Corda Settler, Ripple and SWIFT: mariage à trois?

| 07-05-2019 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL

My last blog was about the IBM World Wire, a blockchain based platform for global payments. Another competitor in the blockchain payments world I have written about regularly is Ripple. Both are thereby targeting centralised payments messages network SWIFT.

IBM and Ripple however are not the only players in the blockchain payments world. Late last year R3 launched its new Corda Settler platform using Ripple’s XRP. But here it comes. In January SWIFT announced a partnership with R3 were they are collaborating to test Corda Settler, specifically to “integrate gpi with Corda Settler.” However, as Corda Settler depends on the XRP token, the partnership puts SWIFT and Ripple, the two rivals in an indirect connection. Will that result in a love triangle or even a “marriage a trois”? And could that work?

But first: What is Corda Settler?

In December last year, R3 announced the launch of Corda Settler. Corda Settler is designed in such a way to give companies a new fast, secure and reliable way to move crypto and traditional assets on a distributed ledger. The Corda Settler app is an open-source decentralized application (DApp), that runs on the Corda blockchain. It is aimed to facilitate global (crypto) payments across enterprise blockchain networks with Ripple’s XRP as its base currency. Corda Settler thereby focuses on the settlement of payments transactions between crypto and traditional assets within enterprise blockchains.

Corda Settler uses XRP

Both Corda and Ripple are open-source blockchain platforms with a focus on serving enterprise businesses. Therefore, it makes sense that Corda selected XRP, the globally recognized cryptocurrency, as the first and only supported cryptocurrency for settlement on the platform.

“The deployment of the Corda Settler and its support for XRP as the first settlement mechanism is an important step in showing how the powerful ecosystems cultivated by two of the world’s most influential crypto and blockchain communities can work together.” “While the Settler will be open to all forms of crypto and traditional assets, this demonstration with XRP is the next logical step in showing how widespread acceptance and use of digital assets to transfer value and make payments can be achieved.” Richard Gendal Brown, CTO at R3

While Ripple’s XRP is the first cryptocurrency supported by the Corda Settler, in the future it is very likely that R3 will make settlement in other cryptocurrencies possible.

“The Corda Settler is agnostic to which payment method is used. Whether it’s JP Morgan coin, or Wells Fargo coin, or BAML coin, or HSBC coin, it doesn’t matter to us. We have no horse in that race.” “We don’t have any financial incentives one way or another. We’re just trying to get as many people onto our platform as possible.”David Rutter, CEO of R3

How does Corda Settler work?

The platform is still in its first stages of development. Corda Settler supports payments of all sorts to be settled through “any parallel rail supporting cryptocurrencies or other crypto assets”. Also any traditional rail capable of providing cryptographic proof of settlement can settle payments obligations. In the next phase of development, the Settler will also support domestic deferred net settlement and real-time gross settlement payments.

In its current phase, when a payment obligation arises on the Corda blockchain during the course of business, any of the parties involved now have the option to request settlement using XRP. The other party can be notified that settlement in XRP has been requested and that they must instruct a payment to the required address before the specified deadline presented to them.

After they make the payment, an oracle service will ensure the validity of the payment and settle the obligation. Uniquely, the Corda Settler will verify that the beneficiary’s account was credited with the expected payment, automatically updating the Corda ledger.

What does Corda Settler mean for the parties involved?

It is clear that in the transaction initiated by Corda Settler, the receiving party doesn’t need to use Corda to receive the payment. At the same time, it is not mandatory for the sending party to use XRP or any other cryptocurrency.

This means that using the Corda Settler; one can send XRP or dollar and the receiver can accept the payment in an entirely different currency. “Settlement Oracle” will broadcast the actual settlement notification. It can be operated through different entities like exchanges, banks, and others.

It will thus allow banks and other financial institutions to build their blockchain networks with minimum overheads. They don’t need to integrate the R3 technology fully. All they need is to let their clients receive deposits via Corda-enabled services.

