MODEC, the world’s largest independent operator of offshore floating production systems for the oil and gas industry, was managing its foreign exchange (FX) hedging process manually.
In 2020, the company decided to automate this process, successfully reducing the time spent on it from three days to within one day.
Headquartered in Tokyo, MODEC is a general contractor for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of floating systems for deep-sea oil production. These systems include FPSO (floating production storage and offloading) units, FSO (floating storage and offloading) units, floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facilities, tension-leg platforms (TLPs), semi-submersible platforms, mooring systems and new technologies to meet the challenges of gas production floaters.
As largest independent operator of FPSO’s in the world, MODEC specializes in units for offshore deep sea oil production. “Then we either sell it to our clients or own and operate it on client’s behalf for 20 to 25 years,” says Qiurong Chong, Financial Planning & Treasury Manager at MODEC. Her business unit is located in Singapore and handles the conversion and EPCI of the FPSOs. From there, majority of the constructed FPSOs are handed over to MODEC’s business unit in Brazil responsible for the operations and maintenance of the vessels. “Our operations are therefore substantially in Brazil. But we do have presence in Australia, Ghana and Vietnam too.”
Qiurong Chong, Financial Planning & Treasury Manager
As a global company, MODEC deals with a lot of vendors and major equipment suppliers. Chong: “Our vendors are located everywhere. Some are in China, where we usually do our transactions in US dollars. The major equipment vendors are located in Europe, such as Italy, Germany and The Netherlands. Therefore, the euro is one of the main foreign currencies. And since our functional currency is US dollars, we are exposed to a significant FX risk.”
MODEC’s finance department was managing the FX hedging process manually with the use of spreadsheets. By the end of 2019, there were approximately 350 outstanding FX forwards hedging the future cash flows of the purchase orders (POs) associated with MODEC’s projects. “The POs contain the information we need from the vendors for the FX process, including the cost in dollar value, the breakdown of the payment milestones and the expected payment date,” Chong explains.
The PO information was extracted from its system to be incorporated in an Excel overview driving their hedging activities. This was a labor-intensive process and since the expected number of FX transactions increased, MODEC decided to automate this process. Chong: “With Excel you have less control over the data integrity and only a few people had access to the account data. There were quite some governance concerns on this manual spreadsheet. We wanted to improve this process. And as our company grows, with an increasing number of projects running at the same time, the effort that we spend on updating and maintaining hundreds of transactions was too much.”
Previously, all FX forwards were communicated via email, letter or phone and processed through a single cash centre between two banks. Bank accounts exist within each bank for all the currencies transacted, which total around eight for each bank. Monthly valuations are provided by the banks and upon settlement the bank automatically debits and credits MODEC’s bank accounts accordingly. GL journal entries were manually created in SAP. In the coming years, the number of FX forwards is expected to grow to 500 or more.
In the summer of 2020, MODEC Finance decided to implement SAP TRM for the straight-through-processing of FX forwards. Chong: “We asked around in the market about what system they used for their FX transactions. Our accounting migrated to SAP in 2017, which is quite recent. And since our information on vendors and POs are all in SAP, we thought: why not integrate everything together? That is why we decided to choose SAP TRM.”
Thereafter, the new system needed to be integrated and automated. “We had been working with SAP successfully for some time and they recommended Zanders to support us. We reached out and asked Zanders for a demo. During that demo the team showed us the flow and functionalities that the TRM module in SAP could offer. It met our requirements, and we felt comfortable as Zanders could explain what we did not understand. It is important to be able to communicate with consultants in very simple terms and things that our department could understand. That is why we chose Zanders to support us in this project.”
Chong then asked Zanders to customize a program that could correctly capture the exposure positions and hedge relationships with the FX forward contracts. “Once a new PO is created, it can read that information and integrate it into the treasury module. We had quite some difficulties in trying to make the program to what it should be. The way we use SAP is not very standard, at some points, things got quite complex, but Zanders was able to resolve the complexities. Now the program is running very well. This process is expected to provide hedge accounting documentation under IFRS 9 and generate GL journal entries for monthly valuations and settlement.”
Qiurong Chong, Financial Planning & Treasury Manager
“We kicked off the project in August 2020 with a key user training, which was very useful – it prepared us well for the whole process. After that we had four weeks of requirements gathering, which was quite intensive but very productive. We had a few challenging areas that required additional effort by Zanders to do some research. Eventually all challenges were resolved, and we went live in February this year, so the project took about a half year.”
The systems are now connected. “So far, the systems are running well. There have been some small issues here and there – then we reached out to Zanders to resolve it. Zanders consultants Michiel and Mart were really very helpful throughout the whole process. Even our hedge accounting entries are done by the system. The automation reduces the processing time from an average of three days to within one day. The main beneficial part for us is that the business has the hedge documentation available from the system. In the past, we spent hours on computing effectiveness for the hundreds of transactions. When we were using Excel, we were only doing this on a quarterly basis. Now we can do it every month.”
Are there still any challenges to be met for MODEC Finance? Chong: “We are still trying to stabilize the work process and get the hang of the new system. Once everything is more stable, there are some things we may explore. Automating this FX transaction was a first step for us in the treasury department. We are still doing many other reports manually for our headquarters in Japan. By bringing our HQ onboard this TRM module, we can have a seamless flow of information between us and them, which reduces any lag time and the need for us to extract the reports for them.”
In the high-stakes world of private equity, where the pressure to deliver exceptional returns is relentless, the playbook is evolving. Gone are the days when financial engineering—relying
Find out more
Zanders Transfer Pricing Suite is an innovative, cloud-based solution designed for companies looking to automate the Transfer Pricing compliance of financial transactions. With over five years
Find out more
This paper offers a straightforward analysis of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's standards on crypto asset exposures and their adoption by 2025. It critically assesses
Find out more
In recent years, consumers’ and investors’ interest in sustainability has been growing. Since 2015, assets under management in ESG funds have nearly tripled, the outstanding value of
Find out more
In this report, biodiversity loss ranks as the fourth most pressing concern after climate change adaptation, mitigation failure, and natural disasters. For financial institutions (FIs), it
Find out more
Carbon offset processes are currently dominated by private actors providing legitimacy for the market. The two largest of these, Verra and Gold Standard, provide auditing services, carbon
Find out more
Early October, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) published a report[1] on the 2023 banking turmoil that involved the failure of several US banks as well as Credit Suisse. The
Find out more
The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is not just a standalone product or a conventional module within SAP's suite of ERP systems; rather, it serves as a strategic platform from SAP,
Find out more
Treasurers dealing with multiple jurisdictions, scattered banking landscape, and local requirements face many challenges in this regard. Japan is one of the markets where bank connectivity
Find out more
Seventy banks have been considered, which is an increase of twenty banks compared to the previous exercise. The portfolios of the participating banks contain around three quarters of all EU
Find out more
The CSP helps reinforce the controls protecting participants from cyberattack and ensures their effectivity and that they adhere to the current Swift security requirements. *Swift does not
Find out more
As a result of the growing importance of this transformative technology and its applications, various regulatory initiatives and frameworks have emerged, such as Markets in Crypto-Assets
Find out more
Over the past decades, banks significantly increased their efforts to implement adequate frameworks for managing interest rate risk in the banking book (IRRBB). These efforts typically focus
Find out more
The Basel IV reforms, which are set to be implemented on 1 January 2025 via amendments to the EU Capital Requirement Regulation, have introduced changes to the Standardized Approach for
Find out more
With the introduction of the updated Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR3), which has entered into force on 9 July 2024, the European Union's financial landscape is poised for significant
Find out more
The heightened fluctuations observed in the commodity and energy markets from 2021 to 2022 have brought Treasury's role in managing these risks into sharper focus. While commodity prices
Find out more
VaR has been one of the most widely used risk measures in banks for decades. However, due to the non-additive nature of VaR, explaining the causes of changes to VaR has always been
Find out more
The Covid-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented market volatility, causing widespread failures in banks' internal risk models. These backtesting failures threatened to increase capital
Find out more
Challenges with backtesting Expected Shortfall Recent regulations are increasingly moving toward the use of Expected Shortfall (ES) as a measure to capture risk. Although ES fixes many
Find out more
Across the whole of Europe, banks apply different techniques to model their IFRS9 Expected Credit Losses on a best estimate basis. The diverse spectrum of modelling techniques raises the
Find out more
As organizations continue to adapt to the rapidly changing business landscape, one of the most pivotal shifts is the migration of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to the cloud.
