(23 November 2017 – Europe) Global and UK market insights on Trade & Supply Chain Finance, Business FX and Fintech developments and how these played into a post-Brexit world were the key topics at East’s Markets’ Briefing in London on 21st November.
With Brexit acting as the context, Trade and Supply Chain Finance focused on the underlying drivers and, in turn, what corporates want from their providers. A lack of advice combined with an on-going shift to vanilla lines of credit was fragmenting the market as business searches for tailored solutions creating opportunities for some at the expense of some incumbents.
Business FX was also a key focus with the increased use of risk management solutions and the shift towards a wider range of currencies taking centre stage. Early bird data from East’s UK 2017-H2 BFX Report that incorporates additional, new data sets showed who was engaging with currencies outside of the USD and EUR, who was forecasting a change in their currency usage along with a country comparison view of the future strength of the GBP that was quite patriotic in nature.
Insights were also shared from East’s second annual round of research into the adoption and use of FinTech in corporate treasury from research conducted globally across eight international markets. Treasury functions, cross border payments & FX and risk & compliance are where corporates are looking outside of incumbent providers and also where they see the most opportunity for improvement.
Increased investment into both internal systems alongside equity investments into existing supply chains highlighted the importance corporates are placing on efficient and effective technology adoption.
Attendees were present from all of the UK’s leading banks, some international banks along with non-bank providers and specialist financial services firms. Comments received from attendees included “Enjoyed the presentation, some very good insights in relation to what the SMEs in the UK are thinking”, and “the presentation was interesting and provided useful insight”.
To access a PDF of the presentation, click here.
Thanks to all our guests for joining us.