TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions) at the DACT Treasury Fair

| 22-11-2017 | treasuryXL | TIS Treasury Intelligence Solutions |

The DACT (Dutch association of Corporate Treasurers) will be holding their annual Treasury Fair in Noordwijk at the Hotel van Orange on 23rd and 24th November 2017 – the most important annual treasury event in the Netherlands. Discover treasury best practices, learn about the latest trends and exchange experiences. It will contain 9 practical workshops spread out throughout the day on topics including, among others, trade finance, supply chain finance, liquidity forecasting, cyber security and the Blockchain. There are more than 50 exhibitors present at the Trade Fair including Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH- a partner of treasuryXL.

Company Profile

TIS is the leading cloud platform for managing corporate payments, liquidity and banking relationships worldwide. The company delivers SMART PAYMENTS to help customers make BETTER DECISIONS. TIS enable companies to make more efficient, more secure and more cost-effective payment transactions. In addition, TIS enables customers to make better decisions when analysing financial and operational performance based on real-time payment flows. All mission-critical processes related to payment transactions are integrated into a multibank-capable, audit-proof cloud platform. This is a single point of contact for enterprise customers when managing and analysing their payment flows across the organisation. TIS take care of managing various payment formats, communication channels with banks, and ERP-agnostic integration. Offered as Software as a Service (SaaS), the ISO certified TIS solutions are quickly up and running without the complexity and cost of a long IT project.

If you are at the Treasury Fair, please take your time to visit their stand and mention treasuryXL.

Last week TIS raised $12 million in additional financing from international VC firm 83North. Read more on their website

This is TIS’s own announcement on their website announcing their participation.

We wish TIS success at the DACT Treasury Fair!!

If you want to find out more about TIS and their services and products please refer to their company profile on treasuryXL.

Het Treasury statuut als beheersinstrument voor woningcorporaties

| 21-11-2017 | Roger Boxman |

Het onderstaande korte artikel gaat in op de eisen van het  Treasury statuut. In een Treasury statuut wordt aangegeven wat het doel van de Treasuryfunctie is van de organisatie en in welke producten mag worden belegd en op welke wijze op hoofdlijnen gelden worden aangetrokken. Na het Vestia debacle, waarbij derivaten speculatief werden ingezet, heeft de overheid de wetgeving aangescherpt voor woningcorporaties. Een van de eisen is dat woningcorporaties verplicht een Treasury statuut moeten opstellen.

Treasury Commissie

De Woningwet 2015 verplicht om woningcorporaties een Treasury statuut op te stellen.  In de sociale woningsector zijn de circa 2,4 miljoen sociale huurwoningen gefinancierd met  € 88 miljard.  Het  Treasurystatuut geeft aan wat de lange termijn richtlijnen zijn met betrekking tot de treasuryfunctie en wordt mimimaal om de drie jaar geactualiseerd. Er wordt een Treasury commissie ingesteld als adviesorgaan van het bestuur.  . Hier kunnen externe partijen van deel uit maken mits deze onafhankelijk zijn. De Treasurycommissie adviseert het bestuur gevraagd en ongevraagd over de uit te voeren transacties en overige treasuryvraagstukken. Het bestuur neemt deel aan de Treasurycommissie in de hoedanigheid van toehoorder.

Treasury jaarplan

Het treasuryjaarplan wordt afzonderlijk opgesteld en is een onderdeel van de (meerjaren)begroting. Dit plan bevat het beleid, de doelstellingen, het mandaat en de treasury taken voor het komende jaar, waarbij rekening wordt gehouden met het in het Treasury Statuut geformuleerde beleidskader en een risico beheersingsparagraaf. In het treasuryjaarplan worden o.a. de volgende zaken vastgelegd: liquiditeitsplanning, bestaande renterisico en de uit te voeren treasury activiteiten.

