eFX and Best Practice in the Treasury environment. Heather McLean canvasses the views of several leading international companies on the best practice advantages for their treasury departments of using eFX technology.
I
n treasury, showing best practice in the
Best practice was also unimportant for
use of electronic foreign exchange is
Lufthansa. However, this was because
now a vital aspect of day to day life.
when the company began e-trading, there
Increasing regulation is the main driver for
were no best practice guidelines available.
this, with the need for added transparency and traceability on every aspect of a deal.
Axel Tillmann, head of treasury at Lufthansa, says: “We were the first
However, many organisations did not set out one day with the intention of achieving best practice guidelines on eFX; for some, best practice has been a welcomed side effect of bringing eFX trading platforms into their organisations.
company trading with 360T, back in May 2001. We have helped 360T develop its system.” Yet he adds: “Today, best practice is very important for us. We share best practice with other DAX companies in a local treasury circle.”
Heather McLean is a freelance writer.
Although Bertelsmann’s treasury has achieved best practice through eFX, best
Online trading
practice was not the reason it began using
eFX is becoming more prominent in
the technology. Stephan Scheller, senior
people’s minds. This has led to a focus on
vice
president
for
treasury,
in
the
corporate treasury and finance division of Bertelsmann, explains: “It was not our aim to achieve best practice. It was our aim to achieve best work flow. The esystems and interfaces really help us to
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january 2006
e-FOREX
eFX best practice. Online trading is having a massive effect on the improvement of best practice, with best execution through added
price
transparency,
liquidity,
operational efficiency and flexibility, as
save time to spend on improving other
well as the ability to easily manage and
aspects of our daily work, such as
track
advising our subsidiaries. Time saving
Automated FX practices give treasury
was our goal, and best practice has been
departments the control over their trades
a side effect.”
and the compliance standards they need
deals
for
auditing
purposes.