treasury controls the foreign exchange (FX), then the FX margins taken by the developers retail bank
can be mitigated. Cross-border multi-currency payments require treasurers to efficiently manage funding and
foreign exchange processes whilst understanding lifting fees so that developer payment costs can be controlled.
What are some of the innovative solutions that companies are using to optimise e-commerce growth?
Automated solutions such as virtual accounts are popular in Asia where one-off B2B and B2C transactions
can occur through online stores. When a customer is offered the flexibility to make push payments to a
companys account then human error can occur, creating a mismatch in the companys cash application
process that requires manual intervention and slows down the credit control and order fulfilment processes.
Virtual accounts can resolve the issue of payer identification as the company can assign a unique account
number to a customer used during a particular online transaction. This auto-matching improves cash
application, promotes faster credit control, and creates an enhanced user experience, all of which help the
company reduce costs and increase sales.
In addition to virtual accounts, we have seen an increase in smart invoicing solutions that can help support
reconciliation of e-commerce flows. Sales through distributor channels can mean monthly payments are
received for multiple invoices. Smart invoicing provides an outsourced solution that enables the distributor
to select the invoices that they are paying. Incoming transactions are matched against the selected
invoices to provide automated reconciliation.
Automated FX solutions are popular within e-commerce and help provide cost savings to companies with
high volumes of transactions in multiple currencies. Companies are using instant FX solutions to price and
acquire transactions in the buyers local currency using real-time rates to mitigate FX risk and reduce costs.
This can reduce the cross-currency margins taken by intermediaries and provides the opportunity to build
in a spread in the price quoted to the customer. Another automated FX solution provided by Citi supports
regional invoicing hubs making high-volume, multi-currency payments. These can be settled cross-border
in ACH without needing to maintain local accounts. Worldlink helps e-commerce companies quickly
handle cross-border payments whilst minimising bank accounts, reducing FX costs, reducing lifting fees
and lowering transaction costs. Passing some of these benefits onto merchants, developers and partners
improves user experience and grows sales.
Google has a very global business model. How is the company providing
a localised buying experience for customers using Googles e-commerce
channels, wherever possible?
Ronni Horrillo
Assistant Treasurer
Each country has its own unique set of payment characteristics. For example,
credit card payments are very popular in the US, but not as popular in Singapore
(where electronic funds transfers are used more frequently). This is where the
banks and treasury's experience in payments can really help the business identify
attractive (and cost effective) payment alternatives.
We have worked extremely hard to ensure that users of our e-commerce channels,
such as Google Play, have access to multiple forms of payment (FOPs). These include
electronic transfers, local and international credit cards, carrier billing and gift cards.
We do this by working with our local team members who are on the ground in-country
and know what FOPs are used for e-commerce transactions in their domestic
market(s). If there is a unique payment type in a particular country that has high
volume, we will work to add that to our infrastructure.
Citi
Diverse regulatory environments can mean that intercompany movements between local residents and regional
invoicing hubs require payment supporting documentation and central bank reporting. These requirements
can pose unique challenges for e-commerce companies that have minimal finance or accounting resources
in-country that treasury can call on to help. In Asia, working with a bank that can offer robust online
submission capabilities is important to help centralised treasury and operations teams handle sometimes
onerous documentation processes.
Industry Insight
Further complicating treasury processes within e-commerce are customer refunds. Guaranteed refunds
offered in the service terms and conditions can range from a few days for a digital service through to
several months for physical goods to accommodate shipping time.
Industry Insight
Citi
Its all about giving customers choice and making it easy for them to transact with us. Ultimately, payment
mechanisms are key to the success of the e-commerce space, purely because of the different types of
customers. If you have a single form of payment, you will be limiting yourself and your customer base. Wealso
have local invoicing capability, and a bank account structure that allows us to accept over 50 currencies.
Could you give an example of how the company has adapted its FOPs to suit local market practices?
Rolling out Google Play is a perfect example of this. Google Play is an online marketplace for developers all
around the world to sell their software and games to buyers across the globe. For this to be successful, the
treasury team here at Google works with our product management and engineering teams to give customers
a mechanism to pay for the software that they purchase, as well as put in place payment mechanisms to
disburse to the developers.
Given the nature of this business, where buyers consume the products they purchase almost instantaneously,
not all forms of payment work cash, for example, is not appropriate. However, some countries are
predominantly cash societies. And given the issue about penetration of other forms of payments, such as
wire transfers, credit and debit cards and stored value products like Google Wallet or PayPal, we needed to
come up with something new and innovative to address that.
Given the usage of GPRS-enabled phones, in some markets even a payment solution on a mobile phone
network infrastructure is the best way to reach the majority of the population with a consumer internet product.
How can partners, such as banks, help Google to better understand local market practices when
evaluating a particular form of payment?
Banks are key partners when evaluating the various forms of payment that Google might need to support in
a particular country or region. They have feet on the ground and are up-to-speed on local payments and
developments in-country, such as Faster Payments initiatives. Of course there are non-bank partners and
solutions available as well, so banks aren't the only source, but they are certainly a good data
reference point.
What other challenges does Google face from the point of view of supporting customer payments?
Are there any differences in customer buying behaviour which have an impact on treasury, for example?
One of the biggest challenges Google has in supporting payments is customer composition. Our customers
vary from large corporations to small and medium-sized businesses as well as individual/sole proprietors.
Each one of these businesses prefers a different type of payment experience. For example, a large customer
is most likely using purchase orders (POs), and wants to make an electronic funds transfer (EFT), since this is
the lowest cost payment method.
A small to medium-sized business might also want to use EFT, but they also might use a purchasing card
(P-card). For individuals, it can be a combination of bank payments and credit cards. Treasurys preference
is obviously to drive cost out of the network and to improve timing certainty.
How then has Google treasury tackled these challenges?

One of Google's flagship projects in this space has been our virtual accounts solution. This great solution
(see the case study opposite for more details) creates a unique bank account number for each customer
paying Google. It allows Google to quickly identify the sender of cash and purpose, which then allows us to
support our customers more quickly. We first implemented it in Japan, looking to get a timelier and better
reconciliation match for inbound customer payments. This involved partnering with both Citi and our
internal technology team.
Elsewhere, to further drive efficiency, Google has also standardised its global invoicing process and
payment formats.
What benefits has format standardisation delivered to the treasury function?

Standardising payment formats has been a great solution. We do have a global invoicing group that drives
consistency in invoice delivery, but the payment formatting was absolutely key as it allows us to match our
cash much more quickly.
Do you have plans to further optimise these solutions or to take digitisation and e-commerce to the
next level with more new solutions?
Finally, for those treasurers wondering about exploring innovative digital or e-commerce solutions,
but not yet quite sure, what would your words of encouragement be?
Don't be afraid to dive in and explore the waters. Your existing knowledge of the payment space, how
regulators look at payments and cross-border transactions will help you look at the various alternatives.
Virtual reality
Case study
As Google expanded the e-commerce arm of its business into new and challenging markets, the
company needed a solution to help reconcile the thousands of payments it received daily.
RonniHorrillo explains why virtual accounts were the perfect solution.
As Google extended into new markets and offered multiple payment options to its customers,
treasury was presented with a challenge. As Ronni Horrillo, Assistant Treasurer at Google explains:
We were a US company with only a handful of local subsidiaries. It was therefore hard for us to
efficiently reconcile all the payments we received, especially because many of these were not in
English. We werent sure what we needed, or that the virtual account structure even existed.
Google went away and discussed a solution with a number of its banking partners. After a
consulting period, Google decided to partner with Citi since the banks virtual account solution best
met the cash application challenges that the company faced. Each customer was given a virtual
account number for their payments so that we knew funds coming into the virtual account numbers
(VANs) were for a specific purpose. This allowed us to apply cash more quickly, and minimise the
administrative burden of collections.
Google first implemented the solution in Japan around ten years ago because it was one of
Googles largest non-US markets. The project took three months from the initial discussion to
implementation, despite the fact that obtaining the VANs was a big challenge. At the time, you had
to acquire the VANs from the Japanese banking authorities, and they only released a set amount
each month (or quarter), but we wanted to secure a large number so we could have sequential
account numbers, says Horrillo. Citi helped a great deal in this respect and were a great partner
in the process, working to secure the VANs, managing documentation requests and the physical
bank account set-up.
Once ready to go, the Google treasury explained the solution to their business partners, who
quickly saw the benefits and provided the engineering support to successfully launch. Overall the
project was a great success, delivering a much stronger straight through processing hit rate and
driving a better customer experience, adds Horrillo. Since those early days, the Virtual Account
solution has since been rolled out in a number of other countries to provide the same cash
application efficiencies (even partnering with Citi in a country where the virtual account concept did
not exist).
Citi
Google's innovative culture keeps us inspired to always look to improve existing solutions. We are
constantly working with our business partners to keep on top of their needs by offering local payment
solutions. We take the treasury lens of what is happening in the cash space and translate that into
potential solutions. So yes, Im sure there will be plenty of new solutions to talk about going forward.
Industry Insight
As most treasurers will understand, the biggest challenge with cash application is missing data.
Sometimes this comes from the recipient, but other times it's due to correspondent banks cutting off data
as the payment moves through the banking system. Payment formatting has helped us track the key data
needed to identify the sender of the cash, and the purpose of the cash.
Digitisation of
tradedocuments
In a fast-paced global economy where companies and consumers work and
shop 24/7, trade demands the rapid exchange of goods, money and services.
But the sad truth is that all too often goods only move as quickly as the
paper documentation that supports them. How is digitisation progressing in
the trade space?
Cant let go?

In theory, the preparation, dispatch and receipt and storage of electronic documents facilitates cost savings and
process efficiencies whilst reducing the potential for fraud. Back in 1997, Professor Paul Todd from the Law
School at Southampton University wrote a paper in which he asserted that it is possible, on the basis of existing
technology and under the existing legal framework, to replace bills of lading by electronic documents, which can
in principle afford to the parties security at least as great as existing paper documents. Todd accepted that
changes may be required in some jurisdictions to the rules on personal data protection, admissibility of
computer-generated documents in court, and the transmission of encrypted data across national boundaries.
But that was almost 20 years ago. Today, the legal issues with the digitisation of trade documentation have
by and large been dealt with. However, there is a persistent perception that electronic documents are
somehow less secure than paper and that they are open to abuse by cyber-criminals. Of course, there is
an element of vulnerability with all electronic systems but few could surely believe that a fully-encrypted
document is less secure than its paper equivalent.
Taking it forward
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and in the trade documentation space the whole suite of
ePresentation tools working in harmony can still grind to a halt if, as is often the case, local customs and
excise officials demand to see paper documentation. Notwithstanding entrenched local practices, serious
inroads into digitisation have been made in many countries. At the specific document level there has been
progress with certificates of origin used in agri-business, veterinary or export health certificates used when
shipping livestock, and the Shippers Export Declaration for export control of items over a certain value (the
latter is now known as an Electronic Export Information Filing). But as progress is made there has been
more activity in terms of thoughtful solutions offered by the key players, particularly infrastructure providers
such as SWIFT, Bolero, essDOCS and GTC.
The advent of the electronic Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (eUCP), issued by the
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), has been instrumental in gaining credibility for ePresentation.
UCP is a set of a standardised processes for the issuance and use of letters of credit (LCs) used across the
world. The e version is a supplement brought into being as banks, corporates and the transport and
insurance industries started to adopt electronic processes. The first issuance of a paperless LC subject to
eUCP was in 2010, between an Australian mining company and a Chinese buyer, and facilitated on the
Bolero platform. The documents in the ePresentation included the commercial invoice, packing list,
certificate of weight, certificate of analysis, the bill of lading and the insurance certificate.
Main contenders
SWIFT TSU
SWIFT needs no introduction but in the trade space, its Trade Services Utility (TSU) may need explaining.
This is an electronic data matching service for banks, developed by SWIFT in partnership with 12 banks
known as the Trade Services Advisory Group. It was launched in April 2007 with the aim of improving the
Digitisation of trade documents
Overseas trade has for many hundreds of years relied upon a full set of documentation to ensure the dispatch,
shipping, offloading and receipt of goods by the paying customer. Such a requirement is unlikely to change
dramatically, however, the form of that documentation certainly will. Currently the trade world is shifting from
paper to electronic and in doing so is ushering in an era of vastly improved administrative efficiency, security
and accessibility. However, papers grip on the industry seems more tenacious than anyone would have
thought, given the availability of new digital ePresentation tools capable of answering the needs of most.
Section 4
The notion that the paper-based office is on its way out has had currency for a very long time. Proponents
of the digital alternative have tried to promote the cause via a number of angles including those of efficiency,
security, cost and even greenness. Yet paper persists; in the world of trade finance its dominance in
certain aspects has been something of a bugbear for those that seek to streamline processes. But in the
age of digitisation, all this may be about to change, at long last.
Section 4
flow of information in the supply chain through the matching of data in items such as orders, invoices and
transport documentation. This is intended to increase visibility and reduce risk. The TSU now carries XML
messages (formerly called TSM ISO 20022 messages), including purchase order, invoice, transport,
insurance and certificate data. It handles only data, not electronic versions of paper documents, but it
does provide banks with accurate trade data, enabling them to broaden their range of associated
trade products.
The TSU was developed as a direct response to firms moving away from safe but expensive LCs towards
cheaper but riskier open account trading, where the supplier sends the goods before receiving payment.
Today, estimates suggest open account transactions now account for over 80% of global trade.
Open account trading means there is no formal guarantee of payment, the buyer only pays upon receipt of
the goods. Today it is easier for the seller to perform its own counterparty due diligence, except perhaps
where these are in emerging territories. Although trading partners need to take on the task of processing
documents, such as matching invoices to orders, this is perceived to be easier than LC preparation. With the
banks effectively removed from part of the process they lose out on revenue stream. By allowing banks to
automate the data matching process in a transaction, the TSU enables them to offer this as an additional
service to their customers without the need for both trading parties to have a relationship with the same bank.
The TSU can be used for both open account and LC transactions but is only designed to interface with
financial institutions and does not provide direct access for corporates. Participating banks may pass on
the benefits to corporate clients, for example, where the automation of data matching results in faster
processing throughout the financial supply chain, corporates may see lower costs.
SWIFT BPO
Potentially of most interest to corporates is the fact that the TSU supports the exchange of a SWIFT BPO as
a data matching application. BPO is an irrevocable conditional obligation from one bank to pay another
bank, subject to the presentation of compliant data in the TSU. The Notice of Intent to Pay message is an
additional information message indicating one corporates intent to pay another corporate. The combination
of these two features enables banks to offer alternative forms of financing at various points in the deal,
including pre-shipment, post-shipment and reverse factoring.
The BPO was first used back in 2012 by BP Chemicals, Oman-based OCTAL and Standard Chartered.
However, it is worth noting that the BPO struggled to get any traction until its rules of engagement, held in the
SWIFT domain, gained unanimous approval in April 2013 from the ICC Banking Commission. One reason
why BPO uptake by banks has been slow thus far is the perceived threat it poses to the traditional LC.
Although banks will inevitably see some business move from the LC to the BPO, the migration will only be
partial and will certainly not eliminate demand for LCs entirely. What the banks might lose in LC business
may be more than compensated for by the BPO gains made by re-intermediating themselves through
finance offering in the open account space.
ICCs approval should bring increased user confidence to the BPO in line with other trade finance products
such as the LC, documentary collections and guarantees. What is essential to move ahead is greater
collaboration between banks. The BPOs design supports interoperability between participating banks
through the use of a standard set of ISO 20022 messages. Whereas without BPO, a financing opportunity
involving a supplier based in an unfamiliar market might see the obligor bank struggle to provide preshipment finance, using the BPO could help its client finance its supply chain by working with a local bank if
that bank knows the obligor bank is irrevocably (but conditionally) guaranteeing the payment risk. The seller
may also be able to obtain pre-shipment finance using the BPO as collateral.
To date adoption has mostly been by large commodity traders. OCTAL and BP Chemicals initial experience
was positive. BP Chemicals Global Credit Manager, David Vermylen is a very public supporter of it, seeing
it as a way forward out of the multiple banking platform issue. He talks up its capacity to add value to the
trade risk mitigation process as its application can be delayed until the moment the bill of lading is secured
from the freight forwarder; this gives an instant five to seven-day risk (and cost) advantage over an LC.
Because it is an entirely electronic document, a BPO can also be set up at the point the goods are
discharged at the port of arrival, affording it the functionality of a traditional documents against payment
Bolero International
Boleros multi-bank trade finance and electronic trade documentation offering has also been a slow burner in
terms of uptake. Since its launch in 1996, Boleros software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model provides
trade solutions for large corporates in two key areas: multi-banking trade finance applications and the
electronic presentation of trade documentation. The idea in the first instance is to provide a single platform
multi-bank electronic trade finance management tool for traditional trade instruments. Bolero also aims to
dematerialise trade documentation, enabling end-to-end flow for trade under LC, open account and the BPO.
In respect of the latter, all high value cross-border transactions, regardless of the settlement instrument,
have a requirement to place in the hands of the buyer as soon as possible, the original trade
documentation. Most notable of these is the bill of lading, which evidences receipt of goods for shipment,
their delivery and legal title, and without which banks will not release payment. Whilst the bank data
matching element of the BPO is a major advance, it too is driven by the speed at which paper-based
shipping documentation physically moves along the chain.
The UK arm of the global shipping industrys carrier insurance scheme, run through P&I (protection and
indemnity) Clubs, acknowledges that non-availability, or non-production, of a bill of lading is becoming
more common. Delays can be costly for all parties, not least the shipping company which has to decide
what to do with the goods as it waits in port. Clearance of cargo without a bill of lading can be expedited
with an Letter of Indemnity (LOI), however, these tend to be seen as problematic by the P&I Clubs, largely
because there have been a number of fraudulent uses of these paper documents over the years. For high
value cross-border LC, BPO or open account trade, the electronic bill of lading and the ability to notify and
present on the LC electronically is what Bolero is aiming for with its solution.
essDOCS
essDOCS dates back to 1986 in its first incarnation as the Seadocs (Seaborne Trade Documentation
System) project and was the first significant attempt to use electronic documentation for goods carried by
sea. Having ironed out early legal issues, essDOCS today is one of the largest providers of electronic bills
of lading globally (it claims adoption by more than 2,100 companies across 65 countries). essDOCS
Exchange is its main multi-bank platform whilst its CargoDocs function enables banks and corporates to
combine electronic bills of lading and supporting documents with eUCP Presentation, eDocumentary
Collection and the BPO.
GTC
GTC offers a web-based multi-bank trade finance platform for corporates and banks. Its @GlobalTrade
offering allows the transfer of all eUCP electronic trade documents including LCs, import and export
documentary credits and collections. GTC also offers a solution for connectivity between applications
within the ERP systems of corporates and the back office systems of banks and trade service providers.
eLCY
Another interesting provider of e-commerce solutions for the international trade finance community is eLCY. It
is an independent vendor offering an auction site for the confirmation of LCs and direct corporate risk, and a
multi-bank portal that enables the secure transmission of approved trade-related instructions and messages.
Also rapidly gaining credence in the SWIFT portfolio is the relatively new MT798 trade envelope. This is
aimed at de-risking open account trading. It is basically a means of carrying the range of MT7xx trade
messages used to initiate import LCs, standby LCs and guarantees, or to receive export LCs. The MT798
transfers large documents from corporate to bank via FileAct, with FIN messages allowing corporates to
communicate with the banks on both sides of a trade.
Section 4
arrangement in which the presenting bank only hands over shipping and title documents to the customer
when that customer has paid in full. Acknowledging its slow start in life, Gary Slawther, Corporate
Treasurer at OCTAL, says communicating the ease of use of the BPO to corporates is key to its survival.
Ifit is just seen as a bank product then there is a strong possibility that it will just wither on the vine.
Section 4
ePresentation and the law

As well as accelerating the speed at which documents are delivered, much of the value in electronic trade
technologies lies in their ability to legally replace original paper documents with original and universallyaccepted electronic versions. The widespread adoption of e-presentation systems which conform to ICCs
eUCP standard has been important in giving the form credibility.
The fact that electronic documents in the trade context are legally acceptable by most parties (some local
customs and excise offices excepted) means nothing if the law cannot be relied upon to secure the transfer
of goods when using a digital replacement for a bill of lading. It seems provident that the document itself
should offer its own means for the transfer of contractual rights and liabilities.
When Bolero was launched back in 1996, it had already widely tested its legal feasibility. The results of its
test now form the basis for the Bolero Rulebook and governance of the title registry. Today, this legally
underpins its entire technical operation and is binding on those parties who have agreed to be bound to it.
The rulebook is administered by Bolero members but is also fully compliant with ICCs eUCP. Elsewhere,
SWIFT messages are issued in line with the appropriate central bank guidance and have a legally binding
effect on the sender. As with Bolero, the provider of the essDOCS platform also has an internationally
recognised legal framework based on a common user agreement.
Will full STP ever be possible?

