FXRegional
July 14, 2022

Righting the FX Hedging Ship After a Perfect Storm

Lessons learned and changes made after a plunge in JPY reveals cracks in communication and processes. The plunge of the Japanese yen (JPY) this year to its lowest level against the US dollar in more than two decades (see chart) revealed communication problems at one NeuGroup member company between FX risk managers in treasury and the sales team in Japan—problems that could have resulted in a painful financial outcome. Instead, the company’s treasurer came away with valuable lessons for any…
FX
July 14, 2022

Reducing FX Risk: The AtlasFX Vision

AtlasFX CFO Scott Bilter discusses the implications of a possible commodity bull market for FX risk managers in an interview with NeuGroup CEO Joseph Neu. Managing foreign exchange risk at multinational corporations is never easy. But it’s definitely harder during periods of market volatility and economic uncertainty—like the one roiling FX markets now. Among the recent challenges facing NeuGroup members who manage FX risk: The US dollar has soared against the euro and the Japanese yen as the Federal Reserve…
FXTalking Shop
May 26, 2022

Talking Shop: What Is Your Hedge Horizon?

Editor’s note: NeuGroup’s online communities provide members a forum to pose questions and give answers. Talking Shop shares valuable insights from these exchanges, anonymously. Send us your responses: [email protected]. Member question: “For Neugroup members with an FX cash flow hedging program, what is your hedge horizon? “For context, we hedge up to two years and we’re looking to revise that horizon (potentially up to three years) in our FX policy.“Last, what determines your hedge horizon (e.g., budget cycle, product development cycle, contracts,…
FXSenior Executive
May 5, 2022

Sharpen the Focus: Fostering More Productive FX Meetings

Approaches to more productive meetings include highlighting world events, more detailed program updates and updating dashboards. After a recent quarterly risk meeting, a senior leader gave this advice to one FX risk manager to improve the productivity of future meetings: Highlight only new developments and events, come with any specific asks and leave anything else to pre-meeting reading materials. Up to this point, much of the two-hour meetings consisted of a comprehensive update on everything the FX team had done…
FXTechnology
April 27, 2022

AtlasFX: Empowering FX Data Masters

Scott Bilter, CFO of AtlasFX, discusses how the company’s platform helps corporates manage currency risk in an interview with NeuGroup founder and CEO Joseph Neu. At a recent NeuGroup meeting, FX risk managers compared notes on which systems and technology they use to identify currency exposures and reduce risk. One member said that after weighing several options, his company picked AtlasFX, in part because its founders—Jonathan Tunney, Gavin O’Donoghue and Scott Bilter—impressed him with their subject matter expertise about FX…
FXSenior Executive
March 24, 2022

Turn Down the Volume: Cutting Through ‘Noise’ in FX Hedging

NeuGroup members share their common sources of unexpected volatility in cash flow and balance sheet hedging programs.One goal of a foreign exchange hedging program, one FX risk manager said at a recent NeuGroup meeting, is to minimize the risk that senior executives will face questions during quarterly earnings calls about the impact of currency on results. But uncertainty sparked by global issues like the war in Ukraine, inflation and fallout from the pandemic means this isn’t always possible. Those issues…
FXTechnology
March 17, 2022

Assembly Required: Closing Loops by Building Automations

One member, challenged to create a solution without external resources, automated FX processes through in-house ‘citizen developers.’While a TMS can offer an integrated treasury technology solution, no single system can support the full range of automation requirements. In the case of one fast-growing, high-tech NeuGroup member company, the deficits surfaced in the area of FX transaction management and reporting. Faced with a need to improve the process, shorten cycle time and reduce cost with no additional resources, the company decided to…
FXTalking Shop
January 12, 2022

Talking Shop: Hedging Cyclical Currencies

Editor’s note: NeuGroup’s online communities provide members a forum to pose questions and give answers. Talking Shop shares valuable insights from these exchanges, anonymously. Send us your responses: [email protected]. Member question: “When deciding on whether to hedge a currency, do you take into account whether the currency is cyclical or not? “I think that there is a stronger case to hedge a monetary asset in a cyclical currency, such as the Brazilian real (BRL), that tends to appreciate when the economy…
FXTechnology
November 10, 2021

Training for Treasury’s Tech Future With Coding Boot Camps

Treasurers are moving to familiarize their teams with computer programming, some by enlisting members in coding boot camps.A growing number of treasurers are pushing their teams to learn computer programing skills as they seek to improve metrics like forecasting accuracy, gain access to more powerful processing and minimize their dependence on IT teams and third-party solutions. At a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Foreign Exchange 2, members discussed their approaches, from large-scale internal classes to sending team members to online…
FXTechnology
November 3, 2021

Google’s Treasury Transformation Search Results: Teaming up With SAP

Google’s co-innovation of treasury solutions that work with SAP S/4HANA could benefit other corporates.Google’s frustrations with building its own customized treasury tools to enhance its ERP ultimately pushed the company to abandon that strategy. Today, it’s using standardized solutions it co-created with SAP that are now built into its cloud-based S/4HANA platform. Among the beneficiaries: other corporates that use S/4HANA that can make use of tools Google helped innovate. Over a two-year implementation of SAP that Google called Project Emerald,…