Advanced International Payments Workshop

The FairCity Quatermain Hotel, Sandton
12 - 13 March 2012

Introduction

This intensive 2 day workshop has been designed as advanced training for bank and other staff whether at executive, marketing or operational levels. The workshop will define and examine the standards of best practice involved in the areas of international payments, foreign exchange activities and treasury operations. It aims to provide delegates with a comprehensive understanding of how the processes work, what the inherent risks involved are and how best these risks can be mitigated. The workshop is very interactive and is comprised of presentations, case studies, multidirectional discussions and comprehensive exercises.

By the end of the training, delegates will:
Clearly understand each of the seven stages of the international payments/foreign exchange trade and settlement process, and fully comprehend how each phase is related to the larger process flow.
Gain knowledge of the varied processes involved in each of the seven stages.
Have a clear understanding of operational risk in the context of international payments/foreign exchange operations and how to use this knowledge to manage their own foreign exchange activities more effectively.
Obtain a clear insight into practices that may mitigate some of the operational risks that are specific to the international payments/foreign exchange industry.
Understand how acceptance and use of these practices may help reduce operational costs.
Understand the key best practices that are used in the international payments/foreign exchange industry.
Understand current developments in international payments /foreign exchange activities and practices and obtain a clear insight into future trends and directions.

Background
The foreign exchange (FX) market is the largest and most liquid sector of the global economy. The FX market also serves as the primary mechanism for making payments across borders, transferring funds (international payments), and determining exchange rates between different national currencies. The foreign exchange market is therefore closely bound with international payments and as such the two should be seen and approached as a seamless unified operation with the core terms often being used interchangeably.

International Payments is a crucial largest component of the Foreign Exchange market, which operates 24 hours a day. This is the worlds largest and most liquid marketplace - according to the Bank for International Settlements, daily turnover in the foreign exchange market averages US$1.9 trillion, including US$1.3 trillion in the over-the-counter foreign exchange derivatives market. This level of liquidity in the FX market and its attendant international payments processes ensure that the international transaction needs of commercial and investment banks, foreign exchange dealers and brokerage companies, corporations, money managers (including pension, mutual fund, and commodity pool managers), commodity trading advisors, insurance companies, governments, individual consumers and central banks, are able to be met.

In this context there are a number of factors which are critical to the smooth functioning of International Payments including:
The adoption of good practices within the market
Promoting improvements in risk management in the FX (and by default the International Payments) market through the use of sound recommendations and guidelines, and
The development of supporting actions that facilitate greater contractual certainties for all parties active in international payments and foreign exchange.
The increased complexity of the market, plus the higher trade and consequent payments volumes have necessitated constant changes in trading procedures, trade capture systems, operational procedures, and risk management tools. Developments like these make it vital that operations, operational technology, and settlement risk management keep pace with the changing foreign exchange market.

Who Should Attend?

Operations and business staff who are beyond the basic level involved in any aspect of international payments/foreign exchange. This will include staff from commercial banks, investment banks, foreign exchange dealers and brokerage companies, multinational corporations, money managers, commodity trading advisors, insurance companies, governments, central banks, pension and hedge funds, investment companies, brokers/dealers, and other participants in the interdealer market.

Your Course Presenter: Richard Barr

Richard holds a B.S. in International Business Administration from San Jose State University in California. His professional experience spans 20 years, 5 of which were spent with Wells Fargo Bank. Another 5 were spent honing his global banking skills, when Richard was intimately involved with International Trade Finance, Real Time Gross Settlement and Cross Border Banking. The past 10 years have been in the private and high-tech sectors providing high-level consulting services, business analysis, project management and training to a wide range of banking clientele across the globe.

He has spent extensive time servicing a diversity of "financial institutional" clients, in South Africa, Poland, Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands, Greece, Bermuda, Malawi, United Kingdom and across North America. Clients that Richard and Citadel Advantage have dealt with such notable firms as AIB Bank, Eurobank, ABSA Bank, CitiBank, Swedbank, INDEbank, IBM, Montran and Fundtech, as well as many others.

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