In a perfect ePresentation scenario, the exporter would ship the goods and apply for an electronic bill of
lading to be issued by the carrier, with which the exporter would transmit the necessary documents
electronically to the presenting bank. The presenting bank would check the documents against the relevant
LC and forward the documents electronically to the issuing bank, which would in turn check the documents
to ensure compliance with the terms and conditions of the LC before making the payment. The issuing
bank would then forward the documents electronically to the importer, who would use the documents for
obtaining clearance of the goods. Throughout the transaction, the various parties would log into the same
platform for access to the documents and for forwarding the documents to the next party.
The level of appetite among corporates to adopt full ePresentation depends on a number of variables such
as whether the corporate is an exporter or an importer, the volume of transaction or the type of goods.
BPO is largely confined to the huge commodities traders at the moment because the volumes and values
(and risks) justify the costs of supporting the software and architecture. The users of multi-bank platforms
such as those mentioned above (some of the worlds largest firms) are many in number and momentum is
gaining but there will not be a paperless-trade world anytime soon.
Professor Todd stated in his work cited above that doing half the job seems pointless once the reality is
grasped that there is nothing that paper can do that computerised documentation cannot. If you are going
to dematerialise, dematerialise totally. But that was almost 20 years ago. Despite the massive
technological advances in the interim period, paper-based trade is still common. For the use of
ePresentation to be fully accepted in the export space, Ian Kerr, CEO of Bolero, is spot on when he says
alignment of all involved parties is necessary. The conversation will continue for some time to come. n
ePresentation under eUCP

Electronic Bills of Lading
Electronic Letters of Credit & Guarantees
Open Account ePayables
SWIFT MT798
One Platform
Leading the digitisation of trade documentation

1,400,000 completed payment presentations
19,000 monthly ePresentations
+$80bn of transaction value per annum
74% customer growth in 2 years
Transforming World Trade
Find out more:
info@bolero.net
www.bolero.net
+44 207 759 7000
ISO 20022:
the wider application
ISO 20022 is changing the way financial data is exchanged between corporates
and financial institutions. In this Section, we look back at what spurred the
development of the messaging standard in the beginning and why, both in terms
of geography and function, it is about much more than the Single Euro Payment
Area (SEPA) initiative.
ISO 20022: the wider application
Section 5
In todays increasingly complex global financial markets, few matters are of greater importance to
companies and institutions than the ability to exchange financial data in a standard and efficient manner.
But until very recently, a financial system characterised by proprietary, country or regional messaging
formats meant such efficiencies were all but impossible to attain.
Improved interoperability was required, but integrating such systems was difficult and costly. It often
required specific interfaces to be built for each system combination in order for data to be mapped and
translated between various applications. A solution to this thorny issue only began to emerge (adoption is
still gaining traction) when, in 2003, the International Standards Organisation (ISO) developed a new
messaging standard specifically designed for the financial services industry, ISO 20022.
ISO 20022 uses extensible markup language (XML), an open standard in which rules are defined that allow
for messages and documents to be encoded in a consistent manner.
That, perhaps, is the most ingenious aspect of the ISO 20022 design. It was not created to replace any
existing incumbent messaging standards and syntaxes, as such. Rather it was intended to be used as a
method for developing standards, and a framework by which different messaging syntaxes could be made
to co-exist. With its arrival the financial world finally had a cost-effective and efficient way of developing and
implementing interoperable message standards: a way to make different standards co-exist with one
another, whilst preparing the way for migration to a single standard.
Chart 1 illustrates how the interfacing between co-existing standards is simplified when ISO 20022
modelling is used, showing how only two data translation interfaces are required for each standard, eg into
and out of the one model.
The SEPA factor

If the ISO 20022 messaging standard is associated with one thing, above all else, it is the Single European
Payments Area (SEPA). When SEPA instruments were first introduced back in 2008 and 2009, the
European Commission (EC) required a uniform messaging format to be used for payments across all the
SEPA zone markets.
It was deemed important by the Commission that data formats used for SEPA were more than a mere
European standard. On that basis, the EC decided that the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) credit
transfer (SCT) and direct debit (SDD) schemes use a subset of the ISO 20022 messages. It was an
endorsement which has since proved a key driver for adoption for SEPA in Europe.
Chart 1: The complexity of messaging formats
Bank proprietary format
EDIFACT format
TWIST organisation promoting

XML-based standards
OAGi organisation promoting

XML-based standards
Source: Treasury Today magazine

RossettaNet organisation
promoting XML-based stands
SWIFT organisation
andformat
IFX standard
FpML standard
Table 1: ISO 20022: message standards
Administration
admi
Acceptor to Acquirer Card Transactions
caaa
Cash management
camt
Terminal Management
catm
Payments Clearing and Settlement
pacs
Payments Initiation
pain
Reference Data
reda
Securities Events
seev
Securities Management
semt
Securities Settlement
sese
Securities Trade
setr
Treasury
trea
Trade Services Initiation
tsin
Trade Services Management
tsmt
Source: www.iso20022.org/payments_messages.page
ISO 20022 alongside the XML-based messaging format in the two SEPA schemes meant that, for the first
time in payment processing history, the entire end-to-end transaction flow could be executed using the
same standard for payment initiation, clearing and reporting. This ensures that the business needs of
parties involved earlier or later in the process can supported as well, says Frank Van Damme, Bolero, who
was involved in development of the standard. If you were to create a standard between the banks and
only look at the information the banks need it will be difficult to support the needs of the corporates that are
the basis of the transaction between the banks. The need for remittance information is not, for example, a
need from a pure bank point of view.
It also means that if one corporate works with a specific bank and enterprise resource planning (ERP)
system, and another corporate works with a different bank and ERP system, they now both use the same
XML format (instead of going through a tedious migration exercise and customising XML for each of these
relationships). For corporates, the increased homogenisation of payments around direct debit and credit
transfers has become real prospect for corporates in Europe now, facilitated by the across-the-board
adoption of ISO 20022 XML payments standards.
Around the world

Although it may be easy, because of all the hype around SEPA, to mistake ISO 20022 XML as a Europeonly set of message standards, it is available beyond the borders of SEPA and, in fact, its adoption has
been on the agenda for a number of corporates and banks worldwide in recent years.
A number of major banks, corporates and technology vendors have been working together to ensure the
success of the standard at the global level. The Common Global Implementation (CGI) Working Group,
established in 2009, is perhaps the most notable example of such industry-wide collaboration. The overriding
objective of the CGI Working Groups work is to simplify implementation for corporate users and, thereby, to
promote wider acceptance of ISO 20022 as the common XML standard used between corporates and
banks. It is a mission which will be achieved, the group says, through consultation and agreement on
common implementation templates for relevant ISO 20022 financial messages, leading to their subsequent
publication and promotion in order to obtain widespread recognition and adoption.
acmt
Section 5
Account Management
Through the CGI initiative, over 30 banks and a handful of technology providers have collaborated to approve
a suite of ISO 20022 XML standards that can be used for many different payment types (see Table 1), and so
replacing the need for corporates to support bespoke, domestic formats.
Section 5
More than SEPA

Having already overcome the challenge of introducing XML as part of their SEPA migration, European
corporates are now looking at some of the other ISO 20022 XML-based solutions offered by banking
partners and technology vendors. As Van Damme explains, Although SEPA was the main and most visible
and influential early adopter of the standard, ISO 20022 was intended to be used in every domain of the
financial world.
One of these is Electronic Bank Account Management (eBAM). For many years now, corporate treasuries
have been demanding technology that will allow them to automate the process of opening, closing and
managing their many global bank accounts. One can easily understand why. With a typical corporate
working with on average 15 20 different banks, each likely to be governed by different local regulations,
even making simple amendments to an account using traditional manual, paper-based methods can often
become a very time consuming process.
But SWIFT had an idea. Collaborating with a select group of banks, solutions providers, and corporates,
SWIFT established and piloted 15 standard eBAM ISO 20022 XML messages each of which is designed to
cope with a range of different business scenarios including:
Account opening after KYC.

Account closing.
Signatory and mandate management.
Reporting.
After some corporates expressed frustration regarding omissions to the original standards, ISO proposed
some changes and a new version of the eBAM standards was certified by the group in 2013. Unlike the
initial versions, the new standards allow, for example, a group of signatories to be defined, as well as
electronic mandates. Together with another initiative to replace wet signatures, 3SKey, these latest XML
messages would, in theory at least, now allow corporates to perform the majority of bank account
management functions electronically.
Although corporate uptake of eBAM solutions to date remains minimal (as of May 2015, SWIFT counted 32
corporates and 18 banks), there is reason to believe that with region-wide adoption of ISO 20022 now near
fully complete, Europe may be about to witness a spike in adoption. Once it does, the consolidated and
accurate cross-border bank account information workflows it will establish will bring a host of different
benefits to treasury teams, including greater automation, improved risk management and security and a
much simplified compliance processes.
E-invoicing
One final noteworthy innovation set to receive a huge boost from ISO 20022 is electronic invoicing. Efficient
e-invoicing and processing has been on the corporate treasurers wish-list practically since the birth of the
internet age in the 1990s.
Although adoption of such solutions offers a great means for companies to improve working capital and
supply chain finance processes, uptake to date has been hampered by a combination of legal uncertainty
and the absence of common pan-European standards. According to figures published by the European
Commission in June 2013, e-invoicing accounted for only 4-15% of all invoices exchanged in Europe. But a
lack of common standards is less of an issue now that the industry has defined an XML format for
e-invoicing, based on exactly the same data elements as SEPA XML. Consequently, industry experts
believe companies will make a big push towards implementing e-invoicing in the years ahead.
If e-invoicing and SDD with an XML theme does finally begin to take off now it would represent a big step
towards the ultimate goal of automation across the value chain. In fact, it may well be the final piece of the
jigsaw in terms of XML integration.
Migrating to XML
For those that decide not to use a third party, there a number of simple steps can be taken to ensure that
an ISO 20022 migration project is a smooth one:
Establish centralised governance and management structures. One of the biggest challenges,
given that every company has its own sets of competing priorities, is securing sufficient IT resources for
the project. In such cases, setting up a centralised team can help facilitate buy-in from the top
decision-makers within an organisation thereby ameliorating the issue somewhat. This central unit will
also be crucial for developing and coordinating the process; drawing up a detailed project plan and
taking into account the necessary investments needed for the project, writing rulebooks, creating and
implementation guide, to name a couple of examples.
Secure a budget. Once the scope of the project is known, a central budget should be drawn up.
Some treasurers whose departments completed ISO 20022 XML migration as part of their SEPA
compliance projects are on record as saying a phased approach with commitments spread out over a
long period is preferable to project funding that is monolithic in nature and sought from the outset.
Oneof the lessons of SEPA is that there was a tendency for companies to underestimate the cost of
migration at the outset.
Determine the timescale for implementation. A plan should be established that includes approximate
timeframes for the migration. This should cover everything from writing technical documents, making IT
changes, testing, going live, and decommissioning legacy systems. When doing this it is worth noting
that resources of your banking partners may also be constrained and this might impact the turnaround
times for the XML files they are producing, which may in turn affect your projects timeline.
Make use of validation portals. For a corporate, being able to test whether their use of XML is in line
with the implementation guide before they go live is vital. Validation portals can be very helpful in this
respect. Many of these portals can even point out exactly where problems occur by highlighting the
data field and providing a direct link to the section of the implementation guide or rulebook that explains
how to fix it. n
Any readers who require more detail on the key features of ISO 20022 should visit the dedicated
ISO website: www.iso20022.org/payments_messages.page
Before anything else can be done, the treasurer first needs to ensure that their systems internal and
external support XML formats. For those who are already using SWIFT or a modern electronic proprietary
banking system this is not likely to be a problem, but any systems provided by smaller, local banks or
running older software versions will almost certainly need to be replaced or upgraded. In the case of
internal systems, most ERP and TMS vendors modified their systems in the run-up to the SEPA deadline in
order tosupport XML. However, for those not using fully up-to-date versions the upgrade process can be
complex, lengthy and expensive, particularly for companies that have multiple ERP systems in operation.
Thisperhaps explains why third-party conversion services proved a popular way to ensure compliance
ahead of the SEPA deadline.
Section 5
As we have explained in this Section, moving to XML is now widely considered to be best practice. Even if
you are not mandated to migrate, like European companies in the run-up to February 2014 were, moving to
these standard XML formats is a need which treasurers today can ill afford to ignore. With that in mind,
what does the migration process ISO 20022 XML typically involve?
Sponsor interview
BNP Paribas
Marie-Laurence Faure
Head of Electronic Banking Channels
Karine Amas
eBAM Product Manager
Why is eBAM such an important topic today?

MLF: Bank Account Management (BAM) is the latest area in Cash Management where we, banks and
corporates, have to find efficiency improvements. This is especially true in Europe, where we have been
very much focused on SEPA migration and implementation for the past few years.
Now is the time to look for ways to optimise treasury processes again and electronic bank account
management (eBAM) is one of the obvious avenues for optimisation from a corporate perspective.
Sometreasury departments are already starting to make this process more efficient; asking their bank
toprovide more visibility over their bank accounts and over the handling of the request for changes, and
soon. We are starting to receive more and more RFPs asking for improvements in BAM, with the ultimate
goal being eBAM. We see this as a growing trend. Almost every week, sometimes even twice a week, we
are being asked to provide information around what we are able to do in this domain.
KA: Interestingly, some of the corporates sending us requests are looking for a fully bank-agnostic model;
others are more interested in using bank proprietary solutions. It really depends on each companys
banking relationship structure and their broader strategy in the cash management area. Technology also
influences the choice here. If the company is connecting through a solution like SWIFT, for instance, then
they are likely to be more interested in the fully bank agnostic solutions available through this network.
Those without SWIFT will favour a proprietary solution.
At BNP Paribas, we can meet both these requirements. We have a proprietary solution called Connexis eBAM
Dashboard which is an add-on to the Connexis suite, our international internet web banking solution. It allows for
easy management of BNP Paribas bank account mandates, so that customers can easily and quickly manage
mandate changes, including all legal entities, accounts, signatories and powers. All of this can be monitored in
real-time with the help of our user-friendly dashboard. We have developed XML eBAM ISO 20022 standards, for
an eBAM File Transfer solution through SWIFTNet File Act. In accordance with our customers priorities, we are
implementing first the mandate management messages and scenarios (acmt.010, 011, 014 and 017).
What challenges do banks typically face in rolling out eBAM solutions to corporates?
KA: Digitising documents can be challenging, first and foremost. Initially, the digital document has to be
recognised and accepted as having legal value in all of the countries the corporate is doing business in.
Some documents cannot be digitised, however, because regulation requires a paper form, such as
notarised or original documents. In Portugal, for example, proof of empowerment needs to be notarised.
Furthermore, on both the bank and corporate side, electronic requests and answers have to be archived so
that legal proofs can be obtained later if required.
In Europe, there is a new framework, the eIDAS European Regulation, which aims at providing a European
interoperability framework for digital signature However, this is part of a recent regulation and it will only
begin to be enforced in 2016. So for the time being, everything we are doing in this space is based on a
directive from 1999, but the directive still needs transposing in each country. That makes it difficult to
establish a one-size-fits-all solution across Europe at the moment, and why the new forthcoming regulation
will greatly simplify what banks are doing in this space.
MLF: The broader CGI initiative provides a forum for financial institutions, corporates and vendors to collaborate
on and progress various corporate-to-bank implementation topics around the use of ISO 20022 messages and
other related activities, in the payments domain. The initiative has prompted a number of working groups and
BNP Paribas has been very active in the CGI eBAM working group, which is focused on fostering adoption and
enhancing the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of eBAM standards and processes around the world.
One of the main objectives of the CGI eBAM working group is to simplify implementation for both
corporates and banks by developing common usage of fields in the messages. This means defining
standards that cover all eBAM business case scenarios, be that opening an account, closing an account or
a mandate management change, for example.
With its wide geographical presence in Europe, BNP Paribas is in a unique position to help integrate local
usages into the new standard. We were particularly active on the work to define version two of the eBAM
standards, which was certified in 2013. We felt this was important because the first version did not reflect
the way a lot of corporates work; one could not, for example, define a group of signatories, or define
electronic mandates. Our eBAM File Transfer mandate management solution supports both version 1 and
2 of the SWIFT eBAM ISO 20022 standard.
Going forward, what needs to happen for eBAM to have widespread adoption and what role can
corporates play?
MLF: We need more corporates to start piloting and exchanging eBAM messages with their various banks,
because, ultimately, this is a multi-bank issue. Having a standard in place is just the first step: it has to be
piloted and tested by both corporates and banks to get the proper maturity required for mass adoption.
The circle is getting larger and larger, though. There are more solutions available on the market from
vendors; there are more solutions available from banks; and there are more and more corporates showing
interest in implementing such projects. Corporates are now really motivated and are beginning to sit down
with us, and with their vendors and thinking about what things need to be tackled in order for this to
become a reality.
Marie-Laurence Faure, Head of Electronic Banking Channels has been with BNP Paribas for 15
years, holding several positions as a project manager in Payment Cards and B2B businesses.
In2004, she joined the Cash Management and is now in charge of Marketing of Channel Products
within BNP Paribas Cash Management Competence Center in Brussels. She has a degree in
engineering and a MBA.
Karine Amas. Having worked at BNP Paribas for almost 15 years, Karine Amas is currently eBAM
Product Manager at the bank. She has previously held several different positions within BNP
Paribas, including being a Relationship Manager and a Project Manager for various Business
Centres in France. Karine also joined the banks Cash Management Competence Centre in April
2014. Sheholds a Business School Diploma.
BNP Paribas
What is BNP Paribas role within the Common Global Implementation (CGI) initiative and what is
being done from an industry-wide perspective to help eBAM adoption gain momentum?
Sponsor interview
For the time being though, what is possible with respect to digital signatures in Europe varies between
countries, and here we have identified three distinct groups. First, there are the countries in the north of
Europe the Nordic countries, the Netherlands where there are many opportunities for digitisation.
These are countries where digitisation is really in the DNA of the financial sector. The second group
comprises countries like France, Germany and the UK. Here there have been some recent digitisation
initiatives, mainly driven by governments and focusing initially on things like tax and payments to public
sector bodies. Finally, we have a group of countries in the southern periphery of Europe where such
initiatives are seldom seen and digitisation is in the very early stages. These discrepancies between
countries mean that in some countries where we are serving our corporate customers it may be possible to
have a fully digital process; whereas in other countries it will still be very paper-based and manual.
Big Data and enhanced analytics
Section 6
Big Data and