SWIFT partnership with Corda

End January SWIFT has announced its partnership with R3’s Corda Settler to launch a proof-of-concept (PoC). The trial would see the interaction of SWIFT’s payments standard framework GPI (Global Payments Innovation) with R3’s trade finance platform.

“Following the recent launch of our Corda Settler, allowing for the payment of obligations raised on the Corda platform, it was a logical extension to plug into SWIFT gpi. SWIFT gpi has rapidly become the new standard to settle payments right across the world. All the blockchain applications running on Corda will thus benefit from the fast, secure and transparent settlement provided through the SWIFT gpi banks.” David E. Rutter, CEO of R3

Global Payments Innovation (GPI)

This trial will integrate SWIFT’s GPI Link cross border payments gateway with R3’s Corda Settler platform to enable the continuous monitoring and control of payment flows, settle GPI payments through their bank, and receive credit information.

SWIFT’s GPI is a messaging system based on existing messaging standards and bank payment processing systems. It has rapidly become the new standard to settle payments right across the world. The integration will also support application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as SWIFT and ISO standards to ensure global integration and interoperability.

It aims to provide quick and cost-effective transfers between SWIFT members. Through GPI “SWIFT hopes to assist banks enhance their relevance within the fast-evolving international payments ecosystem – by delivering immediate value to SWIFT’s members’ customers”.

Goal of the SWIFT-Corda Settler PoC

The objective of the PoC-trial is to try out interlinking of trade and e-commerce platforms with GPI – SWIFT’s new standard for cross-border payments and is an extension of other SWIFT trials with blockchaintechnology. These platforms need global, fast, secure and transparent settlement, preferably using fiat currencies.

“With the gpi Link, banks will be able to provide rapid, transparent settlement services to e-commerce and trading platforms, opening up whole new ecosystems to the speed, security, ubiquity and transparency of gpi and enabling them to grow and prosper in the new digital economy. Given the adoption of the Corda platform by trade ecosystems, it was a natural choice to run this proof of concept with R3.” Luc Meurant, SWIFT’s Chief Marketing Officer

“SWIFT GPI will integrate directly to Corda Settler, the application that allows participants on the Corda blockchain to initiate and settle payment obligations via both traditional and blockchain-based rails. This will enable obligations created or represented on Corda to be settled via the large and growing SWIFT GPI network”.R3 co-founder Todd McDonald

While SWIFT is keen to experiment with the possibilities opened up by blockchain-based trades, they are much less enthusiastic about using cryptocurrencies such as XRP.

Objective

The SWIFT and R3 Corda Settler trial will enable corporates to authorise payments from their banks via a GPI link to their bank through the Corda Settler platform. GPI payments will be settled by the corporates’ banks, and the resulting credit confirmations will be reported back to the respective trade platforms via GPI Link on completion.

By enabling trade platform ecosystems using Corda to integrate ‘GPI Link’ into their trade environments, SWIFT hopes to extend its reach beyond member banks to include to a wider range of corporates and markets.

The first stage of the PoC will work with R3’s Corda blockchain platform, Corda. SWIFT says it will not limit ‘GPI Link’ to R3’s DLT-based trade environment. SWIFT has plans, if the Corda PoC is successful, to extend the trial to other DLT, non-DLT and e-commerce trade platforms. The results of the PoC will be demonstrated – as a prototype – at Sibos in London in September 2019.

Corda Settler: Fiat currencies versus XRP

Swift said it is not (yet) using XRP on Corda Settler!. And that for a number of reasons.

“All trade platforms require tight linkages with trusted, fast and secure cross-border payments mechanisms such as GPI. While DLT-enabled trade is taking off, there is still little appetite for settlement in cryptocurrencies and a pressing need for fast and safe settlement in fiat currencies”. Luc Meurant, SWIFT’s chief marketing officer

According to SWIFT CEO Leibbrandt banks simply are not prepared to use a cryptocurrency as a clearing unit due to its price volatility. It appears that most banks prefer to use Corda’s technology for rapid and transparent settlement services in fiat currency rather than cryptocurrencies. Most enterprises prefer to settle via traditional payment mechanisms, albeit wishing for greater visibility into what is happening to payments and receipts. This leads to the need for trade platforms to have fast and safe settlement in fiat currencies.

