We understand that the world of payments can be a confusing space to navigate through. Our resource centre is designed to help you not only better understand the industry, but also to share best practices that you can take advantage of.
Ascendant will leverage SWIFT gpi to further enhance its customer platform aPay and its API capabilities, improve payment delivery, and provide greater transparency for customers.
Payee Intel greatly diminishes the number of returns and investigations associated with international payments, improves the efficiency of collecting payee banking details, and reduces the overall cost of sending international payments.
It was the first time the Congress was held outside of France in order to acknowledge and pay tribute to the American partnerships that are essential to their success in the export barrel market, and to show gratitude to local clients in the United States.
Debbie Nowak, VP of Global Payment Solutions, discusses how manufacturers can save money and time on international payments by eliminating cross border US dollar payments.
Dan Caputo, AFX Vice President of Global Payment Solutions, discusses how building partnerships with FinTech companies and third-party service providers can allow credit unions to offer more innovative products and services.
Our VP Global Payment Solutions, Dan Caputo discusses the power of collaboration between financial institutions and fintech companies with Payments Journal.
How to Control Cost through Customer-centric Payroll solutions. Technology and processes that provide procedural efficiency and employee confidence. By Mike Shamburg, VP Global Payment Solutions.
For the second consecutive week, the NZD is the top performing currency. Last week, the kiwi caught a bid after the RBNZ left rates unchanged, left their bond buying program unchanged, and introduced a new loan facility... Read more
There is little doubt that most market participants, watching the endless talks on a proposed American stimulus package and marking time until the US federal election next week, are feeling quite virtuous these days... Read more
Any time the Japanese yen is the top performing currency for the week, you know that the mood of the market is risk aversion, aka “Risk Off”. The resurgence of Covid-19 cases in several countries is frightening governments into lockdowns and will likely lead to Q4 growth downgrades... Read more
Market participants were certainly taken on a wild ride last week. The tiresome coronavirus has reached all the way into the White House with President Donald Trump’s hospitalization last week... Read more
Veteran traders and investors approach the latter part of September and the month of October with a large degree of trepidation, as historically those two months have seen near-catastrophic equity market sell-offs.. Read more
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: there’s not going to be a V-shaped recovery. Shocking, isn’t it? Economic reports from most of the major economies continue to show that the pace of the Covid recovery has slowed... Read more
The NZD, CAD, and GBP had the largest percentage move over the last week against the USD. On the end of the spectrum, the countries with negative interest rates outpaced the majors. It is a little counterintuitive: the reason they led was due to carry trade unwind during risk off period.. Read more
Surprisingly good employment numbers emerged last Friday on both sides of the border, suggesting the North American economy may be shaking off the ill effects of the pandemic shutdown in the second quarter... Read more
"Promise. PROMISE." Noted physicist Albert Einstein once remarked that insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result... Read more
Following my colleague’s excellent technical analysis of the currency markets last week (2k Asks: Where’s the V?) it appears that, after a long hiatus, fundamental analysis of the economy may now be appropriate... Read more
There wasn’t a lot of movement in the major currencies last week: only three quarters of one percent separate the best from the worst. The price action may have marked an inflection point (more on that later) but first, let’s look at the two outliers... Read more
In recent months it has become increasingly clear – if it wasn’t already – that central banks are calling the shots in global capital markets. It hasn’t always been this way, of course... Read more
In the 1999 movie The Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo a choice between taking either a "red pill" that reveals an unpleasant truth or taking a "blue pill" to remain in blissful ignorance. Can you guess which one the USD is choking on?... Read more
Noun; the process of becoming like Japan, i.e. with vast government debts, ultra-low interest rates, near-deflation, and minimal economic growth.
