Technology has always played a critical role in the evolution of securities services, from streamlining and reducing risk from our processes, to creating new products and generating enhanced value from data.

As the payments landscape changes due to changes in regulation, technology and client behaviour, the treasury function is also undergoing a major shift. While every change presents its share of threats and opportunities, certain points will have long-lasting implications on corporate treasuries around the world.

Chinese regulators have taken major steps to open up the onshore renminbi bond market to foreign investors, including launching the landmark Bond Connect scheme. But many foreign fund managers are still taking a gradual approach to the market, preferring to invest in short-term deals from high-rated issues. This webinar explores the opportunities for foreign investors - and asks when they will make the most of their access to China's bond market.

In this exclusive interview with Samir Assaf, CEO of HSBC Global Banking and Markets, he explains why Vision 2030 is such an important opportunity, both for Saudi Arabia and the international financial community.

CFOs, Treasurers and funding officials need liquid and diversified sources of funding at the best of times, and even more so in a rising interest rate environment. China's bond market, the third largest in the world, has begun opening up to foreign issuers over the past few years. In the coming months, more new issuers are expected to enter the market as they look for funding sources that match their requirements, in a currency that is rapidly internationalizing.

The Belt & Road initiative is proving to be a win-win situation for both China and Africa, creating a foundation for the next level in Sino-African economic ties.

Alternative financing options - particularly those which provide companies with flexible arrangements - are becoming increasingly popular with S&P 500 companies. Next generation technologies are making these financing arrangements ever more possible.

Technology has enabled the movement of funds in secure environments. The speed of transactions has also dramatically increased, reducing down to just a few seconds in some countries and currencies as APIs and real-time systems arrive. But are instant payments always necessary? Is improving the speed and automation of your treasury systems a key part of your strategy? Please complete our short survey to share your views.

As lower interest rates in Brazil have made wealth managers more relevant, the CEO of Consenso — which UBS acquired in 2017 — says that the secret of wealth management goes beyond making big calls on markets.

Receivables are key to keeping a company or institution in business. They are the final step of the cash conversion cycle, closing the gap in the working capital. In other words, receivables are really important for treasurers and yet are often seen as a difficult topic to address.

Over the past decade, many corporates have adjusted their financing strategies as the availability and cost of capital have changed due to a number of factors, including market, regulatory and economic transformations.

Technology may be creeping into every aspect of banking and corporate treasury, but there seems to be a low appetite for working with fintechs and more demand for a focus on traditional banking relationships and business understanding.

Leading Chinese and US investment banks BOC International Holdings Limited (BOCI) and Jefferies LLC have formed a powerful strategic banking alliance that opens a world of new opportunity for investors.

Even by recent standards, 2018 should be quite a year for regulation. Over the course of the coming months, those on the data management frontline will be tasked with ensuring compliance with EU Benchmarks Regulation, MiFID II, FRTB, GDPR or PRIIPs in a cost-efficient way. A challenging undertaking, to be sure. But within even the most arduous of challenges lies opportunity — one only has to know where to look.

Global economic growth momentum strengthened further in 2017 with many economies concurrently sharing in the upswing, and the Eurozone, Japan and emerging markets significantly outperforming expectations in particular.

In the past two years, Standard Chartered has conducted the RMB Investors Forum survey to monitor investor sentiment about China access. This infographic highlights the key results for 2017

It is no secret that cross-border payments have been historically laden with problems of delays and errors, unclear payment status and fees. To address these issues, Swift launched the global payments innovation (GPI) with the goal of significantly improving the customer experience by increasing the speed, transparency and tracking of cross-border payments. This initiative from Swift involves more than 120 key transaction banks from more than 200 countries and territories around the world, and because Swift is where the critical mass of cross-border payments happen, its global payments innovation has been hailed as one of the biggest advancements in international payments in several decades. The initiative is designed to be functional at the short, medium and long terms.

More and more investors are looking favourably on sukuk as an asset class