enhancedanalytics
Big Data is not a problem, it is an opportunity. This may sound like the kind of
empty mantra beloved of assertiveness counsellors or lifestyle gurus, but in this
case the statement might just be true. Since the concept of Big Data first
emerged in the early 2000s, the term has often been used to describe a threat.
Indeed, it has often been employed as shorthand for impending meltdown as
businesses sink under the weight of uncountable bits and bytes. It is certainly
true that the volume of data accrued by companies has increased exponentially
over the past decade and that this is not slowing down any time soon.
In fact, to try to quantify just how big Big Data is, IBM published an infographic in 2014 showing that an
estimated 2.3 trillion gigabytes of data are created each day and 40 zettabytes (43 trillion gigabytes) of data
will be created by 2020. Data analysis and meta-data (data about data) generates yet more data ensuring
that growth really is exponential.
But it is entirely possible to be positive about Big Data and realise that it can be an opportunity not a threat.
Of course, it has to be properly managed if raw data is to be turned into actionable information but this can
be achieved if measures are taken around its capture, storage, accessibility and analysis.
Understanding that Big Data is not just one function or business units mass of data and that it refers to the
enterprise-wide collection is the key to unlocking its capacity to advance a companys case. Tapping into
different cross-functional sets of information can deliver deeper insight than staying strictly within
departmental boundaries.
Treasurers that have access to a variety of different data sets may be in a position to access information, for
example, to bring greater accuracy to their forecasting. The broader finance function and perhaps even
sales,marketing and business unit data could help paint a more precise view of the companys positions at any
given time and thus its funding needs. But whilst being able to look at a wider set of data can provide better
intelligence, it is equally true that more information, if mismanaged, will just add to the confusion or even become
a major source of risk. The range of issues surrounding data management at this level include duplication,
inaccuracy, irrelevance and unavailability. In essence, if it takes too long to make a decision it may be too late.
Since Big Data is, in part, a result of technological advances, it is essential that technology is also exploited
to help capture, file, store, search, share, transfer, analyse and visualise the results in a way that benefits all.
Leveraging Big Data to unlock more business value requires planning. Kelvin To, Founder and President of
Data Boiler Technologies (and a guest speaker and lecturer at City University, Hong Kong) says discovery of
opportunities often depends on the correct diagnosis of problems.
For analysing historical bank transactions, for example, the typical reporting tool in a treasury management
system (TMS) will probably limit analysis to a 12-month period at best, especially if the business has an annual,
repetitive nature to its cash flows. However, the concept of Big Data in this context is about taking a larger data
set, across a larger number of years, to give a better idea of what the cyclical nature of data is going to look like.
Expanding reach is not just how far back in time analysis goes but also how broad a sweep is included and
this even covers macro-economic data. Big Data is about being able to leverage all those data sets and being
able to pick and choose how you want to use them, says Bob Stark, VP Strategy, Kyriba. Fortreasurers
without the right tools it is not something they have been able to achieve in any meaningful way.
The financial crisis of 2008 certainly provided motivation for looking further into and more widely at data,
with most forms of risk mitigation higher on the agenda, notes Alex Robertson, Head of Treasury Analytics,
Treasury Solutions, Capita Asset Services. The reliance on more data and deeper analysis to protect the
business (counterparty credit risk might now take in CDS spreads, equity prices, tier one capital ratios,
bond spreads and so on) naturally demands increased time, but so too does the need to seek out different
investment and funding options and, notes Robertson, this is all increasing the scope of information that
treasurers need to look for and understand.
If confusion reigns when too much information is available, Richard Childes, Director, Product Marketing,
OpenLink Financial, says the problem is usually that people do not know what they want, ask the wrong
questions and end up being inundated with data. In the Big Data world, knowing where to source data
and then asking the right questions is critical.
For a treasurer, spending time identifying, collecting, cleansing and analysing additional data to the point
where they can make meaningful decisions confidently means spending less time on core activities.
Mostbusinesses will have a clear corporate strategy, notes Robertson. What is required here is a strategy
for business analytics.
Before any project commences, all companies need to ask this simple question: What business challenge are
we trying to solve? By understanding what the requirements are, it is possible to figure out not only which data
should be found and analysed but also what tools will be needed to do that. Business teams and IT should
collaborate to reveal those needs. Only then will firms overcome barriers to leveraging their data, such as legacy
systems that arent easily replaceable, lack of confidence in new technologies, and siloed functionality and data.
Big Data and business analytics issues can be tackled internally as long as the right plan and resources are in
place. Alternatively, the project can be outsourced to a third party, typically using cloud technology to manage
and process data offsite. Cloud technology still raises the issue of security (and may even be prohibited by
corporate policy or cross-border regulations) but in reality the cloud is as secure, or more so than in-house
storage, a view now espoused by many IT professionals who tend to be the drivers behind such moves.
Bewarned though: data management projects can be costly when IT and stakeholders who will use the
information are not aligned and requirements for the project are unclear, says Leonardo Orlando, Manager in
Finance and Risk Business Services at Accenture UK. When the IT function and those who will ultimately use
the data are in agreement about their final goal and have a mutual understanding of the project trigger, such as
regulatory compliance, these projects tend to be more readily supported by those involved.
Technology as the enabler

Centralisation is one of the key components for efficient use of Big Data for Orlando. Without using a
unique source, there is the risk of having multiple versions of the truth, he notes. Standardisation, however,
is not always the answer when there are multiple requirements across an organisation. One of the most
efficient Big Data methodologies therefore involves creation of a common golden source, which can
provide information at its lowest level of granularity. However, it also needs to offer organisations the
flexibility to use additional data sources to meet unique departmental needs.
Current technology is capable of meeting Big Data requirements. Whats important, says Orlando, is to
think through how your organisation wants to use Big Data and factor that in before selecting and
implementing. Technology is constantly evolving but there are multiple options that should be evaluated
against business use cases to ascertain the most suitable one size does not fit all.
When it comes to seeking answers, barriers to meaningful business analytics may arise from existing
technology, resources and processes. Overlapping data sources and contradicting data versions often
exist both within and outside the organisation, notes Data Boilers To. This can be exacerbated by poor
vendor performance and integration issues, constant battles with non-standardised technologies and
frequent requirement changes. In fire-fighting mode, many organisations are attempting to adapt by rolling
out retrofitting projects, trying a hundred different things and hoping some of them will work and/or using
Business Process Outsourcing to let someone else worry about it.
Section 6
Barriers
Notwithstanding his obvious bias as a technology vendor, Kyribas Stark believes companies need to
centralise as much as possible. It doesnt mean that if you havent centralised it is impossible, but for a
treasurer looking across 18 different systems to try to understand their cash forecast, rather than having it
in one system, its easy to see which approach is simpler.
Section 6
But for Data Boilers To, centralisation is not necessarily the answer. Putting everything into a central data
warehouse and maintaining that every year is very expensive; an Enterprise Service Bus architecture (a
system of connecting and unifying multiple data inputs) is capable of addressing many non-standard data
issues, but it too is not cheap.
He suggests tiered data storage as a potential solution. High-tier, high-availability servers enable real-time
delivery and instant backup for business-critical data, whilst the lower-tiered servers are used for nonurgent or archiving purposes. Tiered data storage has been made possible with the advent of new analysis
tools. With older technologies, when data analysis was required, it was necessary to load all sets of data
into a high-availability server to execute the process. With modern in-memory analysis and tiered storage
there is no need to do that; you can do the analysis wherever the data is.
A single version of the truth

One of the persistent issues that affects the analysis process is cleansing and normalising data. Unless
you have common identifiers to integrate data you will have to spend a significant amount of time doing it
manually, Robertson explains. There are rules-based tools available to help look for and normalise
common linkages between data (or a one-off SQL-based migration script for the more IT literate), and there
are systems to ensure version control and document management (Cluster7 for spreadsheets, for example),
but users must have confidence that their data has been properly integrated.
Standardisation and centralisation clearly have a place in Big Data management, but companies should
focus on what ought to be fast, resilient, scalable and flexible. In the real world, where funding is limited,
this creates a genuine need to balance the cost and benefit of standardisation with the need to preserve IT
agility for rapid response to business change.
In order to keep costs down, Orlando urges companies to prioritise goals, information and stakeholder
needs. A company might create a roadmap for change that also factors in short-term compliance
considerations, and then slowly move towards an integrated reporting platform that enhances a more
efficient decision-making process. Prioritisation requires cross-functional discussion, the aim being to find
a common goal. It demands the buy-in of senior management, to drive fair and equitable discussion, and
may even see the provision of a dedicated project manager to ensure focus. Everything should connect
back to the business model.
One way of achieving unity when aggregating data from multiple sources, without recourse to a single
central data warehouse, is to embrace lean IT processes. The lean process stems from the Japanese
motor-manufacturing sector. It is a way of maximising efficiency through organisation and removing the
unnecessary through constant refinement. If you look at all processes together in your system
development, you will be able to prioritise the aspects that give the biggest bang for your buck, says To, a
keen advocate of the Six Sigma lean process. For him, in the context of Big Data, lean is about building a
flexible and agile IT system that is capable of handling multiple standards.
Dont forget the humans

Using technology to automate processes is a useful exercise in itself, but IT should be deployed as an
enabler, helping treasurers take their processes to the next level. Automation can free-up individuals to
concentrate on more valued-added activities, allowing the entire treasury team to contribute to data
analysis and the search for new trends and opportunities that exist within the world of Big Data.
In this respect, treasury experience and expertise are still essential. As Stark points out, if you dont know
what youre looking for and dont have the experience to know which buttons to press, the technology
wont just magically do your job for you; you need to know what you are doing to learn from data.
But then perhaps designing a system that will do everything is not the point. The real aim is to give
treasurers transparent information drawn from a vast pool of data. This should enable them to make good
decisions; the process of good decision-making itself should not change just because the mechanics have
been automated. Becoming over-reliant on any application is a bad thing, states Robertson. It should
be a tool to make the best decision, not one to make the decision.
Put into real-world terms, in the risk management space, for example, there is an increasing need for
stress-testing, complex simulation and scenario analysis, using higher volumes of data and at a more
granular level. Whilst software can crunch the numbers and steer a decision in a certain direction,
ultimately there will have to be a call made based on professional judgement.
Whatever technology is used, the final user may make their own analysis and evaluations. Experience,
especially when business-related, may be a factor in data interpretation, but some control may be needed
to tie decision-making processes sufficiently to the information provided. With regard to treasury, the risk
management team will have defined a risk appetite and will monitor and control treasury actions to ensure
they are compatible with that appetite.
An interactive approach
A business is linked by many processes. Where data is generated, the individuals working with it day-in
and day-out will have developed specific sensitivities to that data. This unique understanding allied with the
Big Data toolset enables every experience and understanding to be drawn together to enhance the view of
the business as a whole. Orlando refers to this as an interactive and dynamic data flow. Big Data is not
just an IT issue, but one for the whole business to tackle. Everyone in the organisation who works with data
can make better use of it as long as they know how to access it, know what questions to ask and can use
their professional experience to move towards the most appropriate answers. n
Big Data checklist

Big Data is not a problem if a business has the right processes, the right teams and the right
technology in place to manage it. This means ensuring the following:
rr There are clear functional requirements, which need to come from the information user.
rr There is a unique golden source (even if the level of data granularity may be different across
theorganisation).
rr The IT architecture is clear, simple and scalable.

rr The right teams are in place with clear lines as to who is responsible for which tasks is key.
Many organisations now have a dedicated Chief Data Officer.
rr There is strong data governance and data management. Centralisation is not necessary if
strong data governance is in place.
There will always be a need for treasury professionalism, but technology can offer a different and perhaps
unexpected view when it comes to managing Big Data. What an intelligent Big Data programme enables
the treasurer to do is look across the board, at places he or she would not normally think of as presenting
opportunities. To believes that combining this broad view with a machine-learning approach to data
analysis is the route to success. If you dont make that connection, you will be like everyone else because
whatever you can think of, other intelligent individuals will be able to think of too!
Section 6
There is another reason why over-reliance is a bad thing. People design computer systems and people
are not infallible; their systems will do what they are designed to do but that does not mean they are right,
warns Childes. Data has to be interpreted correctly and anomalies spotted, even with the best technology.
This means treasurers will always have to remain on the ball.
Industry Insight
Thomson Reuters
We want information
For corporate treasurers, the key themes of risk mitigation, adhering to regulation and data management
should be to the fore in todays volatile world. According to the size and complexity of the corporate
operation, understanding how to plot the safest passage through what is, for many, uncharted territory,
requires preparatory work. Whilst the treasurers level of professionalism remains absolutely vital in
keeping a steady course, the adoption of suitable technology and solutions will be a key factor in delivering
information from so much data. But there is so much more to it than just plugging into a new platform.
Data, data everywhere

