Payments - cross border

Banking & Treasury in Saudi Arabia

Report date: 
17 Apr 2023

Commentary

Saudi Arabia occupies a pivotal, and highly unusual, place in global politics and the world economy. As the world’s largest exporter of oil, and the holder of the second largest reserves of oil and gas, it is an essential part of the global economy – and has traditionally been relatively aligned with western and capitalistic countries. At the same time, it is a profoundly religious absolute monarchy, which practices a particularly conservative brand of Islam. This has always placed limits on its co-operation with western countries – limits which are being tested even more than usual in the current environment.

The current situation is particularly complex, as was clear in the call. Saudi Arabia has always imposed severe restrictions on foreign companies and banks, requiring local partners, and imposing local signatories and approvers for most, if not all, transactions. Limitations on where foreigners could live, and what they could do, have meant that many expatriate employees preferred to live with their families in Dubai, and commute to Saudi for the work week. However, the country has recently launched “Vision 2030”, which aims to open up the country and prepare it for a post oil future. This ranges from promoting tourism, allowing women to drive cars, and potentially allowing alcohol sales in specific places, to mega projects such as building a new city in the desert. It also includes pushing MNCs to transfer their regional headquarters to the kingdom. At the same time, foreign ownership is now allowed, either using a Saudi sponsor (with fees), or by paying 20% taxes. 

These developments are viewed positively by the participants – though several cautioned that there are many conflicting undercurrents in Saudi society, and the situation can always change at short notice. In all cases, Saudi Arabia is a large, and profitable, market, to which all our participants are fully committed, irrespective of the operational challenges.

Treasury practicalities:

  • Nearly all participants sell into Saudi from an offshore location, usually in USD. The currency is pegged to the USD, and there are no exchange controls, so things generally work well.
  • Several participants have opened local branches or subsidiaries, either to provide services or to act as sales offices, or technical offices to manage regulatory issues.
  • To participate in the mega projects being run by the government, it is a requirement to transfer any regional headquarters operation to the kingdom. There is direct competition with other countries in the region for this, particularly the UAE.
  • Saudi regulations state that the bank signatories and transactions mus
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FX & Treasury in Turkey

Report date: 
29 Nov 2022

Commentary

Europe meets Asia in Istanbul – and Turkey is very much at the crossroads when it comes to a lot of the cultural, geopolitical and even military issues which are currently roiling the world. Despite all the turmoil, Turkey remains a relatively open and thriving economy, and it is a significant market in its own right for several participants.

Turkey has been struggling for several years with a high inflation rate, and this is causing issues for all the participants. Despite this, business seems to continue and be reasonably healthy for all of them. The high inflation rate causes a series of problems, but all participants are able to fund their businesses and repatriate cash. The challenges:

  • High interest rates, though these have now fallen to a little over 10%
  • Inflation officially at 85% - but unofficial estimates are up to 150%
  • Scarcity of bank funding: given the above, it is not surprising that banks are not willing to lend – especially as the central bank now requires a deposit of 30% of the amount lent, at 0% for the first 30 days.
  • Some participants have moved to cross-border intercompany funding, onshore intercompany loans between entities, and equity, as required.
  • One participant is looking at cross border intercompany funding from a subsidiary in a third country which has excess cash. The documentation is proving very challenging.
  • Accounting: officially, Turkey has hyperinflation (over 100% in the last three years), which means the HQ’s currency has to be used as the functional currency for accounting, under both IFRS and US GAAP.
  • Hedging:
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Argentina Treasury & FX update

Report date: 
31 Jan 2022

Commentary

The Argentina saga continues, though there seems to be some evidence of stabilisation.

Inflation continues at about 50% per annum.

It seems to be reasonably possible to get hard currency to pay for imports from third parties, as long as the import has been properly registered and approved, is from a third party, and is more recent than March 2021.

On the other hand, it is very difficult to get approval for intercompany remittances, even if these are for goods. Old outstanding balances are basically frozen, with very little progress on remitting them out.

Currency hedging is difficult to obtain, and prohibitively expensive. Most participants have given up trying to hedge peso/dollar exposures.

Most people are seeing significant build ups of peso cash. It is difficult to earn a decent return on this cash – maximum interest paid tends to be between 20% and 30%, i.e., a net loss of value of 20% after inflation. Some foreign banks, such as Citi, will not accept peso deposits.

This situation can lead to significant P&L exposure, as companies record FX losses on their dollar denominated liabilities – especially the intercompany ones.

Most participants continue to do business in Argentina, because it is viewed as a strategic market. Also, many have to support international customers, who do business there. 

As always, our members are adopting a series of interesting and innovative measures to cope with this situation. There is a lot of detail below – the quick summary is:...please sign in to continue reading

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