International SOS and the Brady Corporation have implemented cash management solutions from Bank of America Merrill Lynch for their treasury needs in Asia-Pacific.
The bank is providing International SOS, which is a Singapore-based provider of medical assistance and international healthcare, a multi-currency notional pooling solution to enhance its treasury management operations and maximise internal cash flow from its head office located in Singapore. According to BoA Merrill, the solution will allow the company to achieve a net notional position in a single currency without the need to perform traditional foreign exchange or swaps.
"Cash consolidation of multiple currencies for day-to-day business can be challenging for a corporation," said Nigel Pool, chief financial officer of International SOS, in a statement. "Bank of America Merrill Lynch understood our needs and was able to recommend a practical and workable solution."
The notionally pooled solution allows the company to see account balances in various countries and currencies together, without necessarily moving cash between countries. It will improve the ability of International SOS to meet its global working capital requirements throughout the day.
International SOS previously awarded BoA Merrill an international cash management mandate covering its operations in Singapore, the US and Australia in 2008.
In addition, the bank secured a mandate from the Brady Corporation for a cash and liquidity management solution covering 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific that will help the company improve efficiency, visibility and control over the accounts it holds with the bank.
"What we needed was a single global cash and liquidity management solution," said Thomas J Felmer, CFO of the Brady Corporation, in a statement. "We now have a scalable model to optimise our investing activities and streamline our payables and receivables process. In addition, we have gained greater visibility and control over our cash balances and movements which afford us the opportunity to further enhance our foreign exchange strategy." The US-based company manufactures identification and protection products.
The mandate wins come as BoA Merrill continues to expand its regional treasury team. In March, it hired Percy Batliwalla as Singapore-based head of Asia-Pacific financial institutions treasury sales and Tim Fleming as Hong Kong-based head of Asia-Pacific corporate treasury sales. In February, it poached Ivo Distelbrink from its US peer Citi to run its Asian transaction banking business as Asia head of global treasury services.