Find out more
While many business and SAP users are familiar with its core functionalities, such as limit management applying different limit types and the core functionality of attributable amount
Find out more
In brief: Prevailing uncertainty in geopolitical, economic and regulatory environments demands a more dynamic approach to default modelling. Traditional methods such as logistic
Find out more
The recent periods of commodity price volatility have brought commodity risk management to the spotlight in numerous companies, where commodities constitute a substantial component of the
Find out more
In brief Prepayment modelling can help institutions successfully prepare for and navigate a rise in prepayments due to changes in the financial landscape. Two important prepayment
Find out more
The corporate landscape is continuously reshaped by strategic realignments such as mergers, divestments, and other M&A activities, wherein a company divests a portion of its business
Find out more
The evolving economic landscape has placed a spotlight on the critical role of treasury in value creation. Our latest roundtable, themed ‘Treasury’s Role in Value Creation,’ delved
Find out more
This article highlights key points mentioned in our whitepaper: Treasury 4.x - The age of productivity, performance and steering. You can download the full whitepaper here. Summary:
Find out more
Whether a corporate operates through a decentralized model, shared service center or even global business services model, identifying which invoices a customer has paid and in some cases,
Find out more
The final article from Zanders on the DRM model presents the lifecycle of the DRM model over a single hedge accounting period and the prospective and retrospective assessments that are
Find out more
The corporate treasury agenda continues to focus on cash visibility, liquidity centralization, bank/bank account rationalization, and finally digitization to enable greater operational and
Find out more
The Basel IV reforms published in 2017 will enter into force on January 1, 2025, with a phase-in period of 5 years. These are probably the most important reforms banks will go through
Find out more
After taking a long hard look at its treasury function, Accell Group took the plunge by investing in a treasury management system (TMS) and improving bank connectivity with a payment hub solution.
So how exactly did the European market leader in bicycles achieve these goals? Accell Group is the European market leader in the mid- and upper-segments for high-quality bicycles and associated parts and accessories (XLC). Employing over 3,000 people across 18 countries, Accell Group manages a strong portfolio of national and international (sports) brands, each with its own distinctive positioning.
In 2018 the company sold 1.1 million bicycles, realizing a turnover of €1.1 billion and a net profit of €20.3 million. The bicycle brands in the Accell Group stable include Haibike, Winora, Ghost, Lapierre, Babboe, Batavus, Sparta, Koga, Diamondback and Raleigh. They are manufactured in several locations in the Netherlands, Hungary, Turkey and China.
Bicycles, and particularly e-bikes, are increasingly being seen as a key contributor in addressing issues such as urban congestion, hazardous city traffic, rising CO₂ emissions and our desire to live healthier lifestyles. For this reason, the bicycle market represents excellent potential for further worldwide growth.
“Given that we focus on new, clean and safe mobility solutions, we are certainly in the right business in terms of market potential,” agrees Jonas Fehlhaber, Treasurer at Accell Group, “Furthermore, there is a growing trend for large cities to adapt their infrastructures to offer cyclists more space and make them safer.”
Jonas Fehlhaber, Treasurer at Accell Group
Initially, Accell Group was a small holding company with decentralized management. Fehlhaber joined the Group in 2013 as its first treasurer, but his responsibilities soon expanded to encompass cash management, currency risk management and credit insurance. At the same time, the structure of the company changed. Based on a new strategy defined in 2016, the most important change was that the company wanted to shift from a manufacturing-driven approach to a consumer-centric one. In other words, everything must revolve around the consumer.
“In the past our sales channel was mainly defined by the dealers but now, thanks to experience centers and the use of e-commerce, this is changing into an omnichannel approach,” says Fehlhaber. “The dealers still play the most important role, but with more and more functions being provided centrally, the size of the holding has grown substantially. For the past two-and-a-half years we have had a strong supply chain organization, and our finance team, just like the Treasury, has expanded.”
After centralizing several components and rationalizing the bank portfolio, Accell asked Zanders to carry out a quick scan of the Treasury department. In the context of this scan, the treasury function was examined and several potential risks and possible improvement areas were identified.
“To further professionalize the Treasury, we worked with Zanders to start a project in 2017 to establish a treasury roadmap,” adds Fehlhaber. “In this project our strategic goals, along with what we wanted to achieve with them, were laid out. All in all it was an intensive undertaking in which all the respective processes were documented.”
The outcome was reconciled into three pillars: organization, systems and treasury policy. To limit the organizational vulnerability of what would otherwise have been a single-person department, Accell used Zanders’ Treasury Continuity Service (TCS) and appointed an additional treasury employee. An element of the Treasury Continuity Service is a TMS, Integrity, with which processes can be automated and standardized, while risks are simultaneously minimized.
“The Treasury Continuity Service allowed us to implement the system quickly, without the need to go through an RfP [Request for Proposal] process,” says Fehlhaber. “Zanders had already made advance agreements with the supplier, FIS, giving us a partially pre-configured system that could be quickly implemented. Moreover, the support days that we are allocated can be used for advice, for example, or if there is temporary understaffing. We acted on the advice to start up our new payment hub, from the RfP to the actual selection and, if necessary, the implementation too.”
The final improvement was to set up a comprehensive treasury policy, which has injected more structure and transparency into the daily treasury activities.
The new TMS and the extra support have meant that Accell’s treasury department is now less vulnerable. “While Excel allows you to work flexibly, sharing information is more difficult because it is much more personal,” continues Fehlhaber. “The owner of the Excel file will be aware of all the details, but issues can quickly arise during transfer. A complicating factor is that there is no audit trail in Excel, making it generally more risky to work with. A TMS, on the other hand, is more complete and interactive, and the transfer is much easier. It has more functionalities and provides daily bank updates, so you always have a good overview of your latest cash positions. What’s more, it records all transactions, such as FX instruments and bank- and inter-company loans, with settlements being done from within Integrity. Above all, though, the TMS offers the option of creating bespoke reports, which in itself saves a lot of time.”
A key requirement of Accell was for the payment landscape to be organized more efficiently and controlled more centrally. What we tend to see is that corporates have masses of bank cards, for everyone involved in the authorization of payments. Not only is this very inefficient, it also makes it difficult to effectively manage these processes centrally. This is why Accell decided to implement a payment hub solution [TIS; Treasury Intelligence Solutions]. The payment hub serves as an interface, to replace the banking applications. A further advantage is that TIS offers the option of single sign-on, greatly improving the on-and off-boarding process for users.
Rolling out a TIS project takes between 18 and 24 months. It is a separate system to FIS Integrity, but they are connected in terms of infrastructure. “Bank statements arrive through the payment hub and then interface software distributes them to the systems that need the information, such as the ERP system and Integrity,” explains Fehlhaber. “Furthermore, all systems are fed current market data from our terminal, while payment files, for example, are sent from Integrity via TIS to the bank.”
