Happy New Year 2021 from FX Initiative!

Happy New Year from FX Initiative!

FX Initiative is thankful for your support throughout 2020, and we wish you a safe and successful 2021!

Webinar Series: Multilateral Netting

Program Overview

FX Initiative cordially invites you to attend our webinar titled “Multilateral Netting” on Thursday, December 10th, 2020 at 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern. Join us and learn the fundamentals of multilateral netting for intercompany cash flows. This Multilateral Netting webinar will help you learn the fundamentals of multilateral netting. Multilateral netting, also referred to as intercompany netting, is a process in which a group of cashflows between a defined set of entities are offset against each other such that just a single cashflow to or from each entity takes place to settle the net result of all cashflows. When a multinational company has divisions in a number of countries, direct billing in many currencies can lead to excessive foreign exchange (FX) trading, resulting in both buying and selling the same currencies many times over. This educational program will help participants learn the concept of multilateral netting for managing intercompany cash flows, how netting operations are centralized and cyclical, how netting can reduce payment volume and save FX costs, as well as several key treasury related benefits of deploying multilateral netting.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the concept of multilateral netting for managing intercompany cash flows.
2. Explore how global intercompany netting operations are centralized and cyclical.
3. Discover how multilateral netting can reduce payment volume and save FX costs.
4. Recognize several key treasury related benefits of deploying multilateral netting.

Who Should Attend?

New and seasoned finance, accounting, treasury, and related professionals (CPA, CIA, CRMA, CFE, etc.) interested in international business.

Webinar Series: Balance Sheet Hedging

Program Overview

FX Initiative cordially invites you to attend our webinar series. Join us and learn how to hedge FX receivables & payables and mitigate FX gains & losses. This Balance Sheet Hedging webinar will teach you how to hedge foreign exchange (FX) receivables and payables to mitigate FX gains and losses on the Income Statement. We will begin by defining the concept of a balance sheet hedge, and explore why is it often viewed as the foundation of many corporate FX risk management programs. We will break down the impact of how FX receivables and payables, which are known as underlying positions, produce FX gains and losses on the financial statements from mark-to-market accounting treatment. We will then explore how to offset those underlying FX gains and losses on the Income Statement by hedging with forward contracts to reduce periodic earnings volatility. Finally, we examine best practices for optimizing balance sheet hedges by considering details such as accounting booking rates, netting of exposures, and adjusting hedges as balances change from cash inflows and outflows.

Learning Objectives

1. Discover the concept of a foreign exchange (FX) balance sheet hedge program.
2. Recognize how FX receivables and payables impact the financial statements.
3. Explore how forward contracts can be used to mitigate FX gains and losses.
4. Identify best practices for optimizing and adjusting balance sheet hedges.

Who Should Attend?

New and seasoned finance, accounting, treasury, and related professionals (CPA, CIA, CRMA, CFE, etc.) interested in international business.

Webinar Series: FX Forward Contracts

Program Overview

FX Initiative cordially invites you to attend our webinar series. Join us and learn what forward contracts are and why they are the most used derivative. This FX Forward Contracts webinar will explain what forward contracts are and why they are the most used foreign exchange (FX) derivative among multinational corporations. We begin with a basic understanding of over-the-counter (OTC) foreign currency derivatives that are sold by commercial banks as part of their international treasury and risk management products. We will then delve into the fundamentals of forward contracts, including long and short positions and forward point premiums and discounts. Additionally, we will examine the payoff profile of a forward contract and review the economic cash flow and financial reporting implications. To conclude, we will look at the overwhelming popularity of forward contracts using the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) FX data as well as highlights from the annual reports (10-K) of several multinational corporations that deploy forward contracts to hedge currency risk.

Learning Objectives

1. Discover the concept of over-the-counter (OTC) foreign currency derivatives.
2. Identify what forward contracts are and how forward points are calculated.
3. Recognize the payoff profile, economics and accounting of forward contracts.
4. Explore why forward contracts are the most used FX derivative by corporations.

Who Should Attend?

New and seasoned finance, accounting, treasury, and related professionals (CPA, CIA, CRMA, CFE, etc.) interested in international business.