There is an abundance of data in every aspect of life, and yet there is no abundance of information.
Thisimportant distinction made by Fraser Lee, Assistant Treasurer at Vodafone, lies at the heart of the
digitisation issue. In his view, getting to the core information is the real goal for the modern treasurer; with
many facing multiple sources of data, it is vital to be able to pull this together with speed and accuracy in
order to be able to make valid, real-world decisions. Technology is a major constituent of success in this
realm but, of course, the treasurer must know exactly what to look for, he says. It is right then that the
evolution of treasury technology is a balance of push by the client, and pull by the vendors.
Treasury can be a hands-on function, making deals and decisions on the fly, says Lee. In the context of
one of the most rapidly changing influences in this space regulation it requires constant monitoring so
we are not surprised by anything. However, he warns, there can sometimes be a disconnect between a
specific regulatory change and the technology used to supports its compliance. European Market
Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) is a good example of this.
There is an abundance of data in every aspect of life, and yet there is no abundance ofinformation.
Fraser Lee, Assistant Treasurer, Vodafone
As EMIR comes on stream, some of the changes implemented have been rather broad in their outlook.
Given the rapid time frames required by the authorities, keeping up to speed with each and every nuance
within a sizeable instance of SAP, for example, could present a major challenge for companies. We are
lucky that the system we use is very flexible; we could go in and change it ourselves, reports Lee. With
this experience in mind, he asserts the need for robust and accurate systems that, through their flexibility,
traverse business functions allowing a rapid response to any changes that may be required.
A volatile space
Putting aside regulation for a moment, in terms of sheer volume of trading, by far the largest market in the
world is that of FX. As a global decentralised market for the trading of currencies, it is an ideal place to start
looking at how data becomes information in the digital age. But regulation is never far from the scene.
Indeed, what has been seen in terms of volatility and liquidity in the FX market in recent times is
unprecedented. From the historic lows of last year, fed in part by market uncertainty around how the flood
of new regulation will pan out, there has been a divergence of liquidity conditions with some notable highs
this year. From the perspective of Alex Goraieb, Head of Market Development, FX, at Thomson Reuters,
there are challenges on liquidity emanating from changes to the market structure, driven by this regulatory
imperative. In particular, Basel III has put pressure on bank balance sheets and this has seen less cash in
the market to absorb risk. Similarly, non-deliverable forwards (NDFs), a common option amongst
corporates doing business onshore in some emerging markets, although never the most liquid option, is
now subject to trade over a regulated venue and as such is even less so.
The wide ranging pressure on market liquidity is leading to higher levels of volatility to the point where it has
become the new normal, says Goraieb. The twin themes of risk mitigation and regulation have been the
Whether we like it or not, we are being herded into an environment where regulatory requirements are
increasing in terms of frequency, breadth and complexity.
Damian Glendinning, Corporate Treasurer, Lenovo, Singapore
Intelligent data
Today, Big Data can be a significant challenge for companies seeking information (as opposed to yet more
data) around FX and liquidity risk; it can also be an opportunity, especially if the services of third parties are
used to do the heavy lifting. Thomson Reuters publishes a number of sources of information and analysis
that sit squarely in this space, says Goraieb. Its liquidity heat-maps, for example, highlight precisely what
liquidity is available in the market at any given point in the day. Updated every 30 minutes for every venue
on the platform, and with analysable historical data, this can guide when might be best to trade in terms of
available liquidity. Similarly, SDR (Swap Data Repository) Views analyses and simplifies the otherwise
almost-impossible-to-analyse reams of public domain data on due expiry dates for every FX option traded
and reported to The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). A sizeable expiry that is exercised will
have an impact on market liquidity because it will absorb some of the available liquidity, especially if that
liquidity is already constrained. Knowing this can allow forward planning.
It is widely acknowledged that using a multi-lateral trading network gives access to more counterparties,
diversifies liquidity, creates a competitive environment and opens more avenues of trade when liquidity is
tight. But more than this, it can also deliver valuable management information (MI), providing a running
commentary on essential functions such as how well the counterparty fills trades across the range of
currency pairs. Use it as a scorecard of who is doing a good job and who is not and be sure to let them
know, Goraieb advises. If a company needs to urgently offset a position, it needs to know who it can work
with: MI is derived post-trade but is vital for pre-trade intelligence. A third data consideration is around
supply-chain risk. If the purchase of a core component is significantly interrupted there is an immediate
Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance risk in handling a new supplier, but potentially serious ramifications
for FX may arise if that supplier operates with non-core currency.
The right technology can help navigate such scenarios and in a perfect end-to-end world, Goraieb
suggests a single enterprise resource planning (ERP) system would connect to the treasury management
system (TMS), with data from multiple sources aggregated in a single location. This could be easily
digested and presented on any device in real-time according to need. Such a landscape is not reserved
solely for major corporates. Vastly more efficient technology is increasingly coming out of a simpler cookie
cutter mould, which means lower cost and easier deployment for many more businesses. These tools
allow treasurers to deal with the challenges of implementation. What used to be in the hands of the very
few is now for the many; it is about levelling the playing field.
Whilst cost and other priorities may divert attention, in a volatile world, the need is to play to the puck
rather than wait for the impact of risk and regulation. Consider hiring a compliance manager; whether as
an internal resource or external consultant. Speak to solutions partners about how they can help. But
above all, urges Goraieb, start now. Ive never seen anything like it but this is the new normal and it is
never going to be the same again. For a cross-border trader with exposure to FX volatility, doing nothing is
certainly not an option. The good news is that there are a lot of tools out there to help and treasurers
should not only be well-informed but also ensure that they think big.
Thomson Reuters
As a risk mitigation measure around FX, for example, treasurers need a defined hedging programme driven
by a clear understanding of risk, regulation and data and the potential impact each may have. This must
not be built upon an over-reliance on banks, but should instead be something treasurers have to drive
themselves. As part of that planning process, they also need to be a lot more sensitive to potential negative
impacts (the recent storm unleashed by the Swiss National Bank after it removed its exchange rate floor of
1.20 on the EURCHF tested many hedging programmes). To facilitate change, automation and operational
efficiency should be on the agenda too.
Industry Insight
chief pain points for corporates, he notes. Data could be their saviour, but only if they have the
wherewithal to work with it efficiently and create information.
Thomson Reuters
Industry Insight
A clear decision
When we were setting up our international treasury location in 2005, I absolutely wanted to minimise the
use of phone-based FX trading, explains Damian Glendinning, Corporate Treasurer, Lenovo, Singapore.
First of all, I have doubts about how efficient phone-based trading is; it is clear to me that there is little
control over whether the trader is taking the best deal or not. Then you have the problem of confirming
trades when you rely on the trader to note what has been agreed with the bank and then having to liaise
with the bank to make sure it has agreed the same thing.
Selection of Thomson Reuters FXall trading platform was a very and simple clear choice for Lenovo, a
$39bn consumer PC business with customers in more than 160 countries. The beauty of FXall is that it
gives you an audit trail of every deal so you know your traders are actually achieving the best price or, if not,
have recorded the reason why. FXall, he adds, does not suffer from over-complexity as other systems
seem to. It also enables straight through processing of the transaction lifecycle all the way through to
Lenovos own Treasury Management System for booking FX trades, valuing and running the mark to market
on the FX positions. We have also been very pleased with the increasing number of currencies which are
on the platform and the increasing number of products too, confirms Glendinning.
As FX has been more or less tamed by the Lenovo team the creeping administrative burden of regulation
has risen up the agenda. There is no doubt in Glendinnings mind that the new normal of regulatory
change has increased the pressure, with consequences for all. For one, corporates might not be able to
rely on their banks for proactive support, he feels, because they are busy doing things to meet their own
challenges. But within the corporate space he sees a distinct two-way split of regulatory data
requirements. The first category is information that is actually useful to us in terms of managing our
business. The second category is what I call useless data; this is all the junk that has to be provided to
various regulators which has no value-add to us. As all stakeholders progress with a heavy-duty reporting
requirement there is, he notes, an absolute need to make sure that everything is captured and that each
business can meet these requirements.
Whether we like it or not, we are being herded into an environment where regulatory requirements are
increasing in terms of frequency, breadth and complexity, he states. There is an additional cost that goes
with it, so to the extent technology can be used to help mitigate that effect it is something that we are
inevitably going to be adopting.
Knowing me, knowing you

A core component to counterparty trading, FX or otherwise, is the KYC due diligence process that a bank or
FI has to undertake on their customers during the client on-boarding process. Current KYC processes
amply demonstrate just how the increase and tightening of regulations have impacted on the workload of
banks and their clients. KYC is quite reactive, as Financial Intuitions (FIs), especially banks, must determine
what information they need to adhere to regulations before communicating this to treasurers, says Steve
Chart 1: Streamline and accelerate the KYC process
Thomson Reuters Org ID is a global solution designed

with corporate treasury teams in mind. It streamlines
and accelerates the KYC process. As your business
evolves, know your responsibility to meet with
ever-changing regulatory requirements.
Source: Thomson Reuters

The issues partly stem from the fact that the worlds financial authorities are loathe to regulate in an entirely
prescriptive way, instead opting for principles or rules-based approaches which require interpretation.
So,whilst KYC requires FIs to demonstrate, as far as they can possibly determine, that there is no untoward
activity with any of their clients banking activities, FIs are left to their own devices, to a degree, to interpret
the regulations as they best see fit. As Glendinning notes: (Banks) can face huge fines if they dont get it
right, but the authorities dont tell the banks how to do it or what constitutes sufficient due diligence.
Chart 2: Drivers for the rise of KYC Utilities

Corporates problems
The regulators
Banks problems
Time
Effort
No clear KYC standard
Security of information
AML/CTF
FATCA
EMIR
MiFID
Dodd Frank
Fines
Operational costs
Inconsistency
Staff and IT costs
Reputational damage
Frustration
Causing
Causing
$$$
Source: Thomson Reuters
This is where managed services and utility offerings can deliver respite from the frequent pain of KYC
compliance. In March 2014, Thomson Reuters launched Org ID. It was the first vendor to offer an
end-to-end client identity service that collects, classifies and verifies a clients identity, facilitating the
auditable exchange of identity information through a secure web-based portal. In delivering this service,
Thomson Reuters is clearly leveraging its technology offerings, data and risk expertise.
Additionally, says Pulley, Org ID can extend the benefits beyond KYC. Structured correctly, it is possible to
increase the standards around data security and data privacy, he notes. Currently, where a bank asks for
certain information from a corporate client, this will be sent by email or handed over as a physical document
and sometimes these artefacts are lost. By digitalising the collection and distribution of documents the
platform offers a genuine upside in this respect as corporates can securely send documents to the correct
person. But it can also reduce the corporate cost burden. By providing the information once only, and
making it easy to maintain the profile securely online, corporates can better manage the KYC demand
cycle themselves.
Indeed, in seeking to ensure the corporate treasurer needs minimal contact throughout the process, Org ID
provides screening and monitoring for FIs. We are not just collecting basic data, we are also screening
individuals associated with the business against sanctions lists and politically exposed persons lists,
explains Pulley. All FIs gather this in-depth information during client on-boarding anyway, but Org ID
obviates the need for them to keep checking back with corporates clients as we also continuously monitor
legal entities for changes. The outcome of these checks ultimately notifies the FIs of its clients risk status,
and this status will affect the information requirements, meaning the FI might not have to keep requesting
Thomson Reuters
The result is that not only is there variance in what is required but also, because this process is ongoing,
treasurers are often uncertain as to when the next request will be lodged. To make matters worse, in
certain sectors (mining for example) FIs will automatically deem participants as high risk and will demand a
KYC refresh more often. The typical treasury team is just not staffed to adhere to the variable requests,
notes Pulley. Furthermore, it would be fair to say that the client experience is being lost as a result of
the inconsistency.
Industry Insight
Pulley, Global Managing Director of Org ID at Thomson Reuters. With each FI required by regulators to
prove the correct level of due diligence, it inevitably means corporates must provide copies of passports for
signatories, specimen signatures and a range of other documents such as certified articles of association
and are expected to repeat the process for each FI and each account and sometimes for different branches
of the same bank. Any alteration, such as a change of personnel, means a repeat process.
Industry Insight
Thomson Reuters
as much information from clients if the risk status has not changed. As Pulley states: We can do all the
work in one go, making one request to the client.
Given the nature of the data, vendor trust is of paramount importance. Although Thomson Reuters has
been joined in this segment by other utility providers, it was first to market, states Pulley. The fact that it is
already handling high volumes of extremely sensitive client information gives it operational credibility.
From a regulatory perspective, the accuracy of this information and the completeness of KYC records is
vital. Thomson Reuters is the first in this space to complete the PwC ISAE 3000 Audit. As a review of our
control mechanism and framework across our entire KYC business, it provides confidence for FIs and
corporates, he comments.
The Org ID service has been developed with input from a number of senior industry professionals including
a number of corporate treasury professionals ensuring that the service addresses the KYC challenges of
the FIs and their clients. Thomson Reuters has also engaged with the regulators in all the major capital
markets locations around the world, bringing the different constituencies to the table to have
conversation about regulatory direction. Of course, the acid test of any solution is whether it offers
corporate treasurers notable relief from their current load.
The right thing to do

Jiameng Yu, also Assistant Treasurer at Vodafone, is acutely aware of the KYC issue. Borne out of the
authorities principles-based approach to this regulation, she says the real burden is not in scanning a
document and sending it to a bank, but is in having to supply different documents to different banks.
Andin his capacity as Treasurer of Lenovo and as President of the Association of Corporate Treasurers of
Singapore, Glendinning fully agrees.
To help overcome this problem, Lenovo and Vodafone use Org ID. As a one-to-many offering, it allows
them to upload relevant KYC documents so that their banks and financial institutions can access that data
for compliance purposes. In addition to the obvious advantages of being able to collect, aggregate and
pre-populate KYC data, Yu believes that Org ID deserves to be promoted equally as a means of facilitating
a common standard amongst FIs, removing the burden from corporates of meeting changing regulatory
requirements. It is, she says, a product with great potential, but the common standard aspect may be a
little undersold at the moment.
Companies should take the opportunity now to really tidy up their documentation; something like
Org ID could be really helpful.
Jiameng Yu, Assistant Treasurer, Vodafone
Yu further explains that, somewhat counterintuitively, the rise of digitisation could make the compliance
burden quite a bit more onerous. As the availability and adoption of technology increases, treasurers will
probably be given less time to prepare the information requested. Companies should take the opportunity
now to really tidy up their documentation; something like Org ID could be really helpful. Indeed, Thomson
Reuters, she feels, is ideally positioned to maintain its dialogue with the FI community and other
stakeholders, including various regulatory authorities, enabling clarification of requirements and, ultimately,
help develop a common standard for KYC documentation, and perhaps even other forms of documentary
collections: Pulley confirms that Dodd-Frank, EMIR and MiFID are now on the radar. For Glendinning,
although he acknowledges that the KYC utility concept is yet to gain a critical mass of acceptance amongst
FIs and corporates, he is very enthusiastic about it. It is absolutely the right thing to do.
Connecting thoughts
It is clear that technology alone is not the answer when trying to derive rich information from vast stores of
raw data. Indeed, it is connected technology, with managed data and analytics, which becomes the
powerful driving force in a volatile and heavily regulated world. Companies should thus resist the urge to
buy a product, plug in and hope for the best; the pursuit of real information needs a smarter approach than
this. By thinking in terms of data, connection and analysis, companies will be going a long way towards
ensuring their business model is ready for the next wave of opportunities.
OWN THE
CHALLENGE.
WIN THE
OPPORTUNITY.
Power, Pace and Vision for Corporate Treasurers.

From capital markets data to deep market analysis,
from unique views of credit risk to direct access to
FX liquidity and workflow solutions, we can help you
to move faster, see more clearly and win.
Find out more at financial.thomsonreuters.com/corporate-treasury
2015 Thomson Reuters. S024704 08/15.
Cryptocurrencies:
investing in the
future of finance
Much has been written about cryptocurrencies in recent years. For some, they
are a dangerous and volatile commodity. For others, they are powerful tools
that have the potential to reinvent the global financial infrastructure. Either way,
ever since bitcoin the worlds foremost cryptocurrency began to gain in
popularity, people have debated its potential and asked whether it, or any other
cryptocurrency, has what it takes to establish itself as a major digital
paymentmethod.
Despite growing mainstream coverage, to many casual observers the conversations around cryptocurrencies
remain full of jargon and complex concepts and above all, for many corporates, they seem irrelevant. But
before we begin to examine the arguments for and against bitcoin, lets take a look under the hood of
the cryptocurrency.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a cryptocurrency is a digital currency in which encryption
techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds,
operatingindependently of a central bank. Unlike traditional fiat currencies that are printed by a central
bank, cryptocurrencies are mined by individuals and now, more commonly, by specialised mining groups.
To mine a cryptocurrency, specialist software and hardware are needed in order to solve complex
mathematical algorithms that become increasingly difficult the more coins that are mined. The process is
often compared to the mining of commodities, such as gold, that are finite and become increasingly
problematic and costly to attain.
The computer power that is used to mine a cryptocurrency is what maintains and keeps the network alive,
and at the heart of this network sits a decentralised public ledger (more on this later) that records every
transaction made using the currency in real-time. All users are given their own unique bitcoin address and
the cryptography built into the chain maintains its integrity and chronological order. As such, it is easy to
see how much value belongs to a certain address at any point in time. It also makes adjusting the chain
very difficult, so it is nearly impossible for a bitcoin user to spend more than they have.
Once mined, bitcoins can be held as an investment, converted into fiat currency or used to purchase goods
and/or services. Statistics released by bitcoin payment processor BitPay show that the majority of
merchants currently using the cryptocurrency choose to convert their bitcoins into fiat currencies.
A game changer?
One of the most commonly mentioned benefits of a cryptocurrency is its decentralised nature.
Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, are built on a decentralised ledger that is built and maintained by its
users. Transactions take place on the network peer-to-peer or through an exchange and are automatically
recorded on the ledger. Essentially there is no need for any of the traditional financial infrastructure to exist
and the costs associated with it for cryptocurrencies to be used. For corporates, who in recent years
have been tasked with doing more with less and have been focusing closely on transaction banking costs
and looking to reduce fees where possible, this may sound appealing.
As all treasurers know however, there is no free lunch and transacting in cryptocurrencies doesnt change this.
There is a transaction fee that is applied when using the various exchanges. This currently sits around the 1%
mark, however when compared with the 4% fees charged by card providers such as Visa, MasterCard and
American Express, the attraction is clear.
In addition to being independent from the traditional financial system, cryptocurrencies also transcend nations,
their borders and governments. There is no jurisdiction or economic underpinning to cryptocurrencies and
this may have a benefit to corporates operating across borders. For example, cryptocurrencies are not
subject to the rules and protocols that dictate the movement of fiat currencies across borders (although they
are subject to some regulation in certain countries more on that later). Intheory, this means that a
cryptocurrency could be used as a vehicle to move cash out of those countries where it has often
been trapped.
A third characteristic that could make cryptocurrencies an attractive proposition for some corporates is that
payment is entirely irrevocable. Traditional clearing and settlement systems involve to a greater or lesser
Cryptocurrencies: investing in the future of finance
How do cryptocurrencies work?
Section 7
In 2009, bitcoin became the first decentralised cryptocurrency to enter circulation. At the time of its
creation, the value of one bitcoin was practically zero because it had few users mainly cryptography fans
playing with the new currency. Fast-forward to early 2011, and bitcoin reached parity with the US dollar
before experiencing the first of a number of bubbles that year, rising to $31 per bitcoin. Since then, bitcoin
has experienced dramatic peaks and troughs, famously reaching over $1,250 in November 2013. The value
has since fallen quite dramatically and, at the time of writing, sits at around $200/300 per coin.
Section 7
extent the issue of revocation of payment instructions, particularly in the international system. Because of
this, corporates are often faced with the risk of the payment being recalled. Products exist that look to
mitigate this risk, letters of credit for example, but there is a cost involved in using these.
Those analysts in favour of cryptocurrencies also believe that they offer a new way for corporates to look
after their customers and protect their data. Consumers who use them will not need to provide any
personal payment information. Comparisons here can be drawn to PayPal. However, cryptocurrency
advocates suggest that it is more secure than PayPal because they have no database of information that
can be leaked if an account is hacked. And while individual crypto-wallets have been subject to such
attacks, new security developments, such as multi-sig technology are making this more of a challenge for
cyber thieves.
As such, accepting cryptocurrencies may prove an innovative way to attract business from securityconscious consumers. Indeed, computer giant Dell, a company who began piloting the acceptance of
bitcoin in the US in July 2014 and have since expanded this to the UK and Canada, is seeing positive
feedback from its customers. Paul Walsh, Chief Information Officer at Dell Commerce Services told
Treasury Today in 2014: Were pleased by the initial response to our current bitcoin pilot on Dell.com for
consumer and small business shoppers in the US and purchases have exceeded our expectations.
Some big barriers

