Corporate treasurers need to have the right systems in place to ensure that work isn’t critically disrupted, especially during times of crisis
Fides Treasury Services Ltd. has been busy helping its clients around the world stay connected to all of their banks and payment providers, increasing cash visibility and helping to ensure business continuity.
The multibank connectivity company, which helps more than 3,500 clients communicate with over 13,000 banks and payment providers across 200 countries, onboarded and extended a total of 97 implementations during the first half of 2020. Net-new customers include Starwood Capital Group, Boston Consulting Group, ABB Switzerland, EasyJet, Breitling, RUAG, Swisscard, and ICE Benelux.
Managing multiple banks and accounts – sometimes hundreds – has always been challenging. Throw in unplanned remote work and the resulting need for remote access to centralised systems, and then add supply chain disruption and potential liquidity issues, and you have a situation which is daunting for the most technologically advanced of corporates. For those still reliant upon spreadsheets, it’s even worse.
Spreadsheets are time-consuming, error-prone, and simply not designed for a decentralised or distributed environment. The odds of versioning issues, or of data being overwritten by mistake on shared files, are high.
Further barring the way to real-time cash visibility, file formats vary from bank to bank, requiring data to be converted for successful transaction processing and leading to significant lag time. And without the ability to obtain bank account data in real-time, treasurers cannot readily analyse cash positions, initiate transactions, or accurately forecast cash flow. In a time when liquidity management is vital, this could make or break an organisation.
Fides Head of Client Relations Simon Kaufmann says that the company’s goal is to simplify the lives of treasury and finance professionals, even more so during these challenging times.
“Corporate treasurers have enough to worry about without also having to be concerned about their bank transactions,” Kaufmann says. “Fides aggregates, validates, and standardises transaction data, effectively providing a one-stop shop for clients.”
Fides recently released a new and enhanced version of its Multibanking Suite, which allows clients to centralise their bank accounts and easily make payments to anywhere in the world through an intuitive SaaS interface. Customers can also choose to integrate Fides solutions with the ERP or TMS of their choice.
In addition to the critical multibank account statement, payment workflow and reporting capabilities that Fides provides for treasury and finance teams, in the upcoming year the company plans to expand its ecosystem of client offerings through carefully curated complementary financial solutions from partners.
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