Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles have become increasingly important in the financial services industry, including payment solutions. Here are some ways ESG solutions brings value to payment solutions
1. Reducing costs and energy footprints: ESG principles can help reduce costs in the payments ecosystem. For instance, digital payment solutions can eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and paperwork, reduce energy consumption and waste. Technology solutions such as the use of tokens can foster a pathway towards a low carbon economy, by reducing the carbon footprint of cross boarder payments
2. Financial Inclusion: Many fintech projects are socially oriented, solving financial problems for previously excluded citizens from banking systems. Inclusion of more people into a national financial system gives them more credit and investment opportunities, generating more profit for both customers and payment provider.
3. Other social impacts: implementation of certain solutions such as tokenization using blockchain technology can improve ESG systems by providing a more transparent and secure method of recording transactions and flow processes.
4. Regulatory compliance: in today’s ever increase demand for compliance to various regulatory bodies, implementation of technological solutions can help to reduce the burden of data collection and reporting while maintaining the necessary transparency. Importantly, steps to meet for e.g. carbon footprint reduction while implementing automation solutions.
Payments
The payments industry is constantly evolving, with new technologies and innovations emerging, such as digital & contactless payments, peer-to-peer payments, and blockchain-based payment systems. As the world becomes increasingly digital, the payments landscape will continue to evolve, offering new opportunities for banks, fintechs, businesses and consumers alike. With deep expertise in Payments, Finsight can help advise on
Payment strategy and innovation
Help clients develop and execute payment strategies that align with their business goals. Identifying new payment trends and technologies, developing product roadmaps, and evaluating partnerships and acquisitions.
Payment processing and operations
Advise clients on payment processing and operations, including payment gateway integration, fraud prevention, transaction reconciliation, and chargeback management.
Regulation and compliance
Help clients navigate the complex regulatory landscape of the payments industry, including compliance with data privacy laws, anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, and payment card industry (PCI) standards.
Digital payments and mobile wallets
Assist clients in developing and launching digital payment solutions and mobile wallet apps. This could involve evaluating existing solutions, identifying new market opportunities, and developing go-to-market strategies.
Cross-border payments
Advise clients on the complexities of cross-border payments, including currency conversion, regulatory compliance, and managing risk.
Merchant services
Provide expertise in merchant services, including payment acceptance, terminal solutions, and merchant acquiring.
Payment security
Help clients implement and maintain payment security measures, including tokenization, encryption, and multifactor authentication.
Analytics and insights
Leverage data and analytics to provide insights into payment trends and consumer behavior. This could involve developing custom dashboards, conducting market research, and analyzing transaction data.
Cash Management
Effective cash management is critical to the financial health of a company, as it ensures that the company has sufficient cash on hand to meet its obligations and take advantage of growth opportunities. Cash management has become increasingly complex in recent years due to a number of factors, including globalization, the proliferation of payment options,move towards digital payments and changing regulatory requirements. Companies must navigate a complex landscape of cash management options, including bank accounts, payment systems, and investment vehicles, while also managing risks such as fraud, interest rate fluctuations, and foreign exchange exposure. With deep, on-the-ground experience of leading multi-billion dollar cash management businesses, Finsight can help advise clients on:
Liquidity management
Help clients optimize their cash positions and manage their liquidity needs. This could involve developing cash forecasting models, identifying cash pools, and implementing cash concentration structures.
Payment and collection services
Advise clients on payment and collection services, such as lockbox services, electronic funds transfer (EFT), and remote deposit capture (RDC).
Working capital optimization
Assist clients in improving their working capital management by optimizing their accounts receivable and accounts payable processes, and by implementing working capital financing solutions.
Cash forecasting and analytics
Provide expertise in cash forecasting and analytics, including data analysis, trend analysis, and scenario planning.
Bank relationship management
Help clients manage their relationships with banks and other financial institutions, including negotiating pricing and service agreements, and evaluating bank services and products. Rationalisation of bank relationships and optimizing the number and structure of bank accounts.
Cash flow risk management
Advise clients on cash flow risk management strategies, including interest rate risk management, foreign exchange risk management, and commodity price risk management.
Treasury technology and automation
Assist clients in implementing treasury management systems (TMS) and other technology solutions to improve their cash management processes and increase efficiency.
Regulatory compliance
Help clients navigate the regulatory landscape of the cash management industry, including compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations, know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, and other regulatory requirements.