According to bitcoin payments processer BitPay, in February 2015, 100,000 merchants worldwide
accepted bitcoin as a means of payment. As we have seen, Dell is one of these companies but others
include Amazon, Microsoft and Subway. While this is a fairly large number it is by no means widespread.
Itis also worth noting that for many of these large companies accepting bitcoin, that they themselves are
not accepting it and have partnered with various bitcoin partners who accept the coins, convert them into
USD and then pass these onto the company.
This rather slow rate of adoption comes as little surprise when you consider the deluge of negative press
that surrounds the cryptocurrency. In late 2014, Bloomberg classified bitcoin as the worlds worst currency
that year. And given that the value of bitcoin dropped 56% against the USD during 2014, its easy to
understand why.
The cryptocurrencys volatility is a huge barrier to adoption, not least in the corporate sphere. In 2013,
bitcoin was on average ten times more volatile than the S&P 500 and 15 times more volatile than the
EUR:USD currency pair. Against this backdrop, can treasurers really afford to embrace bitcoin?
The argument against bitcoin is made even stronger when we consider the high-profile controversies that it has
encountered during its short life span. Most notably the collapse of Mt. Gox, the Japanese-based exchange
that in 2013 handled 70% of all bitcoin transactions, which lost 850,000 bitcoins valued at more than $450m
at the time. Although 200,000 coins have since been recovered the reason for the disappearance of the coins
remains unsolved and many are concerned that something similar could happen again.
Compounding matters, cryptocurrencies cannot be held in a bank account, with the long established
security protocols that support this. Traditionally, the currency is instead held in a bitcoin wallet. The digital
wallet can come in multiple guises including in the cloud, on a hard drive, or even on a device locked away
in a safe. All current methods have their own issues, firstly the security of the cloud solution needs to be
optimal, as security around bitcoin has been under the spotlight with a number of high profile breaches and
heists. So-called cold storage (storing the bitcoin on a device that is not connected to the internet, be it a
hard drive or physical coin) on the other hand, may be a safer option as the wallet is disconnected from the
internet and therefore away from hackers. That said, it poses its own challenges because it is not easy to
access the wallet quickly or conveniently to make and accept payments.
The Mt. Gox affair also highlights a separate issue: namely, the anonymity that cryptocurrencies offer. Although
any transaction that occurs will appear in the blockchain (the decentralised public general ledger) for that day,
the lack of identifying information available and the lack of forensic tools to analyse the blockchain can make
following transactions extremely difficult, if not impossible. Hence why cryptocurrencies are often associated
with dark net trades. So while anonymity is a selling point to some, it is more a barrier for corporates.
Case study
- the companys Communication Manager, has spoken with Treasury

Since then, Sandra Mekauskaite,
Today and explained a little more about the companys decision to accept the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is
the most universal and reliable currency in the world. We installed it on our flight tickets booking engine
and this has been a very popular decision it is used by international customers all over theworld.
One of the drivers behind the decision was to give customers more real-world payment choices.
Whats more, its simple to use. When customers choose to pay by bitcoin, they are redirected to
our payment service providers webpage (MisterTango) where they can find a QR code or bitcoin
address which they can use to send the currency to. Once the payment is processed, we receive
confirmation from our payment service provider and we then sell the ticket to the customer.
In terms of security and risk management, Air Lituanica does not store payments in bitcoin.
MisterTango sells the bitcoins on the Bitmarket.lt exchange and we receive euro in return. That is
why we do not have a lot of risk associated with bitcoin and we treat it like a faster, more convenient
payment method for our customers.
While the company is only using bitcoins for simple transactions at present, Sandra Mekauskaitebelieves that it has far wider applications and that customers will become increasingly interested in
using bitcoin. It is an extremely useful innovation and in the future it may eliminate current online
payment methods, she notes.
Regulating the unknown

In an age when the traditional financial system is coming under increasingly stringent regulatory pressure,
itis perhaps no surprise that cryptocurrencies have also fallen under the gaze of the regulators.
Thechallenge, however, is how can a national regulatory body regulate a decentralised system that
transcends borders?
The answer is complex and a number of different countries have taken alternative views. For example, in
early 2014, US Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen announced that: Its important to understand that
this (bitcoin) is a payment innovation thats happening outside the banking industry. The Federal Reserve
simply does not have the authority to regulate bitcoin in any way. With this statement many in the industry
breathed a huge sigh of relief as it meant they no longer had to worry about the Fed cracking down on the
currency. However, bitcoin has gained the attention of other global regulators both at state and local level.
At the other end of the spectrum, in China, a country that bitcoin was once very popular in, the regulators
have come down hard and restricted its use. The use of cryptocurrencies in Iceland has also been
prohibited falling under the capital controls put in place in 2008 how they will be impacted now that
Iceland has lifted these controls remains to be seen.
In August 2014, Air Lituanica announced that passengers could now purchase their plane
ticketsusing bitcoins. Speaking at the time of the announcement, Simonas Bartkus, Director of
Commerce at the company said: Bitcoin payments are highly beneficial for the aviation market
this currency helps to attract more buyers from abroad as bitcoins can be used anywhere in the
world. Themoney transfer is fast and there are no added taxes otherwise deducted by banks
andagents.
Section 7

Air Lituanica joins the bitcoin revolution
Section 7
How cryptocurrencies are classified is another interesting area and the lack of agreement from regulators seems
to suggest it is a question to which they do not know the answer. In the UK, it is classed as private money and in
Iceland is it a currency. But in Australia it is seen as property. Inconsistencies such as this place a huge burden
on companies accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies when it comes to reporting, auditing and tax.
The importance of regulation cannot be underestimated and according to Nathalie Reinelt, analyst with US
Boston based research firm Aite Group: it will make or break bitcoin. And while many experts who
commentate on the currency also share this view, it remains a bone of contention in the cryptocurrency
community. Cryptocurrencies, by their very nature, are decentralised and not tied to governments, yet as they
become more popular, and are used more by consumers, there will need to be regulation. It is a catch-22,
says Reinelt.
Ultimately, these issues need to be resolved otherwise cryptocurrency use cannot be standardised and
there will not be mainstream consumer or business adoption. The ambiguity of cryptocurrency regulation is
mainly caused by the fact that the cryptocurrencies fall under the watch of a wide range of regulators at both
national and local level and there are few steps being taken to create a global regulatory framework that could
standardise their use. And for Reinelt this may never happen: I dont think it will be possible to get that many
regulators to agree, she says. I think the best outcome will be if countries watch what the big nations do;
the US, UK and China, for example, and then augment those regulatory concepts to meet their own needs.
Building blocks
While cryptocurrencies often grab the headlines, it may actually be the technology behind them that
provides the real potential. As explained earlier, the blockchain is a distributed public ledger that is backed
and secured by mathematical algorithms. It works by blocks being added to the chain in a linear fashion
once any change has occurred thus providing a full digital history of every transaction in the chain.
Although the primary use of the blockchain is currently to enable cryptocurrency transactions, the
blockchain can actually facilitate the transfer of value of anything which is digital, be it cash, an invoice or
even a contact and this should always be 100% irrefutable, irrevocable and fully visible.
In the digital age, the transformational power of the technology is, in theory, limitless. For example, it could
be used to facilitate free and fair elections, carry public records such as passports, and even store more
frivolous items such as coupons and movie tickets. But it is in the financial services industry where the
majority of innovation is currently happening and we have already seen some banks beginning to experiment
with it. For instance, Australias biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has announced that it
has begun experimenting with Ripple a payments platform that is inspired by blockchain technology to
transact between its subsidiaries. While in Singapore, DBS has hosted events which encouraged people to
develop ideas and concepts around how the technology can improve banking in emerging markets.
In the world of corporate treasury, blockchains potential is also great as a glue that binds all these new
innovations together. Take the trade space for example, which is slowly moving towards electronic
documentation. Once all documents involved in the trade transaction are made electronic, then these can
all be transacted on the blockchain providing a fully secure and visible digital record of the transaction.
These documents could also be turned into smart contracts which are automatically traded once certain
conditions are met allowing the entire transaction to be made fully automated and visible end-to-end.
And there is another step that can potentially add further benefits. As Gautam Jain, Managing Director and
Global Head of Client Access and Product Development at Standard Chartered explains: If a corporate
already has smart electronic documentation being traded on the blockchain that is a great start, but there
remain some issues. He explains that during a trade transaction there are instances when a corporate is in
the dark regarding the location of their goods while in transit from a port to a depot for example. It is here
that technology can again provide a solution. The corporate is exposed to risk during this period, but this can
disappear if a chip is placed into the container which transmits its location, says Jain. This can then be
logged on the blockchain automatically so all involved in the transaction can see there is no issue.
In this example, electronic documentation, the internet of things (the tracking chip) and the traditional trade
transaction have all been married together by the blockchain, giving the corporate an automated and fully
visible transaction end-to-end. This gives corporates not only certainty, control and visibility, adds Jain,
Beyond theory
Ripple claims that it can do this because, unlike the traditional financial infrastructure, the platform is not
tied to governments or third-party intermediaries such as clearinghouses. Instead, Ripple has adopted a
similar model to the blockchain (a distributed public ledger that is backed and secured by mathematical
algorithms) but with a key difference. Unlike, the bitcoin blockchain which relies on mining to create value (a
bitcoin), the Ripple network is powered by participating users agreeing on changes to its ledger every few
seconds. As such, banks are able to clear transactions on its network 24/7 and 365 days a year in
real-time and (by avoiding third parties) without the same level of cost.
Currency conversion, of any currency can also take place on the network and again for little cost. This is
because of the platforms ability to allow market-makers to sit in the middle of transactions. For example,
banks can ask the network for a quote on converting $100 dollars into euro. Market-makers (other banks,
corporates or just individual users) are then able to bid for this by offering a conversion rate. An algorithm
will in seconds analyse these and accept the cheapest quote, convert the money and then send this to the
recipient bank in Germany, for example, in a matter of seconds. This makes the market highly liquid and
allows for FX deals to be executed at the best rate, says Dilip Rao, Managing Director Asia Pacific at Ripple.
Although only a few banks have currently gone public regarding their interest in Ripple, Rao claims that: banks
of all shapes and sizes are interested in the platform. He believes that for the big banks the main attraction,
aside from the lower cost, is their ability to act as market makers. While for smaller banks the attraction comes
from them being able to expand and offer cross-border services without the need to invest as much capital.
While investigations into the full potential of blockchain technology are in their infancy, it is certainly an
interesting space and one that may eventually eclipse the debate on cryptocurrencies altogether.n
Meet the coins