Risicomanagement

De belangrijkste risico’s die gemanaged worden zijn het beschikbaarheidsrisico, liquiditeitsrisico en renterisico en in mindere mate het tegenpartijrisico. Het Treasurystatuut bevat bepalingen over uitgezette gelden per tegenpartij met limieten. Veelal wordt voor het renterisico een maximum van 15% van de leningen aangegeven waarover een renteherziening worden toegepast.

Samenvatting

Bovenstaande is een summiere opsomming van alle eisen die aan een Treasury statuut bij een woningcorporatie gesteld worden. De wetgever heeft een model Treasurystatuut dat tientallen pagina’s beslaat. Belangrijk is te beseffen dat er beperkingen aan de Treasuryfunctie worden gesteld en dat er formeel een mandaat is vastgesteld waarbinnen de Treasurer dient te opereren en zich te verantwoorden.

Roger Boxman

Senior Advisor Internal Control

 

Treasury Services at the DACT Treasury Fair

| 20-11-2017 | treasuryXL | Treasury Services |

The DACT (Dutch association of Corporate Treasurers) will be holding their annual Treasury Fair in Noordwijk at the Hotel van Orange on 23rd and 24th November 2017 – the most important annual treasury event in the Netherlands. Discover treasury best practices, learn about the latest trends and exchange experiences. It will contain 9 practical workshops spread out throughout the day on topics including, among others, trade finance, supply chain finance, liquidity forecasting, cyber security and the Blockchain. There are more than 50 exhibitors present at the Trade Fair including Treasury Services- a partner of treasuryXL.

Company Profile

Treasury Services structurally improves the bottom line of its clients by cutting their costs and by improving their efficiency in finance. We create a competitive advantage for our clients by implementing innovative solutions. Treasury Services offers Treasury Consultancy & Advice, Treasury Management Software, Treasury Training & Education and Financial Engineering Solutions. With these building blocks we can create complete solutions in Treasury Management, Cash Management, Risk Management, Corporate Finance and Treasury Control. Treasury Services has an international portfolio of corporates, financial institutions and non-profit organisations as clients.

Treasury Services recently strengthened its FX Risk Management Advisory services by entering into a partnership with Rob Beemster of Barcelona Currency Experts. (See Press release). Rob will also be present personally during the DACT Treasury Fair.

For the DACT Treasury Fair we have developed an FX Quick Scan which gives interested companies an immediate insight into their FX situation. As a result of this “few minutes” survey, companies can decide to make an appointment with Treasury Services for a more in-depth discussion / analysis of the FX situation of their company. Read more on their website.

If you are at the Treasury Fair, please take your time to visit their stand and mention treasuryXL.

We wish Treasury Services success at the DACT Treasury Fair!!

If you want to find out more about Treasury Services and their services and products please refer to their company profile on treasuryXL.

How does liquidity forecasting accelerate growth: Cashforce @ DACT Treasury Fair

| 17-11-2017 | treasuryXL | Cashforce |

DACTThe DACT (Dutch association of Corporate Treasurers) will be holding their annual Treasury Fair in Noordwijk at the Hotel van Orange on 23rd and 24th November 2017 – the most important annual treasury event in the Netherlands. Discover treasury best practices, learn about the latest trends and exchange experiences. It will contain 9 practical workshops throughout the day on topics including,  trade finance, supply chain finance, liquidity forecasting, cyber security and the Blockchain. There are more than 50 exhibitors present at the Trade Fair including Cashforce – a partner of treasuryXL, who are also presenting a Workshop.

Company Profile

Cashforce is an innovative Cash & Treasury Management System, focused on automation and integration. As a ‘next-generation’ Cash management solution, Cashforce helps finance/treasury departments save time and money by offering accurate cash flow forecasting, flexible treasury reporting & automation.Cashforce is unique in its category, because it allows users to drill down to the transaction level details and the system integrates seamlessly with ERP systems & banking systems. In addition, an intelligent simulation engine enables companies to consider multiple cash flow scenarios and measure their impact. As a result, finance / treasury departments can be turned into business catalysts for cash generation opportunities throughout the company.

