Moneycorp Americas expands Canadian business with China Division

Moneycorp Americas, a provider of global payments and currency risk management solutions, has announced the opening of its Canadian-based China Division. The division will aim to support Chinese Canadian business owners, importing or exporting to and from China, and high-net worth individuals by helping streamline their FX risk management and payments overseas. By minimising their FX exposure to suppliers, the firm says business operators in Canada can protect their bottom line by hedging their payments to and from China.

“This expansion represents a key strategic growth initiative for our company in response to the increasing market demand for payments and FX risk management solutions,” said Bob Dowd, CEO of Moneycorp Americas. “James Lei, our China Division lead, and his team’s understanding of payments requirements from both a supplier and vendor perspective makes this offering a seamless move for our business. By expanding our team of experienced professionals through the China Division, we are able to help Canadian Chinese businesses achieve operational efficiency and overall profitability.

China is Canada’s second largest trading partner. According to the government of Canada, since 2001 Canada’s relationship with China has grown faster than their trade relationships with any other global partner. With a high volume of goods being imported and exported between the two countries, Canadian businesses must evaluate their payments and FX risk, especially during volatile times.

 

HSBC moves Corda Enterprise blockchain technology on to Google Cloud

HSBC has become the first financial institution to move software firm R3’s blockchain platform Corda Enterprise on to Google Cloud. The  move aims to cut client onboarding times from months to weeks, improve the client experience and reduce costs. The bank currently uses R3’s Corda technology for Digital Vault, HSBC’s custody blockchain platform.  

HSBC is pursuing using blockchain to support the custody of future digital asset classes. Moving the Corda technology to Google Cloud gives the bank the option to move more of the transaction lifecycle on to the ledger in future,  including issuing digital tokens instead of paper certificates. 

The Digital Vault service, launched in November 2019, digitises the transaction records of private placement assets including equity, debt and real estate. This enables global custody clients to access details of their  private assets directly and in real-time instead of having to request a search of paper-based records. As a result, they can keep track of when they will receive the coupon on a private debt transaction or facilitate an audit of transaction records. The Digital Vault is currently available in Asia and will be rolled out in other regions in due course. 

R3’s Corda platform enables businesses to transact directly and privately using smart contracts, reducing transaction and record-keeping costs and streamlining business operations. 

 

Fidor and SIA partner on European instant payments 

Fidor Solutions, a 100% subsidiary of Sopra Banking Software, has signed a partnership agreement with SIA, a European hi-tech company in payment services and infrastructures, controlled by CDP Equity, to launch its new instant payments service in Germany and in other European countries.

Through this agreement, Fidor Solutions is able to allow European financial institutions and their customers to send and receive payments in less than 10 seconds for a maximum amount currently set at €100,000 per individual transaction, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in line with the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme of the European Payments Council (EPC). 

The partnership allows direct access to EBA Clearing’s pan-European real-time payment system RT1 and to the TARGET Instant Payments Settlement (TIPS) service of the Eurosystem (the ECB and national central banks in the Eurozone). 

The “SIA EasyWay” platform used by Fidor Solutions operates as a hub, simplifying the integration of instant payments with the internal systems of financial institutions, reducing costs and service activation times. This is made possible through an integrated service between Fidor Solutions and SIA which covers the entire payment value chain: from the order via all the channels used by banks and payment service providers - for example mobile, web and APIs - to the handling and processing of transactions, right up to network connections with on-demand scalable state of the art payment infrastructure.

 

Casey’s General Stores selects Coupa for procurement digitisation

Coupa Software has announced that Casey’s General Stores selected Coupa to transform its procurement operations amid the chain’s significant growth. As the fourth-largest convenience store retailer in the US, Casey’s was looking to modernise its largely manual and paper-based procurement system to create more visibility, control, and value for the company’s future.

Previously, Casey’s relied on largely manual and paper-based processes that were becoming more costly and inefficient, particularly as the company worked to grow and scale. With Coupa, the company will be able to achieve full visibility, control, and management of procurement spend while saving valuable time. Casey’s plans to run almost all of its procurement spend through Coupa, having set goals for reducing costs and strengthening relationships with suppliers. Additionally, Casey’s employees will be able to purchase the goods and services they need through Coupa.

The retailer also expects Coupa will help it continue to successfully navigate the COVID-19 landscape with a diversified supplier network and more collaborative relationships with new and existing suppliers.