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Technology

FXTechnology
September 21, 2020

Risk Managers Face an Inflection Point Without a Clear Direction

Key takeaways from the FX Managers’ Peer Group 2 2020 H2 Meeting, sponsored by Societe Generale.   By Joseph Neu  NeuGroup’s second-half meeting season got off to a great start with the FX Managers’ Peer Group 2 last week. Here are some key takeaways:We are at an inflection point, but to what? It feels like we are at an inflection point that requires MNCs to adjust their FX hedging. The reasons include the economic impact of Covid-19 on business, early crisis concerns about liquidity pushing out liabilities, unprecedented monetary intervention…
Joseph Neu
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COVID-19TechnologyTreasury Management
September 8, 2020

Post-Labor Day Rethink: Reinventing Finance Teams and Redefining the Office

How should corporate finance and treasury roles adjust to extended remote work and further delay of in-person team interaction? By Joseph Neu NeuGroup exchanges with members about team (aka labor) performance during the Covid-19-induced work from home (WFH) period have been generally positive. Productivity has been good, even up, as team members take back time lost to commuting as they give up spontaneous communication and collaborative teaching moments.Sustainability is a concern, though, as WFH requires balancing work and home priorities…
Justin Jones
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Risk ManagementTechnology
August 27, 2020

Blockchain’s Increasing Popularity Raises Internal Control Issues

Applying the COSO framework addresses risks but raises some new ones. Despite its mysterious origins, distributed ledger technology (DLT) is increasingly viewed by companies as vital to remain competitive. From an internal control (IC) standpoint, the technology has significant potential to reduce risk and improve efficiency but also introduces new risks, prompting a recently published report on how to apply the leading IC framework when adopting DLT, also referred to as blockchain. “We wanted to put this guidance out there…
Justin Jones
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TaxTechnology
August 25, 2020

Saving Time in Brazil: Automating Tax Payments Speeds Product Delivery

A fintech helps a corporate cut hours on tax payments, allowing faster delivery and freeing up staff.  The first thing a treasury professional learns about business realities in Brazil is that there are a lot of taxes and they take many hours to process. The space is ripe for disruption, and a fintech called Dootax is doing just that.   At a recent meeting of NeuGroup’s LatAm Treasury Peer Group, a member from a megacap multinational shared the progress of…
Justin Jones
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Cash & Working CapitalTechnology
August 20, 2020

Smart Move: Deploying Artificial Intelligence to Manage Cash as Inventory

A member’s quest to improve cash visibility begins to bear fruit just as the crisis hits. “When there is a crisis, treasury becomes very important,” a member of the European Treasury Peer Group said at a recent meeting where he and a colleague shared their progress on a project to improve cash forecasting, in part by viewing cash as inventory to be optimized. Cash forecasting, a critical concern for treasury teams at all times, is especially important amid the extreme…
Justin Jones
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TechnologyTreasury Management
August 18, 2020

Paying Employees On Demand Brings Both Benefits and Risks to Corporates

The gig economy and the pandemic are boosting interest in pay solutions that may present legal and regulatory issues.The pandemic and the gig economy are prompting traditional employers to explore their options for so-called on-demand pay services that put money in the hands of workers when they need it most. US Bank laid out the benefits and potential complications for corporates of some of these solutions at a recent meeting of the NeuGroup for Retail Treasury. Some basic background: Today’s…
Antony Michels
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BankingCash & Working CapitalTechnology
August 18, 2020

Turning to Kyriba for Payments Helped One Treasury Centralize Operations

The benefits of using one TMS for treasury payments and retiring a homebuilt infrastructure. One member of NeuGroup’s Global Cash and Banking Group recently shared the benefits of using Kyriba as a payment factory that handles about 85% of his company’s treasury payments. The advantages boil down to saving time while improving controls, oversight, visibility and efficiency, he said.Ultimate goal. The treasury director said his company used Kyriba as a tool to achieve the primary goal of centralizing treasury operations…
Antony Michels
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Cash & Working CapitalTechnology
August 13, 2020

DIY: Improved Cash Forecasting and Visibility With In-house Tools

A cash awareness culture results in better forecasting of future flows to support growth.Young tech companies thriving in the latter stages of a multi-year economic expansion when many investors had lots of cash to deploy can be forgiven for not always demonstrating disciplined cash preservation. “We are cash rich and our culture is not sensitive to cash,” as one member put it during a discussion of cash positioning and forecasting at a recent meeting of the Tech20 High Growth Edition.But…
Antony Michels
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FXTechnology
August 13, 2020

Automating FX Trades: How Heavy a Lift?

Key takeaways from 360T from a NeuGroup Virtual Interactive Session Earlier this summer, technology provider 360T discussed some of the benefits of automating FX trades at a Virtual Interactive Session for NeuGroup members called “Demystifying Automated Trading Across the Trade Lifecycle.” Following are some takeaways as distilled by 360T about the technology lift involved in automating workflows and trade execution. Although some of the treasurers expressed optimism that automated trading solutions could help improve their FX workflow and execution, there was…
Antony Michels
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BankingTechnology
August 11, 2020

Virtual Accounts Help Treasury and Accounting Bridge Multiple ERPs 

The advantages of using virtual accounts for accounting and reconciliation across ERPs.A member at a recent NeuGroup meeting described his company’s pilot initiatives with its primary transaction banks in Europe to roll out virtual accounts (VAs). Treasury is doing the projects in partnership with accounting which are aimed at reducing the all-in cost of account reconciliation, cash application and account maintenance (estmated by the member at about $4,000 per account) while also improving liquidity access and management. Tangible benefits. The…
Antony Michels
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