Trade and cash management connection a key corporate concern

Although advances have been made in global trade operational efficiencies, supply chain extensions across the world have led to increased financial impact for corporations, ultimately driving the banks to look to provide the benefits that merging cash and trade can provide.

Within the bank, the trade person’s transaction base and documentary experience needs to be combined with the cash management professional’s thought process for optimising the overall corporate portfolio. In order to make the most effective financial decisions, trade people need to have both position and balance, including forecast figures to hand. Yet, cash and trade systems are often handled disparately by separate solutions. It’s now more important than ever that both can be merged together to offer seamless management.

Corporates are beginning to look towards a solution, and banks must prepare for this innovation by extending their supply chain finance services to better respond to key issues for sellers, and speed up processing.

Adoption of the BPO vehicle would enable banks to develop alternative forms of supply chain financing solutions for corporate clients. As customers begin to discover the benefits of the BPO, they will be expecting their banking partners to react quickly.

The financial crisis vastly helped to promote trade as a reliable and stable source of business to the banks’ boards. However, they could be set to miss out on that secure income if they fail to enable corporate customer needs in the coming months.