Tjitze Auke Rijpkema, Treasury Team
The increasing need to reduce exhaust emissions in major urban areas is fuelling further growth potential for the bicycle market. “The market is still growing,” agrees Fehlhaber, “especially when it comes to e-bikes. We are focusing on the mid- and upper-market segments and doing particularly well with the so-called e-performance bikes, the power-assisted mountain bikes catered for by brands such as Haibike, Ghost and Lapierre.”
In 2018, Accell acquired Velosophy, a fast-growing innovative player in e-cargo biking solutions that serves both consumer and business markets. The Velosophy stable includes Babboe, the market leader in Europe for family cargo bikes, CarQon, the new premium cargo bike brand, and Centaur Cargo. The latter of these three is a specialist in B2B cargo bikes for the so-called ‘last-mile deliveries‘. These are typically to locations that are either impossible or very difficult to reach by car, such as city centers, for example. The acquisition of Velosophy has enabled Accell Group to accelerate its innovation strategy, which is focused, among other things, on the development of urban mobility solutions.
Bicycles are becoming increasingly bespoke products, reveals Fehlhaber. Mobility as a service (offering a service concept rather than just a bicycle), lease options or special, self-selected elements are all maintaining the current momentum in the bicycle market.
“The once-humble bicycle has evolved into a true lifestyle product,” insists Tjitze Auke Rijpkema, who joined the treasury team in 2018. “Smart internet technology and handy connectivity apps are further enriching the cycling experience and making bicycles better and safer in all kinds of ways. Just like treasury, the bicycle is constantly moving with the times.”
In the high-stakes world of private equity, where the pressure to deliver exceptional returns is relentless, the playbook is evolving. Gone are the days when financial engineering—relying
Find out more
Zanders Transfer Pricing Suite is an innovative, cloud-based solution designed for companies looking to automate the Transfer Pricing compliance of financial transactions. With over five years
Find out more
This paper offers a straightforward analysis of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's standards on crypto asset exposures and their adoption by 2025. It critically assesses
Find out more
In recent years, consumers’ and investors’ interest in sustainability has been growing. Since 2015, assets under management in ESG funds have nearly tripled, the outstanding value of
Find out more
In this report, biodiversity loss ranks as the fourth most pressing concern after climate change adaptation, mitigation failure, and natural disasters. For financial institutions (FIs), it
Find out more
Carbon offset processes are currently dominated by private actors providing legitimacy for the market. The two largest of these, Verra and Gold Standard, provide auditing services, carbon
Find out more
Early October, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) published a report[1] on the 2023 banking turmoil that involved the failure of several US banks as well as Credit Suisse. The
Find out more
The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is not just a standalone product or a conventional module within SAP's suite of ERP systems; rather, it serves as a strategic platform from SAP,
Find out more
Treasurers dealing with multiple jurisdictions, scattered banking landscape, and local requirements face many challenges in this regard. Japan is one of the markets where bank connectivity
Find out more
Seventy banks have been considered, which is an increase of twenty banks compared to the previous exercise. The portfolios of the participating banks contain around three quarters of all EU
Find out more
The CSP helps reinforce the controls protecting participants from cyberattack and ensures their effectivity and that they adhere to the current Swift security requirements. *Swift does not
Find out more
As a result of the growing importance of this transformative technology and its applications, various regulatory initiatives and frameworks have emerged, such as Markets in Crypto-Assets
Find out more
Over the past decades, banks significantly increased their efforts to implement adequate frameworks for managing interest rate risk in the banking book (IRRBB). These efforts typically focus
Find out more
The Basel IV reforms, which are set to be implemented on 1 January 2025 via amendments to the EU Capital Requirement Regulation, have introduced changes to the Standardized Approach for
Find out more
With the introduction of the updated Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR3), which has entered into force on 9 July 2024, the European Union's financial landscape is poised for significant
Find out more
The heightened fluctuations observed in the commodity and energy markets from 2021 to 2022 have brought Treasury's role in managing these risks into sharper focus. While commodity prices
Find out more
VaR has been one of the most widely used risk measures in banks for decades. However, due to the non-additive nature of VaR, explaining the causes of changes to VaR has always been
Find out more
The Covid-19 pandemic triggered unprecedented market volatility, causing widespread failures in banks' internal risk models. These backtesting failures threatened to increase capital
Find out more
Challenges with backtesting Expected Shortfall Recent regulations are increasingly moving toward the use of Expected Shortfall (ES) as a measure to capture risk. Although ES fixes many
Find out more
Across the whole of Europe, banks apply different techniques to model their IFRS9 Expected Credit Losses on a best estimate basis. The diverse spectrum of modelling techniques raises the
Find out more
As organizations continue to adapt to the rapidly changing business landscape, one of the most pivotal shifts is the migration of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to the cloud.
Find out more
While many business and SAP users are familiar with its core functionalities, such as limit management applying different limit types and the core functionality of attributable amount
Find out more
In brief: Prevailing uncertainty in geopolitical, economic and regulatory environments demands a more dynamic approach to default modelling. Traditional methods such as logistic
Find out more
The recent periods of commodity price volatility have brought commodity risk management to the spotlight in numerous companies, where commodities constitute a substantial component of the
Find out more
In brief Prepayment modelling can help institutions successfully prepare for and navigate a rise in prepayments due to changes in the financial landscape. Two important prepayment
Find out more
The corporate landscape is continuously reshaped by strategic realignments such as mergers, divestments, and other M&A activities, wherein a company divests a portion of its business
Find out more
The evolving economic landscape has placed a spotlight on the critical role of treasury in value creation. Our latest roundtable, themed ‘Treasury’s Role in Value Creation,’ delved
Find out more
This article highlights key points mentioned in our whitepaper: Treasury 4.x - The age of productivity, performance and steering. You can download the full whitepaper here. Summary:
Find out more
Whether a corporate operates through a decentralized model, shared service center or even global business services model, identifying which invoices a customer has paid and in some cases,
Find out more
The final article from Zanders on the DRM model presents the lifecycle of the DRM model over a single hedge accounting period and the prospective and retrospective assessments that are
Find out more
The corporate treasury agenda continues to focus on cash visibility, liquidity centralization, bank/bank account rationalization, and finally digitization to enable greater operational and
Find out more
The Basel IV reforms published in 2017 will enter into force on January 1, 2025, with a phase-in period of 5 years. These are probably the most important reforms banks will go through
Find out more
We are excited to announce that Zanders has been listed on the Swift Customer Security Programme (CSP) Assessment Providers directory*.
The CSP helps reinforce the controls protecting participants from cyberattack and ensures their effectivity and that they adhere to the current Swift security requirements.
*Swift does not certify, warrant, endorse or recommend any service provider listed in its directory and Swift customers are not required to use providers listed in the directory.
A new attestation must be submitted at least once a year between July and December, and also any time a change in architecture or compliance status occurs. Customer attestation and independent assessment of the CSCF v2023 version is now open and valid until 31 December 2023. July 2023 also marks the release of Swifts CSCF v2024 for early consultation, which is valid until 31 December 2024.
Swift introduced the Customer Security Programme to promote cybersecurity amongst its customers with the core component of the CSP being the Customer Security Controls Framework (CSCF). Independent assessment has been introduced as a prerequisite for attestation to enhance the integrity, consistency, and accuracy of attestations. Each year, Swift releases an updated version of the CSCF that needs to be attested to with support of an independent assessment.
The Attestation is a declaration of compliance with the Swift Customer Security Controls Policy and is submitted via the Swift KYC-SA tool. Dependent on the Swift Architecture used, the number of controls to be implemented vary; of which certain are mandatory, and others advisory.