“I think that the big part of Ripple’s value proposition is the cryptocurrency XRP. There we do find the banks are hesitant to convert things into a cryptocurrency right now because of the volatility in the currencies.” Leibbrandt, SWIFT CEO

Another reason why SWIFT is hesitant (not willing) to use crypto currencies is because the legal status of XRP and other cryptocurrencies remains unclear due to the current uncertain regulatory environment. Risk averse financial institutions are unlikely to adopt cryptocurrencies until regulations become clearer.

Ripple’s CEO Garlinghouse however argues back that “with SWIFT payments taking days and XRP payments clearing within seconds, SWIFT transfers are actually subject to much greater volatility due to fluctuating foreign currency rates”. At present, the banks take on that volatility risk by guaranteeing the amount sent will match the amount received. Because of XRP’s speed, which executes transactions in a matter of seconds, Ripple says it ‘eclipses’ volatility risk. With near-instant XRP-backed transfers, that volatility risk is actually completed eliminated.

“I hear people talk about volatility and I feel like they’re propagating this misinformation. Mathematically, there’s less volatility risk in an XRP transaction than there is in a fiat transaction.” Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO

Garlinghouse countered SWIFT’s legal arguments saying that every XRP transaction is vetted for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. Finally, Garlinghouse added that XRP payments greatly reduce systemic risks to banks in smaller economies, which have to use large amounts of money to prefund international transfers.

Mariage à trois?

With the launch of a universal settler app for payments on the Corda blockchain platform, using XRP as its first crypto payment trail, this may bring the Corda and XRP ecosystems into closer alignment.

Now SWIFT has partnered with blockchain consortium R3, we are in the strange position wherein SWIFT will be possibly be trailing Ripple XRP-powered payments. Through its experimental integration with R3, SWIFT may be indirectly integrating with XRP, though Leibbrandt has no desire to work with XRP directly.

It is still to be seen whether SWIFT will move beyond the proof of concept stage. But that might change. The future of SWIFT and Ripple’s relationship will not lay in the hands of present CEO Leibbrandt, as he will be stepping down as SWIFT CEO in June. His successor may be more receptive for the new world.

It is still speculative  that the proof of concept — or a future trial — could see SWIFT being more interested in cryptocurrency settlement. On the other hand Ripple will do its utmost by leveraging its relationship with R3 to convince (SWIFT-related) banks to take the dive into cryptocurrency via the Corda Settler platform.

For now, the complex links between SWIFT, Ripple, and R3 are sure to trigger continued debate about the future of global finance.

Read the full article here

 

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

New Community and Partner Manager for treasuryXL

| 02-05-2019 | by Pieter de Kiewit |

treasuryXL recently celebrated its third birthday. As a partner and sponsor I have been involved from the start and so far, it has been an exciting journey. I am proud we have been able to create a constant flow of relevant content for corporate treasurers and all others interested in treasury. We continue the build-up of a platform where you can find expertise, opinions, events, job openings, product and service offerings. Different treasury topics for a variety of organisations.

Roy has been able to build a foundation in our content flow, our infrastructure and network. His experience as a banker has been valuable and partners appreciated his initiatives. He enjoys his time with treasuryXL but misses the content driven tasks he had as a banker. He will return to financial services. We thank him for his effort and wish him all the best.

We are ambitious and want to make the next step! In order to fulfill our pivot role we have been looking for more relevant skills and entrepreneurial power. I am happy we can present Kendra as the new Community & Partner Manager.

Currently Roy is working together with Kendra. Kendra brings valuable expertise in modern community management, she worked with a very successful tech company. Her focus will be on two major tasks. First, she will help improve the quality of the content and will increase of the relevant audience. Most likely this will be combined with the organisation of relevant events. Second, she will closely cooperate with partners and experts, helping them to achieve their professional and commercial goals. And of course the treasuryXL goals. Her efforts up till now are very promising. We look forward to working with her and wish her lots of success!