According to the cryptocurrency market tracker coinmarketcap.com/currencies, as of May 2015
there are 555 cryptocurrencies in circulation. The top ten based on market cap are:
1. Bitcoin $3,395,897,331
2. Ripple $235,489,897
3. Litecoin $55,872,371
4. Dash $14,287,791
5. Stellar $13,669,284
6. Dogecoin $8,902,662
7. BitShares $8,715,288
8. Nxt $8,151,106
9. BanxShares $7,507,594
10. Peercoin $5,006,785
While currently many developments around blockchain are conceptual, there are some platforms which
provide a working example of how blockchain can be used. One such company is Ripple, which is
advertised to be the first open-standard, Internet Protocol (IP)-based technology for banks to clear and
settle transactions in real-time via a distributed network. This allows banks to make faster payments in
more currencies and into more markets, with lower cost and risk than is possible today.
Section 7
but also can allow corporates to revisit trade financing and shift towards more event-based financing
options, whilst reducing the cost because the risk is gone.
The FinTech
revolution
Technology refuses to stand still. And so it should. Even in the relatively glacial
world of treasury, technologists are moving forward with new ideas that are
primarily aimed at reducing risk and raising levels of efficiency.
When considering new offerings from the vendors, banks and third parties that are progressively reshaping the treasury landscape, it is important to understand how innovations such as virtual accounts,
mobile platforms, real-time information exchanges and the concept of documentation digitisation fit into a
treasurers operating model. As such, rather than list what is new and exciting (and risk adding to the hype
of solutions that may never see the light of day) it is perhaps more interesting to consider how ideas come
to fruition, especially in an environment that is constantly changing.
Looking at the macroeconomic picture, its clear that corporates operating internationally have to contend
with numerous external forces, each impacting the supply and delivery of goods, in addition to the moneyflows associated with them. Regulation, for example, is in a state of rapid flux and treasurers are affected
directly and indirectly (the latter especially where their banks are concerned, notably around BaselIII).
Geopolitical developments are another such force, with tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East
making corporates all the more aware of country, counterparty and currency risk. Certain geographies are
becoming increasingly difficult or undesirable to move funds into or out of, and banks have been retrenching
from non-core countries, all of which leaves some treasurers with significant hurdles to overcome.
Technology can be used not only to improve efficiency but also to open up new markets. An innovation
might leverage existing systems and platforms or could try to create a new niche and spread out from
there; either way, innovative technologies can change a treasurers experience both in the way they interact
with their banks and how they operate internally.
FI creativity
Pre-2008, transaction banking was not the prime concern of treasurers; when the crisis hit corporates
suddenly realised the importance of cash management and liquidity, says Eric Bayle, Head of Payments &
Cash Management at Socit Gnrale UK. Many corporates sought to reduce the number of bank accounts
they held, streamlining the electronic banking processes used. Some looked to shared service centre
structures to reduce risk and cost, speeding up collections and concentrating and optimising their cash.
In this context, if technology can help treasurers find alternatives to previously clunky, risk-laden or
over-complex operating models then it has a definite role to play. Forty or 50 years ago, it took weeks to
get money from A to B. Over the years, the time delay became days, and then within a day. From this
perspective, Mark Buitenhek, Global Head, Transaction Services, ING, says ensuring that all payments are
instant could therefore be the final step that can ever be taken in this area, and we are keen to drive
progress towards that real-time goal.
Banks often say that their clients usually drive product development, and to an extent this is true. Wouter
De Ploey, a Director in the Business Technology Office of the consultancy firm, McKinsey, points out that
banks are facing a challenging time, being at the mercy of low growth, low interest rates and tough
regulations. With consumer and corporate client behaviour changing in terms of expectations (driven in
part by their own difficulties but also by smart new innovations), he notes that banks are keen to right size
themselves to get their cost bases under control. As they do so, they are hunting for the best clients to
provide the necessary volumes of liquidity and fee income.
The FinTech revolution
Despite the progressive switch from traditional to online commerce, the availability of electronic platforms
launched on mobile devices, and the current trend for instant gratification and realisation, treasurers still
want to know that their financial transactions are secure, Taylor states. It is easier today for small FinTech
companies to innovate precisely because so much of that innovation rests on the plumbing provided by
banks and the knowledge that what they are doing is effectively providing a new means for those
transactions to take place in the sure and certain comfort that the banking infrastructure exists.
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Given the generally cautious nature of treasury, technology for the sake of it is unlikely to fare well in this
space but new ideas with a purpose are usually welcome. Indeed, as Paul Taylor, Head of GTS EMEA
Sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) says, sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.
Itwould be fair to say that the financial world has seen some evidence of necessity over the past few years.
There is no innovation that is not driven by the needs of our time, adds Taylor. But he notes too that most
of these innovations rely on the banking system to underpin their very existence.
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This, argues De Ploey, means banks are rethinking the breadth and depth of their services a position
facilitated in part by the FinTech providers and their smart new ideas. Banks have rediscovered customercentricity; customers were lost somewhere in the crisis and the regulatory agenda, but banks have now
figured out that to outperform their competitors in terms of value creation potential there are only a few
strategies that work; customer-centricity is one and so they are all going after re-designing the client
experience. De Ploey sees a massive investment on the bank side to remove old technologies,
architectures and unsustainable process bottlenecks. Herein lies an opportunity for corporate treasurers.
But, he notes, treasurers are not demanding enough when it comes to getting their banks to help
re-engineer better processes.
Of course, not all progress is client-driven, says Bayle. SEPA, for example was imposed by regulators as a
replacement for local legacy payments formats, forcing corporates to change processes and systems in
order to comply. However, when it was realised that the XML messaging format of SEPA could be used for
all payments, he says banks were being instructed by forward-looking clients to accept the ISO 20022
messaging model on a wider scope of delivery. Because slight variations of XML exist across the banking
community, in terms of what data fields are required, the Common Global Implementation (CGI) initiative
was established as a forum for banks and corporates and is now bringing about a single message
exchange format that is easier for all to work with.
Some technology projects take a long time to come to fruition (SEPA is a classic example) but Bayle argues
that progress can depend on the geography and culture. For example, Europe tends to be populated by
advanced corporate technology users where the differentiation between companies tends to be in the
detail (such as the degree of straight through processing). Conversely, parts of Africa are lacking in some of
the more complex structural systems where even SWIFT payments must be processed manually but
Africa is also one of the most advanced regions for consumer mobile payments. In all cases, he suggests
there is an element of cultural expectation that will see large corporates typically anticipate and then
conform to different regional experiences; this accords with De Ploeys belief that corporates are not pushy
enough with their banks when it comes to the delivery of new technologies. However, Bayle adds that if the
need is sufficiently strong, or the benefits worthwhile, corporates will pressure their banks to deliver as
happened with the wider adoption of XML.
As new technologies have been brought to bear on treasury, the core elements of efficiency and risk
management have improved, facilitating a whole new raft of responsibilities for the modern practitioner,
each presenting new challenges. Expand this notion out to the wider financial community and it becomes
clear that where there are challenges, technologists will already be on the case. Indeed today, there are an
estimated 23,000 start-ups working in FinTech. Some of them are looking to work directly with banks,
others are looking to provide an alternative to traditional banking models. However, Bayle is not convinced
that the technologies currently on offer fulfil the tag of disruptive that is so often applied to them. There is
evolution, but certainly not revolution, he states.
Of course, however innovation is perceived, it will only work if the right solution finds the right user. So, whilst
competition in the sector should be encouraged, INGs Buitenhek believes collaboration is the way forward.
Thats why we are working with a select group of smaller players across the globe and why we have set up
an innovation centre to work towards digitising our complete offering. By allowing innovators to work with
real-world problems, challenges become an opportunity, not a threat.
There is an argument that banks are not best placed to become development houses. Taylor says he is not
sure the world necessarily wants the banking community to be taking bets on the consumer channels of
the future. It absolutely wants us to respond and stay relevant but there would be a lot of scepticism if we
had some kind of innovations lab pumping out new platforms every year just for marketing gain. To this
end, Alex Young, Head of Sales for UK & Ireland (Corporates), GTS at BofAML, says that to create the best
solution for its clients, the bank collaborates with best-in-class technology providers the banks cooperation with the new Apple Pay mobile payment and digital wallet service is a case in point.
However, should a bank want to engage with a FinTech start-up it has to move quite quickly; a new
business lifespan tends to be quite short if it does not receive the backing. In this respect there are
mechanisms to aid the process.
Accelerating ideas
Bank engagement with new FinTech companies is an area where programmes such as Innotribe and
Startupbootcamp FinTech, and conference-led projects such as PayExpos Payments Dragons Den, have
been operating for a number of years. They are known as accelerators, helping to develop and bring new
ideas to the attention of potential users in the FI sector.
Innotribe is led by Fabian Vandenreydt, SWIFTs Head of Markets Management. Although it is charged with
driving innovation in the core of what SWIFT does, he observes many more FIs are now appointing a Head
of Innovation to try to capitalise on creative thinking. Indeed, Vandenreydt sees it as a sign of the times
that because banks are increasingly constrained on their discretionary investment under the burden of
regulatory compliance, they are looking for other ways to grow and innovate and that working with
technology startups is one of those ways. The fact that Innotribe is run by a global utility that serves the
full banking community is interesting to the start-ups because it gives them exposure to many institutions,
but banks are much more open to startup innovation than they used to be, he comments.
If banks are driven by the need to be more efficient (in terms of managing process, cost and risk) then
corporates are the ones that should be driving the changes in terms of product offerings, says
Vandenreydt, simply because the clients are the ones using the banking system and infrastructures and
want easier, cheaper and more secure and transparent solutions. If you look at the innovation domains in
Innotribe this year, everything that relates to how corporates are being served by banks in supply-chain
integration, treasury and cash management are big areas. Anything to do with digitisation of payments is
also big, he notes. This is all being driven by client demand but it is also being driven by the start-ups
themselves who see a potential niche where they can offer functionality that banks currently do not offer.
Getting the two sides to meet is not always easy. I dont think banks put their heads in the sand and refuse
to see these ideas they get that quite quickly but they do need to be able to put in place a mechanism to
make the most of an idea but often that takes time, says Vandenreydt. He explains that the integration of
new technologies into a legacy banking environment can require a change of business model to extract the
most benefit from it. But it is true also that large institutions can unwittingly complicate and lengthen the
procurement engagement process for FinTech start-ups. A procurement fast-track that sidesteps a banks
normal lengthy vendor approval process is therefore required to allow the process of experimentation, and if
necessary development, to get underway quickly. This is in part why the accelerators exist.
It is true that some banks are necessarily wary of diving in too quickly with new technology, not least because
of the compliance and integration imperative. They are very much driven by the need to see a fully worked-up
proof of concept. In this respect, the FinTech companies often struggle to fully comprehend the real world
experience of the banks and their clients, particularly around regulation. Thus guidance from accelerator
SWIFT is a name that most treasury personnel will know well, but Innotribe is a more esoteric offshoot that
may be new to some. Started at the end of the last decade, its continuing mission is to help financial
institutions scout for the best ideas from the most promising start-ups and early growth-stage technology
firms. Innotribe runs a programme of events and competitions across various geographic regions each
year and works with its banking partners to try to develop and bring ideas to market for itself, for the banks
and ultimately for their clients. This year it had over 370 applicants (increasing roughly 100 per year for the
past two years).
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Startupbootcamp FinTech fields global applicants (2014 had 436 from 59 countries), selecting around ten to
work intensively with over a three-month period, mentoring, educating and sourcing whatever each needs
to go to market. The programme is funded by industry partners typically with FinTech interests (including
so-called Angel investors) and is augmented by a pool of 200-plus mentors drawn from multiple sectors
and geographies. Nektarios Liolios, Co-founder and Global MD of Startupbootcamp FinTech also sits on
the panel of the PayExpo Dragons Den event referred to above. He says applicants either come with a
piece of technology that needs a business model built around it, or they have a business idea and basic IT
concept but need to understand more about the complexity of the technology required. All concern
delivery to the broadest sweep of the financial industry and its customers and include sector-agnostic tools
for areas such as cyber-security. We sit down with them, try to identify the gaps and work with them to fill
those gaps.
Section 8
organisations, working with their bank clients, can prove invaluable when building up a working solution and
an effective business model. An idea in isolation that doesnt take into account legacy systems, regulations,
customer expectations and the reality of budgeting for development will not go very far, says Vandenreydt.
As complexity grows in the FI and corporate space, so too does the number of potential problem areas; the
industry is in constant need of more solutions, especially where it comes to the more esoteric aspects of
the business that tend not to be visible to the outside world such as the capital markets or back office.
Noone just comes up with ideas for these areas, says Liolios. There is a need for someone not only to
know about and understand the problem but also have the confidence and entrepreneurial drive to do
something about it themselves.
Banks get involved with the accelerators because they want to see at an early stage what the trends are.
Ifthey see something that appeals they can opt to run a pilot programme. But there is also an element of
being aware of what could potentially threaten their business, says Liolios. Over the past few years there
has been much talk of FinTech firms trying to disrupt the norm. In some cases this is taken as an attempt
to disintermediate the banking sector. But the degree of success here is minimal; as BofAMLs Taylor
pointed out previously, most of these ideas are founded on the existence of a secure and reliable banking
infrastructure. Even if (as has been suggested) the banks in this context become nothing much more than
a pipe delivery system, the value of that service cannot be denied.
Liolios too is unsure that disruptor is a valid term, not least because many appear only to focus on
commoditised bank services such as payments processing. These types of products, he feels, are
creating new value for customers but are not disrupting the status quo per se.
I see disruption as a positive, states Vandenreydt. He too believes that many FinTech companies are just
trying to work with the banks and as such their ideas are starting to gain traction across a broader section
of the financial community. Many innovations in the financial sector start in the retail space, driven by a
need to keep customer contact alive (via mobile devices for example) but it is only a matter of time before
they feed through into other areas, including those populated by treasury. A younger generation of
tech-savvy individuals is keen to bring their personal understanding and adoption of consumer
technologies into the workplace and banks are keen to provide it. Customer intimacy is not only about the
transaction, it is also about giving advice and information, says Vandenreydt. Banks need to work hard to
build a full proposition to meet that need.
The problem for many large organisations is that it can be difficult for new technologies to gain acceptance
which is why it often ends up aiming for the lowest common denominator just to get everybody to buy
into it. Banks talk a lot about mobile as if it was something cutting edge but its prevalence outside the
working environment makes it a fairly safe bet. Often the vision is lacking, states Liolios. If an
organisation wants to be a leader and change the way things are done, he believes that projects must be
driven forwards bravely, not put on autopilot. The difficulty for banks in doing this lies not only in getting
the right people to work on a project but also in tackling lethargy, he notes.
A recent poll of the 5,000 plus Startupbootcamp community members (including banks, corporates,
professional services providers, investors and startups) asked why banks are so poor at innovating. It offered
a selection of possibilities including regulation, funding, lack of knowledge and inertia. The most selected
answer (polling more than 35%) was inertia. Liolios explains that the lack of incentive, the organisational
structure, the culture and the awareness of client needs all contribute to innovation becoming not much more
than a box-ticking exercise, but the recognition that unless there is a fundamental change in the business to
make it a genuine digital business, there will be little progress.
Rather than being paralysed and just watching the world change around you, he states you have to start
somewhere. He cites a small group of highly active banks in this space, a number that are trying to
progress, and then a whole bunch of banks that are rarely if ever heard from in the context of innovation.
It makes you wonder what they do to reflect the changing landscape!
It is a slow and sometimes very difficult process to change an entrenched way of thinking and this is why some
banks will be more successful than others, says Liolios. The accelerators can use all their experience and
know-how to demonstrate how new FinTech can benefit these organisations. Instilling this mentality of
experimentation is vital; of course the banks core systems have to be solid and stable so people can rely on
them, but at the same time they need to be able to move forward and figure out what works and what doesnt.
A collective response
Whether we are in the midst of technology evolution or revolution is open to debate, but the ever-changing
needs of corporate treasurers ensure the progressive application of financial technology. This naturally
brings us back to the statement at the start of this piece that there is no innovation that is not driven by the
needs of our time. n
From when it was first created, right up to the 1970s, treasury as a function barely changed at all in terms of
technology. The introduction of computing and basic electronic data capture heralded a new epoch, says
BofAMLs Taylor. The pace of development has gathered dramatically since then, with the arrival of the
TMS and then the internet age and cloud computing taking it to a new level of sophistication. But only
now, just a short time into the latest epoch, are we developing the collective imagination as an industry, he
notes. We are starting to figure out what we can do and what our clients need us to do. It is this that will
drive what happens next.
Section 8
Indeed, if an organisations mantra is failure is not an option, Liolios asks how executives can possibly
support a team whose purpose is to be adventurous. He has observed a number of institutions that have
set aside funds for development but other than organising the occasional innovation workshop failed to
produce anything of note; innovation is an active process that must engage with as many ideas as possible
to test what works and what doesnt the organisation must never be afraid to fail.
Cybersecurity:
beprepared
Although it is larger security breaches that tend to make the headlines, businesses
of all sizes and from all industries are now targets of cyber-attack. But what are
the main threats and from whom? Also, what is the role of the treasurer in helping
to protect the company and its assets from cyber breach?
As technology becomes more and more commonplace in corporate life, and criminals become increasingly
sophisticated, the risk of cyber-attack is only increasing. Moreover, its now happening to all kinds of
corporations whether for financial, political or even ideological reasons.
In February 2015, for example, it was reported that millions of names and Social Security numbers of
customers and employees of Anthem Inc., the USs second-largest health insurer had been stolen by cyber
criminals. Hackers managed to evade security measures in order to raid the firms database which
reportedly contains the personal information of around 80 million individuals, including those of the firms
own CEO, Joseph Swedish.
What the Sony incident highlighted is the true cost of cyber theft it can mean the loss of intellectual
property and competitive advantage, reputational damage and loss of trust, and for some individuals, it can
mean a loss of employment. Of course, the financial risk implications are also vast.
As such, whilst cyber security might seem like the domain of the IT department, treasurers must be vigilant.
In May 2015, for example, Treasury Today reported about a new form of malware successfully used to
target corporate bank accounts. Cyber crooks allegedly used sophisticated Dyre Wolf malware to insert
fraudulent requests in Ryanairs payments system and made off with a six figure sum.
Types of cyber threat

Malware is just one type of cyber risk to be aware of though. Others include:
Stealing of confidential data/information through obtaining access credentials and dispatching a virus.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks flooding a server or connection with information requests
using all capacity, leaving none for intended use.
Advanced persistent threats multi-layered and multi-stage cyber-attacks that can stay in a system for
years without being detected.
Ransomware a form of malware that encrypts all files it can access, making them inaccessible until
decrypted. Functionality is returned to normal only after a ransom (monetary or political action) is paid.
Phishing sending emails to large numbers of people asking for sensitive information (such as bank
details) or encouraging them to visit a fake website. These attacks are becoming increasingly
personalised and targeted, which is called spear-phishing.
Water holing setting up a fake website or compromising a legitimate one in order to exploit visiting users.
Cyber subverting the supply chain to attack equipment or software being delivered to the organisation.
Other potentially weak points that might increase the risk of cyber-attack on your organisation, according to
the findings of Greenwich Associates 2014 US Large Corporate Finance Study, include:
Weak authentication non-complex passwords without additional authentication factors are

easily bypassed.
Unpatched vulnerabilities cyber-attackers rely on known and unknown vulnerabilities in operating

systems and other common software to gain entry and glean data.
Comprised vendors whereby vendors are targeted for their access to clients systems, either directly
or through products they provide.
Cyber security: be prepared
Perhaps the most high profile cyber-attack of recent times, however, happened at the end of 2014 when
Sony Pictures was targeted by politically motivated hackers who destroyed data and released details of
private internal correspondence to the media. The company set aside $15m to investigate the reasons for
and to remediate the damage. However there is a personal cost too. After news of the hack emerged,
Sony Pictures co-chairman, Amy Pascal, whose compromising emails were amongst those that were
leaked, decided to relinquish her position as a direct result of the intrusion.
Section 9
And in 2014, hackers obtained credit card data, names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses
for around 70 million customers of the Target retail group in the US. Cyber criminals also stole records from
luxury department store, Neiman Marcus, and from JPMorgan Chase, Experian, eBay and Home Depot, to
name but a few.
Social engineering employees throughout the organisation are at risk, as cyber-attackers utilise
seemingly legitimate communications.
Who might attack you?

According to a 2015 whitepaper produced by the UK government, entitled Common cyber-attacks:
reducing the impact, the following are the main groups of potential attackers:
Cyber criminals interested in making money through fraud or from the sale of valuable information.
Industrial competitors and foreign intelligence services, interested in gaining an economic advantage
for their companies or countries.
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Hackers who find interfering with computer systems an enjoyable challenge.

Hacktivists who wish to attack companies for political or ideological motives.
Employees, or those who have legitimate access, either by accidental or deliberate misuse.
Maximum protection
With the increasing risk posed to all companies, Treasury Today spoke to Phillip Pettinato, Chief Technology
Officer at Reval, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Treasury and Risk Management solutions provider.
Pettinato shares his top five tips for treasurers to take in order to safeguard their department from attack,
especially as treasury technology continues its evolution to cloud-based systems.
1. Engage security teams. The first order of business for treasurers should be to engage with their
companys IT security team and their providers security team. These should be dedicated teams,
ensuring that each is prepared for any threats posed by cyber-criminals, and that they are proactive in
minimising these. If these teams wait for threats to be identified or breaches to occur before acting
then it may already be too late and a significant amount of damage may have already been made.
2. Formal security programmes. A fundamental step that all treasury departments can make to protect
themselves from attack is to make sure that the correct security programmes are in place. Engagement will
again need to be made with a treasurys own IT department and also with their Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) provider to ensure the correct security framework for defining policies, procedures and controls is
in place.
3. Audits and testing. Treasury departments are continually engaged in activities which can have a
material impact on the business, such as booking transactions and moving money. It is therefore
important that IT departments and providers frequently employ internal and external parties to carry out
audits. It is particularly useful to use third-party security experts to assess potential areas of treasury
security which could be exploited and may be missed by internal IT teams. The security infrastructure
should also continually be attack and penetration tested. With frequent testing and auditing of
policies and procedures, IT departments and providers can make sure payment processing, for
example, has the right workflows, right user controls, right authentications, signatures, PINs, and
encryption, making sure the data flows the right way and is secure.
4. Continuous improvement. It is vital that companies do not stand still regarding cyber security. Both the
IT department and SaaS providers should be continuously improving their security management from a
risk management and assessment perspective. They should employ the latest security technologies and
ensure that these are continually updated to maintain their effectiveness. When choosing third-party
vendors and even banks, treasurers would do well to include cyber security measures as part of their RFP.
5. Technology design. If a treasury adapts a legacy technology to work with new technologies such as
mobile devices, this can create areas of risk in the different technology layers. True SaaS solutions that
are designed from inception to connect easily with new technology such as mobile devices, ensure that
the right level of security is built into the new features right from the beginning. It is therefore important
when implementing new technology into the treasury department to ensure that it integrates with the
current system; otherwise, data could be exposed should a device fall into the wrong hands, for example.
In addition, it is important for treasurers to keep up-to-date with trends in the cyber-attack landscape to
know what to look out for in particular the various social engineering techniques that may be used to trick
someone into allowing a cyber-attack to propagate. This can be achieved by attending cyber security
training or information sharing events/groups.
It is also important to identify the most critical or sensitive information/data/processes under ones control
and relay this information to IT departments so that cyber security efforts can be prioritised. Lastly, treasurers
should understand or encourage the development of internal cyber security policies in their firm, for example
clear reporting lines in the case of a cyber-attack.
Checklist: fending off cyber threats
rr Do you have a security programme in place, either with treasurys own IT department or
aprovider?
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In order to align treasury procedures with the most efficient security standards, the following outline
some of the fundamental procedures to check you have in place:
rr Are they working to ensure the correct security frameworks are in place for defining policies,
procedures and controls?
rr Are they proactively minimising threats posed by cyber criminality?

rr Are regular audits and tests being carried out?
rr Is the department aware of the latest security technologies and continually updating security
procedures to maintain effectiveness?
rr When changing legacy technologies, are security measures being adapted to integrate new
solutions (mobile devices, for example)?
rr Should the worst happen do you have business continuity plan in place?
Mobile security: top tips