Treasury Services
Treasury services are crucial for corporates to manage their cash, liquidity, and financial risks effectively. With the increasing complexity of financial markets and the growing importance of data analytics and digitalization, there is a trend towards more sophisticated treasury solutions that leverage artificial intelligence, blockchain, and other emerging technologies. As the business environment becomes more unpredictable and volatile, treasury services will continue to play a critical role in helping corporates navigate financial risks and achieve their strategic objectives. Finsight specializes in helping clients optimize their treasury operations by providing strategic advisory on
Cash Management
help clients improve their cash management processes by identifying inefficiencies and implementing best practices. Analyzing the company's cash flow patterns, optimizing cash concentration structures, and developing effective cash forecasting and reporting systems.
Payment Services
advise clients to optimize their payment processes by identifying opportunities to streamline payment flows, reduce transaction costs, and improve payment security. Assessing the company's payment needs, selecting the most appropriate payment methods, and implementing payment automation solutions.
Liquidity Management
help clients optimize their liquidity management processes by developing effective cash positioning strategies, identifying opportunities to reduce idle cash, and implementing cash pooling and sweeping solutions. Assessing the company's liquidity needs, identifying sources of liquidity, and developing effective liquidity forecasting and reporting systems.
Foreign Exchange (FX) Services
help clients manage their FX risk by developing effective hedging strategies, optimizing FX execution processes, and managing FX exposure. Assessing the company's FX risk profile, identifying the most appropriate hedging instruments, and implementing effective risk management processes.
Trade Finance
help clients optimize their trade finance processes by identifying and selecting the most appropriate financing and risk mitigation solutions, negotiating better terms with banks and other financial institutions, and improving trade finance operations. Assessing the company's trade finance needs, identifying the most appropriate financing and risk mitigation solutions, and developing effective trade finance processes.
Global Markets
The world of Global Markets impacts each and every one of us – Business Banking, Wealth, Multi-national clients, Financial Institutions and Custody clients. It involves managing various aspects of the balance sheet and business flows in trade and payments. Risk management on the assets and liabilities that a balance sheet has. And managing the cash flows and exposures arising for the overseas and domestic payments & collections. Finsight can help clients
- Assist in identifying, managing and finding solutions for the risks in the balance sheet and cross border business.
- Assemble the efficient and cost effective solutions in the management and hedging of the requirements.
- Finding the most agile and adaptive hybrid of digital and personal involvement.
- Finding the right products in managing these risks in rates (Interest Rate and/or Currency Swaps), foreign exchange (Spot, FX Forwards and FX Options) depending on the size and sophistication of the company/institution.
Foreign Exchange (FX)
Foreign Exchange (FX) is the conversion of one country's currency into another (mostly to or from the home currency). It can arise from multiple transaction types – imports/exports, remittances, foreign currency loans, equity & investment flows, balance sheet management. FX is probably the biggest risk to manage for clients who have cross border businesses. The biggest pain points are –
- Is the firm getting the best and a transparent pricing?
- Is there a process in place to manage the risks and the access to the products to do so?
Finsight can help clients:
- Find the best process and products to manage the foreign exchange risk and payments.
- Find the best mix of products (Spot, FX Forwards, FX Options) that align to the objectives and their sophistication.
- Using the most effective digital and automated propositions that help provide a seamless and transparent solution with minimal manual intervention.
Working Capital
Effective management of working capital is critical to maintaining a company's financial health and achieving sustainable growth. Treasury services play a crucial role in working capital management, by providing solutions to optimize cash flow, reduce payment processing times, and improve liquidity. You can improve your working capital management by leveraging on data analytics and AI to improve cash forecasting accuracy, digitizing payment processes to reduce manual errors and improve efficiency, and leveraging blockchain technology to improve supply chain finance and trade finance operations. As businesses continue to face economic uncertainty and volatility, effective working capital management will remain a key priority, and Finsight can help by providing you advisory in the following areas
Accounts receivables
Improve collections by setting credit limits, payment terms and procedures for customers. Implement an effective credit and collections policy, identifying opportunities to improve invoice processing and collections, and implementing automated solutions to improve efficiency.
Accounts payables
Extend payment terms by negotiating with suppliers, implementing best practices for vendor management, invoice processing, and payment processing. Implementing an efficient AP automation system.
Cash management
Improve cash forecasting and cash concentration to optimize cash balances. Utilize cash pooling arrangements and sweeping facilities.