Workshop

Cashforce will be co-presenting a Workshop at 13:45, entitled How does Liquidity forecasting accelerate growth and what’s the role of the treasurer

The 2017 Global Treasury Benchmark Survey from PwC shows that companies worldwide hold a staggering $ 1.1 trillion (!) of excess liquidity in their business operations. These hidden liquidities can be tracked by an accurate and automated cash management and forecasting process. These can then be used to lower the company’s working capital or to realise additional growth.

Setting up an automated cash management & forecasting process has at last been made possible as a result of technological progress. Currently, 87% of treasurers still use manual spreadsheets. However, this process can be organised much more efficiently.

To demonstrate how this can be achieved, this workshop sets out the challenges of accurate cash flow forecasting, supported by a case study presented by the Interfood Group.

With $ 1.4 billion in annual revenue, Interfood is one of the leading global dairy traders and suppliers. Through 15 global offices worldwide, Interfood distributes over 800,000 MT of dairy products a year. Together with Cashforce, Interfood has set up an automated cash forecasting process. The case will be presented by Vincent Almering (Finance Director Interfood B.V.). Vincent has led the project from start to finish and acts as the key lynchpin for the different users (Traders / Treasury / Finance / CFO). Vincent will share the challenges and benefits of cash flow forecasting as well as his experiences. Finally, there will be a discussion on the main lessons learned, aimed at treasurers who are looking for a solution for an automated and accurate cash forecasting process.

Speakers: Vincent Almering, Financial Director Interfood B.V. – Nicolas Christiaen, CEO Cashforce. Moderator: Martijn Duijnstee, Manager Business Development Cashforce NL

Language: Dutch

If you are at the Treasury Fair, please take your time to visit their stand and mention treasuryXL.

We wish Cashforce success at the DACT Treasury Fair!!

If you want to find out more about Cashforce and their services and products please refer to their company profile on treasuryXL.

Surveys Treasury Training & Education + “Post HBO Leergang Treasury Management”

| 16-11-2017 | Treasurer Development |

Both from student perspective as well as from educators we receive signals they want to invest in training and education. Some articles have been written about what is out there (read article 1 and article 2), nothing comprehensive as far as we can oversee. In order to help both parties make a proper match we think two surveys are in place. 

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Survey – Treasury Training & Education

In this survey we want to focus on what is essential for potential students. What content, investment in time & money, with or without degree, etcetera? Do students need the education to do a proper treasury job, to improve their labour market position or do they have other reasons?

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Vragenlijst – “Post HBO Leergang Treasury Management” (in Dutch)

De Hogeschool Utrecht is bezig met de ontwikkeling van de Post HBO leergang Treasury Management en stelt een aantal vragen over de praktische opzet van het aanbod, zodat ze het toekomstige aanbod zoveel mogelijk op uw behoeften of die van uw collega kan toespitsen.

[button url=”https://nl.surveymonkey.com/r/6YMWL9P” text=”Vul de vragenlijst in” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

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These questionnaires are a cooperation between treasuryXL, Hogeschool Utrecht, Vrije Universiteit and Treasurer Search. We appreciate your input and will post the results in December 2017.

Thank you for your input.

Due to the improved economy and other factors we notice a rising interest in the development of the treasurer as a person. Education, competence development and labour market changes are the most obvious topics this concerning. This is why we started the Treasurer Development initiative. 

Read more about the Treasurer Development Initiative

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Tipco at the DACT Treasury Fair

| 15-11-2017 | treasuryXL | TIPCO Treasury Technology GmbH |

The DACT (Dutch association of Corporate Treasurers) will be holding their annual Treasury Fair in Noordwijk at the Hotel van Orange on 23rd and 24th November 2017 – the most important annual treasury event in the Netherlands. Discover treasury best practices, learn about the latest trends and exchange experiences. It will contain 9 practical workshops spread out throughout the day on topics including, among others, trade finance, supply chain finance, liquidity forecasting, cyber security and the Blockchain. There are more than 50 exhibitors present at the Trade Fair including Tipco Treasury & Technology GmbH- a partner of treasuryXL.

