Singapore-based financial technology company Ant International has partnered with UK-based Barclays to enhance global treasury management using AI technology.
The collaboration aims to reduce foreign exchange (FX) costs and risks for businesses by integrating Ant International’s Time-Series Transformer (TST) AI FX Model.
The model forecasts cashflow and FX exposure with over 90% accuracy, helping businesses manage FX-related fees effectively.
Ant International has completed its first set of intra-group FX transactions with Barclays, marking the initial stage of the partnership.
The TST Model, built on a transformer architecture with nearly 2 billion parameters, leverages advanced time series forecasting algorithms to predict patterns over time.
The model’s accuracy in forecasting trading volumes helps reduce unnecessary hedging and risk premium costs, ultimately lowering overall FX expenses.
Ant International platform tech general manager Kelvin Li said: “The collaboration with Barclays on our Time Series Transformer Model is an important milestone in our ongoing journey to help treasuries optimise their FX strategies.
“The results that we have achieved by combining Barclays’ advanced banking capabilities with Ant International’s innovative solutions demonstrate how technology can enhance the way businesses manage their global liquidity, by enabling more efficient FX transactions.
“It also shows how enhancing our treasury management can benefit our customers when businesses translate the cost efficiencies into competitive FX rates.”
Barclays has incorporated the TST Model into its FX hedging platform, BARX NetFX, which primarily serves the e-commerce and payment sectors.
The integration aligns with Barclays’ FX Automation strategy, aimed at digitising workflows and optimising FX hedging for clients.
By enhancing its BARX NetFX platform, Barclays can offer more precise FX hedging, reducing costs and increasing platform efficiency.
Barclays Asia Pacific and Middle East corporate banking head Pushkaraj Gumaste said: “This collaboration is a strong testament to how Barclays is dedicated to evolving alongside our partners, by harnessing our complementary strengths to enhance our offerings and deliver more impactful solutions.
“It’s a perfect example of how we can make cross-border business more seamless and efficient for our clients, while deepening the value we bring to their global operations.”
The partnership allows Ant International to offer competitive FX rates for major trading currencies, including EUR and USD, by leveraging cost efficiencies.
Initial trial transactions have already demonstrated savings for Ant International’s clients on FX costs.
The collaboration underscores the potential of the TST Model to help businesses mitigate global FX volatility through AI.
Ant International and Barclays aim to expand their FX solutions to support more currencies and business needs.
The initiative reflects their commitment to enabling seamless and secure transactions for businesses worldwide.
Barclays global fintech and FX automation sales head Ben Parkinson said: “Ant International has been a valued and long-standing partner of Barclays, and we were thrilled to work together on this innovative solution.
“This collaboration reflects the strong relationship and mutual trust between our teams. Their state-of-the-art AI model has improved the accuracy of forecasting cash flows and helped us optimise the FX hedging process.
“By combining Ant International’s advanced AI forecasting capabilities with our market-leading FX expertise, we’ve been able to reduce uncertainty and cost, setting a new benchmark for FX risk management.”