Whilst the potential advantages of mobile technology in the treasury department, to initiate
payments or check balances on-the-go, for example, are largely undebated, security remains a
concern. Treasury Today spoke with Ireti Ogbu, Head of Payments and Receivables EMEA for Citi,
to discuss the best ways of addressing lingering security concerns:
Be well informed. Firstly, it is in the treasurers best interest to be proactive regarding security
concerns. It is their responsibility to address any misconceptions and to keep up-to-date on the
details around mobile technology security. For example, the perception it is inferior isnt entirely
accurate: the same security exists in the mobile and tablet world as does when using desktop
computers. Information is carried using the same bandwidth and, with the exception that a
mobile device does not have a fixed IP address, security measures are applied in largely the
same way. The other point is that there should be no data stored on the mobile device, in order
to eliminate the risk of information being accessed if the device is stolen or lost, says Ogbu.
Use training tools and services provided by your bank. The responsibility does not fall solely
with the corporate treasurer; banks are there to help. Citi, for example in addition to the built-in
security controls for mobile applications believes it is important for banks to train their clients
on cyber security and fraud awareness. In fact, our corporates are asking for this, says Ogbu.
The bank, like many of its peers, runs numerous educational workshops and has created a
training toolkit which includes videos and presentations on best practice security procedures.
rr Have you engaged with all relevant security teams (your companys and any providers)?
Sponsor interview
Citi
Tony McLaughlin,
Regional Cash Product Head, Asia Pacific,
Treasury and Trade Solutions
Big data sits at the heart of the digital world, but corporates can suffer from 'data overload'. What can be
done to ensure that corporates efficiently use the data available and turn this into business intelligence?
The vast amount of data created in the digital world means that everyone is susceptible to suffering from
data overload. For a corporate treasurer, whose key function is to manage financial risk, this can be
particularly toxic. Banks, as processors of information, are well placed to help treasurers overcome this
challenge by providing solutions that allow large data sets to be visualised through a variety of different
channels be it on a PC, tablet or mobile device and offer the ability to drill down and find the information
they really need.
Pinpointing the required information can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. At Citi, we seek to
help our corporate clients by mining their data for them and offering up insights around this. For example,
we have been able to interrogate our clients accounts payable (AP) data and then provide them with
different options for how to improve this, potentially driving cost savings and efficiencies.
What other roles do transaction banks play in helping corporates to embrace digitisation?
Banks can help their corporate clients truly embrace digitisation by fully digitising themselves. At present,
most banks provide some form of electronic interface which corporates can use to connect with their bank,
but behind this digital facade banks are filled with analogue processes.
At Citi, we have been working hard to digitise all interactions with our clients, end-to-end. This streamlines
the touch points between the bank and the corporate client, reducing the time they spend dealing directly
with us. No longer will a client need to call the bank to launch a query around a lost payment, instead they
can create a case online and track this fully until its conclusion.
What impact might blockchain technology have on transaction banking and therefore on the
treasury function?
Blockchain technology is a work of genius that presents many opportunities that, in theory, could transform
banking. However, the financial services industry is currently in a phase of experimentation with the
technology, exploring how it works and its potential use cases.
Although these discussions are very interesting, there is a danger that the blockchain may become a
solution looking for a problem. For example, some in the industry are discussing how it could potentially
replace SWIFT or correspondent banking networks. Throwing away SWIFT, an enormously powerful asset
that we have built up for decades, does not seem like a realistic proposition or a good use case.
I would like to see some defined and limited use cases that demonstrate success and then leverage these
as a launch pad for further innovation. Otherwise there is a danger that blockchain will promise everything
but deliver nothing.
With e-commerce becoming increasingly popular in all industries, what opportunities and challenges
is this creating for corporate treasury?
E-commerce means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I like to think of it as a new
geography which a company is moving into with its own rules, opportunities and challenges.
There have been many high profile corporate cyber security breaches in recent months. For those
treasurers worried about cyber security what are the key areas they need to focus on to ensure the risk
is appropriately managed?
Citi is moving towards this idea and aims to become the worlds digital bank where clients
can interact with it through an electronic interface, with information delivered in real-time
through an electronic back office, removing the friction from all corporate-to-bank
interaction and providing instant benefits to our clients.
Firstly, the treasury needs to ensure that its internal controls, around processes such as payments and
adding new beneficiaries to an electronic banking system, are sound. To do this, corporates should look to
leverage technology that is available to them. For example, our electronic banking platform, CitiDirect, has
nine levels of authentication, is built on highly developed encryption technology, and also has the ability to
customise access for each user.
Another key area treasury should focus on is personnel. Prudent hiring processes, including detailed
background checks on new staff, should be conducted. All employees should be made aware of the
different methods bad actors use to launch a cyber-attack and how to spot these. After all, an attacker
only needs to have a 1% success rate to potentially cause significant financial damage to an organisation.
Banks are changing rapidly in line with digitisation, so what does the transaction bank of the future
look like? What do treasurers need to know in this respect?
The transaction bank of the future will be built on Big Data and see banks offering extra value to their clients
by crunching their data and developing real-time or event based insights that a corporate treasurer can
quickly make decisions from. This information will be provided visually through multiple channels, and not
only through the ones we have now (such as; mobile, tablet, PC, API and digital host-to-host connections)
but also through new intensely visual channels such as Oculus Rift and Microsoft Hollow Lens.
Citi is moving towards this idea and aims to become the worlds digital bank where clients can interact with
it through an electronic interface, with information delivered in real-time through an electronic back office,
removing the friction from all corporate-to-bank interaction and providing instant benefits to our clients.
Based in Hong Kong, Tony McLaughlin is responsible for payments, receivables, channels and
cards across the region. Previously he was Citis transaction banking head in the United Kingdom
and has been with Citi since 2004. He has been working in transaction banking for 20 years,
starting his career with Barclays. He has also held senior product management roles with ABN
AMRO in Amsterdam and HSBC Holdings in London.
Citi
The treasury is effectively the keep in the middle of the corporate castle. It has the financial lifeblood of the
company running through it and is therefore one of the areas at greatest risk from cyber-attack. To ensure
the treasury is secure, there are a number of steps that can be taken.
Sponsor interview
One particular challenge that many firms involved in e-commerce face is around collecting money.
Companies expand rapidly into new markets where often the default mode of collection has been the card.
Yet, the cost associated with cards is problematic for many firms and as such, they are often looking for
alternative payment mechanisms that their clients can use. We are supporting our customers in developing
these and also helping them navigate the often complex local regulations as they enter new and
unfamiliar markets.
Check your applications capabilities. It is typical nowadays for mobile solution applications
to have a level of custom-specifications built in; solutions can be adapted to suit the needs of
corporates. But there are some security essentials treasurers need to ensure their application
has. The level of entitlement a user has on a desktop, for instance, must be the same on the
mobile device. You need to have the same level of encryption on the mobile as you do if that
user was accessing their account from a desktop. How a users entitlement has been set up
shouldnt be able to be changed in any way from a mobile device, explains Ogbu.
Section 9
Company role. Outside of the treasury function, companies would do well to have advice on
safe technology usage and, even better, an employee training programme on security.
Security is also about heightened levels of staff vigilance. This can be (partially) achieved
through training to ensure employees use websites responsibly and can spot the signs of
embedded attachments, for example. If a corporate trains its staff to recognise attempted
infiltrations and socially engineered attacks, it means that they are able to mitigate that risk
somewhat and could even help prevent an attack.
Monitor your risks. Even with the most stringent security processes in place, a treasurer cant
sit back and relax. Ogbu explains: In terms of the monitoring of transactions, Citi has a
platform, an analytics tool, that reviews transactions against their previous transaction history
and reports any transactions that are unusual. The tool helps corporate clients detect risky
activity. Whats more, the bank (like other providers) is developing another detection and alert
tool which uses algorithms to create proactive analytics. These can highlight whether there is
something not quite right before a transaction is executed.
Business continuity in a digital world

According to a recent study by the Business Continuity Institute, cyber-attacks are now regarded as the top
threat to business continuity. Thats why ways to react to cyber risks are increasingly being integrated into
companies business continuity (BC) plans.
A business continuity plan is a means of enabling companies to help prepare for the worst and to recover
and sustain operations during and after an event as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Essentially, a
BC plan is a fully-documented agreement between management and key personnel (with the buy-in of all
staff) that is taken in advance and which covers the steps the organisation, and particular individuals, must
take to ensure critical operations are protected.
At its most fundamental level, a BC plan may be the difference between survival and failure. But even in
purely commercial terms, being prepared limits the possibility of having to call for assistance in a state of
desperation (always very expensive) and goes a long way to maintaining or even enhancing client
confidence. In essence, a BC plan needs to be a living, evolving and regularly tested strategy that will give
a business the best chance of survival if the worst happens.
A vital part of a BC plan is a series of functionally-specific disaster recovery (DR) plans. These are commonly
IT-driven, focusing on recovery of software, hardware and data to at least allow resumption of critical business
functions following an event. A BC/DR plan must also consider the effect on each function of the loss of key
personnel by providing a contingency plan.
Key elements of BC/DR planning

According to DisasterRecovery.org, an independent organisation that provides guidance and information
on disaster recovery, a plan must include the following stages:
A policy statement, stating the goal of the plan, the reasons for it and the resources required.
A risk assessment will identify the situations that are most likely to occur.
A business impact analysis, describing how a catastrophic event may impact the business practically,
financially and in other ways. It should also try to identify any preventive steps that can be taken.
Recovery strategies must explain how and what needs to be recovered and with what priority/speed.
The plan development stage will require documentation of the plan and implementation of elements
as required.
Plan buy-in and testing is essential to ensure everyone knows and understands what the BC/DR plan
is, what to do and when.
Plan maintenance and testing is important to ensure it is relevant and that it works.
The core technology vendor
Of course, a SaaS-based TMS provider such as Reval should have a responsibility to its clients to provide DR
as part of the deal, but it is the clients responsibility to know what to do in the event of a disaster. The same
goes for the vendor in consideration of its own operations. Although Revals own IT function co-ordinates
these plans, with guidance from an internal audit operation, ownership is very much accorded to each
business unit. This ensures each is able to identify its own critical systems and operations and to put in
place and test an effective plan so that everyone knows what to do and when in a co-ordinated manner.
Rather than isolating BC/DR processes, Reval tries wherever possible to bring them into its daily
operations. By making them into a second alternative to operating our business and by actually using
that alternative periodically they become ingrained into the collective consciousness of the staff, explains
Pettinato. Once a month or once a week we will operate using our DR platform; this is tied into the
production platform to make sure it is operational. He cites having seen companies build up impressive
DR and BC platforms, test them a couple of times and then forget about them. But it is important to keep
those platforms and procedures up to date and make them part of your operations. If you are using it
regularly you will know it works.
Revals practical BC plan for its own business operations (as distinct from its client operations) allows it to
operate from a number of different offices and even virtually, with staff able to connect remotely if
necessary. It has all of its core infrastructure and systems in professional co-location facilities that offer
redundant power supplies, communications links and so on, and it also replicates all of its data in real-time
using two different data centres connected but situated in geographically diverse locations.
However BC/DR is managed, simply backing up data every day and sending it over the internet to another
location may have been okay a few years ago, but in a world of Big Data and complex analytics, losing a
days worth of data is a big deal for many businesses. Any company that believes it can get away with
running a simple daily backup and restoring from that is clearly running a huge risk, comments Pettinato.
The bank
When cyber disaster strikes, keep calm and carry on would be a suitable adage for treasurers, but it
would be hoped that the banks would play their part in keeping the machine moving. Routine operations
such as making payments and checking cash positions become a serious challenge should a host-to-host
banking platform be unavailable following a major event.
Properly executing, these stages can provide a business with reassurance that it is prepared for the worst.
However, a common problem, says Revals Pettinato is that within a company there is often no clear
ownership of DR. A lot of business operations people including treasury think IT will take care of it, he
notes. Whilst this may be the case, those IT people may not always fully understand how critical each
business operation is. This suggests a lack of co-ordination which, when creating a plan, is unhelpful at
best. Eachbusiness operation is responsible for ensuring it has a clear plan but that does not mean it can
build and execute it on its own, states Pettinato.
Section 9
Whilst third-party system vendors should be included in any BC/DR planning process to ensure they have
the capacity to deliver when they are needed most, they should not be seen as a get out of jail free card.
Asking the right questions of them is an essential part of taking responsibility for DR/BC planning.
Keypoints to raise (and include in any Service Level Agreement) would include: how long will it take to
recover operations following an event (referred to as the Recovery Time Objective), how much data could
potentially be lost (Recovery Point Objective) and the reliability (proven up-time) of the platform.
Banks are cognisant of this fact and in this situation many will advise clients to use the banks online
banking platform as a means of carrying on in the interim. If a client cannot send a file to us, they can go
online to initiate urgent payments, including payroll, says one bank specialist. If a client receives its
banking intra-day and prior-day statements host-to-host, we can put those statements, in the same format,
online as part of a disaster recovery plan.
Section 9
Incorporating mobile solutions into DR/BC planning is sensible but requires preparation. Accessing online
banking requires the right people to have the security credentials and tokens necessary to function but they
also need to know how to execute transactions in an emergency. We recommend our clients test the
process at least annually so that they know how to release manual payments, advises the specialist. It is
also essential to have a process in place to avoid duplication of manual payments that may be contained in
the original files if those files eventually make it through to the bank via the normal channels.
Whilst inclusion of banking in DR plan is crucial, corporates are curiously quiet when it comes to checking the
preparedness of their key partners. There is an expectation nowadays that bank products will conform to BIS
(Bank for International Settlement) principles and stand up to any DR scenario. Rules, such as the minimum
acceptable distance between a banks data centres, exist to give a level of common comfort for clients.
Banks must provide security and demonstrate that they can function whatever happens. To this end, there
is increasing market interest in the sustainability of platforms, business models and processing capabilities.
The industry is also seeing more co-sourcing of technology and more platform investment.
Yet, despite the banks and vendors best efforts to help clients to avoid cyber-attack, or to recover as
swiftly as possible from a cyber-breach, ultimately, the treasurer must take responsibility here. This means
working with all business partners internal and external to ensure that any threat to the companys
finances is minimised. n
TMS: an evolving
landscape
Although treasury management systems are not necessarily part of the new
breed of digital solutions discussed in this Handbook, their importance cannot be
downplayed. Sitting at the heart of the treasury office, the treasury workstation
can be viewed as the conduit through which data flows in and out, acting as a
single source of truth and hubs for all other digital systems to connect to.
Built to fit
A TMS is a dedicated treasury technology solution that vendors claim offers a wide variety of tools that can
be applied to many treasury tasks. The TMS sits at the heart of a treasurers operation collecting data
from a plethora of different sources, processing this data and then outputting it where necessary for both
the treasury and company as a whole, says John Byrne, Managing Director at TMS provider
Salmon Software.
The sheer range of functions that a TMS is able to process is one of the main selling points. Salmon
Softwares offering, for example, has around 120 modules that cover a range of treasury activities including:
cash management, debt and derivatives, forecasting, hedging and risk management. Typically a
corporate would use around 40 or 50 of these modules, depending on their circumstances,
explains Byrne.
This flexibility to customise the TMS using modules has been one of the major developments in the TMS
space of late. Whereas once there was a worry among the corporate community that a TMS was a
relatively monolithic tool, the systems can now be customised to fit. For example, a multinational corporate
would be able to select all the FX modules that they require to carry out cross-border activity. A UK
domestic company on the other hand, with little use for these, can turn these modules off and focus on the
area that better suit its business requirements.
And because corporates dont have to buy the system lock stock and barrel, and many TMSs can now be
delivered via the cloud rather than installed on premise, there are potentially benefits in terms of cost, the
time taken to implement the system, and also the ability to add on modules when business requirements
change instead of having to deploy a new system. The sheer range of functions that a TMS is able to
process, and the increasing flexibility of delivery options, are among the main selling points of such
a workstation.
Another area that TMS vendors have focused heavily on in recent years is interoperability of TMSs
whether it be integration with internal systems, or communicating with an external partys software, such as
TMS functions may include

Cash management cash positions, bank account reconciliation and cash-flow forecasting.
Liquidity management cash pooling, zero-balancing and in-house banking.
Debt management loan portfolios, mortgages and lease finance.
Transaction management deal input, settlement and confirmation.
Deal management of specific instruments money market, securities and derivatives.
Accounts management transaction reporting, accruals and revaluations (eg for hedging).
Security and control audit tracking, workflow management and user access definitions.
Risk management exposure limits, authorisation levels, scenario and sensitivity analysis.
System interfaces with bank systems, dealing systems, market feeds and accounting.
TMS: an evolving landscape
In this Section, we will begin by exploring the differences between a TMS and ERP and then offer some
practical advice for treasurers looking to implement a new treasury workstation.
Section 10
Treasury Management Systems (TMSs) and Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) have been
competing to be the treasurers workstation of choice for well over a decade. Both systems fundamentally
seek to achieve the same goal, improving the work of the treasury function. Yet, both have different
methods of achieving this, offering their own advantages and disadvantages. Making matters worse, there
is the possibility to use both technologies, with spreadsheets also in the mix.
Section 10
a financial institutions e-banking platform. This integration drive should help deliver benefits such as
real-time cash positions and improved forecasting, as well as reducing the error rate from manual inputs.
For many treasurers, an additional tick in the box for the TMS is that the system belongs to the treasury
(unlike a company-wide ERP). For the treasury, owning the solution offers a number of advantages. Firstly,
the treasury will have control over the system and therefore in theory should have more say over when it
is optimal to install updates.
Of course, central sign-off will still be required for this, and budget will need to be allocated to the TMS, but
this should be less cumbersome than an ERP treasury module update. After all, updates to the ERP
treasury module would normally be driven by IT and be bundled into a company-wide package therefore
leaving treasury little say in when this happens. The smaller scale of a TMS upgrade is likely to mean it will
also be cheaper and quicker to achieve.
ERP: the holistic view

Data from consultancy firm Zanders shows that currently 70% of corporates who employ a treasury
workstation use a specialised TMS system. Yet, the data also suggests that there is a drive towards
companies exploring and implementing an ERP treasury module. In 2006, 19% of companies were using
SAP in combination with SAP treasury. In 2014, this number had increased to 40%, says Zanders.
Interestingly though, the driver for this change is not necessarily coming from the treasury department but
from the boardroom.
By its very nature, an ERP system has a wider focus than a specialised TMS, with modules being available
and used across the entire business. As such its treasury module can be seen as a branch of the system
and not the heart of the system itself. While this might sound like a significant disadvantage, this can
actually offer the business a number of benefits as treasury is fully integrated and on the same platform as
the rest of the company helping to facilitate the consistent passage of data. The capabilities that are
provided from a treasury perspective complement the story that the data from the wider finance function
and beyond provides, says Christian Mnich, Director of Solution Management for Treasury Application at
SAP SE. An ERP gives a view of core processes that concern treasury from end-to-end, and allows
companies to better collaborate, identify risks earlier, obtain real-time data and bring all the pieces together
in one place.
In addition, the ability of an ERP treasury module to retrieve information from other modules reduces
integration headaches and ensures that the costs associated with non-ERP TMS platforms, are minimised,
says James Bateman, TMS Architect at SLG Treasury. It also offers executives and internal audit a greater
sense of satisfaction because all the data is being retrieved from a single platform.
The sheer scale and technical complexity of an ERP system means that it has the ability, if supported by the
right advisory and professional services support, to create a best-in-class architecture that can offer the
treasury above and beyond what a standalone TMS can offer. ERP vendors often work on economies of
scale and have an ability to lower cost on the latest technologies a lot faster than non-ERP TMS vendors,
as their TMS platforms are crucial to a wider sales strategy, says Bateman. Concepts that are considered
the Holy Grail for most treasurers such as organisation-wide, real-time cash management views, are only
available on ERP platforms, he notes.
The common consensus, however, is that achieving such an integrated architecture comes at a large cost
and one that the majority of organisations are not able to invest in. SLG Treasurys Bateman contests this
perception and argues that an ERP treasury module project may actually be a cheaper alternative overall.
If a company has already invested in an ERP then installing the treasury module is likely to be a cheaper
option overall. This is because these types of systems are almost always architected to integrate
seamlessly and havent in recent years been layered with the latest open interfacing technologies like
Enterprise Web Services.
For Bateman, the cost of integration post-2008 is an excessively underestimated concept within most TMS
rollouts and often accounts for large over-expenditure, future rework and is something that can potentially
be avoided by leveraging an ERP treasury module crafted on standardised business and
integration processes.
William Ward-Brew
Head of Treasury Operations
We selected this system for a number of reasons, says William Ward-Brew, Head of Treasury
Operations at Anglo American. Aside from it having the functionality we required, the reputation of
the company was a big factor and we wanted to use a vendor with knowledge of the different
markets we worked in and also with other blue chip companies on their books. The financial status
of the vendor was also important due to the consolidation in the TMS industry over the years and
we wanted to ensure our system was committed to and would be developed in the future.
Anglo American did investigate the SAP treasury module after being pointed in that direction by IT,
however, a specialised TMS seemed to be a better fit. There was a lot of reluctance to use the
ERP module because of the experience that some of the team members had had with it before and
this carried a lot of weight towards not selecting it, says Ward-Brew. The project was treasury-led
and we wanted a system that was suitable for treasury needs.
Being suitable for treasury needs extends beyond functionality and also touches on its ability to be
flexible. If you work in a treasury environment where you need to adapt quickly then an ERP
upgrade can take a number of months and will have to incorporate other functions that use it as
well. With a TMS, you can dictate when things get changed, he says. The support offered by the
vendors was another selling point, we wanted our teams across the globe that use the TMS to be
able to obtain regional helpdesk support quickly should they need it and we didnt believe that this
was cost effective with the ERP solution.
For Ward-Brew, there is a place for both systems in the current marketplace. The integration
between the two is getting better and better and now areas such as accounting are seamless, he
says. I still believe that TMS vendors are closer to the treasury market in terms of development
focus and they have built modules to meet the evolving needs of the treasury. Also, for real-time
data, the TMS is a better solution because treasury can determine the flow of information, unlike an
ERP which may be updated periodically based on competing workflow processes across the
business. If the enhanced data flows from the ERP can be integrated into the TMS and vice versa,
then that is a great solution.
System selection and implementation