Company Profile

Treasury Reporting at the push of a button! TIPCO is the leading expert for treasury reporting in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. We develop customised solutions for our clients that are fast, flexible and easy to use. Our software TIP is a web-based application containing a diverse range of modules to support everyday reporting needs: Banking Account Administration, Financial Status, Liquidity Planning, Risk Management, Bank Fee Controlling, Compliance & Reporting and our Survey Tool.

With these modules, our clients can overcome problems created by heterogeneous system landscapes and find an easy way to communicate with their subsidiaries. Furthermore TIP is able to use existing data and avoids manual data input where it is not necessary. Huge amounts of data can be interpreted in seconds and reports are available by the push of a button. As a spin-off of the Austrian treasury consulting firm Schwabe, Ley & Greiner TIPCO unites treasury expertise with business intelligence competence.

Due to this unique combination, we are able to realise our projects with a holistic view and to the complete satisfaction of our clients.

If you are at the Treasury Fair, please take your time to visit their stand and mention treasuryXL.

This is Tipco’s own message via LinkedIn announcing their participation.

We wish Tipco success at the DACT Treasury Fair!!

If you want to find out more about TIPCO and their services and products please refer to their company profile on treasuryXL.

How does a FX spot transaction work?

| 14-11-2017 | treasuryXL |

Every day we enter into transactions in our own domestic market. Goods are priced in our own currency and we settle purchases in our own currency. Here in the Netherlands that means everything is priced and settled in Euro’s. It is a clear and concise system – of course we might argue about the price of goods, but that is another matter. Now consider what happens when we sell our goods to a counterparty domiciled in a different country – we shall assume from the United States. We would prefer to invoice in EUR as this is our domestic currency, whilst our counterparty would prefer to settle in USD. This makes sense as in both instances neither of us would be exposed to fluctuations in the exchange rate between the EUR and USD.

There are 3 basic choices to trade with a foreign based counterparty:

  • Price in our currency, but run the risk that they will not trade with us
  • Price in their currency, win the trade but do nothing about the risk
  • Price in their currency, but adjust our price for the perceived FX risk and sell their currency for our currency as soon as the deal is closed

As we are keen to expand our export markets we agree to charging the buyer in USD, but what price should we charge in USD? By accepting payment in USD we are now assuming a foreign exchange risk as the value of the USD could fall in relationship to the EUR before we have sold the USD for EUR. If the fall was large it could take away all our profit from the original transaction, possibly even leading to a loss on the order.

We must therefore enter into a transaction to sell USD and to receive EUR to book our profit and to neutralize the FX risk. This leads us into the world of Foreign Exchange (FX) trading.

In FX trading quotations are always shown for a pair of currencies such as EUR/USD – but what does this mean?

  • The first currency – EUR – is called the base currency
  • The second currency – USD – is called the quoted currency
  • The spot rate is shown as 1.1595
  • This means that every unit of the base currency is equal to 1.1595 units of the quoted currency

If our order was for EUR 100.000,00 then the USD equivalent would be USD 115.950,00

In this example it is the USD price that fluctuates as it is the quoted currency, but this does not mean that fluctuations are only caused by changes in the value of USD. The value can also fluctuate because of changes in the value of EUR – even though this is the base currency.

Most major currency pairs are quoted to 4 decimal places – with the 3rd and 4th places being called “pips”. Pips are the expression traders use to describe their profit or their market spread.

If we traded EUR 1 million into USD, we would have an equivalent of USD 1.159.500,00

The value of 1 “pip” would be USD 100,00

When we approach a bank for a quotation in spot EUR/USD, the bank quotes a 2-way price such as 1.1592/97

The lower price – 1.1592 – represents the bank’s bid price. This is the price at which the bank buys EUR and sells USD.

The higher price – 1.1597 – represents the bank’s offer price. This is the price that at which the bank sells EUR and buys USD.

