Digital Payments Transformation for 2022

24-01-2022 | treasuryXL | Kyriba | LinkedIn |

By Bob Stark, Global Head of Market Strategy

Instant payments, payments fraud, and pandemic-led digital payments transformation projects have changed the B2B payments journey for CFOs and CIOs. IT teams recognize that new connectivity methods, such as APIs, are required to integrate their ERP platforms with banks, neobanks, and non-bank payment channels while finance departments are seeing the value of new options for instant payment delivery, including Venmo, SEPAInst, and The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payment network.

While the way payments are transmitted from ERP and treasury systems to beneficiaries is clearly modernizing, internal audit and governance teams are instructing finance and IT counterparts that their legacy payment processes are introducing operational risk. Combined with real-time payment settlements, older payment workflows are increasing the possibility of irrevocable mistakes, or worse, fraud. Payments transformation is the answer.

As with any payments project, the first question to be answered is: what is the desired business outcome? What measurable value can be quantified? Generally, for payments transformation initiatives there are three value drivers:

  1. Reduced bank and transaction costs
  2. Improved efficiency
  3. Reduced likelihood of mistakes and fraud

Reduced Bank and Transaction Costs

For many organizations, a digital payments transformation means they can reduce the reliance on expensive payment methods. Checks are a perfect example, where the total cost of ownership is reduced by 50% or more because of the immense internal processing and reconciliation times to send and receive checks.

Same Day ACH – fueled by recent increases in transaction limits – and real-time payments are becoming less expensive alternatives to wire payments, driving down the cost to remit faster payments. Further, payment-on-behalf-of (POBO) models allow for payment in local currencies, reducing currency translation costs, while also introducing the opportunity to net multiple payments to like suppliers and consolidate multiple payment systems into a single payment hub.

Most importantly, bank connectivity can be fully outsourced, which extracts immense cost from IT budgets, where ERPs and other internal systems were connected through hard-coded FTP scripts or reliant on expensive internal SWIFT infrastructures. Whether banks support APIs, FTP, regional networks, or SWIFT, payment connectors from ERPs and treasury to bank are pre-developed with tens of thousands of bank payment formats built into the product to eliminate any custom development to current platforms or when migrating ERPs to the cloud.

Certainly, reducing IT’s role in bank connectivity will save hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, especially when considering the banking industry’s harmonization of bank formats to XML ISO 20022. This initiative, alongside banks’ movement to APIs, would mean years of redevelopment by IT teams to rebuild protocols and formats from ERP to the bank. Payment hubs make this a non-issue, slashing costs while simultaneously eliminating time to market bottlenecks.

Improved Efficiency

Efficiency takes many forms, but the most obvious is the automation of manual processes. Legacy processes require unnecessary time to initiate, approve, review, validate documentation, confirm the authenticity of payment requests, screen for additional compliance requirements (e.g., OFAC screening), and log in to multiple systems to send, confirm, and reconcile payments. For smaller organizations, this can be dozens of hours per week; for larger organizations, the productivity improvements are valued in the $100,000s.

In addition to manual payment initiation and processing, internal collaboration between payments and treasury teams adds complexity that can be better managed. Too many organizations leave excess cash in bank accounts as they lack real-time visibility into payment amounts. This inefficiency is magnified as payments are remitted faster (or even in real-time), meaning cash managers can no longer fund payments the next day. Payables, receivables, and treasury teams must have complete data unification to minimize the amount of cash allocated for working capital. One client, HCSC, reported reducing working capital from $4.0 billion to $25 million by automating internal and external cash visibility.

Fraud Prevention

With 90% of CFOs reporting in 2021 that fraud was the same or worse than it was in 2020, CIOs are collaborating with CFO counterparts to build increased resilience to payments fraud. The initiative goes by different names – payments compliance, payments governance, fraud prevention – the effect is the same. Organizations need to transform their processes to “catch up” to real-time payments. There are four critical tenets that form the base of every payments governance and compliance program:

