Bloomberg enhances corporate climate transition assessment tools

Bloomberg has announced enhancements to its climate solutions suite, designed to help investors assess if companies are on track to meet carbon emissions targets, evaluate the credibility of those targets and estimate how their revenues will be impacted under various transition scenarios.

The expanded offering aims to provide a more comprehensive view of transition risk, including forward-looking assessments of revenue risks and opportunities under different climate pathways, based on detailed data from BloombergNEF (BNEF). The suite enables investors to assess transition credibility and identify leaders and laggards, by addressing four critical questions:

1. Are companies setting carbon targets, and are they on track to achieve them?
2. How credible are these targets based on companies’ current actions?
3. What future GHG emissions can be expected based on companies’ carbon commitments?
4. How could transition scenarios, like BNEF’s New Energy Outlook (NEO), affect company revenues?

These insights can help investors align their portfolios with their individually stated net zero goals and capitalise on opportunities presented by the transition to a low-carbon economy.

BNEF’s model is now available on the Bloomberg Terminal and via Data License for the first time. The Transition Risk Assessment Company Tool (TRACT) projects company revenue risk and opportunities for more than 70,000 companies. The model combines companies’ activities, supply chain exposure and regional footprint with the shifting demand for products and commodities projected under different climate scenarios. TRACT benefits from granular transition scenario data: BNEF’s NEO captures policies, project pipeline, technology costs and consumer adoption trends bottom-up for 20 regions. By the end of September 2024, TRACT will also incorporate the NGFS scenarios.

“Less than a quarter of global emissions fall under an actual carbon pricing scheme,” said Alexandra Toft, Chief Operating Officer at BloombergNEF. “Sector and region-specific technology competition drives the transition, often rendering carbon intensity irrelevant, such as in sectors where no alternatives exist, like steelmaking or aviation. At BNEF, we developed the TRACT model to fill this gap and provide clients with a granular approach to transition risk assessments.”

In addition to managing transition risk, financial firms increasingly seek to decarbonise their portfolios. Hundreds of asset owners, asset managers and banks representing over $140 trillion in total have individually pledged their support for investing aligned to net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner. Bloomberg’s expanded Net Zero data suite provides tools to help firms measure progress and evaluate the credibility of companies’ transition plans. Firms who want to source this data to feed into their own transition risk assessment processes can access it via Data License for scalable enterprise-wide use.

Features include carbon target indicators, a transition credibility tool, and carbon emission forecasts.

 

Clearwater Analytics launches corporate treasury benchmarking tool

Clearwater Analytics, a provider of SaaS-based investment management, accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, has launched a peer benchmarking solution. Clearwater Insights aims to provide CFOs and treasury teams with the ability to conduct benchmarking analyses across Clearwater’s daily investment data portfolio, enabling superior decision-making and return optimisation.

A statement from the company said that teams using Insights will benefit from quickly visualising how they compare to fully customisable peer cohorts, such as the Clearwater Corporate Treasury Index comprised of over 400 portfolios. With peer benchmarking functionality, they can immediately narrow their peer group to companies that resemble and invest like them, enabling them to have confidence in knowing what excellence looks like.

The solution is designed to address the pressing need for a complete picture of industry performance metrics, accuracy and transparency. This strategic offering answers the key question - “What is considered a good return?” - by spotting performance trends across the portfolios within the Clearwater client community. Benefits include the ability to conduct informed decision-making, objective analysis, and comprehensive benchmarking, including key metrics such as book yield, total return, duration, and asset allocation against industry benchmarks.

“Clearwater Insights has greatly enhanced our treasury operations by providing clarity on our position relative to peers,” said Kyle Breidenstine, VP Finance and Controller at PepGen. “This new understanding has empowered us to make informed decisions and align our strategies with industry best practices, ensuring confidence in a challenging market.”

 

Faster Payments Council releases dual reports on ISO 20022 implementation and benefits

The US Faster Payments Council (FPC) has released two complementary reports from its Cross-Border Payments Work Group, sponsored by Mastercard: ‘How to ISO 20022’ and ‘Distinguishing Advantages in the Format & Structure of ISO 20022 for Instant Payment Adoption’.

The first report, ‘How to ISO 20022’, provides a detailed roadmap for financial institutions on how to successfully adopt and implement ISO 20022. This guide covers everything from the technical specifications of the standard to practical steps for integration and migration. It is designed to help organisations understand the operational changes required and the benefits that can be unlocked through this transition.