Currently you can contact both Roy and Kendra through [email protected] and 06-21303744

Pieter de Kiewit
On behalf of partners and experts of treasuryXL
Pieter de Kiewit

[button url=”https://www.treasuryxl.com/community/experts/pieter-de-kiewit//” text=”View expert profile” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]

IBM Blockchain: growing competition in payments

| 30-4-2019 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL

Last year October I wrote a blog about IBM’s World Wire project. In that month they announced to come to the market with a global blockchain network for cross-border payments and foreign exchange for regulated financial firms using digital assets. But at that time it was not yet ready for production.

A month ago the firm has announced that World Wire has been sent into limited production. According to IBM “this is the first blockchain-based network that integrates payment messaging, clearing, and settlement on a single network”. The World Wire network will support instantaneous foreign exchange payment and settlement in locations in more than 70 countries, supporting close to 50 currencies and 45 banking endpoints.

This will definitely lead to growing competition in the payments industry. What could that mean for institutions like Ripple and SWIFT?

Why is World Wire needed?

But firstly, why is World Wire needed? And other blockchain solutions? International money transfers especially remittances make up an important part of the global economy. According to the World Bank, migrants across the world sent an estimated $574 billion to relatives in their home countries in 2016.

Current global payment systems however are not adequate enough for the high number of transactions that are happening across the world. Nowadays banks have to go through inefficient processes involving many intermediaries for both the clearing and settlement to conclude these transactions. Sending money across borders today is as a result a time-consuming and costly process.

What is World Wire?

On March 18, IBM announced the launch of IBM World Wire, a global network for regulated financial institutions to simultaneously clear and settle cross-border payments in real time. First unveiled last year October, World Wire now has entered the production stage.

“We’ve created a new type of payment network designed to accelerate remittances and transform cross-border payments to facilitate the movement of money in countries that need it most.” “By creating a network where financial institutions support multiple digital assets, we expect to spur innovation and improve financial inclusion worldwide.” Marie Wieck, General Manager, IBM Blockchain.

The platform is designed for fast and easy cross-border payments, foreign exchange, and remittances, thereby integrating payment messaging, clearing, and settlement on a single, unified network. The aim of the IBM Worldwide Wire payment system is to remove the function of banking intermediaries to international payment options, thereby lowering the cost and at the same time the transaction speed.

“World Wire’s novelty in the blockchain space regarding settlements is that payment messaging and instructions for settlements can happen in real-time. Hence driving all sorts of efficiencies into the process mainly because you’re doing things on one network, i.e. reconciling information and post fact isn’t necessary.” Jesse Lund, VP Blockchain and Digital Currencies IBM

The platform is developed on the open-source Stellar’s blockchain network. This operates as the backbone of their payment solution, allowing cross-border payment settlements in near real time using digital assets as a bridge currency. It is said that the settlements can be done in five to 10 seconds.

Read the full article of our expert Carlo de Meijer on LinkedIn

 

Carlo de Meijer 

Economist and researcher

 

Information Session at VU Finance Amsterdam

| 25-4-2019 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |


We would like to invite you to the Information Session of the Executive Education finance programmes at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on Tuesday 7 May 2019.

It concerns:

This evening gives an insight into the content and organisation of the different programmes we offer.

Anyone interested in these programmes is welcome. We herewith kindly request you to inform potential candidates in your office or your network, about this evening.

Please register here.

We look forward to meeting you!

