BNP Paribas and NatWest are now going live with ‘Dynamic Credit’ from CobaltFX, part of United Fintech, in efforts to simplify and streamline the allocation of credit for FX transactions between banks and improve access to liquidity. According to CobaltFX, the moves are indicative of an increasing trend of financial institutions wanting to optimise the disbursement of credit for FX trades and simultaneously improve market access and control.
They’ve both been key partners of CobaltFX, part of United Fintech, throughout the years, yet now BNP Paribas and NatWest are increasing their engagements, going live with CobaltFX’s latest product innovation, Dynamic Credit, in a move to manage credit exposures for their respective financial institutions, addressing overly manual processes as well as market access and control.
“Industry-wide, we see that banks are adopting innovative techniques to manage credit exposures for FX trades and maintain market stability through digitalisation. CobaltFX’s solution offers a much-needed improvement to the manual process of updating credit limits with interbank trading venues. By providing a standardised and digitised approach, and aggregating IT infrastructure across multiple venues, ‘Dynamic Credit’ gives banks unprecedented control to navigate fast-moving FX markets and proactively manage credit exposure. This is a very important step in delivering a solution for credit providers, taking full advantage of new technical advancements”, says Joe Nash, Digital COO for Foreign Exchange, Rates and Commodities, BNP Paribas.
Leveraging tech to”enhance market stability”
After only three months of ownership by United Fintech, a relaunch from Cobalt to CobaltFX was announced along with an impending Digital Asset spin-off, signalling a “return to roots” for the FX business. Thus, according to the British fintech, reducing risks through simplification and streamlining of credit disbursement will be paramount, as CobaltFX under United Fintech hones in on solving a list of “very current and real problems” for the FX industry, says CobaltFX’s Founder Andrew Coyne:
“The problem CobaltFX is solving is essentially simplifying and streamlining many of the manual processes tied to allocation of credit which creates challenges for financial institutions. I.e. leveraging tech to enhance market stability. Thus, correcting the supply of credit and at the same time deepening the availability of liquidity, CobaltFX’s Dynamic Credit technology ensures that for less credit deployed, there is more liquidity, administrative simplification and, essentially, superior market access control – the latter being a key factor for financial institutions around the world”, says Andrew Coyne.
Challenging legacy as part of something bigger
Ever since its acquisition by United Fintech in late 2022 and subsequent relaunch in early 2023, CobaltFX has experienced “tremendous traction” according to CobaltFX CEO Marc Levin, calling it a “prime example of United Fintech and partner companies showcasing their best case practises, collaborating to drive innovation in the big banks’ digital transition – and become lead industry vendor for fintech solutions”, pointing to another prevailing trend: Like never before, banks and financial institutions are seeking-out engagements with broader covering technology vendors over single-purpose product firms due to growing compliance and security concerns. On this, United Fintech’s founder & CEO Christian Frahm elaborates:
“What we see is that leading financial institutions are seeking to decrease the number of third-party vendors which used to mean bigger contracts with so-called legacy providers, yet this is where United Fintech differentiates with a fresh approach to cater to the trend: We offer a selection of best of breed technology products under one umbrella to financial institutions wanting to challenge legacy providers and solutions, thus giving both sides the benefits of becoming part of something bigger. And our prediction is that we will see many more banks and fintechs follow suit and join each other’s journeys on our digital platform”, ends Christian Frahm.
