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How To Optimize Your FX Risk Management Program and Stay Ahead of the Curve with Andy Gage, SVP of FX Sales and Advisory Services at Kyriba

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This is a special episode featuring Kyriba’s Senior Vice President of FX Sales and Advisory Services, Andy Gage.

For nearly 20 years, Andy has been helping multinational companies automate and optimize their currency risk management programs. Prior to his current role, Andy served as VP of FX Risk Management Solutions at Kyriba.

On this episode, Andy discusses how to harness automation and smart analytics to run an 

effective corporate risk management program, the effects of inflation on markets globally, and being better prepared for the next crisis.

Quotes

*“The FX job within the treasury and finance function is one of those odd jobs, because they know they've done their job when nobody is talking to them or asking them questions. That's when they've really done really well. So when I talk to some of my colleagues that I've worked with over the years, they say, ‘I had a great quarter. Nobody talked about FX in the last quarter earnings release.’ That's when they've done their job.” 

*”A tailwind can be just as complicated or problematic as a headwind, because it implies a lack of control on your risk management, or your ability to manage currency impacts.”

*”When it comes to the earnings call, when it comes to the end of the quarter, when it comes to the board briefings, currencies is not a topic. Because it's been effectively neutralized. Now you may get questions, you know, because of, especially what's happening in the markets right now. But the proper response from a CFO or treasurer to those questions is, ‘We understand our exposure. We've taken appropriate steps to minimize the impact of the volatility in the markets. And, for all intents and purposes, it's really not having a material impact on our financial results. If you can articulate that to the board and the investors, that is the perfect response to that market situation that we're dealing with right now.” 

*”What's complicated right now is the recent surge in inflation. The reactions by central banks, such as the federal reserve here in the U.S., to increase interest rates, to try to knock the inflation down… I think everybody feels that in their own pocket books today. But when you increase the interest rates, what a lot of people don't appreciate and understand is the interest rates are directly impacting the cost of hedging. And so what we're seeing right now on top of that large increase in risk in volatility and pressure to earnings, treasury teams are faced with a very difficult challenge of keeping their FX budgets where the CFO set them, because the cost of hedging is increasing as well.” 

*”Just because you have an amazing accounting system like SAP or Oracle doesn't mean that the people are recording things correctly in those systems. And we see issues right there. If you don't have technology that streamlines this process, the spreadsheets that I've seen people use to calculate their foreign exchange exposure are literally some of the most complicated and risky. There's so many potential points of failure in those spreadsheets. And I've seen situations where we've audited a company spreadsheets, and they were trading currency in the wrong direction. So what they thought was reducing risk was actually adding risk.” 

*”If you step back and a CFO really looks at all of the financial risks that are under he or she's responsibility, currency risk is arguably the largest financial risk that they have to deal with. And now that you're seeing the succession of of currency crisis, fueled by macroeconomic and global events and various other crises, I think the risk management teams are getting a lot more focus and a lot more attention and a lot more enablement… I'm now seeing the CFOs saying, ‘Okay, we now need to invest in automating this because we'll see another one of these crises. And the unfortunate thing is we don't know when it's gonna hit us next.”

Time Stamps

*[4:46] Andy’s path to FX risk management

*[9:06] Which kind of treasurer are you?

*[12:25] What’s the difference between a head wind and a tail wind?

*[18:59] The key litmus test of whether your risk management program is effective

*[20:14] Understanding the current market

*[22:27] How inflation impacts the cost of hedging

*[26:05] Why is risk management one of the hardest jobs in finance?

*[29:44] What an effective risk management team looks like

*[33:42] The role of an FX risk manager

*[40:43] Tools for managing FX risk

*[44:36] Different strategies for managing risk and gaining confidence

Sponsor

The Invisible Vault is powered by the team at Kyriba, the global leader in cloud treasury and finance solutions, empowering CFOs and their teams to transform how they activate liquidity as a dynamic, real-time vehicle for growth and value creation. To learn more visit www.kyriba.com

Links

Connect with Andy on LinkedIn

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