GTreasury and C2FO partner on treasury liquidity management solutions

GTreasury has announced a strategic partnership with C2FO to provide treasurer customers with a cash management and early payment solution designed to improve liquidity forecasting and optimise cash flow. 

In addition to solving everyday liquidity needs, corporations are navigating economic shifts and tightening lending standards that will reduce access to capital. Flexible liquidity management solutions that support end-to-end cash visibility are vital for continued enterprise growth and planning. To respond to changing market conditions and liquidity needs, customers can use GTreasury’s suite of products to monitor current and future costs, portfolio value, and cash reserves. They can also predict future liquidity requirements using GTreasury’s AI-powered SmartPredictions cash forecasting tool. 

The new partnership aims to enable enterprises to unlock liquidity and improve cash flow by accelerating payments to their suppliers, either using their balance sheet or C2FO’s global network of funding partners. Treasurers can also seamlessly accelerate invoice payments to access cash on demand and improve cash conversion cycles. The partnership will provide businesses with real-time, holistic visibility of their cash positions, enabling them to deploy cash or accelerate payments to meet critical cash management goals.

“Through our partnership, enterprises will be able to leverage both sides of their balance sheet to access the liquidity they need to navigate today’s rapidly changing environment,” said C2FO’s Senior Vice President of Partnerships, Allison Baker.

“This partnership will allow our customers to extend their treasury workflow, resulting in further optimisation and management of their cash,” added GTreasury’s Global Head of Corporate Development, Terry Beadle.

 

CBA cracks down on payments to cryptocurrency exchanges

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has introduced measures that it says are to help protect customers from scam risks associated with making certain payments to cryptocurrency exchanges. CBA will decline or hold for 24 hours certain payments to cryptocurrency exchanges. In the coming months, the bank will also introduce AU$10,000 limits in a calendar month where the bank can identify the customer payments are to exchanges for cryptocurrency purchases.

“With the incidences of scams increasing and in many cases customers suffering significant losses from being scammed, the introduction of 24-hour holds, declines and limits on outbound payments to cryptocurrency exchanges will help reduce both the number of scams and the amount of money lost by customers,” said James Roberts, General Manager of Group Fraud Management Services, Commonwealth Bank.

CBA will continue to closely monitor the impacts of these scam response measures, which will be subject to ongoing review. 

“While these measures will not eliminate the risk of customers suffering losses as a result of a scam that involves a payment to a cryptocurrency exchange, they are part of a range of initiatives designed to help customers reduce their risk of falling victim to a scam,” Roberts added.

 

Universal Partners taps Muse Finance to offer digital invoice and trade finance services 

Universal Partners, a cross-border payment and foreign exchange provider, has announced a strategic partnership with embedded finance fintech Muse Finance to offer clients digital invoice and trade finance. 

Muse Finance offers a range of digital invoice and trade finance services, such as invoice financing and supply financing. These services are designed to provide UK-based SMEs with an improved command over their cash flow and a clearer view of their financial standing.

In 2023, as more SMEs seek to expand internationally, they face hurdles such as exchange rate instability, uncertainty in cross-border payments, and extended waiting periods for payment or goods receipt. Universal Partners specialises in helping UK companies mitigate these risks, providing tailored foreign exchange strategies and same-day cross-border payments. 

The partnership with Muse Finance will now enable Universal Partners to also mitigate liquidity concerns, with its digital invoice and trade financing solutions providing businesses with a suite of tools to improve their cash flow. Muse Finance’s invoice-based financing solutions will enable Universal Partner’s customers to receive payment before the invoice’s settlement date or make payments to suppliers while keeping the funds for up to 120 days. 

 

UK PSR confirms new requirements for APP fraud reimbursement

The UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has confirmed new requirements for banks and payment companies that it says will ensure more people than ever before will get their money back if they are a victim of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, prompting more action to prevent these frauds from happening in the first place. 

APP fraud has quickly become one of the most significant types of fraud in the UK and globally. It devastates many lives, with losses totalling nearly £500m in the last year. The PSR wants people to be protected when making payments. Following consultation, it has set out how mandatory reimbursement will work, clarifying what this means for customers and firms. The new requirements will prompt a step change in the culture of payments to improve fraud prevention and focus all firms on protecting people. 