  • Standardization – The key to eliminating unauthorized payments – even if accidental in nature – is to ensure a standardized set of controls that prevail without exception. Controls could include payment approval scenarios, extra layers of authentication, procedures if approvers are remote and/or unavailable, and specific actions if modifications to the payment are required. The organization’s payment policy should be digitized and enforced by the payment hub software to ensure these controls are consistently applied.
  • Real-Time Payment Screening – Many organizations require payments to be screened against sanctions lists and bank account validation databases prior to sending those instructions to the bank. A simple exercise to verify that the bank account belongs to the intended payee should be part of every payment journey.
  • Digitized Payment Policy – The organization’s payment policy should be digitized for real-time compliance checks. Examples could include payments being made outside of approved countries, the first payment to a new bank account, irregular payment amounts, etc. Every payment should be screened in real-time so that any non-compliant or suspicious payments can be stopped and quarantined in real-time to be reviewed by authorized approvers. As payments continue to diversify across multiple channels (e.g. wires, ACH, checks, real-time) and become more real-time, organizations cannot rely on treasury staff scanning every payment in real-time; nor can they expect their banks to be the last line of defense.
  • Artificial Intelligence – Machine learning is perfectly suited to provide an additional layer of protection by instantly determining if a payment is an anomaly against historical payment patterns. Machine learning algorithms are easily trained using structured payment data from an existing treasury system, ERP, or payment hub to find irregular payments that should be further reviewed. This can be done individually or within payment batches to minimize the impact on the settlement of payment runs.

Additional reading: 15 Minute Guide to Payment Hubs

While fraud prevention is oftentimes the leading requirement driving payments transformation projects, other benefits including outsourced connectivity, enterprise liquidity visibility, process standardization, and multiple cost reductions should not be overlooked as these features will likely pay for the payments project with a lightning-quick ROI. And fortunately, transforming payments can be a large, collaborative project or select capabilities can be implemented incrementally, increasing the value and risk protection within weeks.

CurrencyCast | A podcast by Kantox

20-01-2022 | treasuryXL | Kantox | LinkedIn |

Introducing our new weekly FX podcast, CurrencyCast! A no-holds-barred series on the urgent foreign exchange challenges facing treasurers and CFOs today.

Introducing our new weekly FX podcast, CurrencyCast! A no-holds-barred series on the urgent foreign exchange challenges facing treasurers and CFOs today.

Every week, FX writer Agustin Mackinlay gets candid about what finance departments are doing wrong when managing their currencies and risk. He’ll provide bite-sized insights to help you better understand your FXrisk and push your treasury to the next level.

It’s an FX masterclass, all in under 10 minutes!

Mark your calendar for January 26th at 10am (CET) and subscribe to our YouTube channel to be one of the first to access our new series.

Subscribe now for the CurrencyCast!

PODCAST | Who does not lose, wins (Dutch Item)

19-01-2022 | Erna Erkens | treasuryXL |

Erna Erkens is valutacoach voor MKB en helpt internationaal handelende ondernemers om grip te krijgen op hun winst. Met ruim 40 jaar ervaring in het beheren van valutarisico’s, staat zij vooral bekend om haar recht-door-zee aanpak, eenvoudig taalgebruik en duidelijke uitleg. Virtueel drinkt zij dagelijks rond 10 uur een kopje koffie met haar klanten om het financiële nieuws door te nemen.

Waarom hebben de kleine lettertjes in vermogen opbouwen vaak de grootste impact? En waardoor is lijkt China de grootste wereldmacht te worden?  Ontdek wat het verschil is tussen kennis en informatie, waarom velen van ons zo’n verzamelwoede hebben en last but not least… Waarom winst vaak tot net zoveel problemen kan leiden als verlies. Kortom: Een begrijpelijk gesprek over een onbegrijpelijke wereld waar we allemaal in leven.

Verder leer je in deze podcast:

  • Waarom het vaak niet om winst maken gaat
  • Waarom we teveel in geld zijn gaan vertrouwen, en geld vertrouwen is
  • Waarom je als financieel adviseur soms juist geen beleggingen moet bezitten
  • Bonus: Waarom je beter een kastekort kan hebben dan een broek te kort

Pak een kopje koffie erbij en schuif aan bij dit gesprek over mogelijkheden en onmogelijkheden met vreemde valuta.