Having explored the differences between the two systems we will now look at what treasurers need to
consider before selecting and implementing a treasury workstation. We focus on the TMS since this will fall
more squarely under the treasurers remit the choice of ERP is likely to be a broader business decision.
According to David Blair, former corporate treasurer and now Managing Director of Acarate treasury
consultancy, implementing a TMS can, at one extreme, be an exercise in business process reengineering
(BPR) or at the other extreme it can be an exercise in software customisation. The BPR scenario is that
the buyer adapts its processes to the functionality of the TMS. The epitome of this school of thought is the
UK based multinational mining company, Anglo American Plc, installed SunGards AvantGard
Quantum TMS in 2001 to manage its treasury operations, integrating this into SAP the
companys ERP system. The TMS is upgraded regularly every 18 months to two years.
Section 10
Case study
Section 10
view that SAP reflects process best practice, so it is better to adapt treasury processes to SAP rather than
vice-versa.
The customise scenario on the other hand is when the buyer pays to have the software customised to fit
exactly to existing processes. Although this may sound attractive the initial customisation is always
expensive and can be disappointing (leaving the treasury with a maintenance nightmare), says Blair.
Most treasurers will have something in between these two scenarios. So how does treasury decide which
processes can be reengineered and which are immutable? One rule of thumb, Blair notes, is to map the
requirements in terms of external processes in the business. The logic here is that treasury can easily
change internal processes within the department; but may struggle to change wider order-to cash (O2C)
and procure to pay (P2P) processes across the company. This does depend of course on the remit of
treasury, and whether the TMS is pure treasury or a CFO level decision.
For this analysis, external financial and market interfaces are also open to reengineering. For example, if
the TMS has SWIFT connectivity built in, treasury can choose to go multi-bank without disrupting the rest
of the company, likewise for e-FX and confirmation platforms and market data feeds. Regulatory
constraints may create exceptions, however for example, Chinese multinationals will require regulatory
compliance and appropriate market practice from their TMS, notes Blair.
Mapping treasury boundaries

The simplest way to describe immutable processes is to start with the inputs and outputs and then add the
actions that have to happen within treasury in minimal terms, says Blair. Do not forget to include internal
control requirements if the company likes to have eight eyes reviewing FX exposures before hedging, then
a TMS that only handles four eyes will not work. An example description:
Inputs
FX exposure data from subsidiary (input.csv).
Actions
Review input and explain variances.

Model hedge alternatives and agree strategy.
Execute hedges (forwards, NDFs, options).
Outputs
Hedge report to subsidiary (report.csv).

FX risk consolidation to executive committee on dashboard.
IFRS compliant journal entries to ERP.
IFRS compliant revaluations to ERP.
Notice what is not covered in this description, says Blair:
We do not describe processes within treasury because we are willing and able to change them.
We do not provide samples of the Excel sheets we currently use (because we want to free ourselves
from spreadsheet purgatory).
We do not describe our current insanity of calling banks by phone to ask prices (because we are open
to eFX as an escape from operational risk and phone pricing).
We do not provide samples of the FX confirmations that we currently type up manually in Word and fax
to banks (because we are open to electronic confirmation).
Demonstrations
Once you have described the immutable processes, it is best to select the ones that are the least ordinary
and ask vendors to demonstrate how they will cover these needs in their TMS. Since a live demonstration
of an unusual process may be a lot of work for the vendor to set up, select only the processes that are most
unusual and critical for the treasury.
Putting it all together

The techniques Blair has described are not used in isolation. What works well, he says, is a two-phase
approach. Start with an RFI (request for information) exercise based on requirements lists. Invite the
vendors who seem to meet your requirements to give a generic demo which gives you a chance to see the
system and ask follow up questions.
On the basis of the RFI results, you will be able to shortlist the vendors who appear to best meet your
basicrequirements. Scanning an extensive part of the TMS market; but to not waste your own, nor the
vendorstime.
With the shortlisted vendors, you share the immutable process descriptions described above and ask
them to demonstrate how they can cover your needs with their TMS. You can evaluate whether they cover
your needs and also how much added-value their TMS brings to the process for you, Blair concludes. n
Checklist: ten steps that treasurers should take when evaluating their TMS
1. Executive management support
At the outset of the project, it is essential that treasurers should garner the support of executive
management and at least secure their willingness to consider investing in a new treasury
system. Funds allocated to a treasury project may be channelled from investment destined for
core business areas.
This may be difficult to justify, especially if treasury is not a profit centre, but the results of the
TMS assessment process will help to develop a strong business case, particularly from a
compliance and control perspective.
Although the final investment decision may await completion of this business case, executive
managements awareness and interest in the project will do much to persuade other business
areas of its importance.
2. Corporate strategy
Corporate plans for the future should be ascertained and the implications of any merger and
acquisition (M&A) activity or divestment plans should be considered. Are more branches to be
opened or additional subsidiaries likely to join the group? How will these impact treasury
operations? The TMS system must be flexible enough to cope with changes and expansion/
contraction, whether through M&A or organic growth, and accordingly must be easy to
upgrade and replace.
However, it isnt just about the future and other questions should be asked. What is the current
situation? Are there any corporate projects already in progress that may prevent treasury from
achieving its goals or will it be possible to factor in such changes within the scope of the
TMS project?
There will also be differentiation between the live demonstrations. Some may stick to the minimal
requested functionality. This has the merit of keeping the demonstration simple. Others may try to share
what they observe as best practice. This can be a benefit, especially for treasury organisations moving
from Excel to TMS.
Section 10
According to Blair, the demonstration can really set vendors apart. The worst ones will try to get away with
demonstration by PowerPoint, which is not a demonstration at all it is more like promises which may or
may not be fulfilled, and at what cost. The better ones will demonstrate the functionality live on their TMS.
This should highlight any gaps and allow for a realistic assessment of the TMS suitability to
the organisation.
Section 10
3. Information Technology department (IT)

It is important to seek IT participation from the start and invite a designated representative to
join any TMS project discussions. IT will be closely involved in the installation and ongoing
support of a new system (depending on the solution chosen) but faces competing demands
from all areas of the business.
Their early involvement promotes their understanding of treasury requirements whilst giving
them the opportunity to provide expert guidance on the technological details of the TMS
project, eg on integration issues with other business systems and the type of solution to choose
(such as outright purchase, license, application service providers (ASPs) and hosted options).
4. Other departments
Open communication channels should be maintained with all the stakeholders. How will the
implementation or upgrade impact on other departments, such as accounting, legal, audit and
sales? Will their systems be affected? In addition, if those departments are planning their own
internal changes or installing new systems, how will this impact on the TMS project?
5. External relationships
Treasurers should be aware of any issues that may surround the integration of bank reporting
mechanisms, payment systems or other external feeds with a new TMS. It can be helpful to
discuss the TMS project with bank relationship managers as they may be able to provide useful
insight into TMS technology and how it can help specific clients needs.
A TMS project also provides an excellent opportunity to review the use of banking technology
across the organisation to ensure optimum configuration of all treasury technology. Existing
treasury system vendors will, of course, need to be handled sensitively if there is a possibility
they will lose business.
6. Treasury structure
It is important to consider which areas within treasury operations will be impacted by system
changes. This will depend on a treasurys structure decentralised, centralised and/or
in-house bank and on whether payment/collection factories or shared service centres are
used. In a large global operation, it may be necessary for numerous treasury employees to
have web portal access to the TMS.
The project presents a good opportunity to review interaction between head office and
business units. The TMS should provide benefits to the business units through ease of
reporting cash flows, treasury tools and centralised dealing facilities, and head office will
receive more regular and reliable information flows from the business units.
In addition, external influences on treasury should be taken into account. For example, how will
the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) impact on treasury?
7. Treasury employees
Any employees who are likely to be affected by the project should be informed. Where
appropriate, it can be useful to involve them in the assessment process related to their particular
activities (eg helping with workflow analysis). They can provide useful insight into the jobs they
perform. This includes treasury staff at branches and subsidiaries.
A major exercise of this nature puts strain on day-to-day activities. The treasurer should be
clear about the staffing levels necessary to achieve the projects objectives and how this can
be delivered without impacting adversely on daily operations. The employment of temporary
staff as cover should be considered carefully as it is important that knowledge acquired about
the new TMS should remain with the treasury team.
Areas of strength should also be noted as these efficiencies must continue (or even be
improved further) under the new system. The treasurys future plans should also be taken
into account.
9. System integration
The flow of information into and out of the TMS should be assessed. Company expansion
results in a complex mix of systems and technology. Automated links or integration between
the TMS and other systems will be necessary with market feeds (eg Reuters and Bloomberg),
bank systems, dealing systems and accounts payable/receivable. The TMS can also interface
into confirmation matching systems and other software so these options should be considered.
10. Defining TMS requirements
Finally, a definitive list of requirements should be drawn up using the information collated.
These requirements can then be divided into areas of activity or sections within the treasury
department, eg dealing, confirmation, settlement, cash-flow forecasting, treasury control
andrisk management, differentiating between the essentials and the nice-to-haves.
Therequirements definition should also include known or likely future requirements.
TMS systems vary from offering basic cash management and transaction management
functions to tools dealing with complex risk management and more sophisticated investment
instruments. With a clearly defined list of requirements produced from a thorough assessment
process, treasurers are better equipped to evaluate the various systems available in the
marketplace and can have greater confidence in selecting the most appropriate TMS to suit
their business and treasury needs.
The systems and procedures currently in use should be assessed in detail and relevant
documents such as the treasury policy, treasury mission statement, job descriptions and user
manuals should be consulted. Workflow analysis can be undertaken to identify current
inefficiencies, weaknesses and control and security issues that may expose treasury to
greater risk.
Section 10
8. Treasury operations
Listings
The Bloomberg name is recognised by finance professionals globally for market-leading data,
information, news and analytics. For more than 30 years we have developed new products and
software, leading from the front to ensure we deliver what the market needs and what the
market demands.
Bloomberg Treasury and Risk Management (TRM) is the complete corporate treasury solution,
seamlessly delivering all the tools a treasury team requires in a single, out-of-the-box solution that is
ready to be set up and utilised in a matter of weeks.
Bloomberg TRM is supported by knowledgeable and experienced treasury professionals. Our solution
was built to do the job without the need for extensive customisation and configuration. Corporate
treasury teams will benefit from rapid setup and a tangible, positive impact on their day-to-day activities;
shifting from data management and re-keying to a focus on risk and the needs of the business.
Once up and running, users can access Bloombergs renowned 24/7 customer support, to
address needs quickly and ensure Bloomberg TRM is used to its maximum potential.
Bloomberg TRM delivers the tools to enable treasury to add real value all for one price that may
surprise you, from a provider you can trust.
For further information on Bloomberg's Treasury Risk Management solution please contact:
ChrisSeaman, cseaman4@bloomberg.net, +44 20 3525 2980
BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) has a presence in 75 countries with more than 185,000
employees, including 145,000 in Europe. It ranks highly in its two core activities: Retail Banking &
Services (comprised of Domestic Markets and International Financial Services) and Corporate &
Institutional Banking. In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France,Italy and
Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the leader in consumer lending. BNP Paribas
is rolling out its integrated retail banking model across Mediterranean basin countries, in Turkey, in
Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States.
As one of the primary cash management players globally, and the European leader, BNP Paribas has
an unrivalled network of over 220 business centres and 1,700 experienced relationship managers
across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The breadth and depth of its network,
innovative technology, client proximity, and regulatory and cultural expertise enable the bank to design,
deliver and support cohesive solutions worldwide. These capabilities uniquely position BNP Paribas to
meet clients local, regional and global cash management objectives both today and in the future.
To find out more about BNP Paribas solutions and services, please visit:
https://cashmanagement.bnpparibas.com/
Contact:
Anne Dugied
Deputy Head of Communication for Cash Management
anne.dugied@bnpparibas.com
Listings
Bolero International was created by the banking and global logistics industry as a trusted third party
platform to securely exchange data and documentation in support of global trade. Our technology
facilitates digitised trade for all settlement types across all locations between all types of trade
counterparty: buyers, sellers, traders, banks, insurers and logistics service providers.
Our solutions provide the consolidation and visibility of trade finance documents and related
messages, including letters of credit, guarantees, standby LCs and documentary collections
between a corporate and their panel banks. Central to Boleros offering is the ability to help
corporate treasury and finance functions to manage and control their credit lines.
Furthermore, Bolero manages the electronic presentation (ePresentation) of compliant trade
documents from one party to another in a supply chain for open account and LC settlements, with
or without electronic Bills of Lading. As the worlds first electronic Bill of Lading solution approved
by the International Group of P&I Clubs, Bolero paved the way for industry adoption of
ePresentation; with the first transaction under eUCP rules powered across Bolero back in 2010.
Today the platform processes 19,000 payment presentations per month, allowing customers to
manage risk, improve working capital and reduce Days Sales Outstanding.
For more information:

Ian Kerr, CEO
T: +44 (0) 207 759 7079
E: ian.kerr@bolero.net
www.bolero.net
Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) enables our client success by providing an integrated suite
of innovative and tailored cash management and trade finance services to multinational corporations,
financial institutions and public sector organizations across the globe.
With a presence in 95 countries, TTS offers clients access to the largest proprietary network of any
transaction service provider in the world. With banking licenses in over 100 countries, globally
integrated technology platforms and powerful analytics tools, our clients are empowered to be
successful where ever they operate.
Through the power of our network and experience, TTS offers an advisory approach based on
deep market knowledge, giving our clients the ability to transform their treasury and trade
operations and realize their goals today and in the future.
Contact
Michael Guralnick
Global Head, Corporate and Public Sector Sales and Global Marketing,
Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi
Email: michael.guralnick@citi.com
www.citi.com/tts
Listings
DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia, with over 280 branches across 18 markets.
Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS has a growing presence in the three key Asian axes of
growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The banks capital position, as well as
AA- and Aa1 credit ratings, is among the highest in Asia-Pacific. DBS has been recognised for
its leadership in the region, having been named Asias Best Bank by The Banker, a member of the
Financial Times group, and Best Bank in Asia-Pacific by Global Finance. The bank has also been
named Safest Bank in Asia by Global Finance for six consecutive years from 2009 to 2014.
Serving a full range of clients from multi-national corporates (MNCs) to small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs), DBS Global Transaction Services provide the full range of products and
services focusing on cash management, trade finance, supply chain finance, and securities and
fiduciary services. With a strong network of offices in Asia, coupled with dedicated on-the-ground
expertise in industry specialisations such as telecommunication, shipping, aviation, energy,
chemical, infrastructure, real estate and commodities, DBS is well-positioned to support our clients
commercial banking needs.
Contact
John Laurens
Global Head of Transaction Services, DBS Bank
johnlaurens@dbs.com
From capital markets data to deep market analysis, from unique views of credit risk to direct access
to FX liquidity and streamlining the KYC process, Thomson Reuters offers the Corporate Treasury
professional a comprehensive set of tools, the best market information, rates and news in the
industry for an effortless view and analysis of the financial markets for effective decision making.
Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of intelligent information for businesses and
professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical
information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting,
intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the worlds most trusted
news organization.
For more information on how to stay ahead in Corporate Treasury, go to:

financial.thomsonreuters.com/corporate-treasury
Email: treasury@thomsonreuters.com
Our app is now available free from the app stores
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BEST PRACTICE HANDBOOK

THE TREASURERS GUIDE

ATLAS : YOUR TRANSACTION BANKING ADVISOR

+44 (0)13 0462 9000

Annual Subscription Rate 285

Treasury Today ISSN 1478-8357

treasurytoday The Treasurers Guide to Digitisation 2015 | 1

6. BIG DATA AND ENHANCED ANALYTICS

A new generation of portals

4. DIGITISATION OF TRADE DOCUMENTS

Cant let go?

5. ISO 20022: THE WIDER APPLICATION

The SEPA factor

Technology as the enabler

A single version of the truth

Dont forget the humans

How do cryptocurrencies work?

Some big barriers

Regulating the unknown

Meet the coins

8. THE FINTECH REVOLUTION

The death of cash?

9. CYBER SECURITY: BE PREPARED

Types of cyber threat

Who might attack you?

Mobile security: top tips

Business continuity in a digital world

10. TMS: AN EVOLVING LANDSCAPE

TMS functions may include

ERP: the holistic view

System selection and implementation

Mapping treasury boundaries

INTERVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES

Liquidity Management Marketing Manager

Head of Global Transaction Services

Global Corporate Treasury Business Manager

Head of Market Development, FX,

Head of Electronic Banking Channels

Corporate Treasurer, Lenovo, Singapore

eBAM Product Manager

Assistant Treasurer, Vodafone

Regional Cash Product Head, Asia Pacific,

Big Data checklist

Fending off cyber threats

Ten steps that treasurers should take when

treasurytoday The Treasurers Guide to Digitisation 2015 | 3

How is digitisation changing the role of the treasurer?

Treasury in the digital age

Leveraging Big Data

Driving straight through processing

Treasury on the move

The dangers of digitisation

Driving the digital agenda

Treasury in the digital age

Adoption of digitisation by treasurers therefore cannot be viewed through a narrow lens.

Technology for all?

The app advantage

Apps for the corporate treasurer

8 | treasurytoday The Treasurers Guide to Digitisation 2015

iSpreadsheet (iOS, free) or Google Sheets (Android and iOS, free)

Bloomberg Business (iOS and Android, free)

treasurytoday The Treasurers Guide to Digitisation 2015 | 9

Treasury in the digital age

treasurytoday The Treasurers Guide to Digitisation 2015 | 11

A new generation of portals

Cant let go?

The SEPA factor

Technology as the enabler

A single version of the truth

Dont forget the humans

How do cryptocurrencies work?

Some big barriers

Regulating the unknown

Meet the coins

The death of cash?

Types of cyber threat

Who might attack you?

Mobile security: top tips

Business continuity in a digital world

TMS functions may include

ERP: the holistic view

System selection and implementation

Mapping treasury boundaries

Big Data checklist

Fending off cyber threats