Accommodating Multiple Currencies in Sigma Encore^SM

By Debbie Boylan, Senior Account Manager, and Rob Sklar, Manager of Client Services, Mahwah, NJ

Global risk management programs are prevalent today, yet many of these global companies are not storing their enterprise risk data in a single RMIS. International entities have to deal with multiple local currencies, and RSG Sigma Encore^SM has the ability to provide claims and property values in both U.S. dollars, usually referred to as the base currency, and foreign currencies, referred to as the local currency.

Sigma Encore^SM's "flex" financial buckets are designed such that clients can decide if each bucket's paid and reserve values are included in the overall financial totals. Your RSG support team can configure these flex buckets for payments and reserves in any local currency (Euro, Yen, Peso, etc.) in categories appropriate for your damage, legal, or other expense; recovery; etc. The standard RSG financial buckets will remain in U.S. dollars as your base currency, consistent with your domestic claims.

Any number of foreign or local currencies can be accommodated within the table of conversion rates. Varying frequencies, such as monthly or daily conversion rates, are available using exchange rates published on the Internet.

If your international data is consolidated into Sigma Encore^SM via an electronic load program, the process will convert the data at your selected conversion or exchange rate. Summary month-end data is best converted at a month-end rate, while daily transactional data could be converted using a month-end or daily rate. Data can be received in either the local currency or U.S. dollars, and the process then makes the appropriate conversion using the exchange rates from the table, loading the U.S. dollars into the standard financial buckets and the local currency equivalent into the flex fields.

If the data is entered by users directly into Sigma Encore^SM, they can enter the financial values in either currency and the other currency will be automatically calculated based on the conversion rate. Users will enter the valuation date of the financial update, and the most-recent conversion rate in the table for that currency will be used.

As expected, the administration of claims and properties in Sigma Encore^SM can be secured such that users can be configured to edit or view financial data separate from other data. Similarly, the viewing and editing of international data can be limited to specified users.

A customized Sigma Encore^SM Financial Summary panel displaying various financial categories in dual currencies is shown below. The financial summary on the top half of the screen is the U.S. base currency, while the bottom half displays the local currency values. In this example, the data is consolidated electronically from an outside source. Should your data be entered directly into Sigma Encore^SM, the Add Payment or View Payment panels would be configured similarly.

With each local currency and U.S. dollar conversion available for reporting, detailed reports can be created in either currency. Claim-level reports and property listings include either or both currencies and use the exchange rate in effect at the reports' valuation. Transactional-level reports include details in either currency at either the conversion rate in effect at the time of the transaction or the valuation date of the report. Subtotals and grand totals need to be considered when running reports containing data with multiple currencies and valuations; therefore, summary reports are best done in converted U.S dollars unless the report is grouped by country.

If you would like more information regarding foreign currency conversion and Sigma Encore^SM, please contact your RSG account manager.

Associate Spotlight: Curt Lumpp

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