Building on the implementation guidance, the second report, ‘Distinguishing Advantages in the Format & Structure of ISO 20022 for Instant Payment Adoption’, delves into the specific benefits that ISO 20022 offers over legacy message standards. The report highlights key features such as richer data content, enhanced straight-through processing, and improved operational efficiency, all of which are critical for the successful adoption of instant payments and cross-border transactions.

“ISO 20022’s flexible structure and ability to support rich data make it a game-changer for the payments industry,” said Jonathan Holland, Vice President, Account Management at Mastercard and Vice Chair of the Cross-Border Payments Work Group. “Our new reports outline how these features can streamline operations, reduce errors, and ultimately, improve the customer experience.”

 

Wells Fargo expands API capabilities for its commercial banking business

Wells Fargo has announced the launch of specialised APIs tailored to its commercial banking clients. This expansion of the bank’s API portfolio provides immediate access to real-time data that it says may help increase sales, improve liquidity, reduce credit risk, and reduce expenses for floorplan and channel finance clients in the following industries: auto, motorsports, outdoor products and equipment, recreational vehicles, consumer electronics, appliances, and technology.

Wells Fargo’s API platform enables manufacturers, distributors, and dealers to directly connect from their system of choice. Updates will happen automatically and flow between trading partners so there’s no delay in sending and receiving information, and no need to manually enter, upload, download, or transmit important files, allowing clients instant access to critical business insights.

Faster order processing enabled by the APIs could mean avoiding delays in shipping inventory with the ability to check credit availability and receive approvals with the click of a button within their own system. This can reduces time to invoice and expands the window to address credit line increases or order payoffs, if needed.

Accurate inventory planning provides instant visibility into on-demand real-time inventory data, which allows more precise forecasting so clients have the right level and right kind of inventory. Companies will have the data to control their supply chain without waiting on batch-run updates, human intervention, or processing issues.

Real-time invoicing means recognising revenue faster when invoices are processed instantaneously, eliminating delays due to file failures, manual processing, outages, and human intervention.

The seamless technology integration from Wells Fargo’s APIs provide connectivity to client systems so they can eliminate manual data entry, and other workarounds when retrieving data, and performing activities such as loading inventory, checking inventory status and balances due, and paying off inventory, all within their system of choice.

Finally, easier money management helps clients identify inventory for payment, apply payments, and see when and how to apply wire payments or create payment plans. This streamlines the ability for clients to manage their money, reducing manual steps and providing instant daily transaction reconciliation.

 

Kantox taps Finastra to offer trade confirmation matching service

Kantox has partnered with Finastra to offer a trade confirmation matching service to its clients. This integration helps to ensure that trades triggered by Kantox’s platform are identical to those executed by the banks. This should eliminate manual errors, and potentially improve security.

The Kantox solution automates the end-to-end FX workflow from pre-trade to post-trade. Through this collaboration, once Kantox initiates trades, details are sent to Finastra’s Confirmation Matching Service (CMS), where they are automatically matched with the banks' confirmations of those trades. 

Kantox and Finastra’s integration via API should help users with trade accuracy and eliminate the risk of discrepancies between trades requested by clients and those executed by banks. Any mismatch is automatically identified and flagged for immediate attention. This reduces errors, streamlines reconciliation, and potentially improves security, especially for exotic currencies prone to manual typos.

 

RMB stable as fourth most active global payments currency

Swift’s RMB Tracker has shown that in August 2024, the RMB remained the fourth most active currency for global payments by value, with a share of 4.69%. Overall, RMB payment value decreased by 4.46% compared to July, while all payment currencies decreased by 3.62%. Regarding international payments, excluding payments within the Eurozone, the RMB ranked fifth with a share of 3.16% in August.

The tracker uses data from live and delivered MT 103 and MT 202 - customer-initiated and institutional payments - and ISO equivalent messages exchanged on Swift. RMB’s fourth place out of all international currencies in August saw it behind the US dollar (49.07% of all global payments value), the euro (21.58%), and the British pound (6.50%).

As a global currency in the trade finance market, based on live and delivered inter-group only MT 400 and MT 700 messages exchanged on SWIFT, RMB retained second place based on value, accounting for 5.95% of August’s trade finance transactions. This field remains dominated by the US dollar (83.56%).

Regarding FX spot transactions, RMB was August’s fifth most used currency for FX confirmations. The US dollar claimed the top spot, followed by the euro, yen and pound. In terms of the top economies carrying out FX spot transactions in RMB, the UK came out on top in August (40.31%), followed by the US (16.16%), France (9.15%), Hong Kong (9.07%), and China (7.83%).