80% of large enterprise finance teams to use internal AI platforms by 2026

By 2026, 80% of large enterprise finance teams will rely on internally managed and owned generative AI platforms trained with proprietary business data, according to research from Gartner. 

“The recent entry of large, well-established companies into the generative AI market has kicked off a highly competitive race to see who can deliver revolutionary value first,” said Mark D. McDonald, senior director analyst in the Gartner Finance Practice. “Leadership teams do not want to fall behind peers; however, as the chief steward for an organisation’s financial health, CFO’s must balance the risks and rewards of tools like generative AI.” 

McDonald noted there are three distinct conversations that CFOs should have across leadership circles to ensure that reasonable expectations are established, and the use of generative AI creates value without introducing unacceptable risks. To debunk the hype in order to avoid inflated expectations, CFOs should partner with senior technology leadership (e.g., CIO, chief data officer, chief information security officer) to distinguish hype from reality and share results with other executive leadership team members.

Secondly, CFOs should define generative AI use cases that are aligned, responsible, and actionable. With an understanding of generative AI’s limitations, CFOs can responsibly direct a conversation with management teams aimed at defining use cases. They must collaborate with operational management, executive leaders, and representatives from the user community to define actionable generative AI use cases that align with the organisation’s overall strategy and risk tolerance.

Thirdly, McDonald said that CFOs must develop generative AI governance and guidelines for acceptable use: “CFOs should engage legal, HR, audit, security, and other relevant corporate support functions to establish usage guidelines to minimise security, compliance, regulatory and other intellectual property risk,” he outlined. “This discussion must also include the potential impact to the workforce, company culture and necessary training.”

 

Citi develops digital asset capabilities for cash management and trade finance

Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) has announced the creation and piloting of Citi Token Services for cash management and trade finance. The service uses blockchain and smart contract technologies to deliver digital asset solutions for institutional clients. Citi Token Services will integrate tokenised deposits and smart contracts into the bank’s global network, upgrading core cash management and trade finance capabilities.

A statement from the bank said that institutional clients have a need for ‘always-on’, programmable financial services and the solution will provide cross-border payments, liquidity, and automated trade finance solutions on a 24/7 basis.

Citi worked with Maersk and a canal authority to digitise a solution that serves the same purpose as bank guarantees and letters of credit in the trade finance ecosystem. The pilot demonstrated programmable transfer of tokenized deposits that provided instant payments to service providers via smart contracts. The technology used in the pilot provided a completely digital process to both buyers and sellers with instant payment capabilities, which is expected to reduce transaction processing times from days to minutes. Citi Token Services has also been applied to a global cash management pilot, enabling clients to transfer liquidity between Citi branches on a 24/7 basis.

The private/permissioned blockchain technology used is owned and managed by Citi and clients will not be required to host a blockchain node to access the services.

 

Visa and Swift look to enhance transparency, speed and security in global B2B money movement

Visa and Swift have announced a collaboration to streamline international business-to-business (B2B) payments by strengthening connectivity between their networks that move trillions in value globally. Working together, the organisations aim to provide financial institutions and their customers with more choice when sending money across borders, while improving the end-to-end speed and transparency of their transactions.

As part of the joint effort, announced in Toronto at the annual Sibos conference, Visa will deploy capabilities developed by Swift that aim to help increase the speed and certainty of cross-border money movement. This includes Swift Payment Pre-validation to enable upfront checks of Visa B2B Connect payments, reducing unnecessary delays by catching potential errors before the payment is initiated. Additionally, the networks plan to work together to increase end-to-end transaction visibility by using high-speed Swift GPI capabilities and tracking data. Visa will also migrate its connection to Swift through Alliance Cloud, a scalable cloud-based channel.

A press release from Swift outlined that, through this collaboration, financial institutions on both networks will have more routing options for their business customers, with real-time status and updates. 

“Many businesses continue to face complexities while making cross-border payments that hurt their bottom lines,” said Chris Newkirk, Global Head of Commercial & Money Movement Solutions at Visa. “By working with Swift, Visa will help enhance our financial institution clients’ offerings to their corporate customers. The collaboration will help provide clarity and enhanced data, while removing errors before, during and after the payment.”

 

Surecomp processes electronic bill of lading for Voith and MAN

Surecomp has announced that its RIVO solution is enabling unified electronic bills of lading (eBL) processing across various issuers, having successfully completed multiple ownership changes of a transaction between German corporates MAN and Voith.

Serving as a centralised hub through which all parties can access, track and manage the title ownership of eBLs, the transaction - supported by ICC Germany, the German National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) - was executed by leveraging the seamless integration with WaveBL, one of several providers of digital trade document exchange that RIVO is connected to. 

Through RIVO, machinery exporter Voith proved it is possible to present and exchange an eBL under an electronic letter of credit with German-based manufacturing company MAN Truck & Bus, who acted as the importer in this transaction. During the workflow - in collaboration with their respective banking partner - the title ownership of an eBL was efficiently changed using WaveBL.  