If the bank quoted this price into the market and one clients hit the bid at 1.1592 and another took the offer at 1.1597, both in EUR 1 million, then the bank would book a profit of USD 500,00 – or a profit of 5 pips on EUR 1 million.

FX is one of the largest markets in the world – daily turnover exceeds USD 5 trillion per day. That means 5 followed by 12 zeros – every working day.

With such a large daily turnover, prices are constantly changing. The market consists of price makers (who make the prices), price takers (who take the prices), intermediaries like brokers who assist the market by transmitting the prices and placing orders, and clients who place orders at specific levels. Prices are only valid for a few seconds before they change either because the market has traded on the quoted price or a new order replaces the existing price.

When you trade on the quoted price then you have entered into a binding contract with the counterparty. Settlement is normally 2 working days after the trade date. If you sell USD then you must ensure your counterparty receives the agreed USD amount on their account in 2 working days, and you receive the agreed EUR amount on your account in 2 working days.

Trade settlement is very important and means that you must have a complete operational procedure in placing to effect settlement, establish positions, agree counterparties, have trading limits etc.

Traditionally spot FX trades were done with banks. Now trades can also be transacted via electronic exchanges, electronic brokers etc. It is always important to know who your counterparty is – it could be that your internal operational control prohibits you from trading with specific counterparties.

Most major currencies can be traded against each other without restrictions such as exchange control. Therefore, currency pairings can be found everywhere such as USD/JPY and EUR/GBP and ZAR/CHF.

Spot FX transactions are not traded on listed exchanges; these trades occur “over the counter” with a clearly identifiable counterparty.

 

Lionel Pavey

 

 

Lionel Pavey

Cash Management and Treasury Specialist

 

Accenture and blockchain: the accent on security issues

| 13-11-2017 | Carlo de Meijer |

My last blog was about IBM, triggered by a Juniper Research putting the company as the number one in the blockchain technology competition. One of the comments on this blog was that it looked like an IBM press release. But that is far beyond what is meant. I just looked at what the tech company was doing in the blockchain arena and why it could be adopted as the main blockchain model when blockchain adoption could become mainstream. In a previous blog I already talked about Microsoft’s CoCo platform, the number two in the Juniper Research asking myself if that could become a game changer (see my Blog: Microsoft CoCo Framework: blockchain game changer, August 29, 2017). Today I will go into some more detail in the blockchain activities of Accenture, number three according to the Juniper survey.

Accenture: where do they stand?

Looking at the various blockchain alliances or consortiums, of the top three in the Juniper Research, Accenture is the most broadly focused one. Being a member of both the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance and the Hyperledger Project as well as entered into alliance with Ripple and Digital Asset. Early this year Accenture also joined the Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC), the world’s leading blockchain trade association. The CDC, aimed to “help educate, promote and accelerate the adoption of blockchain-enabled technologies” , is also the founder of the Smart Contracts Alliance, the Blockchain Alliance, the Global Blockchain Forum amongst others.

Compared to IBM (Hyperledger Project and Digital Asset) and Microsoft (Ethereum Enterprise Alliance and Ripple) that are more outspoken in their vision, the overall goal of Accenture is to leverage DLT innovations of all sorts to make the technology viable for enterprise IT use.

“Accenture strives to be at the forefront of blockchain innovation and its practical, real world application. We provide our clients with a complete view of the blockchain-based technology landscape and its potential business implications. Our global team of experts works with each client to help build smart strategies around effective use-cases, investment and implementation.”Accenture website

“Accenture is committed to supporting these efforts by leveraging our expertise across the company – from regulation to innovation – to make blockchain a reality for our clients.” David Treat, managing director of Accenture’s financial services industry blockchain

Accenture: focus on security issues

Accenture is especially focusing on security issues. These will be critical to the widespread adoption of blockchain technology. In February this year Accenture launched its new blockchain security hardware solution and recently the company has secured a patent related to its work on Editable Blockchain technology as of late September 2017.