PROGRAMME

17.30 hrs.             Welcome with coffee, tea, and sandwiches
18:00 – 18:45 hrs. Investment Management & Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
19:00 – 19:45 hrs. Risk Management for Financial Institutions (RFMI)
20:00 – 20:45 hrs. Treasury Management and Corporate Finance (TM&CF)

LOCATION

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Agora complex
De Boelelaan 1105
Amsterdam

CONTACT

Investment Management (IM) & Chartered Financial Management (CFA)
Emiel Erbé
[email protected]
020-5986118

Risk Management for Financial Institutions (RFMI)
Michelle Habets
[email protected]
020-5986159

Treasury Management & Corporate Finance (TM&CF)
Myrthe Scholze
[email protected]
020-5987231

 

 

AUTOMATING BANK FEE ANALYSIS AND BECOMING BEST IN CLASS

| 15-4-2019 | Vallstein | treasuryXL |

About Vallstein

Vallstein was built around the philosophy that transparency in bank relations should be equally relevant from the perspective of a corporate client towards its banks as vice versa.  The history to date has proven Vallstein´s vision right.  Clients applying Vallstein´s BRM solutions gain and maintain pro-active control over their banking charges based on sustained information advantages, enabling ongoing monitoring and business allocation based on transparency and best-practice benchmarking.

Why Vallstein

By opting for Vallstein, companies will not only  gain access to the WalletSizing® Bank Fee Edition but will also avail itself of the know-how of over 18 years of experience in the development and management of Award-winning WalletSizing® and Bank Fee Management solutions and the associated global lead position in Bank Relationship Management.

The  Bank Fee Edition enables the efficient implementation of this important initiative in controlling banking fees. Bank invoices will be uploaded and interfaced into the Bank Fee Edition in a seamless matter. Based on the insights and analytics and the associated benchmarks provided by Bank Fee Edition, companies will establish a solid basis for transparency and control on all its banking charges in cash management.  Vallstein software solutions enable ongoing monitoring and reporting of the banking landscape, ensuring embedded pro-active control and compliance with banking policies and cash management pricing agreements negotiated with the banks.

Unlike other treasury systems and treasury consulting firms, Vallstein is solely and fully dedicated to BRM.

The nature of our client relationships varies and is entirely driven by the tailor-made approach from client to client. The majority of our clients operate in multiple countries, where in turn they maintain multiple local banking relationships.  In supporting our clients on their bank relationship management Vallstein has thus developed a unique and extensive database covering market data on banking products and services from over 300 banks worldwide.

Furthermore, all the prices for Cash Management will be benchmarked on the basis of size and quantities per product and this will provide the company with the necessary insight in the business value of its Cash Management wallet. With this knowhowthe best practice prices in the market can be negotiated.  For many of our clients this has lead to substantial savings on their annual Cash Management fees and an improved relationship with their bank(s).

Clients of Vallstein

Vallstein has served hundreds clients directly and indirectly in cooperation with its partners.  These clients represent a wide range of industries and vary in size from EUR 30 mln to well over EUR 300 bln in annual sales.  The clients are headquartered in a wide range of countries, including countries in the Middle East, Europe and North America and have operations in 180 countries world-wide. In many cases, the client relationship is multi-year, with our oldest client relationship indeed dating back to the year of inception of Vallstein in 2000.

Do you want to explore the possibilities for your company? Please contact Salco Herschberg.

Email: [email protected]
Tel. +31 (06) 46 59 73 34

 

Salco Herschberg

Country Head at Vallstein 

 

CASHFORCE AND FIDES WIN GLOBAL FINANCE 2019 TREASURY AND CASH MANAGEMENT AWARD

| 11-04-2019 | treasuryXL | Cashforce |

Cashforce, the global leader in cash forecasting and working capital optimization, and Fides Treasury Services Ltd., the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and communications, have won the Global Finance 2019 Treasury and Cash Management Award for Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in Treasury Management.

The two companies were jointly honored for their efforts to deliver an end-to-end solution that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to provide better outcomes for corporate treasury and finance departments.

“We are excited to be recognized for the work we have done concerning AI-powered cash forecasting,” said Nicolas Christiaen, CEO of Cashforce. “We will continue to invest in innovation to deliver comprehensive tools that help treasury and financial professionals be more efficient and more effective.”

