Successfully Navigating Bond Issuance – Exploring the Challenges and Solutions

Bond issuance is a hectic period. While the focus on tech innovation within banks is gaining momentum, their clients, the corporates, financial institutions and governments – the issuers – have an opportunity to significantly enhance operational efficiency through tech adoption. 

In this blog we explore the pain points faced by issuers that need to be addressed to deliver effective deal management: 

• Disparate processes among supporting banks
• Limited access to up to date data, before during and after the transaction 
• Limited budget for tech investment
• Resistance to change within issuing bodies

Streamlining and simplifying processes for better accessibility 

Issuers need the same high standards of service no matter who is arranging the transaction. Lots of meetings, information, documents, comms etc demands a structured, organised and user-friendly process. This will deliver a higher probability of success. 

As the fintech solutions become more sophisticated, the content will become richer in terms of data, and features, increasingly simple and more user friendly. As the solutions evolve, active involvement from issuers is critical to continue to refine the tech and ensure it delivers appropriately.

Extending access to real time data 

Digitisation within primary capital markets is not just for the frequent issuers. The aim is to introduce significantly more efficiency into the system, this means:

• More and better quality data available before or after a transaction
• Access to live deal information during a transaction
• Improved accessibility to content with less dependency on intermediaries
• More targeted analytics that provide better context and more factual input

It is not just about doing things faster or more cost effectively. Modernisation is not about the latest new app – it is about creating relevant content and ensuring this can be effectively delivered and accessed by the professionals.

Strategic tech investment 

Historically, improving business processes was linked to expensive technological upgrades, time consuming integrations and a lot of effort. This is not the case today. Tech investment is now much more cost effective and plug & play than at any time over the past decade. Cloud infrastructure means digitalisation can be implemented faster and more securely. Software as a service (SaaS) solutions minimise any integration required. 

Creating a case for change

Across most industries, fear of the unknown and a comfort level reached over many years raises significant barriers to change. We are used to doing things in a certain way, using certain tools no matter how antiquated or manually intense the process is or has become. While spreadsheets are still in abundance within many institutions, they do not provide the functionality needed in today’s fast moving environment – they don’t offer:

• “Repeatability”
• A higher level of security, or
• The quality of data needed at the speed it is needed

Adding value from the start 

It is important here to differentiate between a solution that doesn’t immediately add value out of the box and one that is still missing its final shape or full suite of features. If it’s the latter –  especially in the solution’s early days – it is to be expected. Features, sophisticated functionality, richer user experience take time to evolve and are the outcome of collaboration between the users and the vendor. That solution though needs to add value right from the start in a quantifiable way, when used it needs to give the “aha” moment to the users, make their lives better from day one.

How to move forward with tech adoption 

Ultimately, tech adoption for issuers can be incredibly straightforward. Onboarding is swift and streamlined systems will empower issuers to enhance operations.  With this approach, change becomes sustainable and the investment of time and budget justifiable. 

Put simply, issuers need to know what to expect during their bond transaction and consistently receive a high standard of user experience. Treasurer, CFO or Head of Funding all need to navigate the bond transaction with a clear roadmap and deal critical information at the touch of a button. This allows them to focus on what is needed most – the success of their transaction.

For more information about Finsmart or its deal management tool DealPro, please contact info@fin-smart.co.