Further details on the Swift CSCF can be found on their website:
Do you have arrangements in place to complete the independent assessment required to support the attestation?
Zanders has experience with and can support the completion of an independent external assessment of your compliance to the Swift Customer Security Control Framework that can then be used to fully complete and sign-off the Swift attestation for this year.
With an extensive track record of designing and deploying bank integrations, our intricate knowledge of treasury systems across both IT architecture as well as business processes positions us well to be a trusted independent assessor. We draw on past projects and assessments to ask the right questions during the assessment phase, aligning our customers with the framework provided by Swift.
The Swift attestation can also form part of a wider initiative to further optimise your banking landscape, whether that be increasing the use of Swift within your organisation, bank rationalization or improving your existing processes. The availability of your published attestation and its possible consultation with counterparties (upon request) helps equally in performing day-to-day risk management.
Planning
We start with rigorous planning of the assessment project, developing a scope of work and planning resources accordingly. Our team of experts will work with clients to formulate an Impact Assessment based on the most recent version of the Swift Customer Security Controls Framework.
Architecture Classification
A key part of our support will be working with the client to formulate a comprehensive overview of the system architecture and identify the applicable controls dictated by the CSCF.
Perform Assessment
Using our wide-ranging experience, we will test the individual controls against specific scenarios designed to root out any weaknesses and document evidence of their compliance or where they can be improved.
Independent Assessment Report
Based on the evidence collected, we will prepare an Independent Assessment report which includes status of the compliance against individual controls, baselining them against the CSCF and recommendations for improvement areas within the system architecture.
Post Assessment Activities
Once completed, the Independent Assessment report will support you with the submission of the Attestation in line with the requirements of the CSCF version in force, which is required annually by Swift. In tandem, Zanders can deliver a plan for implementation of the recommendations within the report to ensure compliance with current and future years’ attestations. Swift expects controls compliance annually, together with the submission of the attestation by 31 December at the latest, in order to avoid being reported to your supervisor. Non-compliant status is visible to your counterparties.
We are thrilled to offer a Swift CSP Independent Assessment service and look forward to supporting our clients with their attestations, continuing their commitment to protecting the integrity of the Swift network, and in doing so supporting their businesses too. If you are interested in learning more about our services, please contact us directly.
We are excited to announce that Zanders has been listed on the Swift Customer Security Programme (CSP) Assessment Providers directory*.
The most popular financial instruments in this regard are sustainability-linked loans and bonds. But more recently, corporates also started to focus on ESG-related derivatives. In short, these derivatives provide corporates with a financial incentive to improve their ESG performance, for instance by linking it to a sustainable KPI. This article aims to provide some guidance on the impact of regulation around ESG-related derivatives.
As covered in our first ESG-related derivatives article, a broad spectrum of instruments is included in this asset class, the most innovative ones being emission trading derivatives, renewable energy and fuel derivatives, and sustainability-linked derivatives (SLDs).
Currently, market participants and regulatory bodies are assessing if, and how new types of derivatives fit into existing derivatives regulation. In this regard, European and UK regulators are at the forefront of the regulatory review to foster activity and ensure safety of financial markets. Since it’s especially challenging for market participants to comprehend the impact of these regulations and the valuation implications of SLDs, we aim to provide guidance to corporates on these matters, with a special focus on the implications for corporate treasury.
When issuing an SLD, it’s important to understand which category the respective SLD falls in. That is, whether the SLD incorporates KPIs and the impact of cashflows in the derivatives instrument (category 1), or if the KPIs and related cashflows are stated in a separate agreement, in which the underlying derivatives transaction is mentioned for setting the reference amount to compute the KPI-linked cashflow (category 2). This categorization makes it easier to understand the regulations applying to the SLD, and the implications of those regulations.
In general, a category 1 SLD will be classified as derivative under European and UK regulations, and swap under US regulations, if the underlying financial contract is already classified as such. The addition of KPI elements to the underlying financial instrument is unlikely to change that classification.
Whether a category 2 SLD is classified as a derivative or swap is somewhat more complicated. In Europe, this type of SLD is classified as a derivative if it falls within the MIFID II catch-all provision, which must be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Overall, instruments that are classified as derivatives in Europe will also be classified as such in the UK. But to elaborate, a category 2 SLD will classified as a derivative in the UK if the payments of the financial instrument vary based on fluctuations in the KPIs.
When a category 2 SLD is issued in the US, it will only be classified as a swap if KPI-linked payments within the financial agreement go in two directions. Even if that is the case, the SLD may still be eligible for the status as commercial agreement outside of swaps regulation, but that is specific to facts and circumstances.
Apart from the classification as derivative or swap, it is also helpful to determine whether an SLD could be considered a hedging contract, so that it is eligible for hedging exemptions. The requirements for this are similar in Europe, the UK, and the US. Generally, category 1 SLDs are considered hedging contracts if the underlying instruments still follow the purpose of hedging commercial risks, after the KPI is incorporated. Category 2 SLDs are normally issued to meet sustainability goals, instead of hedging purposes. Therefore, it is unlikely that this category of SLDs will be classified as hedging contracts.
Regulation & valuation implications
When issuing an SLD that is classified as a derivative or swap, there are several regulatory and valuation implications relevant to treasury. These implications can be split up in six types which we will now explain in more detail. The six types (risk management, reporting, disclosure, benchmark-related considerations, prudential requirements, and valuation) are similar for corporates across Europe, the UK, and the US, unless otherwise mentioned.
Risk management
As is the case for other derivatives and swaps, corporate treasuries must meet confirmation requirements, undertake portfolio reconciliation, and perform portfolio compression for SLDs. Additionally, regulated companies are required to construct effective risk procedures for risk management, which includes documenting all risks associated with KPI-linked cashflows. While these points might be business as usual, it must also be determined if and how KPI-linked cashflows should be modeled for valuation obligations that apply to derivatives and swaps. For instance, initial margin models might need to be adjusted for SLDs, so they capture KPI-linked risks accurately.
Reporting
Corporate treasuries must report SLDs to trade repositories in Europe and the UK, and to swap data repositories in the US. Since these repositories require companies to report in line with prescriptive frameworks that do not specifically cover SLDs, it should be considered how to report KPI-linked features. As this is currently not clearly defined, issuers of SLDs are advised to discuss the establishment of clear reporting guidelines for this financial instrument with regulators and repositories. A good starting point for this could be the mark-to-market or mark-to-model valuation part of the EMIR reporting regulations.
Disclosure
Only Treasuries of European financial entities will be involved in meeting disclosure requirements of SLDs, as the legislation in the UK and US is behind on Europe in this respect, and non-financial market participants are not as strictly regulated. From January 2023, the second phase of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) will be in place, which requires financial companies to report periodically, and provide pre-contractual disclosures on SLDs. Treasuries of investment firms and portfolio managers are ought to contribute to this by reporting on sustainability-related impact of the SLDs compared to the impact of reference index and broad market index with sustainability indicators. In addition, they could leverage their knowledge of financial instruments to evaluate the probable impacts of sustainability risks on the returns of the SLDs.
Benchmark-related implications
In case the KPI of an SLD references or includes an index, it could be defined as a benchmark under European and UK legislation. In such cases, treasuries are advised to follow the same policy they have in place for benchmarks incorporated in other brown derivatives. Specific benchmark regulations in the US are currently non-existent, however, many US benchmark administrators maintain policies in compliance with the same principles as where the European and UK benchmark legislation is built on.
Prudential requirements
Since treasury departments of corporates around the world are required to calculate risk-weighted exposures for derivatives transactions as well as non-derivatives transactions, this is not different for SLDs. While there is currently little guidance on this for SLDs explicitly, that may change in the near future, as US prudential regulators are assessing the nature of the risk that is being assumed with in-scope market participants.