Owner at EEVA






GTreasury Acquires Hedge Trackers, the Global Leader in Hedge Accounting Software and Consulting

18-01-2022 | treasuryXL | GTreasury |

CFO demand for financial risk solutions is soaring; the deal gives GTreasury industry-leading hedge accounting technology and expertise

CHICAGO – January 18, 2022 – GTreasury, a treasury and risk management platform provider, today announced the acquisition of Hedge Trackers, the leading provider of accounting, consulting, and software services to protect clients against financial risk. The acquisition joins Hedge Trackers’ hedge accounting expertise and SaaS solutions with GTreasury’s unparalleled treasury and risk management platform. The combination of the two companies provides customers with best-in-class, integrated risk management technologies while continuing to expand GTreasury’s SaaS ecosystem built for treasury teams and the office of the CFO.
“Most CFOs and treasury teams understand the criticality of exposures and forecasts, but the highest-performing teams recognize and act on the subtle nuances directly impacting exposure,” said Renaat Ver Eecke, the CEO of GTreasury. “These are key decisions that have an outsized effect on corporate finances. Our acquisition of Hedge Trackers creates a unique and exciting opportunity for organizations to significantly, confidently, and advantageously optimize their complex accounting. With GTreasury’s product development capabilities, we can accelerate the expansion of Hedge Trackers’ robust Capella software capabilities and our best-in-class risk management solutions to better meet the requirements of modern CFOs and treasury teams.”

CFOs Drive Unprecedented Demand for Hedging Solutions

CFOs and treasurers face increasing volatility around foreign exchange rates, interest rates, and commodity prices – all of which can result in significant corporate losses without the right strategy, technology, and execution. This is why hedging and risk management solutions, along with hedge accounting services, have experienced such significant growth. FX hedging solutions alone are expected to grow 40 percent in the next two years, according to a recent survey from Topline Strategy, a consulting firm that looks at business technology adoption trends.

“CFOs increasingly realize that hedging is critical for success in a global economy,” said Ver Eecke. “A well-run risk management and hedging program helps CFOs gain control and provide clearer financials despite volatile foreign exchange rates, interest rates, and commodity prices. This acquisition catapults GTreasury into a leading position in the industry: both companies will combine to help CFOs and treasury teams more easily adopt risk management solutions and protect their bottom line.”

Hedge Trackers Brings GTreasury Unparalleled Expertise

Founded in 2000 by industry pioneer Helen Kane, San Jose, Calif.-based Hedge Trackers has amassed unparalleled domain expertise and technical depth in helping CFO offices establish hedging strategies, identify exposure, manage risk, and meet compliance and audit requirements. No public company has been required to restate earnings due to the derivative accounting and reporting practices implemented by Hedge Trackers. The company’s SaaS solutions are used by a wide range of companies, from pre-IPO businesses to the Fortune 100, and span across industry sectors including technology, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, retail, defense, energy, banking, and credit unions.

“Your top priority as CFO is determining what matters most in your organization’s financial statements,” said Helen Kane, CEO of Hedge Trackers. “Do you care about revenue? Operating income? With this acquisition, the combined GTreasury and Hedge Trackers teams will help CFOs and the teams they manage to think more strategically. The powerful combination of GTreasury and Hedge Trackers will deliver organizations the most comprehensive and intelligent solution for managing and mitigating financial risk. Hedge Trackers is a perfect fit for GTreasury, and we’re excited to now see all that we can accomplish together.”

About GTreasury

GTreasury is committed to connecting treasury and digital finance operations by providing a world-class SaaS treasury and risk management system and integrated ecosystem where cash, debt, investments and exposures are seamlessly managed within the office of the CFO. GTreasury delivers intelligent insights, while connecting financial value chains and extending workflows to third-party systems, exchanges, portals and services. Headquartered in Chicago, with locations serving EMEA (London) and APAC (Sydney and Manila), GTreasury’s global community includes more than 800 customers and 30+ industries reaching 160+ countries worldwide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Main blockchain and crypto trends in 2022: unexpected expectations

18-01-2022 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL | LinkedIn |

For me it is becoming a sort of tradition. Writing a blog about the upcoming trends in the Blockchain and crypto arena for the next year and beyond.

 

A year ago I concluded with the sentence: “always expect the unexpected”.

 

And unexpected was the upcoming of the DeFi market, as well that of NFT. But also a growing number of traditional banks entering the crypto scene, increasingly believing crypto is here to stay. What may bring this year? This will be described in the following 15 trends.