Blockchain Hardware solution

Last February Accenture launched its new blockchain security hardware solution. In partnership with Thales e-Security and its hardware security modules (HSMs), Accenture has developed a Hyperledger Fabric-based patent-pending solution…..

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

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

Wanted: Honours Graduation Internship in Finance, Control or Treasury

| 10-11-2017 | Nick de Wilde & Laurens Schumacher | Minor Treasury Management |

 

The University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht gives business economics students the opportunity to follow the minor Treasury Management. Two students that are following the programme at the moment are looking for a company where they can follow their Honours Graduation Internship.
Does your organisation have an opportunity?



Dear Treasurers,

We, Nick de Wilde and Laurens Schumacher, are looking for an internship for the period of February 5th to June 29th, 2018. We are currently in our last year of our business economics study at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and are following the minor Treasury Management. So far, we both have been very successful in our business economics education. Both of us are taking part in the Honours Graduation track in which we are taking on a challenging assignment as a duo. The internship consists of 60% working in the company (at the financial administration) and 40% working on the assignment. We prefer an assignment in the direction of Finance, Control or Treasury but we are open to any other suggestions.

If you are interested in facilitating us with a challenging internship, feel free to send us a message to [email protected] & [email protected] or join us on Linkedin.

Nick de Wilde – Nick on LinkedIn

Laurens Schumacher – Laurens on LinkedIn

Read also these articles about  the minor Treasury Management and from other students of the minor:

The size and shape of your treasury team

| 09-11-2017 | Pieter de Kiewit |

Treasury TeamLast week I received a call from one of my clients. Over the last years, I found several members for their team. Given the transition they are in, they were looking for benchmark information to shape their treasury team and make it future proof. This has kept me thinking and I started gathering information in order to give a proper answer. As to be expected, there is no standard template resulting in an easy answer. Even for more evolved job types like sales or accounting this is a hard question, corporate treasury is too young and small for sound statistics.

To make my analysis workable, I decided to measure the size of the team in a straightforward headcount. When talking about shape, I would like to work with the main functional areas: cash management, risk management, corporate finance and support. Of course this is an oversimplification. I think the following variables are the most relevant.

To start with the obvious: size matters. Size in revenue, number of employees, number of countries active in, number of currencies used, number of payments are all related to size of the treasury team. Not 100%. Senior management requesting detailed and up-to-date information requires a bigger team. We see this especially with organizations in turbulent situations, internally or in dynamic markets. Treasury teams that recently started, do not yet have a focus on efficiency and tend to be bigger. The willingness to invest in modern IT solutions on one hand creates a bigger team: key users and treasury IT managers, on the other hand it replaces staff doing manual work.  Finally improving aspects like segregation of duties and back-up typically create a bigger team.

Moving forward to the shape of the treasury team or perhaps the size of the various functional areas, I observe that the industry and company status have their impact. Typically, companies with a dynamic balance sheet, due to distress or growth (autonomous or take overs) need a bigger corporate finance function. A longer balance sheet in a capital intense industry requires a bigger team. In this area I also see an increase in project and customer finance teams contributing in the structuring of business deals.

Companies with diverse and dynamic payment flows need bigger cash management teams. Especially corporates with an ambition towards strong centralization require extra central staff. They need stronger software support, communicate a lot with subsidiaries and have to understand the business. If achieved, central cash management can be managed by few.

I observe a decrease of number of staff working in FX and interest risk management. Corporates are more risk averse, markets are transparent and ICT enables STP processes. In parallel other types of risk increase the workload: counter party, commodities, insurance, etcetera. Big data and business modeling is having its impact.

This blog does not have the ambition to be comprehensive, the above could be more thorough. Furthermore I could elaborate on aspects like control, IT and especially back office and settlements. Should they even be in your treasury team? I think the topic deserves further attention and could be researched by more than one graduate student.

What are your thoughts? What obvious aspect should be included? I look forward to your reactions,

Pieter de Kiewit

 

Pieter de Kiewit

 

 

Pieter de Kiewit
Owner Treasurer Search