Valuation
The SLD market is still in its infancy, with SLD contracts being drawn up are often specific to the company issuing it, and therefore tailor made. The trading volume must go up, trade datasets are to be accurately maintained, and documentation should be standardized on a global scale for the market to reach transparency and efficiency. This will lead to the possibility of accurate pricing and reliable cashflow management of this financial instrument and increases the ability to hedge the ESG component.
As aforementioned, the ESG-related derivatives market and the SLD market within it are still in the development phase. Therefore, regulations and their implications will evolve swiftly. However, the key points to consider for corporate treasury when issuing an SLD presented in this article can prove to be a good starting point for meeting regulatory requirements as well as developing accurate valuation methodology. This is important, since these derivatives transactions will be crucial for facilitating the lending, investment and debt issuance required to meet the ESG ambitions of Europe, the UK, and the US.
For more information on ESG issues, please contact Joris van den Beld or Sander van Tol.
Everyone understands the importance of data in an organization. After all, data is the new oil in terms of its value to a corporate treasury and indeed the wider organization. However, not everyone is aware of how best to utilize data. This article will tell you.
Why does this aim matter? Well, in this age of digitization, almost every aspect of the business has a digital footprint. Some significantly more than the others. This presents a unique opportunity where potentially all information can be reliably processed to take tactical and strategic decisions from a position of knowledge. Good data can facilitate hedging, forecasting and other key corporate activities. Having said all that, care must also be taken to not drown in the data lake1 and become over-burdened with useless information. Take the example of Amazon in 2006 when it reported that cross-selling attributed for 35% of their revenue2. This strategy looked at data from shopping carts and recommended other items that may be of interest to the consumer. The uplift in sales was achieved only because Amazon made the best use of their data.
Treasury is no exception. It too can become data-driven thanks to its access to multiple functions and information flows. There are numerous ways to access and assess multiple sets of data (see Figure 1), thereby finding solutions to some of the perennial problems facing any organization that wants to mitigate or harness risk, study behavior, or optimize its finances and cashflow to better shape its future.
The practical business use cases that can be realized by harnessing data in the Treasury often revolve around mastering the time function. Cash optimization, pooling for interest and so on often depend on a good understanding of time – even risk hedging strategies can depend on the seasons, for instance, if we’re talking about energy usage.
When we look at the same set of data from a time perspective, it can be used for three different purposes:
I. Understand the ‘The Past’ – to determine what transpired,
II. Ascertain ‘The Present’ situation,
III. Predict ‘The Future’ based on probable scenarios and business projections.
Confucius
The data in an organization is the undeniable proof of what transpired in the past. This fact makes it ideal to perform analysis through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), perform statistical analysis on bank wallet distribution & fee costs, and it can also help to find the root cause of any irregularities in the payments arena. Harnessing historical data can also positively impact hedging strategies.
M Gandhi
Data when analyzed in real-time can keep stakeholders updated and more importantly provide a substantial basis for taking better informed tactical decisions. Things like exposure, limits & exceptions management, intra-day cash visibility or near real-time insight/access to global cash positions all benefit, as does payment statuses which are particularly important for day-to-day treasury operations.
Abraham Lincoln
There are various areas where an organization would like to know how it would perform under changing conditions. Simulating outcomes and running future probable scenarios can help firms prepare better for the near and long-term future.
These forecast analyses broadly fall under two categories:
Historical data: assumes that history repeats itself. Predictive analytics on forecast models therefore deliver results.
Probabilistic modelling: this creates scenarios for the future based on the best available knowledge in the present.
Some of the more standard uses of forecasting capabilities include:
Working capital forecasting is also relevant, but has typically been a complex process. The predication accuracy can be improved by analyzing historical trends and business projections of variables like receivables, liabilities, payments, collections, sales, and so on. These can feed the forecasting algorithms. In conjunction with analysis of cash requirements in each business through studying the trends in key variables like balances, intercompany payments and receipts, variance between forecasts and actuals, this approach can lead to more accurate working capital management.
Tim Berners-Lee
There can be many uses of data. Some may not be linked directly to the workings of the treasury or may not even have immediate tangible benefits, although they might in the future for comparative purposes. That is why data is like a gold mine that is waiting to be explored. However, accessing it and making it usable is a challenging proposition. It needs a roadmap.
The most important thing that can be done in the beginning is to perform a gap analysis of the data ecosystem in an organization and to develop a data strategy, which would embed importance of data into the organization’s culture. This would then act as a catalyst for treasury and organizational transformation to reach the target state of being data-driven.
The below roadmap offers a path to corporates that want to consistently make the best use of one of their most critical and under-appreciated resources – namely, data.
We have seen examples like Amazon and countless others where organizations have become data- driven and are reaping the benefits. The same can be said about some of the best treasury departments we at Zanders have interacted with. They are already creating substantial value by analyzing and making the optimum use of their digital footprint. The best part is that they are still on their journey to find better uses of data and have never stopped innovating.
The only thing that one should be asking now is: “Do we have opportunities to look at our digital footprint and create value (like Amazon did), and how soon can we act on it?”
Everyone understands the importance of data in an organization. After all, data is the new oil in terms of its value to a corporate treasury and indeed the wider organization. However, not everyone is aware of how best to utilize data. This article will tell you.
Since the first sustainability-linked derivative was executed in 2019, market participants have entered into a variety of ESG-related derivatives and products. In this article we provide you with an overview of the different ESG derivatives. We will touch upon the regulatory and valuation implications of this relatively new derivative class in a subsequent article, which will be published later this year.
Driven by regulatory pressure and public scrutiny, corporates have been increasingly looking for ways to manage their sustainability footprint. As a result of a blooming ESG funding market, the role of derivatives to help meet sustainability goals has grown. ESG-related derivatives cover a broad spectrum of derivative products such as forwards, futures and swaps. Five types (see figure 1) of derivatives related to ESG can be identified; of which three are currently deemed most relevant from an ESG perspective.
The first category consists of traditional derivatives such as interest rate swaps or cross currency swaps that are linked to a sustainable funding instrument. The derivative as such does not contain a sustainability element.
Sustainability-linked derivatives are agreements between two counterparties (let’s assume a bank and a corporate) which contain a commitment of the corporate counterparty to achieve specific sustainability performance targets. When the sustainability performance targets are met by the corporate during the lifetime of the derivative, a discount is applied by the bank to the hedging instrument. When the targets are not met, a premium is added. Usually, banks invest the premium they receive in sustainable projects or investments. Sustainability-linked derivative transactions are highly customizable and use tailor-made KPIs to determine sustainability goals. Sustainability-linked derivatives provide market participants with a financial incentive to improve their ESG performance. An example is Enel’s sustainability-linked cross currency swap, which was executed in July 2021 to hedge their USD/EUR exchange rate and interest rate exposures.
Other ESG-related derivatives support meeting sustainable business models and consist of trading carbon offsets, emission trading derivatives, and renewable energy and renewable fuels derivatives, amongst others. Contrary to sustainability-linked derivatives, the use of proceeds of ESG-related derivatives are allocated to specific ESG-related purposes. For example, emissions trading is a market-based approach to reduce pollution by setting a (geographical) limit on the amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted. It consists of a limit or cap on pollution and tradable instruments that authorize holders to emit a specific quantity of the respective greenhouse gas. Market participants can trade derivatives based on emission allowances on exchanges or OTC markets as spots, forwards, futures and option contracts. The market consists of mandatory compliance schemes and voluntary emission reduction programs.