“This collaboration perfectly demonstrate why RIVO was designed,” reflected Enno-Burghard Weitzel, Surecomp’s SVP of Strategy, Business Development and Digitization. “Bringing together corporate traders, their banking partners and fintechs to facilitate transactions and accelerate processes - hence removing the barriers to international trade - is precisely what we set out to achieve, so we are delighted to see it in action.”

 

HSBC launches digital trade finance solution

HSBC has announced the launch of TradePay, a document-free trade finance solution that is designed to enable clients to instantly drawdown trade loans and pay suppliers.

By using the solution, HSBC says that businesses can have complete control over the timing of their trade payables, claiming that with loan processing speed of under a minute, TradePay makes just-in-time financing a reality. The solution is designed to streamline loan drawdown with a payment file upload and suppliers being paid directly. Once completed, notifications are automatically sent to both parties.

TradePay is available in Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE, and is set to debut in the UK next month, with other countries to follow.

“Our global trade solutions are designed to help our clients trade with confidence and unlock working capital,” said Bhrigu Singh, Chief Product Officer, Global Trade and Receivables Finance at HSBC. “In line with this approach, HSBC TradePay is an innovative digital solution that enables companies to seamlessly drawdown trade loans and pay suppliers, improving their working capital while building stronger relationships with their trading partners.”

 

Lloyds Bank taps Fiserv for wholesale FX rates to UK and European merchants on card transactions

Lloyds Bank is partnering with Fiserv to bring wholesale FX rates to UK and European merchants for dynamic currency conversion (DCC) on card transactions. DCC enables consumers paying for purchases to see the cost in their local currency, regardless of which currency the merchant uses to display prices. This provides greater transparency and control over the cost of purchases. 

UK businesses using a range of products from Lloyds Bank Cardnet, and European businesses on the Carat global commerce platform from Fiserv, will be able to access the Lloyds Bank wholesale FX rate for dynamic currency conversion of card transactions, market risk management and timely settlement services. Merchants will also receive fee revenue for each completed DCC transaction. 

A pilot of the system will be launched with Carat from Fiserv merchants in October with Cardnet planned to follow early next year. 

 

Broadridge signs first customers for Swift services

Broadridge Financial Solutions has announced the immediate availability of its connectivity to Swift’s API for Transaction Screening Service, and also for Swift’s newly launched Securities View service. Using Broadridge’s connectivity for these services, financial firms and corporate treasuries should be able to optimise sanctions compliance and enhane their oversight and tracking of the securities lifecycle.

Broadridge has already signed its first customers for both services. This includes TÜV Rheinland for the Transaction Screening Service, and a prominent European private bank for Securities View.

“We take our regulatory compliance obligations very seriously, and we are committed, with the support of Broadridge, to further strengthen our control over sanction compliance by implementing a real-time and fully integrated screening in our payment processes,” said Julien Muet, Head of Corporate Treasury, TÜV Rheinland. “As such, we turned to Broadridge in their capacity as our trusted sole outsourcing partner for all of our Swift services, and have been impressed by their professionalism, service standards and depth of knowledge relating to sanctions screening.”

 

Revolut takes aim at Swift in Sibos week with RevTags business launch

Revolut Business has launched a solution that is designed to address some of the pain points associated with cross-border payments. RevTags is a free and instant global payments network available to businesses within the Revolut network. The solution was already available to firm’s retail customers, and has now been extended globally to businesses. 

The solution removes the need for IBANs or additional beneficiary details. Instead, businesses enter the RevTag of an individual or business in the Revolut Business app. 

In a statement, Revolut said that the solution aims to solve issues such as such as high fees and long payment processing times that businesses can face when making cross-border payments.

“Extending the availability of this feature to Revolut Business customers, paired with the launch of payout links, marks a significant milestone in our mission to make cross-border payments fee-free, instant and seamless for businesses operating globally,” commented James Gibson, general manager of Revolut Business.

 

Oracle expands cloud-based payments and transaction banking

Oracle has expanded its Banking Cloud Services portfolio to help banks quickly launch transaction banking offerings spanning cash management, liquidity management, and virtual account management. Together with Oracle's real-time payments processing, hyperscale account operations, and APIs, the new services are designed to enable banks to improve visibility, forecasting, and better control liquidity to help customers leverage cash more effectively.

The ERP provider also introduced enhancements to its Banking Accounts Cloud Service and Banking Enterprise Limits and Collateral Management Cloud Service.

“With Oracle Banking Cloud Services, banks can quickly compose and launch highly differentiated payment and transaction banking services that enable their customers to optimise cash and gain the capital clarity they need to meet the challenges and opportunities of a continually volatile market,” said Sonny Singh, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Financial Services.