Treasury Practice

Problem Solved: A global software and services company

Published: Nov 2011

We discover how a corporate treasury team worked with its MMF portal partner – State Street Fund ConnectSM – to achieve a consolidated view of all money fund trades, balances and accruals in real time. The implementation involved full integration with both a treasury workstation and the company’s analytics system.

Problem…

With continuing global market turmoil causing uncertainty about the creditworthiness of banks and other financial institutions, treasurers are increasingly seeking the ability to quantify their exposures to such counterparties quickly and easily. This global software company is no exception.

Using money market funds (MMFs) as a key investment tool, the company was looking to implement an efficient, streamlined process for investing in MMFs that would also recognise the value of direct electronic access to fund providers. According to the software company’s treasury representative, the group had traditionally, “traded via each individual fund provider’s website.” As part of an overall centralisation and efficiency drive, the company wanted to find a way to standardise this process, with the additional objectives of improving financial reporting, internal compliance and exposure management.

An MMF portal was an obvious solution, but the choice of portal provider was crucial as the treasury department wanted both its treasury workstation and analytics system to be synced with the portal for improved visibility and transparency. “A provider that would offer both flexibility and expertise was therefore imperative,” he said. “We were looking for real-time event-driven integration in addition to a batched overnight integration.”

An RFP was distributed to a select handful of portal providers, outlining the requirement for full integration with a consolidated view of all trades, balances and accruals all in real-time.

…Solved

State Street Fund Connect was chosen to fulfil these requirements. The initial discussion and planning stages were in June 2011 and full integration was achieved by August 2011. This turnaround time was impressive given the corporation’s intricate approval and sign-off processes.

From the outset, the treasury department was impressed with the service quality provided: “State Street took on the onus of doing as much of the work as possible – offering integration and consultation as an integral part of their solution.” Indeed, by figuring out how to fit the solution around the company’s processes, rather than vice versa, State Street sought to minimise any extra cost for the company and to ensure a seamless integration.

Moreover, “Rather than the company having to deal with two separate vendors, State Street liaised directly with our treasury workstation provider to make sure the coding would work – integrating that data feed themselves,” they say. This meant that treasury staff could focus on their core roles and continue to add value to the business while the implementation took place.

“Transparency Connect… allows investors to easily quantify their pro-rata exposures across criteria including issuer, country, instrument type and maturity buckets.”

The software company also benefited from State Street’s new transparency solution – Transparency Connect – a standard feature with Fund Connect. Transparency Connect takes portfolio holdings analysis to the next level by linking money fund investments to the underlying holdings. This allows investors to easily quantify their pro-rata exposures across criteria including issuer, country, instrument type and maturity buckets. Investors can also use the software to compare funds.

“This is genuinely the solution that we have been waiting for,” says the company’s treasury representative. “Over and above the enhanced reporting functionalities, the ability to really drill down into holdings and to measure and manage exposures, we can also set limits on how much we can trade, as well as alerts when limits are close to being reached. Another key feature of the service for us is the direct disclosure the portal provides. This reporting gives us all the benefits of having direct access to a fund manager without the headache of having to go to each of their websites. Essentially, we have a complete, holistic view across our global MMF investments at the click of a button.”

Disclaimer

Fund Connect is offered through State Street Global Markets, LLC, a member of FINRA, SIPC. State Street Global Markets, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of State Street Corporation. References to State Street may include State Street Corporation and its affiliates. All services are offered by State Street Bank Europe Limited for all entities domiciled in Switzerland, the United Kingdom or other EEA Member States.

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