Partnering together, Fides and Cashforce are pioneering new ways for corporate treasurers to connect to their cash-impacting data and leverage bank and ERP data for success. Fides’ multi-bank connectivity solutions in conjunction with Cashforce’s AI-powered cash forecasting module delivers best-in-class cash flow analytics, helping treasury and finance departments quickly obtain and present a single and accurate version of the truth.

“We are proud to receive this honor from Global Finance,” said Simon Kaufmann, Head, Client Relations and Marketing at Fides. “This award highlights the value of coupling trusted technology with cutting edge innovation, and the value customers can receive through strategic supplier partnerships like that of Fides and Cashforce.”

The Best Use of Artificial Intelligence in Treasury Management was a new award category this year. It was open to submissions from providers of treasury and cash management systems, services and technology that demonstrated innovative problem solving and treasury and cash management best practices.

ABOUT FIDES

Fides is the global leader in multi-bank connectivity and transaction communications. With the industry’s largest bank connectivity network, Fides helps over 3,000 active clients communicate with more than 10,000 banks globally. Our geographic reach spans 170 countries across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions.

Committed to helping corporations optimally connect and interact with their banks for over a century, Fides’ solutions deliver critical multi-bank account statement, payment workflow and reporting capabilities that allow treasury and finance teams to easily, accurately and securely communicate with their banks through any possible channel such as SWIFT, EBICS, SFTP or any alternative network.

ABOUT CASHFORCE

Cashforce is the global leader in cash forecasting and working capital optimization, with offices in Antwerp, Amsterdam, Paris, London and New York. We provide cash visibility to multinational corporates across various industries in over 120 countries worldwide.

The Cashforce platform is a ‘next-generation’ cash forecasting and treasury platform, focused on analytics, automation and integration. Cashforce connects the treasury department with other finance/business departments by offering full transparency into its cash flow drivers, accurate and automated cash flow forecasting and treasury reporting. The platform is unique in its category because of the seamless integration with numerous ERPs and banking systems, the ability to drill down to transaction level details, and the intelligent A.I.-based simulation engine that enables multiple cash flow scenarios, forecasts and impact analysis.

 

Nicolas Christiaen

Managing Partner at Cashforce

 

REMINDER: CONGRES TOEKOMST VAN HET BETALINGSVERKEER

| 9-4-2019 | Euroforum | treasuryXL |

Het jaarcongres Toekomst van het Betalingsverkeer is al 20 jaar dé ontmoetingsplaats voor alle Payment Professionals in Nederland. Om deze mijlpaal te vieren wordt het programma dit jaar nog uitgebreider dan voorheen.

Op verschillende podia vertellen (inter) nationale Keynote Speakers de meest interessante verhalen. Daarnaast bestaat het programma uit diverse co-creatie sessies en round tables waar de meest prangende vraagstukken van dit moment worden besproken. Bij dit proces is uiteraard de Adviesraad weer nauw betrokken.

What’s Going on in Payments?

Wat kunt u op 18 april verwachten?

> Circa 300 Payment experts van strategisch niveau aanwezig om u netwerk te vergroten.
> Meer dan 10 C-Level speeches delen hun visie op: Digitale Transformatie van Banken, Succesvol samenwerken met Fintechs, de NextGen Klant, Nieuwe business modellen door PSD2,
Impact van Blockchain en Artificial Intelligence.
> Meer dan 15 Round Table Sessions over EID, PSD2 Update, Instant Payments, Cybersecurity, Crypto Currencies, Data driven business modellen.
> Gepresenteerd door de payments experts in Nederland vanuit Betaalinstellingen, de nieuwkomers, banken, PSP’s, frontrunning consultancys.
> Interactieve werkvormen zoals dit jaar ‘Battle of the Finance’ en ruim de gelegenheid om te netwerken.

Voor meer informatie over het volledige programma, de sprekers en de locatie kunt u de website van het event bezoeken.

