HSBC is expanding its Cash Flow Forecasting tool across its global footprint, and leveraging APIs to do so with minimal impact to existing systems.

Cash Flow Forecasting is an API-enabled tool that gives businesses an accurate picture of their future finances to manage liquidity. It launched in London in June, and is slated to roll out in several new markets throughout 2021. Already available in 14 markets, the tool was added to New York-based HSBC Bank USA’s platform this week, and is accessed via the bank’s digital banking platform, HSBCnet.

“In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of accurate cash flow visibility for our clients has been heightened significantly,” Suraj Kalati, global head of liquidity and investments product management, told Bank Innovation. “Consequently, the pandemic has accelerated client interest in the Cash Flow Forecasting solution.”

Using an existing API, the $2.9 billion HSBC integrated Cash Flow Forecasting with HSBCnet, resulting in an automated exchange of information between two platforms with minimal impact to the existing HSBCnet architecture, Kalati said. The tool automatically pulls client bank account details, like balances and transactions, using the API, and its transaction-mapping capabilities give clients insights on cash flow trends. It can forecast up to a three-year horizon and integrate with a client’s enterprise resource planning platform for greater automation by enabling automated input of ledger data into the forecasting model.

To develop Cash Flow Forecasting, HSBC worked with a fintech partner the bank declined to name; the tool launched in December 2019 and took six months to fully integrate on HSBCnet. To date, nearly 36 clients have signed up to use Cash Flow Forecasting, and more than 146,000 clients use the HSBCnet platform globally.

Speaking more broadly to HSBC’s fintech partnership and investment strategy, Ore Adeyemi, the bank’s managing director and head of strategic innovation investments, said the bank is exploring where it can insert “tech fin,” technology for financial services, to improve the speed and quality of customer acquisition and retention while reducing operational overhead. Speaking on a panel this week at Fintech Frontiers virtual conference he said, “Now we’re not really looking for a shiny new tool, we want to have better quality solutions in place, better serve our customers.”

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