Banks help companies rebuild global supply chains in Europe and Asia

Banks whose trade finance businesses were interrupted by the near-total shutdown in global trade earlier this year are recouping some lost revenues by helping corporates restore and adjust supply chains disrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. Almost three-quarters of the large European companies participating in the Greenwich Associates 2020 Global Trade Finance Study had their business or supply chains negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Although a smaller share of Asian corporates experienced these same issues, more than a third of companies impacted are now in the process of altering supply chains based on their experiences during the pandemic and the current geopolitical environment.

As companies in both regions rebuild and reroute their supply chains, they are looking to their banks for strategic advice as they enter the rebuilding phase. That demand for advice is benefitting the 2020 Greenwich Leaders in Large Corporate Trade Finance, virtually all of which are large banks with expansive footprints in transaction banking and well developed advisory capabilities.

In Europe, the list of 2020 Greenwich Share Leaders is topped by BNP Paribas, closely followed by UniCredit and HSBC. In Asia, HSBC tops the list of 2020 Share Leaders, followed by DBS, Standard Chartered Bank, BNP Paribas, and Citi. DBS and HSBC also claim the title of 2020 Greenwich Quality Leaders in Asia, a distinction that goes to BNP Paribas and UniCredit in Europe. Among these industry leaders, the banks best positioned to capitalise on companies’ growing need for advice might be DBS and HSBC, the winners of the 2020 Greenwich Excellence Award for Quality of Advice in Large Corporate Trade Finance in Asia, and Bank of America, which claims that honour in Europe.

At the outset of the crisis, it appeared the pandemic and the global shutdown would prompt large corporates to turn closer to home for support, potentially placing international competitors at a disadvantage. “In fact, it remains to be seen how the consequences of pandemic lending play out,” said Dr. Tobias Miarka, managing director at Greenwich Associates. “Will domestic banks be able to double-down on the lending commitments they provided during the crisis and convert them into cross-sales and wallet share, or will the lending weaken domestic competitors by increasing non-performing loans and subsequent write-downs?” 

The initial shock from the pandemic revealed different vulnerabilities across markets and industries in Asia. While sectors like transportation, industrials and energy have been severely impacted, other sectors like healthcare and telecom have been relatively less affected. “Across all these sectors, banks have helped to (somewhat) mitigate the impact of the crisis by extending liquidity/credit/terms, demonstrating operational agility and by providing digital solutions,” commented Gaurav Arora, head of Asia at Greenwich Associates.

 

Vinmar selects TreasuryXpress for centralised treasury automation

TreasuryXpress has announced that Vinmar International, a plastics and chemicals marketing and distribution company, has selected the firm’s enterprise treasury management solution (TMS), to help achieve greater control over their cash positioning and liquidity management processes.

With a global footprint of 50 offices across over 35 countries and with sales in more than 110 countries, the ability to improve global treasury efficiencies and achieve comprehensive visibility over their cash positions quickly and accurately are key priorities for Vinmar. To help accomplish these goals, Vinmar selected TreasuryXpress’ on-demand treasury management solution (TMS).

“As one of the largest companies in their market, we are pleased that Vinmar International has selected TreasuryXpress to help them implement greater control, efficiency and economies across their treasury operations,” commented Anis Rahal, CEO and founder of TreasuryXpress.

 

Emirates NBD chooses TCS for international payments transformation

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced that Emirates NBD has deployed a centralised international payments hub for multiple entities, running on TCS BaNCS for Payments.

Emirates NBD had selected the TCS solution as part of its vision to transform payments processing across all its entities covering six countries. The solution is now being used for international payments in Singapore, India, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom. In India, the solution will also process domestic payments over RTGS and NEFT, while in UAE, at Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic Bank, it will manage international payments as well as FTS for domestic clearing.

The TCS BaNCS Enterprise Payments Hub centralises the bank’s payments processing infrastructure across countries. The solution is designed to enhance the digital experience for customers and simplifies the bank’s IT landscape. In addition, it will enable the bank to launch services and payments products such as SWIFT for Corporates, and adopt upcoming market innovations in real-time clearing such as GCC-RTGS (KSA, UAE), IPI, and Egypt – RTGS, while also enabling GPII Certification for all its entities.