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Some believe the emergence and proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents humanity's "fourth industrial revolution" and that it will drive evolutionary and revolutionary innovation--i.e., make us better at what we [...]

Euromoney's Trade Finance Survey 2024 reveals that more respondents received increased credit from their trade banks last year compared to the previous year. However, this increase is seen as a return to previous levels rather than a reflection of normal conditions due to the impact of the pandemic on corporates. The availability of credit was partly due to nonbank institutions entering the trade-finance arena, expanding the pool of lenders. The European Central Bank's bank lending survey suggests that credit standards for loans to enterprises tightened in the fourth quarter of 2023. The availability of credit in 2024 may be influenced by factors such as elections and interest rate movements. The document also provides rankings of the top trade finance providers globally and in different regions, based on a survey of buyers and users of trade finance services. These rankings are determined by the number of votes received by each provider, with higher scores awarded for higher rankings. The document also includes rankings for best service, which are determined based on qualitative designations assigned to each institution. [Extracted from the article]

Treasurers can now profit from rate differentials between currencies by optimizing forward points, which are driven by the interaction between foreign exchange (FX) and interest rates. CFOs are often slow to change their currency management strategies to take advantage of market changes. Pricing with the forward rate instead of the spot rate can help companies avoid leaving money on the table, especially with currencies that trade at an annual forward discount to the dollar. Delaying hedge execution and using conditional stop-loss orders can also reduce hedging costs. Natural hedging and dynamic hedging strategies can be implemented to offset the negative impact of unfavourable forward points. Evaluating value at risk (VaR) reduction versus hedging costs can help decrease hedging costs or lower VaR for the same hedging costs. Net investment hedges, option strategies, and being opportunistic in trading can also help treasurers make the most of favourable market moves. It is important for treasurers to define their risk appetite and explore whether exposure can be passed on to customers or suppliers. The impact of forward points will depend on whether the corporate is long or short on that currency. Before looking externally, treasurers should thoroughly examine exposures to identify natural options that could reduce or eliminate the need for hedging. [Extracted from the article]

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) providers have faced challenges and volatility in the industry. Several companies, such as Synctera, Treasury Prime, and Synapse, have experienced staff reductions or bankruptcy. Regulatory scrutiny, misaligned incentives, and inadequate due diligence have contributed to these failures. BaaS providers have also underestimated the costs and regulatory requirements associated with their services. Custodian banks may become more selective in their partnerships, potentially leading to consolidation in the BaaS sector. Financial institutions are seeking partners that balance innovation and control, and compliance and regulatory transparency are becoming more important. UniCredit's recent acquisition of Aion Bank and Vodeno signals a shift in the BaaS industry, with a focus on regulatory compliance and a clear operating model. Increased compliance requirements may strengthen the case for BaaS, as they create high barriers to entry for new market entrants. [Extracted from the article]

The bank's digital strategy - focused on enhancing client connectivity - extends from its digital front end (Trade Finance Gate) to a fintech solution for back-end transaction processing (Trade Finance OCR). From a trade finance perspective, 2022 was a year of two halves. Having secured the inaugural Euromoney award for the world's best bank for trade finance last June, HSBC again came first in the trade finance survey - scoring more than twice as many points as any other bank. [Extracted from the article]

Earlier this year, Citi launched new deposit solutions designed to assist clients in investing excess cash as part of their sustainability agenda, including sustainable time deposits and sustainable minimum maturity time deposits based on the bank's green and social bond frameworks. HSBC once again tops the corporate client segment of Euromoney's Cash Management Survey 2022. From a technology perspective, the bank has launched a "web-to-app" faster payments service to allow merchants - including non-bank financial institutions - to collect payment via their website. Cash management survey 2022 With revenues running at levels not seen since the global financial crisis, the transaction banking sector is in rude health. [Extracted from the article]

Corporate WAP Vodafone develops wireless services for business Wireless application protocol (WAP) has not proved popular with European business customers mainly because there are few useful services on offer from [...]

Switching to Packets Telia Bright develops GSM over IP Internet protocol (IP) is usually recognized as an efficient way to deliver fixed-line voice and data services. But now, mobile operators [...]

Dublin - Three things make for a winning carrier: management, management, and management. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but with the collapse of several proposed telecommunications mergers, the […]

The task of choosing a network provider is set to become less complex for pan-European corporations. With bandwidth prices falling rapidly and analysts predicting industry consolidation, a number of carriers […]

Preparing for 3G Orange commits to established vendors Even though it will be more than a year before commercial third-generation mobile services are launched across Europe in early 2002, the [...]

Mature Options SDH continues to play a big role in Belgium Despite the likelihood that future telecommunications market en-trants will run Internet protocol (IP) over dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), [...]

Getting Fat Tele2 streams studio-quality video with DTM Tele2 in Sweden is taking broadband to a new level with a 'fatband' service for streaming studio-quality video over an optical network. [...]

Mobile Data Mining Combating churn in Israel Churn or customer turnover is a continuing concern for cellular operators, but Israeli operator Cellcom has found a way to cultivate customer loyalty. [...]

Wireless Revolution New competitors in Europe turn to BWA Many European countries are issuing licenses for wireless local loop (WLL) access that enable new entrants to target the small business [...]

A subsidiary of regional U.K. telco Kingston Communications is using asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology to deliver high-speed Internet access, e-mail, multichannel digital television, local information and video-on-demand services [...]

Irish Multichannel offers cable TV, telephony and Internet The diversification of cable companies, turning them into communications service providers, is a common trend across Europe. Cable TV operator Irish Multichannel [...]

Operators test GPRS capabilities Roaming has been one of the wireless industry's pleasant surprises because of its popularity and subsequent revenues. While it may have taken time for some GSM [...]

BT Cellnet aims for masses Although many Euro-pean operators have introduced wireless application protocol (WAP) services, lack of handset availability and high call costs have so far prevented mass adoption [...]