Cash & Liquidity Management
Published  4 MIN READ
Please note: this article is over 13 years old. If you feel this article is inaccurate or contains errors get in touch here . Many thanks, TMI

How SAP Helps Companies to Achieve Best Practice

Can you give us an overview of SAP and its risk management activities?

As the world’s leading provider of business software, SAP delivers products and services that help to accelerate business innovation for customers. Today, customers in more than 120 countries run SAP software – from individual solutions addressing the needs of small businesses and midsize companies to suite offerings for global organisations. SAP currently has sales and development locations in more than 50 countries worldwide and is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NYSE, under the symbol SAP.

As a globally active company, we are subject to risks associated with fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates in our normal operations. Foreign currency-denominated receivables, payables, debt, and other balance-sheet positions as well as future cash flows resulting from anticipated transactions including intra-group transactions, are all subject to currency risks. We manage our currency risk exposure on a group-wide basis primarily using foreign exchange forward contracts.

When did you start e-trading and what was your motivation?

Our treasury department is always looking for new ways to add more value to existing processes to stay ahead of the curve, so we decided to implement an electronic trading platform to increase efficiency by saving time in the dealing process and by reducing both the post trade workflow, with straight-through processing (STP), and the number of errors. Regulatory pressure to prove that we have achieved best-price execution was also a driving force behind our interest in e-trading.

Why did you choose 360T?

In the first place 360T’s multi-bank trading platform TEX® offers the widest variety of tradable asset classes of any multi-bank system. It covers all hedging and investment instrument products (FX forwards, FX swaps, FX options, fixed-term deposits, interest rate swaps, money market funds) in which we could use the platform. This was one of the major reasons why we chose 360T. Furthermore nearly all of our core banks are on the platform: only three are missing. Another advantage of 360T is the lower cost for corporates compared to other trading portals.