It has taken a little over thirty years, since the collapse of the Japanese asset bubble in 1989, for the economic policies of Japan to be adopted by virtually all advanced economies... Read more
…but they can be subject to interpretation. Since the official declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, fundamental measures of the economy (such as joblessness, inflation, retail sales and the like) have been largely ignored. The recently ended second quarter of 2020 was such an unmitigated economic disaster that the aforesaid metrics were, frankly, meaningless.. Read more
The USD under-performed against the majors last week, except versus the CAD. The CAD was down a third of a cent against the greenback and is the worst performing currency on the one-year time frame with a loss of 3.75%. The CAD traded between 1.3850 - 1.4200 from April to mid-May and then bottomed at 1.33 in the first week of June... Read more
…but they can be subject to interpretation. Since the official declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, fundamental measures of the economy (such as joblessness, inflation, retail sales and the like) have been largely ignored. The recently ended second quarter of 2020 was such an unmitigated economic disaster that the aforesaid metrics were, frankly, meaningless.. Read more
With only 1% separating the best and worst performers, major currencies traded in a narrow range last week as risk sentiment took a punch in the gut. The risk off mode started last Sunday when China hawk, Peter Navarro, replied, “it’s over” to a Fox News reporter asking about the Phase 1 trade deal... Read more
We have long found it gratifying to see economists and market pundits proven incorrect in pessimistic forecasts. Not just wrong, but completely wrong. Last Friday’s employment statistics on both sides of the border was one of those all-too-rare occasions...Read more
Almost every currency was up against the USD last week on continued risk appetite in global equity markets as global economies gradually move to reopen after coronavirus shutdowns. Month-end adjustments to portfolio hedges after a monthly rally in May for US equities also weighed on the USD... Read more
The past week witnessed an escalation in Sino-US trade tensions, an aggressive stance taken by Chinese authorities with respect to Hong Kong, and a surprise economic announcement by, again, the Chinese government. Any one of these three actions would be tension-provoking; all three coming in the same week suggests a crisis atmosphere..Read more
Risk sentiment was the prevailing market force last week in the currency market. It was a risk-off mood in the equity markets, which favours the USD and currencies that have negative interest rates such as the swiss franc, euro, and yen. Sentiment was soured by news that the trade war was back... Read more
After the Great Lockdown comes the slow and staggered reopening in North America, the European Union, and parts of Asia. This should also mark the peak in economic contraction as all those downward sloping charts of economic indicators over the past couple of months should stop looking like downhill ski slopes and start to form a bottom. This does not mean that the data will stop being shocking, since the incoming data lags the economic activity on the ground. ....Read more
The past several weeks have certainly been an eye-opener. Massive declines in equity markets followed by robust rallies, government spending at near-incomprehensible levels along with central bank easing (read: money-printing), and nothing has been more surprising than crude oil (the ‘black gold’ of commodities) trading at a negative price. What’s going on here? Let’s take a closer look... Read more
It’s official, they have a name for it now. The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, caused by the coronavirus pandemic, has been labeled the Great Lockdown by the International Monetary Fund. In its semi-annual report, the IMF estimates that global gross domestic product will shrink 3% this year, far worse than the 0.01% contraction amid the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. ...Read more
There is a widely quoted Chinese saying: “may you live in interesting times”. Such are the times in which we now find ourselves. Consequently, fundamental analysis of corporations and the economy in general are largely pointless at present. Given the extreme uncertainty in the economy, many companies are cancelling their forward guidance– and who can blame them?...Read more
Act I of the COVID-19 pandemic has played out. The “shoot first ask questions later” deleveraging of assets caused the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world to move aggressively to ease the disruption in the financial markets.....Read more
Bazooka (n; a short-range anti-tank rocket launcher)
Last week, the preferred metaphor of the financial media was “bazooka”. Although it was overused, it accurately described the actions of governments and central banks in dealing with the economic fallout of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. Let’s take a brief look at what our betters were up to... Read more
As a payments provider, AscendantFX is considered an "essential" service, and therefore is not required to close. However, we have decided to move all operations to remote/work-from-home structure for the foreseeable future. Read more
Last week saw a classic herd response in the capital markets, with players selling everything in sight and seeking the safety of treasury bonds or other fixed-income instruments. Risk off would be a suitable description. This was indeed a massive move, sparked by growing (and, to a degree, irrational) fears of COVID-19, a.k.a. coronavirus....Read more
Two weeks ago, we discussed how the market was struggling to price in what's happening with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, since the knock-on effects were still unknown.. Read more
Last week witnessed a slew of secondary economic releases in America, along with some Fedspeak from Fed chair Jay Powell, a complete lack of Canadian news (other than the ongoing rail blockades and traffic disruptions), and uncertainty about the coronavirus outbreak, now officially named COVID-19. Let’s sort it out and see what we can learn....Read more
Donald Rumsfeld, the erstwhile secretary of defense in the George W. Bush administration, famously remarked about ‘known knowns’, ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’. While this statement was widely ridiculed at the time, it was actually a rather clever observation, quite applicable to the current uncertainty plaguing national governments and global markets.. Read more
Some scientists are calling it a “thermonuclear pandemic” (quite a terrifying piece of vocabulary in today’s hyper-connected world), but it remains to be seen if the new coronavirus will live up to the name. Read more
The past week witnessed numerous positive economic developments and a slew of upbeat numbers in the US. However, lurking behind the happy-faced news are some troubling indicators: some obvious, others not so plain. Let’s take a closer look, shall we... Read more
Last week witnessed a veritable housecleaning of sorts, with some major nagging issues resolved (or at least moving forward). Let’s take a look, shall we... Read more
…but they can be subject to interpretation. Since the official declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, fundamental measures of the economy (such as joblessness, inflation, retail sales and the like) have been largely ignored. The recently ended second quarter of 2020 was such an unmitigated economic disaster that the aforesaid metrics were, frankly, meaningless.. Read more
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