Webinar Series: FX Risk Management Policies

Program Overview

FX Initiative cordially invites you to attend our webinar titled “FX Risk Management Policies” on Thursday, October 15th, 2020 at 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern. Join us for a continuing professional education (CPE) program and earn CPE credit as we learn how to draft a corporate foreign exchange risk management policy. This FX Risk Policy webinar will address the basics for drafting a foreign exchange risk management policy. We begin with best practice policies for pricing and booking foreign exchange (FX) transactions that enable a corporation to retain the FX risk rather than the customer, supplier or vendor. We then discuss how FX personnel, resources and operations are incorporated into a policy document that serves as a guideline for managing foreign exchange risk. Furthermore, we will cover the essential elements of a formal written FX risk management policy, including which FX exposures to hedge, how to handle counterparty credit risk, segregation of duties (SOD), internal controls, and reporting among other areas. Lastly, we will observe how FX risk policy language is disclosed in corporate annual reports (10-K) using the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings of multinational corporations as real-world examples.

Learning Objectives

1. Discover best practice policies for pricing and booking foreign exchange (FX) transactions.
2. Recognize how to incorporate FX personnel, resources, and operations into a policy document.
3. Identify the essential elements of a formal written corporate FX risk management policy.
4. Explore how FX risk policy language is disclosed in corporate annual reports (10-K).

Who Should Attend?

New and seasoned finance, accounting, treasury, and related professionals (CPA, CIA, CRMA, CFE, etc.) interested in international business.

Webinar Series: Mastering FX Risk Management

Program Overview

FX Initiative cordially invites you to attend our webinar titled “Mastering Currency Risk Management” on Thursday, October 1st, 2020 at 11AM Pacific / 2PM Eastern. Join us for a continuing professional education (CPE) program and earn CPE credit as we address the fundamental concepts of corporate foreign exchange (FX) risk management. This informational session will share best practices on how to identify, analyze, execute, and optimize a foreign exchange (FX) risk management program. Participants will learn how to assess a firm’s FX risk profile using a step-by-step analysis framework, the four approaches for managing FX risk, the impact FX risk has on the financial statements, and key terminology and takeaways for building a world class FX risk management program.

Learning Objectives

1. Discover how leading multinational corporations identify foreign exchange (FX) risk, including transaction, translation, and economic risk.
2. Explore how to analyze FX risk management strategies, including balance sheet hedging, cash flow hedging, and net investment hedging.
3. Identify key considerations when executing FX risk management plans, including the importance of strategy, policy and financial reporting.
4. Recognize approaches to optimizing FX risk management plans by investing in personnel, resources, and operations to improve results.

Who Should Attend?

New and seasoned finance, accounting, treasury, and related professionals (CPA, CIA, CRMA, CFE, etc.) interested in international business.

Simulating Foreign Exchange Strategies

In the field of foreign exchange (FX), companies are managing currency risk exposures and hedging strategies more effectively by using business intelligence (BI) tools that provide data analysis and visualization. To support global businesses, FX Initiative offers a unique suite of specialized simulation tools that model common FX risk management strategies and demonstrate best practices for preserving assets on the balance sheet and mitigating FX gains on losses on the income statement.

Our FX Transaction Simulator helps treasury professionals gain valuable insight by modeling the economic and accounting impact of specific hedging strategies for underlying foreign exchange exposures such as revenues, expenses, receivables, and payables. Users can simply input their company specific and foreign exchange market variables, and then test a variety of hedging strategies, which include not hedging or hedging with a forward contract, vanilla option or zero cost collar.

The resulting output is a highly detailed interactive FX risk analysis that charts the economic payoff of your selected hedging strategy, ranks the alternative hedging strategies, and reports the accounting journal entries and t-accounts with authoritative references to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Behind the scenes, our robust pricing engine and database simplifies the risk analysis process for you so you can focus on the bottom line impact to your business.

This versatile tool transforms 16 inputs into one information rich analysis in 3 easy steps. The first step is to select (1) the Underlying Exposure and input the related variables of (2) Functional Currency, (3) Foreign Currency, (4) Underlying Notional Amount, (5) Beginning Exchange Rate, (6) Currency Quoting Convention, (7) Start Date, (8) End Date and (9) the Day Count. Step 2 is to select a (10) Hedging Strategy and input the related variables of (11) Hedge Ratio %, (12) Domestic Interest Rate, (13) Foreign Interest Rate, (14) Implied Volatility, and (15) the Collar Range. The third and final step is to forecast (16) the ending exchange rate to see how positive and negative changes in exchange rates impact the cash flow and financial reporting of your selected hedging strategy.

By leveraging our suite of FX risk modeling tools, finance, accounting, and treasury professionals can address a wide variety of FX scenarios that can be customized efficiently and effectively. For example, if you want to change your underlying exposure or hedge strategy, it’s as simple as one-click. If you want to know which strategy yields the best outcome, all 4 strategies are ranked for you automatically. If you want to see how the default or elective accounting treatment differ, the journal entries and t-accounts are instantly presented side-by-side. This FX Transaction Simulator acts as your own personal quantitative analyst, and puts you in a position to make more qualified foreign exchange risk management decisions.

