Adam Smith Awards 2017 winners
Our Top Treasury Team 2017 accolade goes to Herc Rentals who have truly established a classleading treasury department, within a very short period of time. The speed at which this particular department mobilised itself and tackled a host of challenges after a transformational spin event in September 2016 is remarkable.
With a stellar career in corporate treasury and a host of external charitable work completed, Janet Gibbons, Senior Director, International Treasury – Asia, Middle East and North Africa at PepsiCo, without question meets the criteria to be the 2017 Treasury Today Adam Smith Awards Woman of the Year.
This entry was submitted in our ‘One to Watch’ category and our judges decided it is our Judges’ Choice this year. This solution uses a ‘chatbot’ so Microsoft’s Worldwide Credit Services team now allows sales and operations users to automatically check the credit status of a customer’s account before placing orders, and to track status of orders until they are collected.
The decision to change transaction banking partners presented Harley-Davidson with an unprecedented opportunity to address all of the associated challenges and boldly put in place a best in class treasury function. While short-term benefits will be largely seen in APAC, the framework is fully scalable providing a template for Harley-Davidson to extend into EMEA and the Americas when the timing is right. This incredibly complex and geographically ambitious operation was completed within a very short timeframe.
J.P. Morgan provided a global, scalable liquidity infrastructure needed to help NTT DATA EMEA concentrate its cash and facilitate FX, investment and internal financing efficiently. It also offered cutting-edge back-end technology to automate new processes. An important component of the solution is the bank’s multi-currency notional pooling structure. NTT DATA EMEA was able to reduce high interest bearing debt by 47% through this solution.
This solution was driven by a review of the company’s investment policy based on three key factors: first, the rapidly changing regulatory environment for banks; second, the higher liquidity premium under Basel III; and third, the prospect of upcoming reform in the European MMF sector.
Anthem, Inc. is one of the US leading health benefits companies with over US$84bn in annual revenue. Implementing a payment redesign that affects multiple source systems, departments, vendors and its affiliated health plan members is a massive undertaking. This is a major AR solution which addresses the individual consumer experience and consumer payment preferences.
This solution allows for payments to be made on behalf of (POBO) each of the operating companies, and settled internally using the in-house bank module. Heerema initially anticipated high costs for the implementation, but found that the costs were more reasonable than expected and that the return on investment was high thanks to the optimal levels of efficiency that were achieved with this solution provided by Hanse Orga and SAP.
This is a classic lesson in relationships driven by Shell’s incumbent bank at the time (RBS) announcing it would wind down its international cash management business. Shell fast-tracked a RFP, selected Citi and mobilised resources to migrate its cash management arrangements – projects of this scale would normally take up to three years to complete. Due to the relationship, this was all achieved in 18 months and many aspects of this project are now part of Citi’s best practice template for client implementations.
We have heard much talk of late about blockchain and distributed ledger technology and here is a company which has conducted a successful proof of concept (POC) for standby letter of credit (SBLC) issuance and advising.
This company operates in 34 countries worldwide. This is more than just a card solution; Citi and Basware developed a state-of-the-art solution that leverages e-invoicing and credit card networks to create an ecosystem that allows suppliers to be paid early, but does away with all issues encountered with a traditional physical card.
This is a very interesting account of how Hyundai successfully executed a global US dollar issuance strategy, expanding well beyond their traditional US format – the US investment grade market standard – by beginning the transaction overnight in Asia and then following the sun from Europe to the US. A very innovative approach to funding.
This active foreign exchange risk management programme demonstrates the direct benefits of extracting value from global currency trading on the world’s most impoverished populations.
Philips identified a significant exposure to raw material price risk which was resulting in high levels of EBITA volatility. A state of the art tool has been developed in order to give Philips full transparency and visibility on their commodity market price risk. Raw material prices can’t be predicted, but knowing your exposures and being able to react appropriately gives Philips a real competitive edge.
To efficiently manage Microsoft’s global cash, the monthly cash flows of 320+ subsidiaries in 115 countries have to be determined therefore Microsoft has developed a cloud based solution that allows users to submit forecasts to a central web interface with some impressive benefits.
