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to improve the bank’s foreign exchange platform. Te bank has had a long standing investment in foreign exchange services, focused on its Foreign Exchange Online (FXOL) service, which was newly-launched earlier this year. Te rewrite of the platform has added many features and enhancements, many of which were suggested by clients. Tis has significantly increased the level of customisation that can be achieved beyond simply providing an FX execution platform.
Godfrey says the new version of FXOL is more deeply integrated into the bank’s Commercial Electronic Office (CEO) portal for delivering banking services to the medium to large corporates and financial institutions customers. He says: “Tis client segment was looking for a foreign exchange application that was integrated and worked in the same manner as other applications that they were using. Tis means that foreign exchange transactions are now reported in the same way, and delivered in the same mechanisms, as non-FX transactions and regular banking statements.”
FXOL allows users to pick from a number of different workflows to execute a transaction. Te two primary methods are for those clients that want to get a rate first, and settle using the traditional FX workflow; or for those who prefer to enter settlement instructions first and then get a rate; this will match their internal business process. Godfrey says: “Tis flexibility of workflow is a key component of the upgrade to the FX platform. It gives our clients greater choice depending upon the security and entitlements that customers might put around the process. Some customers have multiple levels of approval required to execute transactions; others may choose not to do that.”
“We have designed the e-FX platform very specifically to meet the needs of this client segment. We have traditionally focused on differentiating ourselves in this segment by providing a single bank application addressing specific corporate FX needs, designed to be integrated into our CEO’s suite of applications for treasury, credit and other banking services. Some are executing FX transactions as part of their cash management for global payments, other are using it as a risk management tool in the traditional trading FX activity and need a different workflow.”
Adding value
Godfrey says the strategy at Wells Fargo is to differentiate its e-Commerce platforms from its competitors and the bank invests in areas where it can add value. For this reason, the analytical tools provided on the platform are in relation to the
88 | october 2011 e-FOREX
Stephen Godfrey
“Our best ideas always come from listening to our customers”
banking services of user and banking research for making hedging decisions, rather than trying to compete with the news organisations. “We recognise that our customers have already got news feeds so we look to provide functionality to help them make trading decisions, through a combination of analytics and chat functionality, for example when working with our currency strategy team. Our e-products take in consideration the overall relationship and everything we are providing to the client.”
Godfrey believes that clients will use electronic products where they are deeply integrated with the traditional phone relationship they have with their banking provider. Wells Fargo continues to adapt mobile capabilities to meet client workflows and the primary demand at this point is to provide notifications and alerts through its mobile channels. One of the areas Wells Fargo will focus on in the future is expanding its global capabilities to serve clients doing business outside of the US and providing e-FX services to wider client segments within the bank. While there is a lot of commonality in what clients are looking for from FX platforms, whether they are a small business, middle market, large corporate or active trading financial institutions, there are differences as well.
He says: “Our client-centred strategy is to build those applications that meet the needs of the particular segments – just as we have FX specialist teams dedicated
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