 

1. New third and fourth generation blockchain solutions

A first trend we will observe is de-acceleration in the development of new third and fourth-generation solutions aimed at removing the speed and scalability challenges. Third-generation blockchain platforms like Aion, Cardano, and EOS, introduced technology such as sharding to tackle scaling issues in order to cut down on cost and speed of transactions. These platforms also matured the distributed application capabilities of blockchain.

And there are fourth-generation blockchains aimed to resolve prior challenges and enable trust in easy-to-consume ways, accelerating the formation, operation, and reconfiguration of business networks. In addition to greater ease of onboarding, these lower cost, and highly scalable platforms are built to make pragmatic trade-offs such as recognizing that not all transactions are created equal using variable consensus mechanisms. Interesting fourth-generation blockchain platforms like Insolar and Aergo, are enabling business networks to be easier to use through business-oriented interfaces that hide the complexity of the underlying blockchain technology.

2. Towards more blockchain standardisation and interoperability

Another trend we will see in 2022 is an acceleration in the creation of standards and interoperability possibilities. These should enable multiple blockchains to communicate. The number of blockchain and distributed ledger networks are firmly growing. Most blockchain networks operate on isolated ecosystems as they try to resolve a unique set of needs. Interconnecting these new chains is becoming a necessity as more people continue to take note of the emerging technology and its capabilities.

Standards are an important key to success for any developing technology, and blockchain is no exception. The right standards, set at the right time in a technology’s development, can ensure interoperability, generate trust in and help ensure ease of use of the technology. In this way, they support its development and create a pathway to mass adoption.

The rapid development of blockchain is set to give rise to many different kinds of chains. One such technology that is becoming increasingly evident is cross-chain technology, an emerging technology that seeks to allow the transmission of value and information between different blockchain networks. This technology is increasingly becoming a hot topic of discussion seen as the ultimate solution for enhancing interoperability between blockchains.

3. Blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) solutions

BaaS has emerged as a boosting adoption across business companies due to many developments in this atmosphere of blockchain. The demand for Blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS), a third-party creation and management of cloud-based networks for companies in the business of creating blockchain applications, among companies is firmly growing and that will continue in 2022. Main players in this space include Microsoft, Amazon and R3.

BaaS facilitates its clients to leverage the solutions to build hosts, based on the cloud and enable them to operate related functions on the blockchain and their applications, without having to overcome technical difficulties or operational overhead and without the need to invest in more infrastructure developments as well as lack of skills. BaaS operators help the clients to focus only on their core job and blockchain functions

4. Great demand for blockchain and crypto skills

The year 2022 will see a greater demand for blockchain and crypto skills. The potential for growth in the blockchain industry and the increasing dominance of blockchain across various sectors serve as a prominent reason for the increased demand for these skills. The promises of blockchain technology for enterprises in terms of cost efficiency and performance improvement and the booming development of the crypto markets translate directly into the rise in demand for blockchain professionals.

A report by LinkedIn has placed blockchain as one of the most in-demand skills for 2021 and beyond. Enterprises therefore need blockchain professionals with the skills to help them leverage most of blockchain technology for driving their business objectives. 

5. Blockchain-IOT-G5 integration 

This year we experienced a growing trend of blockchain being integrated with other technologies such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence amongst others. There is also growing attention of corporates to use blockchain for IoT or Internet of Things applications.

The IoT market is increasing drastically and this is expected to continue in 2022 in an accelerated way triggered by the recent uptake of the 5G network. The expected potential of the 5G IoT market today is however limited by an extremely fragmented IoT ecosystem.

Blockchain technology appears as potentially the most suitable and efficient way to the various 5G IoT challenges. It can potentially help to solve many problems around security as well as scalability due to the automated encrypted and immutable nature of blockchain. It is expected to hear about more pilot projects and initial use cases in this field during 2022.

6. Blockchain and the Metaverse

Blockchain applications in Metaverse are another top blockchain trend in 2002. Metaverse is the emerging universe of the formerly known Facebook where there will be ‘immersive’ experiences with new technologies like blockchain, augmented reality, virtual reality etc. Without blockchain technology the Metaverse would be incomplete because everything would be stored in the centralised network.

Blockchain will enable the upcoming of a new wave of social networks that could be bigger and even better than the existing ones such as the former Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube that are now synonymous with the word social media.