The complexity of each of their financings, the volume of payments and a corporate structure with a significant number of asset-owning companies with varying bank account requirements, meant that a tailored, customer-focused, and nimble approach was needed from all of their system vendors, but in particular, their banking partner and treasury management system (TMS). For a small team like Goshawk to achieve this solution in such little time, while competing at the highest level in the industry, is something truly exceptional. Citi, IT2, Leasepoint and SunSystems were partners in this journey.
The practice of assigning credit limits to customers is not new or unique, however, to implement such a solution in a short period of time (18 months) and to transition c.13,000 customers from an indirect search model via a revenue share agreement with Yahoo to become direct advertisers spending on the Bing Ads platform was an incredible accomplishment.
Financing activities for 2016 were driven by increased funding requirements and the Etihad Aviation Group Treasury was responsible for raising funding of approximately US$6.9bn required for major capex and infrastructure developments, investment activities as well as managing the business’ liquidity requirements for the financial year. This number included the acquisition of ten new aircraft, bridge financing requirements and the refinancing of some maturing and existing debt, aligning it with the underlying project or asset life. This solution comprises a basket of innovative funding structures including the first corporate issuance in the Schuldschein market from a Middle Eastern borrower.
The attention to detail that has been followed to create an efficient treasury management solution in Africa is the key differentiator of ABB’s solution here. For ABB to have developed a regional treasury solution that is both compliant with local regulations and efficient in servicing day-to-day business requirements highlights the true value of this infrastructure spanning 13 markets in the African continent.
Roche have created a SWIFT based solution to send out MT502-messages (order to buy or sell) which are delivered to the MMF providers directly, the MMFs return a MT509 (trade status message) followed by a MT515 (Client Confirmation of Purchase or Sale) message. In close collaboration with SWIFT, the project was successfully delivered within a short time frame of just six months.
Luca Hammel, Global Treasury Front Office Head at Dufry has been described as a “go-getter in all areas of treasury and finance”. Although he is early on in his career, Hammel’s already exemplary CV readily confirms this assessment.
Open Text has achieved a remarkable turnaround of its treasury function. In terms of its bank account activities, it managed to open resident/non-resident bank accounts in each country in scope. Across EMEA, NA and APAC, it opened 116 new strategic bank accounts and set up delivery of bank statements for all new accounts daily in current BAI or MT940 formats.
Christy Barwick, Senior Director, Treasurer at Intellectual Ventures has blazed a path for women in her profession. Over 20 years she has worked in treasury for top multinational companies across multiple industries, a testament to her drive and ambition. On top of this incredible focus on her career, Christy has been able to forge a truly fulfilling life outside of the office, actively engaging in her community and offering assistance to individuals and organisations in need.
Casa Cuervo not only integrated two businesses separated by over 5,000 miles with different systems and languages, but also revolutionised its treasury operation into a truly global one. It has successfully undergone a treasury transformation that today makes it one of the most important in Mexico and, indeed, globally.
British American Tobacco partnered with Deutsche Bank and Zanders to undertake a global treasury centralisation and bank integration project to achieve centralised liquidity, payables and receivables. Critical to the success were the use of POBO and COBO techniques and the bank’s virtual account and virtual IBAN solutions with a central treasury vehicle acting as agent.
The company now runs a multi-currency notional pool (MCNP) through its Luxembourg treasury entity, which includes Chinese renminbi, US dollars, sterling and euro. Beneath this, the company has established three single currency pools which then interface with in-country local accounts which contribute their funds to the notional structure through physical sweeps.
This solution combines a full payments and collections platform for RUB transactions, a fully automated domestic physical pool to consolidate all positions in a single hub, a true end-of-day automated sweep for the excess operational cash and an offshore interest-bearing RUB account to centralise the net position of all daily activity.
IHG used a standardised Repo Access Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA), pioneered by Euroclear as part of the dedicated service it offers corporate treasurers, rather than the bi-lateral GMRA which is traditionally negotiated bi-laterally with each counterparty, and can take months, if not years, of legal negotiation.
Walmart has installed cash recycler machines across all of its 4,700 US stores, including obtaining provisional credit from all banks for the cash that is in the machines.
The Biller Direct solution is a web portal where adidas’ wholesale customers can view their customer accounts and pay their invoices online.