There will be new rules in Faster Payments – the payment system across which most APP fraud currently occurs – strengthening Pay.UK’s ability to tackle fraud. All payment firms will be incentivised to take action, with both sending and receiving firms splitting the costs of reimbursement 50:50. Customers will be more protected under consistent minimum standards, with most APP fraud victims being reimbursed within five business days and additional protections offered for vulnerable customers. The industry will have more precise guidance to follow, including the ability to apply a claim excess and maximum level of reimbursement, which the PSR will consult on later this year. 

The Financial Services and Markets Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, will remove barriers and allow the PSR to direct firms to reimburse customers. The Bill is expected to receive Royal Assent in 2023, after which the PSR can enforce its requirements on payment firms.   

“Once implemented, our changes will deliver a major shift from the status quo, giving everyone across the payments ecosystem a reason to act to prevent fraud from happening in the first place,” commented Chris Hemsley, Managing Director at the PSR. “That means everybody who makes payments can do so with much greater confidence, knowing that they will be better protected against fraudsters.”

 

Finastra and S&P Global Market Intelligence to deliver efficiencies in corporate and syndicated lending

Finastra has announced a collaboration with S&P Global Market Intelligence focused on the corporate and syndicated lending market. The companies have agreed to collaborate and integrate their corporate and syndicated lending solutions to deliver benefits to joint clients.

The collaboration aims to help reduce risk, improve automation, and fast-track transaction processing for clients that use Finastra and S&P Global Market Intelligence’s solutions by removing the manual re-keying element of transactions throughout the lending and trade lifecycles. Users will experience pre-built, seamless integration and the ability to digitally transfer data between the solutions.

The parties intend to use their combined capabilities to transform data flows across the board, such as real-time updates for positions, trades, secure wire details, and other areas of the loan lifecycle that can still result in transaction data otherwise being transmitted via fax or email.

 

American Express and Bluechain to streamline SME payment processes

American Express has announced a partnership with fintech startup Bluechain to help streamline the supplier payment process for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Invoice management can be resource intensive for small business owners, especially when using multiple different systems. The partnership aims to solve that problem by allowing small business owners to centrally manage, pay and reconcile supplier invoices, from a single dashboard, whether on desktop or mobile device. 

The integration saves SME owners time and resources spent on manual admin with a billing and payment process that streamlines operations and automates time-consuming tasks like data entry and bookkeeping. It is also designed to enable better visibility and control over cash flow as SMEs can choose to pay how, where and when they want.  

Existing American Express business customers can pay an invoice with their Amex Card, regardless of whether the requesting merchant accepts American Express or not. Business owners can also seamlessly connect their accounting system to Bluechain's platform for real-time tracking and reconciliation, streamlining bill management from start to finish. 

CIX Exchange looks to level up carbon market transparency, certainty and liquidity

Climate Impact X (CIX), a global marketplace, auctions house and exchange for carbon credits, has launched its spot trading platform, CIX Exchange, completing its core solutions suite with three operational venues. Using Nasdaq's trading technology, CIX Exchange offers carbon market professionals a customised experience built on international best practices for platform stability, performance and governance. Users can discover market-driven prices, compare individual projects and trade standard contracts.

To address industry calls for greater transparency and price certainty, CIX has introduced the first daily on-exchange liquidity window in the voluntary carbon market with firm bids and offers. This 30-minute pricing session pools all-day liquidity from Asia, Europe and the Middle East to help sharpen benchmark prices and improve order depth for spot nature-based credits.

By the close of trading on 7 June 2023, bids and offers had converged to just a few cents and seven transactions totalling 12,000 tonnes of carbon credits had traded and cleared on CIX’s first standardised contract announced in March, CIX Nature X.

Bids, offers, and transactions came from various active market participants spanning project developers and suppliers, financial institutions, trading houses and corporate end-users, demonstrating support for price discovery and market scaling. The first trades were executed by Chevron (International) Trading Pte Ltd, CICC Commodity Trading Limited, Engie Energy Marketing Singapore and Standard Chartered. Other participating supporters include Carbon Growth Partners, DBS Bank, Hana Securities, RWE Supply & Trading, South Pole, Viridios Capital and Vitol Asia.