The first full day of the AFP conference is light on eurozone woe, heavy on risk and other typical treasury issues.
Problems in the peripheral European nations took a peripheral role at the Association of Financial Professional Annual Conference in Miami this week. While many sessions gave a nod to Europe (it remains a key concern, however, and at least one session the first day addressed it directly), most were about normal treasury challenges as well as the usual “how-tos” in mitigating risks in an increasingly risky world.
Here are a few of the standouts from the first full day of the conference.
Bellin believes. To describe Martin Bellin as enthusiastic about his treasury product would be an understatement. He is on fire. And, as is written on just about every piece of literature, coffee cup and tote bag, Bellin loves treasury, or more accurately, Bellin Hearts Treasury. The German-based company has many customers in Europe but is now making inroads into North and South America, most notably in Canada and South America.
While one of its more successful areas, according to the company, is in its payment factory business, the company offers a wide variety of services including consulting. But beyond the actual services it also sells its beliefs, its philosophy. This philosophy is embodied in its Backstage networking platform created exclusively for its customers. According to its web site, Bellin Backstage customers “enjoy access to all the tricks and tips of tm5 (the name of its treasury services) and the latest news from Bellin. On this platform, Backstage users can network with other Bellin users and exchange ideas and knowledge. So using this open-source-style sharing if you as a Bellin customer are looking for a bank partner in Chile, you need only contact another Bellin customer (or two) in Chile and get the answer.
Tracking short-term cash. SunGard has been working on its short-term cash-management portal, the SunGard Global Network (SGN). SGN is a “global, multi-currency trading and connectivity” tool to help companies monitor short-term liquidity. The portal can tell treasurers what their exposures are down to the asset, identify trading partners by providing “direct access to the fund company” in real-time. In this way treasurers can diversify their company’s portfolios as well as secure them by setting automatic limits on concentration limits and other restrictions.
Surveys. The first full day of the conference saw the release of a few vendor surveys. Fundtech released a mobile banking survey that shows treasury wants more access to their offices when on the road. The transaction services company, with the help of Treasury Strategies, polled 200 treasury pros from around the world and found that most respondents are placing greater emphasis on mobile banking and want “multi-channel” availability via smartphone, tablet as well as their computers. The company also announced the expansion of its mobile offering to tablets.
SunGard also released a preview of its Corporate Cash Investment Study. Among preliminary findings, the results so far reveal that about 38 percent of respondents said their company’s surplus cash had increased in the past year. More than 40 percent reported the need to get a better handle on cash-flow forecasting and 82 percent use bank deposits for cash investment. Surprisingly, 50 percent of respondents said they still do transactions over the telephone.
New versions. Financial risk management company Reval released the latest version, 12.1, of its treasury management product. The new version promises “advanced functionality in cash, liquidity and financial risk to support.” It’s been just about a year since the company fully integrated its acquisition of Austrian-based treasury management system provider ecofinance (see related story here). Also, TMS provider IT2 made it official with the announcement of version 8.0 of its system. Calling it “Treasury re-imagined,” the company says the new version looks, feels and functions like no other treasury management system on the market (see related story here).