This solution showcases the relationship between Honeywell and its banking partner, Barclays, to address AML/KYC issues.
To meet their expectations in delivering an efficient cash management structure in 30+ countries and providing a working capital optimisation solution, BNP Paribas was selected as the global banking partner for the 35 countries in scope.
This SCF solution is fully complementary to Etihad’s existing infrastructure without the need for any manual intervention for the airline or its suppliers. The implementation of this solution is also in line with their treasury transformation agenda to centralise treasury operations in the UAE, including a complete overhaul of their working capital activities, systems, processes, technology and infrastructure.
Together with their e-invoicing partner and key relationship bank, Kuehne + Nagel has developed a fully technically integrated, one channel, seamless straight through invoice-to-cash platform, complemented with an accelerated supplier payment feature in the form of a receivable purchase option.
DuPont has taken a number of steps with this solution in order to realise its ambitious objectives to replace cards for 26,000 employees working at 250 legal entities in 50 countries.
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This card programme is an excellent example of best practice in the roll-out and ongoing management of a global scheme. Essential to its success is the fact that the roll-out was ‘owned’ by the treasury team.
This transaction took place in the wake of the biggest aircraft finance story of 2016 – the unprecedented hold placed on all guarantees and export credit support of Airbus products by UK Export Finance, COFACE (the French ECA) and Euler Hermes (the German ECA) as a result of disclosure issues investigated by the UK Serious Fraud Office.
The de-recognition of trade receivables under IFRS via a securitisation is not very common and only a handful of players in the industry have the capacity to implement and execute such a complex structure.
Diageo is continually concerned with maintaining a FX risk management policy that meets its risk management/corporate objectives, maximises cost efficiency and is exemplary of current best practice.
The company’s FX and liquidity challenges were highly complex and all revolved around volume, variety, and velocity. To ensure that it could build a solution that would help it in all areas of control, speed, and scalability, it worked collaboratively with TreasuryXpress to customise its cloud-based solution.
Both TMS’s have been replaced with a single platform, provided by OpenLink, which covers all key treasury requirements. The new system has dramatically reduced manual processing, including direct interfaces to dealing platforms such as 360T.
Microsoft Treasury and Microsoft’s Cortana intelligence team partnered together to build a machine learning forecasting solution for accounts receivable. This addresses a key exposure for the company and exceeded expectations by improving forecasting accuracy and operational efficiency for the team.
UPS has become an innovator in harnessing data to drive critical decisions and improve complex processes. The solution showcased here has put future-proof processes in place too.
In just four months, National Grid was able to establish a world-class treasury function using Reval’s software as a service (SaaS) treasury and risk management solution and outsourced hedge accounting.
Fresenius required a payment factory and a payment processing platform which is fully integrated with its various ERP systems and also provides security and compliance.
This relates to a pilot transaction in September 2016; a letter of credit which guaranteed the export of €110k worth of dairy products from Ireland to the Seychelles using distributed ledger/ blockchain technology.
This is a proof of concept using blockchain for cross-border payments. The transactions were conducted between Panini Group and Australian packaging firm Amcor. Each transaction was cleared in a few minutes and used different currencies to facilitate transactions between bank accounts located at branches in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
The ultimate goal was to eventually establish greater visibility and control of cash flows and effectively utilise the excess cash across entities through a structured liquidity management solution.
As a corporate dealing with multiple financial institutions, Emirates Airlines needed to first understand the Message Implementation Guidelines (MIGs) of all the banks they wanted to work with. They turned to Citi and have worked with SWIFT MyStandards to provide the solution.
Working with Standard Chartered, Microsoft has developed a non-recourse receivables financing solution where payment terms can be extended to 210 days on a fully disclosed transaction.
This multi-faceted project has highlighted numerous instances of best practice and innovation. Most notably, the level of collaboration between the Nigerian Breweries’ treasury team and Citi was especially impressive.
The SWIFT connection offers a single connection, single data network and single security standard, so that operational risk is mitigated while providing better visibility and control.
The aim of the MOLSWIFT project was to replace the many formerly used electronic banking terminals with a single robust, state-of-the-art electronic banking communication tool with the highest security standards, in order to improve control, visibility, security and efficiency in the daily banking operations.
