By the end of the calendar year (and for many of us, fiscal year-end), we have a growing mountain of tasks to complete – close the books, conduct our annual budgeting exercise, get ready for the audit, and review upcoming changes to regulations that may affect our cash.
The building blocks that shape a bank’s risk profile
If history tells us anything about the card network and card issuing bank interchange system, it is this: the proposed terms of the settlement will not provide greater transparency or reductions in interchange fees moving forward. Merchants will continue to face complexity, obscurity and substantial costs in the long term, writes Chelsey Kukuk, payment card expert at Redbridge.
With the recent lifting of the ban on merchant surcharging, the U.S. payments industry has not seen widespread adoption. However, as fees continue to climb, card-not-present volumes increase, and there are fewer options to lower fees, merchants are finding themselves backed into a corner.
When fuel prices rise and fall consumers expect airline tickets and other prices to follow suit. With the recent reduction in FDIC surcharges, many large corporations are wondering if their banks’ “deposit assessment fees” will also be reduced.
In our bank account management (BAM) blog series, we strive to look at the problems of bank account management from a modern perspective. Our first installment focused on proper bank account management practices in the risk-focused world.
The limited capacities of the banks have led to the emergence of alternative finance such as trade finance funds, which are typically launched by industry professionals willing to get involved with transactions that are not in the interest of traditional banks. The universe is still in its infancy with only around 15–20 such funds around the world and total assets under management of less than $10 billion.
Banks position themselves as trusted advisors with the capability of facilitating large financing deals on behalf of their clients. While banks are capable of providing financing advice, they often have interests that conflict with the interests of their clients. Banks are in the difficult position of serving their clients while also maximizing their own profits and protecting their own balance sheets.
Analyzing international bank fee statements requires in-depth knowledge of international banking structures, accessibility and visibility into local bank fees, and copious amounts of time and resources. Many treasurers do not make it past the first step of obtaining their international bank fee statements in useable formats to then progress to understanding their fees across multiple countries.
With the increase of card payments, mobile payments, peer to peer payments like Venmo, and cryptocurrencies, there are many theorists who believe cash is dead. However, according to Payments Journal, it is alive and thriving. The Federal Reserve reports that cash is still the preferred payment method for transactions under $25 in retail and, specifically, quick-service restaurants (QSR) according to a QSR Magazine article. Additionally, in 2018, 41.1% of QSR transactions were in cash.
With the gradual rise in the fed funds rate over the last two years, higher earnings allowance rates are creeping in ever so slowly. Whether working for a bank, credit union, small business, or a large corporation, higher Earnings Credit Rates (ECR) affect everyone using account analysis. Have you ever wondered what effect the rate hikes have on account analysis and / or bank fee analysis?
Bank account management has proven to be anything but simple primarily because many treasurers try to handle it in a piecemeal, tactical way instead of a holistic, strategic way.