Blockchain in 2022 is expected to run multiple platforms on Metaverse with NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Digital assets like NFTs will thereby define ownership on the Metaverse and cryptocurrencies will power the new digital economy. Moreover, also Twitter, with its vast user base of 192 million daily active users, is now planning to integrate cryptocurrencies into the platform with things like Bitcoin tipping for creators.

7. Blockchain and governments

Governments are also starting to enter the blockchain market. Blockchain provides new ways for governments to organize processes and handle information in a more efficient way. Over the past few years, governments in several countries have been experimenting with the application of this novel technology to a wide variety of functions and services, including land registration, educational credentialing, health care, procurement, food supply chains, and identity management.

What is holding back various governments up till now is the factor of trust. The World Bank therefore proposes a “Three Layer” design and implementation framework, to prevent potential glitches between the technology and its intended application. Their framework comprises the social layer, data layer, and technical layer. The social layer constitutes human actors and social aspects such as incentives and motivation among others.

The data layer is the ledger itself and what it provides in terms of usability, security, authenticity, and reliability. The technical layer comprises DLT protocols, data storage, and consensus mechanisms among others.

8. More projects on CBDCs

With 80% of the world’s central banks now exploring Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) projects during 2021, according to the Bank of International Settlement, the year 2022 will see a further breakthrough. Governments worldwide realise that cryptocurrencies are here to stay and the majority of CBDCs are being introduced to ensure their monetary system stays relevant to consumer demands and not necessarily to eradicate the use of Bitcoin and other private cryptocurrencies.

Despite most central banks are still planning their frameworks for what a CBDC might look like, there are already CBDCs that have gone live. These however are limited to a few small countries including the Bahamas, Cambodia, the Eastern Caribbean States and most recently followed by Nigeria.

In terms of developed nations, China and Sweden (e-krona) are the most advanced with extensive pilots having already taken place. China is expecting to further test its CBDC – digital yuan – during the Winter Olympics in early 2022. This will certainly trigger other central banks including those of the UK, the US, Russia, Japan and the European Central Bank, to follow suit.

9. The DeFi market will further boom ….

DeFi, or decentralised finance is quickly emerging as a transparent and permissionless way for users to interact directly with each other. This year the value of assets in DeFi reached more than $180 bn and expectations are that this will further rise in 2022. As there is an increasing need to replicate physical items properties like uniqueness, ownership proof, we will see further uptake of the DeFi market as well as the arrival of more dedicated DeFi applications. Upcoming regulation, as well as the growing acceptance that crypto is here to stay, may in the longer term lead to more convergence between traditional or centralised finance (CeFi) and decentralised finance (DeFi).

10. ….. as well as NFTs

The remarkable growth of the NFT market in 2021 is expected to continue in 2022. As almost everything is becoming digital, there is an increasing need to replicate physical items properties like more uniqueness, ownership proof and scarcity. The Metaverse concept that was earlier described will bring plenty of new opportunities for innovative NFT use cases.

Various new use cases including gaming, music, ticketing, post on social media etc. are entering the NFT market attracted by the various benefits and the profits that can be made.

But the risks and challenges this market is confronted with will ask for regulatory intervention. This raises the importance of having an international regulatory body of non-fungible tokens for its better regulation and legalization. The outcome could have a great impact and will be decisive for the future of NTFs. It is however still uncertain how that will proceed.

11. Large banks are entering the DeFi market

The attitude of traditional banks, especially the larger ones towards crypto and DeFi is changing. . With central banks around the world beginning to embrace the concept of CDBCs and stablecoins, the principles underlying the DeFi industry will gain more and more acceptance amongst traditional firms. The banking industry is beginning to see DeFi’s potential to overhaul the inflexibility of present processes and are reacting. More and more established banks, pushed by the demands of their clients and shareholders, are now exploring how they might engage with DeFi and the crypto markets. While this year some big names entered the DeFi space in order to meet their customers’ demand for crypto thereby delivering a number of DeFi based applications, this number will further increase in 2022 thereby seeking greater exposure to the DeFi space.

12. We will see more DAOs

To meet the upcoming governance issues at DeFi organisations we will see the arrival of more decentralised autonomous organisations or DAOs in 2022 and beyond.

The decision-making, or governance, at DeFi organizations (from the fees they charge users to the products they offer) is often meant to be decentralized. In the initial stage of DeFi a single person or a small group of people might be driving a decentralized application at inception. But as the DeFi project gains momentum they often seek to step away, thereby handing over control to the community that uses it.