Financing
Explore alternative working capital financing options like factoring, invoice discounting and supply chain finance programs to release trapped capital.
Processes
Streamline order-to-cash and procure-to-pay processes by automating manual tasks and standardizing procedures. Reduce process cycle times.
Analytics
Leverage working capital data and metrics to identify areas of improvement and monitor performance. Use advanced tools like AI and ML.
Transaction Banking
The rise of digital technologies has enabled banks to offer more efficient and streamlined transaction banking services, including online banking platforms and mobile apps. Transaction banking is a highly competitive space, and to succeed in this space, banks need to offer innovative and tailored solutions to meet the specific needs of their clients, while also providing excellent customer service and competitive pricing. With extensive experience in Transaction banking, Finsight can help advise in several areas including
Cash Management
help clients improve their cash management processes by identifying inefficiencies and implementing best practices. Analyzing the company's cash flow patterns, optimizing cash concentration structures, and developing effective cash forecasting and reporting systems.
Payment Services
advise clients to optimize their payment processes by identifying opportunities to streamline payment flows, reduce transaction costs, and improve payment security. Assessing the company's payment needs, selecting the most appropriate payment methods, and implementing payment automation solutions.
Trade Finance
help corporate clients optimize their trade finance operations by identifying the most appropriate financing and risk mitigation solutions, negotiating better terms with banks and other financial institutions, and improving trade finance operations. Help banks transform their Trade Finance operations by implementing advanced Trade platforms adopting latest technology and pivoting to automation / streamlining of legacy processes.
Treasury Management
help clients optimize their treasury operations by developing effective treasury management strategies, identifying opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency, and implementing best practices. Assessing the company's treasury needs, identifying the most appropriate treasury management solutions, and developing effective treasury reporting and monitoring systems.
Digital Transformation
help clients leverage technology and digital solutions to improve their transaction banking operations. Assessing the company's digital maturity, identifying opportunities to digitize payment and cash management processes, and implementing emerging technologies such as blockchain, AI, and machine learning to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance security.
Digital Assets
Digital assets are anything in digital forms, possessing value and having an owner. They can act as a medium of exchange or a unit of account and operate as a real currency under specific circumstances. The most well known digital assets are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), Stablecoins, Crypto currencies and even Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs). It is rapidly becoming a very acceptable and used form of asset investment and part of the payment chain – domestic and cross border. It does need to help solve for multiple nuances on security, data privacy, volatility and associated risks and dependence of digital ledger technology. Finsight can help clients
- Identify the new age requirements and use of the digital assets in their world as they become more embedded into the cross border (and domestic) payments world.
- Finding the right digital/automation solution(s) to ensure these are embedded in their payments channels.
Treasury Transformation
As corporate treasuries deal with increasing volumes of transactions, complex regulations and global operations, there is a need to overhaul outdated systems, processes and technologies. The key benefits of a successful treasury transformation include reduced working capital, lower financing costs, better compliance and risk management, improved decision making through real-time data visibility, and lower operational costs. However, transformation requires a holistic approach, changes to people, processes and technology, and buy-in from all stakeholders. Finsight can help guide treasury teams through transformation by conducting assessments, developing roadmaps, and implementing and integrating solutions that cover various aspects of the treasury function
Cash Management
Optimize short term cash positions and balances using tools like cash pooling, zero balancing accounts, and notional pooling. Improve cash forecasting accuracy.
Risk Management
Implement treasury risk management practices like currency hedging, interest rate hedging, and counterparty risk management to protect the business from financial risks.
Cash Visibility
Consolidate bank account information across subsidiaries onto a centralized treasury system for better visibility and control of cash.
Automation
Streamline treasury processes using tools like ERP integration, API banking, eBAM to automate manual tasks and data entry. Reduce error rates.
Financing
Negotiate optimal financing options for the business, e.g. trade finance, working capital loans, borrowing facilities from banks. Manage debt effectively.
Organization
Review treasury structure and resources to determine if more centralization or decentralization is needed. Align incentives.
Technology
Implement new technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence and cloud-based systems to improve efficiencies and capabilities of the treasury function.
Reporting
Provide real time visibility into treasury KPIs and metrics through standardized reports, scorecards and dashboards for management.
Policies
Review and update treasury policies on areas like investment guidelines, hedging strategy, counterparty risk management etc. Ensure compliance.
People
Develop skills and competencies of treasury staff through targeted training programs. Improve employee satisfaction.