Another type of ESG-related derivatives are renewable energy and renewable fuel hedging transactions, which are a valuable tool for market participants to hedge risks associated with fluctuations in renewable energy production. These ESG-related credit derivatives encourage more capital to be contributed to renewable energy projects. Examples are Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) futures, wind index futures and low carbon fuel standard futures.
ESG-related CDS products can be used to manage the credit risk of a counterparty when financial results may be impacted by climate change or, more indirectly, if results are affected due to substitution of a specific product/service. An example of this could be in the airline industry where short-haul flights may be replaced by train travel. Popularity of ESG-related CDS products will probably increase with the rising perception that companies with high ESG ratings exhibit low credit risk.
Catastrophe and weather derivatives are insurance-like products as well. Both markets have existed for several decades and are used to hedge exposures to weather or natural disasters. Catastrophe derivatives are financial instruments that allow for transferral of natural disaster risk between market participants. These derivatives are traded on OTC markets and enable protection from enormous potential losses following from natural disasters such as earthquakes to be obtained. The World Bank has designed catastrophe swaps that support the transfer of risks related to natural disasters by emerging countries to capital markets. An example if this is the swap issued for the Philippines in 2017. Weather derivatives are financial instruments that derive their value from weather-related factors such as temperature and wind. There derivatives are used to mitigate risks associated with adverse or unexpected weather conditions and are most commonly used in the food and agriculture industry.
ESG-related credit derivatives would be best applied by organizations with credit exposures to certain industries and financial institutions. Despite the link to an environmental element, we do not consider catastrophe bonds and weather derivatives as a sustainability-linked derivative. Neither is it an innovative, new product that is applicable to corporates in various sectors.
Truly innovative products are sustainability-linked derivatives, voluntary emissions trading and renewable energy and fuel derivatives. These products strengthen a corporate’s commitment to meet sustainability targets or support investments in sustainable initiatives. A lack of sustainability regulation for derivatives raises the question to what extent these innovative products are sustainable on their own? An explicit incentive for financial institutions to execute ESG-related derivatives, such as a capital relief, is currently absent. This implies that any price advantage will be driven by supply and demand.
Corporate Treasury should ensure they consider the implications of using ESG-related derivatives that affect the cashflows of derivatives transactions. Examples of possible regulatory obligations consist of valuation requirements, dispute resolution and reporting requirements. Since ESG-related derivatives and products are here to stay, Zanders recommends that corporate treasurers closely monitor the added value of specific instruments, as well as the regulatory, tax and accounting implications. Part II of this series, later in the year, will focus on the regulatory and valuation implications of this relatively new derivative class.
For more information on ESG issues, please contact Sander van Tol.
Everyone understands the importance of data in an organization. After all, data is the new oil in terms of its value to a corporate treasury and indeed the wider organization. However, not everyone is aware of how best to utilize data. This article will tell you.
Figure 1 – Launchpad BankApplications
The advantages of using the full version of BAM are multiple, but below we highlight three of the main reasons full BAM is a must have for the companies using one or multiple SAP environments.
Maintenance of bank account data can trigger workflows based on the organization’s requirements and the approval processes in place. With the workflows the segregation of duties can be enforced when maintaining a bank account.
Even though workflows are not a new functionality in S/4HANA, the fact that workflow templates are available and can be amended by defining preconditions, step sequences and recipients improves the approval process of bank accounts.
The workflows can be created and activated as completely new ones or based on the already existing templates . You can create a new workflow by copying an existing one and updating the parameters according to the new requirements.
All the requests to release or approve bank account changes are available as of S/4HANA 2020 in the My Inbox for Bank Accounts app, the dedicated inbox app where users can check the status of each request initiated by the users themselves or sent to them and act upon.
One of the challenges multiple organizations have, especially those operating various SAP environments, is data synchronization and replication. We often come across situations when banks, house banks and bank accounts are not maintained in all relevant environments creating data inconsistencies and making processes more difficult than they already are.
One of the ways of avoiding these types of situations is by replicating banks, house banks and bank accounts from production to quality assurance and to development environments using standard Idocs.
Figure 2 – Bank data replication in S/4 HANA
If the organization is operating on multiple SAP and non-SAP instances and running processes in a S/4 HANA side-car solution, the challenge of maintaining banks, house banks and bank accounts grows exponentially. Distributing the data via Idocs will not only keep all the systems coordinated, it will also decrease the amount of manual work and avoid situations when processes fail because of delays in keeping the data up to date in all relevant environments.
Figure 3 -Bank data replication across multiple environments
Cash pooling structures can easily be set up by the user and in this way the BAM solution is integrated with the process of making cash management transfers.
Even though the cash pooling and cash concentration in S/4HANA are managed using five different apps (shown in the figure below), the actual structure of the cash pool is defined directly in the Manage Bank Accounts app (Cash Pool tab).
Figure 4 – Five apps to manage cash pooling and cash concentration in S/4HANA
In the Cash Pool tab, the user can define the cash pool structure as per each company’s requirements. It is important to keep in mind the fact that a bank account can be assigned only to two different cash pools: once as the header account of a cash pool, and once in a different cash pool, as a subaccount.
The cash pools created in the system are not restricted to one company code but can be defined using various currency accounts belonging to multiple company codes. For each of the bank accounts included in a cash pool, a target balance as well as a minimum transfer amount can be defined in the Cash Pool tab of the Manage Bank Accounts app, with the mention that both (target balance as well as minimum transfer amounts) must be defined in the bank account currency.
During the cash concentration process, when bank transfers are generated, the payment methods defined in this tab will be picked up. Therefore, if required, two different payment methods can be assigned; the first for the structure where the bank account is acting as a header account and the second for the one where the account in scope is a subaccount. To pick them up from the drop-down list, the assigned payment methods must be initially setup in the system.
Maintaining banks, house banks and bank accounts can be a difficult task especially in large organizations operating with different SAP and non-SAP environments. It can be time-consuming; it can involve multiple people from different parts of the organization (IT, master data, cash and banking etc.) and it can easily be prone to errors and mismatches if not correctly maintained and synchronized. Having one single source of truth for the bank accounts – which is easy to maintain, user-friendly, with appropriate controls in place and reporting capabilities, easy to replicate the data across different environments and which allows the user to create and maintain not only the bank accounts but also the cash pool structures – can save time, resources and simplify processes.
Everyone understands the importance of data in an organization. After all, data is the new oil in terms of its value to a corporate treasury and indeed the wider organization. However, not everyone is aware of how best to utilize data. This article will tell you.
Whilst over the previous years, many corporates have endeavoured to move towards a single ERP system. There are many corporates who operate in a multi-ERP landscape and will continue to do so. This is particularly the case amongst corporates who have grown rapidly, potentially through acquisitions, or that operate across different business areas. SAP’s Central Finance caters for centralized financial reporting for these multi-ERP businesses. SAP’s APM similarly caters for businesses with a range of payment sources, centralizing into a single payment channel.
SAP APM acts as a central payment processing engine, connecting with SAP Bank Communication Management and Multi-Bank Connectivity for sending of external payment Instructions. For internal payments & payments-on-behalf-of, data is fed to SAP In-House Cash. Whilst at the same time, data is transmitted to S/4 HANA Cash Management to give centralized cash forecast data.
Figure 1 – SAP S/4 HANA Advanced Payment Management – Credit SAP
The framework of this product was built up as SAP Payment Engine, which is used for the processing of payment instructions at banking institutions. On this basis, it is a robust product, and will cater for the key requirements of corporate payment hubs, and much more beyond.
When building a business case for a centralized payment hub, it is important to look at the full range of the payment sources. This can include accounts payable/receivable (AP/AR) payments, but should also consider one-off (manual) payments, Treasury payments, as well as HR payments such as payroll. Whilst payroll is often outsourced, SAP APM can be a good opportunity to integrate payroll into a corporate’s own payment landscape (with the necessary controls of course!).