To start simulating FX strategies, start your FX risk management training today, which provides 24/7 365 access to our complete suite of foreign exchange (FX) continuing professional education (CPE), examples & events at FXCPE.com.

Promoting Business Best Practices

Join us and learn business best practices safely from home. WindyCityWebinars.org is a student led project from FX Initiative that promotes the highest caliber, most innovative continuing professional education (CPE) for lifelong learning. Our CPE webinars help professionals and organizations stay current on the latest regulations, developments, and trends in finance, accounting, and related business industries while earning CPE credits to maintain professional credentials.

Our teaching approach balances:

• Business school academic theory
• Practical strategies for implementation
• Examples to illustrate key concepts
• Audience polling questions
• Question and answer sessions

We invite you to attend a learning session as we fulfill our mission to keep learning alive and accessible to all during the pandemic and beyond. Our webinars cover a broad range of useful knowledge, skills, and abilities that enhance professional competence. Our objective is to ensure that knowledge is not only transferred and retained, but reinforced and practiced, enhancing each participant’s confidence in their ability to improve performance and profitability. Register here >

Serving Corporate Sponsors

FX Initiative is pleased to present our 2020 Sponsorship Guide for WindyCityWebinars.org, a student supported remote learning platform that makes it simple to promote your brand and showcase your expertise with continuing professional education (CPE) webinars. We are excited for you to participate and enjoy the recognition our sponsors receive as we facilitate collaborative projects to create engaging educational webinars between corporate sponsors and student leaders to realize synergies and foster community. 

Our dynamic Sponsorship Opportunities help to showcase your firm even better in 2020. Each sponsorship level has been tailored to offer significant value based on the frequency of webinars you would like to offer, with Platinum (monthly), Gold (quarterly), and Silver (individual) levels of Sponsor Commitment. The logo of each sponsor is promoted on the WindyCityWebinars.org website, email invitations, and promotional materials to ensure your organization’s brand is positioned prominently in front of clients and prospects.

By sponsoring WindyCityWebinars.org, you are helping fulfill our mission is to keep learning alive and accessible to all during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Your contribution helps us provide students with unique opportunities to assist with webinar projects to gain work experience, explore career paths, develop and refine skills, network with professionals, and acquire knowledge and confidence as they transition into the workforce. To request your 2020 Sponsorship Guide, please email info@windycitywebinars.org.

WindyCityWebinars.org Walkthrough

Welcome to this walkthrough of WindyCityWebinars.org! FX Initiative is pleased to announce the launch our student supported remote learning platform that makes it simple to promote your brand and showcase your expertise with continuing professional education (CPE) webinars. To get the most out of the website, we invite you to explore three key sections:

Students (https://www.windycitywebinars.org/students.html)

Students are invited to join our team and build a better resume by working with a corporate sponsor on creating a webinar “portfolio project” for Windy City Webinars. Each webinar is enhanced by students using knowledge from their academic major, and our goal is to help students gain work experience, explore career paths, develop skills, network with professionals, and acquire knowledge and confidence as they transition into the workforce. If you are a student looking to upgrade your business skills and grow your network, click here to join our team >

Sponsors (https://www.windycitywebinars.org/sponsors.html)

Corporations and business leaders are invited to sponsor CPE credit eligible webinars on business topics that complement your firm’s products & services and support your training & marketing objectives. Our remote learning platform allows you to collaborate with our student team to offer CPE credit webinars that comply with NASBA licensing regulations to meet the ongoing professional development needs of your employees, clients, and prospects. If you are interested in branding, recognition, and visibility for your organization's services, click here to be a sponsor >

Sessions (https://www.windycitywebinars.org/sessions.html)

Professionals are invited to learn business best practices and earn CPE credits to maintain credentials by attending sponsored webinars. We cover several fields of study including accounting, finance, economics, and more. As a member of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) National Registry of CPE Sponsors, we issue CPE credits in all 50 states to allow our audience to safely and remotely attend learning sessions anywhere and anytime. If you are a business professional seeking to refine and sharpen your skills, click here to attend a session >

Windy City Webinars mission is to keep learning alive and accessible to all during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. We are a community of corporate sponsors and business students focused on educating peers and maximizing exposure to sell professional services. Students, sponsors, and professionals are invited to join us at WindyCityWebinars.org >