Online Solutions
The Financial Industry continues to undergo profound changes to keep up with the
needs of their business clients. The most dramatic changes still to come involves
payment systems as globalization of supply chains and markets charges on. The typical
business is already demanding quick and easy access to their money around the clock;
the next prerequisite will be the ability to manage their business in a global economy.
Foreign exchange and payments has traditionally been a mediocre service offered
by Banks hence the large volume of corporate foreign exchange transacted by foreign
exchange firms who can better service clients with better pricing, better service
and even quicker means to send and receive money. Volatility in different currency
markets mean that businesses rely on the expertise of Financial Institutions to
help them manage their foreign exchange risk and assist their hedging strategy.
Financial Institutions, Banks and Credit Unions of all sizes have to offer online
portals and internet platforms to keep up with the competition. Traditional web
platforms aim at only functionality that is either oriented to service simple needs
such as balance reporting and domestic bill payments or makes an inadequate attempt
to provide foreign exchange and global payment functionality. International payments
are still a time consuming process for many businesses as is currency risk management.
With the pressure of globalization, businesses are going to require comprehensive
tools to help them effectively manage their foreign currency payables and receivables.
Reducing the onerous operations of handling international payments and other treasury
functions is essential. Therefore, for Financial Institutions to remain competitive,
they need to offer online international and domestic payment platforms that speed
up payment delivery time, reduce errors and communicate with their beneficiaries.
Businesses will also require their foreign exchange partner to offer them the tools
to effectively manage forex risk via hedging strategies as there is increasing awareness
of the need to take a proactive approach to protect profit margins from currency
fluctuations and perhaps even increasing currency assets. Offering robust online
foreign exchange to corporations can propel a Financial Institution’s competitive
edge. This competitive edge can be exponential if the foreign exchange and payments
platform work in a cohesive manner, the platform easy-to-use and intuitively provides
management reporting and transaction tracking – these attributes are surprisingly
rare. Ultimately, the competitive landscape is going to change rapidly as large
Banks continue to gear up, evolve and invest to increase the offering to corporate
clients. Small and medium size financial institutions are nimble and have an enormous
opportunity to do what the large Banks are trying to do – except better.
The Solution: Datasoft FxOffice.Net
FxOffice.Net addresses specific challenges facing firms looking to offer foreign
exchange and payments platform online. Client service differentiation is delivered
by FxOffice.Net’s powerful breadth of functionality in a single robust platform.
It offers best of breed foreign exchange functionality in addition to payments and
receivable management to fulfill the needs of corporate treasury. Balance reporting,
statements and approvals are integrated into one easy to use platform. To successfully
respond to market drivers, Financial Institutions can deliver the following capabilities
to their clients:
- The ability to accept foreign exchange deals and orders through various channels
FxOffice.Net will provide the ability to books spot, forward and option dated transactions
online. The tight integration to the core system means your traders and sales staff
can still provide the human touch either via telephone transaction or instant messaging
online. Moreover, the intuitive integration to payments and settlements allow your
clients to use the platform with ease.
- Flexibility in Funding, Settlement and Order Fulfillment
Your customers will have a choice of when and how to execute the various stages
of a foreign exchange transaction. The platform will allow for manual payments and
settlements either via cheque, bank draft or other guaranteed instruments or electronically
via EFT transfers, SWIFT payments or direct debits. A single foreign exchange order
can accommodate multiple payment and settlement scenarios which is especially helpful
for clients that need to manage multiple global vendors or customers. The client
is connected to the global economy via SWIFT, EFT, ACH, ABA, IBAN, SEPA and other
common or proprietary networks.
- Limitless Pricing Management
FxOffice.Net provides an elaborate real-time request for quote (RFQ) functionality
allowing you to price your client in real-time with an enormous amount of flexibility
and control. The system supports limitless pricing scenarios by client tier, client,
currency pair, deal type and more. In addition, during volatility or peak trading,
the platform offers buffer pricing to allow you to take advantage of volatile currency
markets and pad revenues. During times of dangerous volatility, the platform can
instantly suspend trading.
In all cases manual trader intervention allows your sales management team to ensure
the human service touch is still present. Often, high value clients will interact
with their sales executive via instant messaging and or manual pricing. At the same
time, your client can request trader intervention on demand.
- Risk Management
FxOffice.Net extents currency risk management tools to your client’s fingertips.
Your client will have access to a real-time deal blotter and have the ability to
book or modify orders for example stop-loss, take-profit or other advanced linked
orders. All trading activity is made visible in an intelligent format making it
easy to action treasury or net exposure decisions.
FxOffice.Net provides credit management tools online where all deals and orders
can be viewed in net present value using real-time mark-to-market tools. Extensive
reporting is provided to make transparent net present value of transactions and
currency deposits making margin management (or collateral management) efficient
and easy.
Operational risk management is extended to the super-user of each client through
permit controls, limits and approvals.
- Higher Level of Client Convenience
FxOffice.Net is equipped with commonly required functionality such as balance reporting,
account statements, dealing statements and an array management reporting. In addition,
the platform will allow your client to initiate domestic or global payments, inter-account
transfers, manage recurring payees and more. Offering your client 24 X 7 service
is easy.
- Operations Efficiency
FxOffice.Net is fully integrated and eliminates the erosion of profit margins seen
in firms operating silos of software and inadequate systems. Customer facing tasks
and staff tasks are minimized through business modeling on a single cohesive real-time
platform. From inventory management, to confirmations and payment interfaces, FxOffice.Net
gives you unparalleled integration allowing you to be nimble and competitively advantaged.
- Regulatory Compliance
Anti-money laundering regulations have country-specific requirements especially
for non-face-to-face transactions and customer identification. FxOffice.Net’s integration
with the compliance core allows higher level of convenience to your clients and the
resulting efficiency transforms regulatory compliance into a client retention tool.
Client identification, risk scoring and black-list name searching and other regulations
are handled and directly implemented using FXOffice’s compliance module.
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