Finance
 You understand the intricacies of debt consolidation, mortgages, derivatives, property insurance or even financial statements. But are you sure your busy target audience will? At Today Translations, we are aware that financial literature is often dismissed as being too obscure, and the impact this has on potential revenue streams.
Because our professionals couple their financial expertise with exceptional linguistic skills, they know how to make the target text more readable and interesting, while complying with foreign financial practices. Moreover, they understand the close interrelation between the financial and legal worlds, so, for example, you won't have the word "reserves" mentioned in countries where it is known as "provisions".
We see financial translation as an iterative, and interactive, process. Our translators discuss terms with a second translator who proof-reads the work to make sure that it is either accurate and coherent (e.g. when the corresponding term just doesn't exist in the target language). Our translators work closely with our clients to ensure they've understood the company's specific nomenclature.
Our Services
We translate a huge array of documents, including loan agreements, bond indentures, annual reports, equity analysis, underwriting agreements, financial statements, insurance claims and policies, investor updates, shareholders agreements, investment proposals and any type of corporate brochures.
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We provide virtually all varieties of interpreting within the course of financial meetings and conferences, (including for large groups, small groups or remote interpreting). All our interpreters have several years' market experience, and worked previously as financial analysts or consultants.
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MAJOR CARDS ACCEPTED
Finance Industry: Consolidation, Competition and Multilingual Services
The dust appears to be settling down. Late 2003 saw the financial services  industry levelling out after a tumultuous 2000-2002 biennium. Stock markets were crawling back, regaining some ground from dramatic losses. Property and casualty insurance underwriters moved back into profitability in 2002 after unprecedented losses the previous year, while interest rates remained quite low. Investment bankers and stock brokerages seem to have thrown behind them the stock market crash, stock analyst woes and accountancy problems of 2000-2002
In 2004, the Forbes ranking of financial firms was topped by Citigroup (United States), followed by American International Group (United States), Bank of America (United States), HSBC Group (United Kingdom), Fannie Mae (United States), UBS (Switzerland), ING Group (Netherlands), Berkshire Hathaway (United States), JP Morgan Chase (United States) and BNP Paribas (France).
Information technology, deregulation and liberalisation have dramatically affected the financial services, contributing to two trends in the industry: consolidation and increased competition at both national and international levels.
CONSOLIDATION
Consolidation means that financial services worldwide are increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few corporations. Consolidation is seen as the single most important factor transforming the financial services industry since almost a decade. Many experts predict that consolidation will continue and within 5 to 10 years there will be only five to ten top financial conglomerates in the world.
In the search for more profitable opportunities, most consolidated financial firms grew through mergers and acquisitions or takeovers that were either friendly or hostile. Such process took place at national and international levels with cross-border consolidation, by trading and investing in financial services in many countries around the world. Many financial services categories, such as retail banking and insurance, were increasingly being brought under one corporate roof, which is called "cross-category consolidation".
The strategies behind consolidation are:
 1. Increasing the number of customers and beating competitors by selling various financial products through one distribution channel.
2. Diversifying products and customers to avoid the risk and to finance a loss-making part of the business with the profits of another one.
3. Maintaining a large capital base as a sponge to absorb losses and the growing cost of technology.
4. Increasing the quality of service and products to gain the trust of the customers.
5. Increasing profitability in the battle against competitors
Consolidation will also continue due to emerging new markets. China, perhaps the most interesting and lucrative one, is opening up after western financial firms lobbied for the country's integration in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Many top financial firms have already acquired parts of those Chinese banking divisions as allowed under the agreement.
Consolidation through mergers and acquisitions is also rife in Central and Eastern Europe, where regional and European banks are trying to extend their market share. Privatisation of state banks is taking place throughout the region.
COMPETITION
Consolidation is the financial industry's way of dealing with increasing competition. Governments, regulators and supervisors worldwide try to create and maintain a free market with many competitors, for the sake of efficiency and lower prices.
Competition remains fierce. The struggle is always for quicker and short-term profit leading to strategies for more efficiency, lower costs, expansion of profit-making clients and markets while outpacing competitors.
This often means an increasing effort to standardise and automate services, to differentiate them according to the wealth of the client and to shift the focus on financial portfolios. One should also notice the importance of cross-selling and cross-branding (some financial companies have started to distribute products for their competitors without operating them).
Multilingual Services: The Key to Attract New Customers
Financial institutions wish to become a one-stop-shop for customers. Banks, securities firms and insurance companies are competing for the same customers with essentially the same products. Given this competitive landscape, it's no wonder that managing the customer relationship is a top priority in financial services.
These firms are forging deeper relationships with customers and striving to gain greater share of wallet and mind. The snag of such a strategy is ensuring that the necessary systems and applications are up and running at all times. When customers have numerous financial services options literally at their fingertips, there is little room for errors.
In addition to increasing the loyalty of their current customers, financial services firms must also continue to attract new clients. This will likely require face-time and meaningful human interactions. That said, people, processes and systems that a prospective client may come into contact with, such as a website or even a call center system for inquiries, have to be performing optimally.
Multinational companies face the daily challenge of tailoring their products not only to different needs but chiefly to different countries, cultures and traditions. As customers are up to four times more likely to buy in their native language, this involves adapting all the literature into the language of their target countries and providing a localised version of their services through every customer touch-point.
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