Putting Innovation into Practice: Trade Finance for the 2020s

For corporates, the next phase of the Covid-19 challenge is beginning, the focus is shifting to how companies will come out of the crisis and ready themselves for opportunities that lie ahead. Shoaib Yaqub, Standard Chartered, considers the optimal way to manage both the challenges and opportunities presented by the post-lockdown world.

At a time of unprecedented uncertainty, cross-functional data dashboards and machine learning could help treasurers to break down barriers and unlock hidden working capital efficiencies across their organisation.

Treasury and supply chain disruption caused by external factors is nothing new, but recent developments may be making it the new normal. Therefore, the ability to switch technology and supply chains to new locations/suppliers with the minimum of upheaval is becoming a business imperative. This applies not just to the physical supply chain but also the financial one that underpins it, which presents corporate treasuries with significant additional challenges.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence have the potential to make it easier for treasurers to gain visibility and control over their cash. But simply investing in these technologies is not enough to achieve working capital efficiencies.

Meliá Hotels' treasury team was looking to access faster and more flexible liquidity as means of speeding up the cash conversion cycle. They decided to implement a receivables finance programme with HSBC that would respond to the company's current and future needs.

On the cusp of momentous change, the trade finance ecosystem is experiencing a significant restructure with the introduction of new technologies and market participants. In an unpredictable economy, treasurers need to adapt their initiatives to conform to new global trade dynamics.