Using a centralized payment hub will help to reduce implementation time for new payment sources, which may be different ERPs. In particular, the ability of SAP APMs Input Manager to consume non-standard payment file formats helps to make this a smooth implementation process.
SAP APM applies a level of consistency across all payments and allows for a common payment control framework to be applied across the full range of payment sources.
A strength of the product is its flexible payment routing, which allows for payment routing to be adjusted according to the business need. This does not require specialist IT configuration or re-routing. It enables corporates to change their payment framework according to the need of the business, without the dependency on configuration and technology changes.
A central payment hub means no more direct bank integrations. This is particularly important for those businesses that operate in a multi-ERP environment, where the burden can be particularly heavy.
Lastly, as with most SAP products, this product benefits from native integration into modules that corporates may already be using. Payment data can be transferred directly into SAP In-House Cash using standard functionality in order to reflect intercompany positions. The richest level of data is presented to S/4 HANA Cash Management to provide accurate and up-to-date cash forecast data for Treasury front office.
SAP APM accommodates four different scenarios:
| Scenario | Description |
| Internal transfer | Payment from one subsidiaries internal account to the internal account of another |
| Payment on-behalf-of | Payment to external party from the internal account of a subsidiary |
| Payment in-name of | Payment to external party from the external account of a subsidiary. The derivation of the external account is performed in APM. |
| Payment in-name-of – forwarding only | Payment to external party from the external account of a subsidiary. The external account is pre-determined in the incoming payment instruction. |
An ERP sends a payment instruction to the APM system via iDoc. This is consumed by the input manager, creating a payment order that is ready to be processed.
Figure 3 – Creation of Incoming Payment Order in APM
The payment order will normally be automatically processed immediately upon receipt. First the enrichment & validation checks are executed, which validate the integrity of the payment Instruction.
The payment routing is then executed for each payment item, according to the source payment data. The Payment Routing importantly selects the appropriate house bank account for payment and can be used to determine the prioritization of payments, as well as the method of clearing.
In the case of a payment-on-behalf-of, an external route will be used for the credit payment item to the third party vendor, whilst an internal route will be used to update SAP In-House Cash for the intercompany position.
Figure 4 – Maintenance of Routes
Clearing can be executed in batches, via queues or individual processing. The internal clearing for the debit payment item must be executed into SAP In-House Cash in order to reflect the intercompany position built up. The internal clearing for the credit payment Item can be fed into the general ledger of the paying entity.
Figure 5 – Update of In-House Cash for Payment-On-Behalf or Internal Transfer Scenarios
Outgoing payment orders are created once the routing & clearing is completed. At this stage, any further enrichment & validation can be executed and the data will be delivered to the output manager. The output manager has native integration with SAP’s DMEE Payment Engine, which can be used to produce an ISO20022 payment instruction file.
Figure 6 – Payment Instruction in SAP Bank Communication Management
The outgoing payment instruction is now visible in the centralized payment status monitor in SAP Bank Communication Management.
The full processing status of the payment is visible in SAP APM, including the points of data transfer.
Figure 7 – SAP APM Process Flow
SAP APM is comprised of 4 key function areas:
Figure 2 – SAP Advanced Payment Management Framework – Credit SAP
The input manager can flexibly import payment instruction data into APM. Standard converters exist for iDoc Payment Instructions (PEXR2002/PEXR2003 PAYEXT), ISO20022 (Pain.001.01.03) as well as for SWIFT MT101 messages. However, it is possible to configure new input formats that would cater for systems that may only be able to produce flat file formats.
Enrichment and validation can be used to perform integrity checks on payment items during the processing through APM. These checks could include checks for duplicate payment instructions. This feeds an initial set of data to S/4 HANA Cash Management (prior to routing) and can be used to return payment status messages (Pain.002) to the sending payment system.
Agreement-based routing is used to determine the selection of external accounts. This payment routing is highly flexible and permits the routing of payments according to criteria such as amounts and, beneficiary countries. The routing incorporates cut-off time logic and determines the priority of the payment as well as the sending bank account. This stage is not used for “forwarding-only” scenarios, where there is no requirement to determine the subsidiaries house bank account in the APM platform.
Clearing involves the sending of payment data after routing to S/4 HANA Cash Management, in-house cash and onto the general ledger. According to selected route, payments can be cleared individually, or grouped into batches.
Further enrichment & validation can be performed, and external payments are routed via the output manager, which can re-use DMEE payment engines to produce payment files. These payment files can be monitored in SAP Bank Communication Management and delivered to the bank via SAP Multi-Bank Connectivity.
Everyone understands the importance of data in an organization. After all, data is the new oil in terms of its value to a corporate treasury and indeed the wider organization. However, not everyone is aware of how best to utilize data. This article will tell you.
But one stumbling block was left in the design: each bank account master requires a dedicated set of general ledger (G/L) accounts, on which the balances are reflected (the master account) and through which transactions are posted (clearing accounts). Very often organizations define unique GL account for each house bank account (alternatively, generic G/L accounts are sometimes used, like “USD bank account 1”), so creation of a new bank account in the system involves coordination with two other teams:
Due to this maintenance process dependency, even with the new BAM, the creation of a new house bank account remained a tedious and lengthy process. Therefore, many organizations still keep the house bank account management within their IT support process also on S/4HANA releases, negating the very idea of BAM as master data.
To overcome this limitation and to put all steps in the bank account management life cycle in the ownership of the treasury team completely, in the most recent S/4HANA release (2009) SAP has introduced a new G/L account type: “Cash account”. G/L accounts of this new bank reconciliation account type are used in the bank account master data in a similar way as the already established reconciliation G/L accounts are used in customer and vendor master data. However, two new specific features had to be introduced to support the new approach:
In the same release, there are two other features introduced in the bank account management:
The impact of this new design on treasury process efficiency probably makes you already excited. So, what does it take to switch from the old to the new setup?
Luckily, the new approach can be activated on the level of every single bank account in the Bank account management master data, or even not used at all. Related functionalities can follow both old and new approaches side-by-side and you have time to switch the bank accounts to the new setup gradually. The G/L account type cannot be changed on a used account, therefore new G/L accounts have to be created and the balances moved in accounting on the cut-over date. However, this is necessary only for the G/L account masters. Outstanding payments do not prevent the switch, as the payment would follow the new reconciliation account logic upon activation. Specific challenges exist in the cheque payment scenario, but here SAP offers a fallback clearing scenario feature, to make sure the switch to the new design is smooth.
How to setup virtual accounts in SAP, part III. In the previous part of this series on ‘How to setup virtual accounts in SAP’, we delved into the details of a scenario where virtual accounts are managed on GL account level using SAP FI module only. This article investigates how SAP In-house cash (SAP IHC) module can be used to manage virtual accounts in your ERP.
The process where virtual accounts are managed in IHC is depicted below:
In this process, we rely on a simple set of building blocks:
The idea here is that Treasury will receive the external bank statement and automatically post the receipts into the correct IHC account using the identifier. By posting items on the IHC account, the intercompany positions are updated. Then, at the end of the day, a set of internal bank statements is generated in IHC and sent through an interface to the OpCo’s ERP. The OpCo’s ERP processes these statements, clears out the customers invoices and updates the IC position with treasury.
The two major benefits of using IHC over the solution as described in the previous articles of this series are:
In the explanation below we assume that the basic FI-CO settings for the company code a.o. are already in place. Also, it is by no means a complete inventory of all the settings that are required to get IHC up and running. It focusses more on the configurational parts that specifically cater for the VA requirements specifically.
