A Flagship Project to Unlock RMB Onshore Liquidity

by Richard Abigail, Group Treasurer, Arup

In December 2014, global consulting and engineering company Arup, supported by partner bank HSBC, became the first corporation outside of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) to perform an automated, cross-border RMB sweep between Shanghai and London. This landmark transaction has enabled Arup to integrate its onshore RMB (CNY) account into its global cash pool, a major step forward in global liquidity management. In this article, Richard Abigail, Group Treasurer, Arup, discusses the group’s recent global cash pooling initiative, and its extension into mainland China.

Treasury organisation

We have centralised a number of corporate functions into centres of excellence based in London, including group treasury. Group treasury includes two people who take responsibility for front office, advisory services, debt issuance, bank guarantees, cash and risk management, while back office processing is done through our shared service centre (SSC).

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