The Issues

What are you paying for FX services?

One of the most difficult expenses for corporations to track has historically been the true cost of foreign exchange, bought or sold. What are the problems? They range from captive client relationships to the nature of the market itself - free entry and free exit - where prices gyrate continuously. Some have compared it to trying to grab Jell-O. An apt description.

So what is the corporate executive to do? First, treat FX as a serious expense center. Don't be resigned to taking whatever prices your provider offers - particularly if you have the mistaken idea, as some treasury executives do, that not buying from his or her main banking partner will upset that partner and jeopardize other banking services. Not for one minute. FX trades stand on their own merits. Costs do too.

What else can be done? Get the true picture of where you stand - and, more importantly - where you want to be. How? Use the LES FX*Toolkit™ solution. The only market tool dedicated to examining from top to bottom your current pricing structure, creating opportunities for pricing improvements, and giving you alternatives to your current processes.

What are you paying? Chances are you (and the vast majority of your colleagues, by the way) don't know. We can fix that.

Read on and let us tell you more. Or, better yet, take an LES FX demo. Click on the Demo section at the left hand side of this page.

The Market - How it works (or doesn't work)

The foreign exchange market is one of the last truly free markets on earth. Virtually anyone can buy or sell, without regulation, any currency available from any supplier which will trade with him or her, at any price he or she can negotiate. Free entry - free exit. Demand elasticity. Classic.

There is just one problem. Most companies choose to trade with one or a few trading partners. This happens for a variety of reasons, but it is certainly mostly a result of the preponderance of bank traders dominating the market, and the propensity of corporations to go to these banks for their FX needs. This is a recipe for the flip side of a free market - domination by a few central players - in this case, the oligarchy of bank traders. Ultimately, this results in higher prices for the consumer, or in this case, the corporate treasurer. Due to its fast-moving nature, the market price, when you are ready to trade, is very hard to establish, even by internet services trying to give accurate prices.

You want to be in a position to dictate terms. We can help you do that.

Transparency

You want good prices. To get them, you need to have a tool to determine what they are, and, a tool that will assure that you continue to get them, while you do the many things to which a treasury executive must attend.

The LES FX*Toolkit™ gives you that solution. The reports you will see, the analyses you will have, and the LES monitoring function will leave no doubt for you, or your trading partners, the prices you have paid and the prices you will tolerate in the future. Nothing stays hidden. All is transparent.

Accountability

Good management requires a good system of accountability. Good management of FX issues demands no less. The difference .5% in pricing can make on a good trading portfolio can be a very large number. The LES FX*Toolkit™ gives you the tool to be accountable - to customers, to management, to shareholders - it is indispensable, a true management tool.