This week's post is all about getting more for your money - a sentiment perfectly encapsulated in the three examples we are about to detail.
Planes, trains and automobiles - three different clients, three different treatment, one company to trade them all.
So, let's begin at 30,000 ft.
Our client is an independent UK-based aircraft charter broker.
They are European specialists in commercial jet, private jet and helicopter charters and uniquely positioned to deliver the perfect, 'tailored' charter solution.
With nearly 200 years’ experience in travel and aviation across the team and an extensive network of contacts and reputable carriers, you won't be surprised to hear that they are what we consider a 'sophisticated user of foreign currency services', expecting nothing less than the diligence and high standards their own clients would expect of them.
With operations in a number of European and global aviation hubs, our client needs rapid & exact pricing, quick and simple execution for a team spread around the world and with varying levels of exposure to payment activities - ie. more than one person making payments.
On a day to day basis we talk their payments team, in the UK and abroad, through booking and settlement on a number of running orders in no fewer than 3 currencies.
More broadly we consult on the timing and use of hedging strategies and forward contracts relevant to both operational liabilities and direct client revenue - all of which are designed to fix the margin of their dividend local currency, sterling.
Working with more than one currency, more than one banking institution in more than one geographical jurisdiction means our team have to be totally on point, and one of the most powerful ways of ensuring a 'round the clock' service capacity is the importance we place on the use of our online systems, both for pricing and calculations and for monitoring of payment flows.
This client has fed back to us across a number of different verticals as to the way they want and need to work, whom we need to prioritise and a schedule hierarchy that allows us to operate as executive on certain tasks, which in turn frees up core members of their team to focus on other aspects of their payments activity.
As you can tell from the language used to outline this mandate, this is a rigid structure formed of an understanding of the high standards our client expects.
We fully expect to be replaced in 2 - 3 years time by an in-house treasury function as the business grows and evolves. Until that happens we will continue to cater for multiple payment requirements and, once/should they develop an in-house department we will then re-tender for their more transactional and trading mandate.
The good thing about working with a company in such a fast paced and dynamic sector is that they are not afraid to take instruction so long as what is being recommended ties in with the core operational values determined by the CFO.
:: TO THE TRACKS ::
Our client is a UK based consultancy business providing long term advisory services to a mainline train operator located in Germany.
As well as providing private sector funding and procurement advice, our client oversaw investor relations, reporting and capital deployment over a 7 year period.
Our role was to receive funds from the German parent company for the UK payroll obligations of the UK subsidiary.
Priced in EUR, the project's operation currency was euro, however, as individuals and officers of the company, the UK staff had elected to be remunerated in GBP.
We were formally appointed to receive the EUR sum on a monthly basis, broker it's exchange to sterling at a pre-agreed fixed spread and disburse funds to the relevant UK stakeholders in a timely and predictable fashion.
This is a representation of a more automated, structured payment mandate.