[button url=”https://www.treasuryxl.com/contact/” text=”Contact us” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]

Gartner Blockchain Spectrum: a great tool for CIOs

| 08-4-2019 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL

CIOs of companies are increasingly showing their interest in blockchain technology. In PwCs 2018 survey amongst a large number of business executives from 15 different industries in various countries, more than 80% of the respondents said their company was actively involved with blockchain technology. Some more than others. This is not surprising given the fact that blockchain may bring a number of great opportunities for enterprises, ranging from improvements in business processes to a complete overhaul of business models.

CIOs are under growing pressure to give guidance to decisions on ‘if’ and ‘how’ they should implement blockchain in their company. Within corporates there is a growing focus on the business challenges that blockchain could solve. CIOs however struggle with the issue of how and where to apply this technology as understanding is far from complete. While this technology is developing and changing fast, the features of blockchain are not (yet) fully mature, and current frameworks are far from adequate.

Looking at the various blockchain solutions that are coming to the market there is a lot of confusion which one would really meet the needs of companies when making up their decisions. This makes it for CIOs a very complex exercise.

Gartner recently launched its Blockchain Spectrum that should enable CIOs to take the right decisions and “make the right investments at the right time”.

PwC Survey: present attitude of CIOs

PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) recently launched a survey amongst a large number of CIOs from various industries on their attitude towards blockchain. It gives us some interesting insights about the CIOs present view on blockchain technology.

Survey results

This survey shows that many CIOs embrace blockchain. One of their findings was that 84% of the surveyed had at least some interest around blockchain. Not surprising given the enormous hype surrounding this technology. But the idea what blockchain really means for their company and how it should be implemented is still rather limited.

Looking more detailed into the survey results a very diverse picture of how companies are involved arises. For many CIOs blockchain is not yet a priority, at least compared to other new technologies including AI, Big Data analytics, and cloud. Only 15% has gone live while 10% is in the pilot stage. The large majority has just started in terms of research (20%) and development (32%).

The industries that are thereby leading are financial services (46%) and industrial products and manufacturing (46%). It should be mentioned that the financial services sector fell back from 82% in 2017. The survey respondents however still believe that financial services will remain the “current and near-term leader” of blockchain adoption. But there is increased potential in other areas such as energy & utilities, and healthcare.

Non-optimal blockchain solutions

Most blockchain initiatives today are Proof of Concepts (PoCs) that do not have real value. The existing models for blockchain that corporates operate are immature and therefore not suited to realise the various capabilities of blockchain technology. Most trials do not account for the evolutionary nature of blockchain “that leads to a spectrum of possibilities over time”.

“Inadequate understanding, lack of proven scalable models, inability to think beyond today’s business paradigms, lack of talent, and internal and external pressure to do something lead to tepid proofs of concept (POCs).” Gartner

Only 5% to 10% of current PoCs is expected to eventually “graduate to a preproduction” solution, with “major refactoring of requirements and architecture”. Even the ones that move beyond PoCs use just a “subset of blockchain capabilities” and that within current business models. They offer little or no decentralization and tokenization, being the most valuable features of blockchain.

This has much to do with “unwillingness or inability” to think beyond today’s business models and processes, according to Gartner.

Read the full article of our expert Carlo de Meijer on LinkedIn

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

New update for the community: Treasurer Test

| 02-04-2019 | by  Roy Baaten |

Dear peer goup members, treasurers, financials and friends of the community.
It has been a while since we updated you on the treasurer test.

First of all, we would like to thank everyone who helped us in one way or the other. A special thanks for those who made the test as a peer group member and provided us with very valuable feedback.

From the start we communicated that everyone will receive their report at the same time when the peer group is complete. We nearly completed the senior categories of the peer group but have to invest in finding candidates for the categories “no experience in treasury” and “treasurers with up to two years of treasury experience”. We are working very hard so everyone can receive their report they worked so hard for. We are almost there!

If you are a candidate for the aforementioned categories or know people who qualify and might want to take the test, send an email to [email protected] We appreciate your help.

We will inform you again if we have more news.

Roy Baaten – Community Manager

[button url=”http://www.treasuryxl.com/community/experts/roy-baaten/” text=”View expert profile” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]