Three sets of GL accounts need to be created: balance sheet accounts for the representation of the intercompany positions, one set for virtual account clearing purposes between the EBS and the IHC accounting process, and the GL account to represent the cash position with the external bank. These GL accounts need to be assigned to the appropriate company codes and can now be used to in the bank statement import process and the IHC accounting process.
In the Treasury entity we should create a single GL (per position currency) representing the IC position with all its OpCo’s because the granularity of IC position per OpCo is managed in the IHC subledger. This approach results in less of an increase of accounts in the chart of account.
Transaction code FS00
In order to be able to process bank statements and generate GL postings in your SAP system, we need to maintain the house bank data first. A house bank entry comprises of the following information that needs to be maintained carefully:
Transaction code FI12
Secondly, under the house bank entry, the bank accounts can be created, including:
Transaction code FI12 in SAP ECC or NWBC in S/4 HANA
The idea here is that we maintain one house bank and bank account in the treasury company code that represents the Master account as held with your house bank. This house bank will have the G/L account assigned to it that represents the house banks external cash position.
In each of the OpCo’s company codes, we maintain one house bank and bank account that represents each of the IHC bank accounts as held with the treasury center. This house bank will have the G/L account assigned to it that represents the intercompany position with the Treasury entity.
The electronic bank statement (EBS) settings will ensure that, based on the information present on the bank statement, SAP is capable of posting the items into the general or sub ledgers according to the requirements. There are a few steps in the configuration process that are important for this to work:
1) Posting rule construction
Posting rules construction starts with setting up Account symbols and assigning GL accounts to it. The idea here is to define at two account symbols, the first one to represent the external Cash position (BANK), and the second one for the virtual account clearing between IHC and EBS (VACLR)
A separate account symbol for customers is not required in SAP.
For the account symbol for BANK we do not assign a GL account number directly in the settings; instead we will assign a so-called mask by entering the value “+++++++++”. What this does in SAP is for every time the posting rule attempts to post to “BANK”, the GL account as assigned in the house bank account settings is used (FI12 or NWBC setting above).
For the account symbol VACLR we can assign a dedicated O/I clearing GL that is used to clear out the EBS posting against the IHC posting (more on that later). These GL accounts should have already been created in the first step (FS00).
Now that we have the account symbols prepared, we can start tying together these symbols into posting rules. We need to create 3 posting rules.
Posting rule 1 is going to debit the BANK symbol and it is going to credit VACLR symbol
Posting rule 2 is going to debit the BANK symbol and it is going to credit a BLANK symbol. The posting type however is going the be set to value 8 “Clear Credit Subledger Account”. What this setting is going to attempt is to clear out any open item sitting in the customer sub-ledger using algorithms. We will explain more on these algorithms below.
As you can imagine, posting rule 1 is applicable for the Treasury entity. Posting rule 2 is going to be used in the OpCo’s EBS process.
Transaction code OT83
2) Posting rule assignment
In the next step we can assign the posting rules to the so-called “Bank Transaction Codes” (or BTC’s like NTRF) that are typically observed in the body of the bank statements to identify the nature of the transactions.
To understand under which Bank Transaction Code these collections are reported on the statement, you typically need to carefully analyze some sample statement output or check with your bank’s implementation team for feedback.
Important to note here is to assign an algorithm to posting rule 2. This algorithm will attempt to search the payment notes of the bank statement for “reference numbers” which it can use to trace back the original customer invoice open item. Once SAP has identified the correct outstanding invoice, it can clear this one off and identify it as being paid.
If SAP is unsuccessful to automatically identify the open item, it can be manually post processed in FEBAN or FEB_BSPROC.
Transaction code OT83
3) Bank account assignment
In the last part, we can assign the posting rules assignments to the bank accounts. This way we can differentiate different rule assignments for different accounts if that is needed.
Transaction code OT83
4) Search strings
If the posting rule assignment needs more granularity than the level provided in step 2 above (on BTC level), we can setup search strings. Search strings can be configured to look at the payment notes section of the bank statement and find certain fixed text or patterns of text. Based on such search strings, we can then modify the posting behavior by for instance overruling the posting rule assignment as defined in step 2.
Whether this is required depends on the level of information that is provided by the bank in its bank statements.
Transaction code OTPM
In IHC there are two ways to parallel post bank statement items into IHC accounts; as payment items or as payment orders.
This can be controlled by setting a specific function module on BTE2810. If we set function module “BKK_IHB_BASTA_IN_POST”, SAP will post an IHC payment item. If we assign “IHC_APPL_XBS_POST”, SAP will post an IHC payment order.
Additional information can be found in note 2370212.
In the subsequent part of the article we assume that we use the payment item logic.
Transaction BF42
In this section of the configuration we can determine which IHC account should be used to post the bank statement items towards using payment notes search strings.
For example, if the master account bank statement payment notes for VA collections for a particular VA contains a string “From VA 54353” and we know this belongs to IHC account “F4000EUR01”, we can setup a rule in this part of the configuration for that. This will ensure that all items on a bank statement containing this text string will get posted into IHC account F4000EUR01.
Maintenance view TBKKIHB1
Here we can identify the external banks BTC codes (NTRF, NCMZ a.o.) which are applicable for the VA movements to post into IHC. Secondly, we can identify with which posting category to post them into the IHC accounts.
Once we identified the BTC code related to our VA collections (e.g. NCMZ), we can link them to the correct posting categories here. You could use standard categories 90 (Balancing Ext. Acct (D)) for debits and 91 (Balancing Ext. Acct (C)) for credits.
Alternatively, you can setup and link your own custom posting categories here to more precisely control how our VA collections are posted into IHC. This is out of scope for this article though.
We should now be in good shape to import our first statements. We could download them from our electronic banking platform. We could also be in a situation where we already receive them through some automated H2H interface or even through SWIFT. In any case, the statements need to be imported in SAP. This can be achieved through transaction code FF.5. The most important parameters to understand here are the following:
Once these parameters are maintained in the import variant, the system will start to load the statements and generate the required postings.
Transaction code FF.5 / FEBP
Now that we successfully loaded an external bank statement, we can now check whether the items are posted into the IHC account. This can be done via transaction code F9K3. For each IHC account we can now look at the “Account Turnover” and observe all the VA collections that are posted on the account.
Transaction code F9K3
We need to enable the distribution of internal IHC statements to the OpCo’s ERP on the IHC account master record. This can be achieved via F9K2. On the “Account Statement” tab we can adjust the statement format to “FINSTA” and dispatch type to “ALE” to ensure we are going to send FINSTA statements over an ALE connection. This would be the most common combination; other combinations can be configured and selected here as well.
Transaction code F9K2
Finally, we can configure the system to determine to which system the FINSTA’s need to be send. This can be done in WE20, partner type GP (business partner).
Here we need to setup the outbound parameters for the FINSTA message type. An appropriate port needs to be selected that represents the ERP of the OpCo.
Transaction code WE20
Now that we have some transactions posted on the IHC account and the FINSTA settings enabled, we can trigger the system to send the FINSTA statements to the receiving ERP system. This can be done in F9N7.
Here we can select the correct IHC account and statement date and run the program to generate the FINSTA statement.
Once the finsta is generated and sent to the receiving ERP, it can be processed there via FEBP there.
Transaction code F9N7
This is the third part of a series on how to set up virtual accounts in SAP. Please find below the other articles on this subject:
In a continued effort to ensure we offer our customers the very best in knowledge and skills, Zanders has acquired Fintegral.
In a continued effort to ensure we offer our customers the very best in knowledge and skills, Zanders has acquired Optimum Prime.
You need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information