That transition is expected to be increasingly in the form of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). They have their rules and regulations embedded in programming code via smart contracts and may issue governance tokens, which give holders of those coins a say in decisions.

13. The number of challenger banks and crypto banks will further grow

A new trend we will see in the years to come is the rising number of challenger and crypto banks, aimed at meeting the needs of millennials and the Gen Z generation. Both are increasingly looking to new ways money is being managed. This has led to the emergence of challenger banks that are making finance fully digital. But even this is not enough for the 25-year-olds and under, Gen Z. Saving, making money work, and being in control of finances is a key difference between millennials and Gen Z and this is where cryptocurrency starts to enter the discussion. This will intensify the upcoming of crypto banks.

14. Crypto currency rates to more realistic levels

Notwithstanding there is a growing demand for cryptocurrencies not only from consumers but also from institutional investors as well as large financial institutions, 2022 will see the end of the cryptocurrency hype, a further correction in crypto rates and the return to more realistic levels, triggered by the upcoming regulations worldwide (see trend 15).

Notwithstanding the growing importance of the DeFi and NFT markets, the year 2022 may see crypto currencies lose some of their magic. Investors are greatly overestimating the speed with which the related blockchain technology will see a broad-based adoption. This may retrace trading euphoria in a bigger way in the cryptocurrency space.

15. Regulators are making up their mind

And finally, but most important, a growing number of regulators around the world – long-time struggling how to deal with the various crypto issues – will intensify their work and come up with regulatory measures, both individually and collectively. Aim is to meet the various risks and challenges of the crypto industry, including cryptocurrencies, crypto assets, stable coins, DeFi, NFT etc. on one hand, but without frustrating or harming technology developments.

While some countries have banned cryptocurrency entirely, there is a growing trend that regulators believe cryptocurrencies are here to stay and try to partially control their flow in the economy. International institutions like BIS, IMF, World Bank and others however are messaging that international regulatory collaboration and a cohesive regulatory framework is urgently needed.


Promising 2022

Dear followers. All these trends are based on a number of premisses. Thereby older trends play an important role in making these forecasts. If all these predictions come through, 2022 will be a great year for blockchain and the crypto industry. But as I also concluded in my blog on the trends of 2021: always expect the unexpected. Curious to experience.

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

 

 

 

Source

International Treasury Management and Corporate Finance

17-01-2022 | François de Witte | treasuryXL |

We would like to draw attention to the following event, which includes our Expert François de Witte. Register below to learn more about International Treasury Management and Corporate Finance.

Registration

 

In order to be accepted to this certified path it will be asked to complete this application form .

This training will be planned and will start when a sufficient number of participants has been reached. You will then be informed at least 2 months before the course starts.

However, you can still fill in your application and we will contact you.

If you do not wish to be certified but are interested in the topics, almost every course can be purchased independently by clicking on the title in the content below. This certified path is a blended training which contains both physical and virtual classroom, e-mentoring, teamwork, etc.

Description

 

The treasurer is the custodian of the company’s daily liquidity. He manages, anticipates and secures cash flows by ensuring that financial needs are covered. This cursus will give the ability to assist directly and practically the treasurer of large corporates or to take over the treasury responsibilities in a SME. The various modules will allow acquiring an in-depth knowledge of the various areas of the “Corporate Treasurer” profession.

 

Objectives

 

At the end of this programme, the participant will able to:

  • assist directly and practically the treasurer of large corporates
  • take over treasury responsibilities in a SME.

The various modules will allow to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the different areas of the “Corporate Treasurer” profession.

 

Programme

 

Module 0: Introduction to Treasury Management

Speaker: Benjamin Defays / Treasury Manager

  • Corporate Treasurer’s responsibilities
  • Cash management (bank account opening, closing, KYC, Cash pooling, Payments and bank connectivity)
  • Liquidity management (importance of working capital management,
  • Risk management (foreign exchange, fraud, credit risk)
  • Trade finance (general context, intro to bank guarantees and letters of credit)
Module 1: Financial Maths in Excel (Focus on treasury & corporate finance)

Speaker: Hugues Pirotte / Professor of Finance at Solvay Brussels School

  • Focus on treasury & corporate finance
  • Time Value of Money
  • Vocabulary
  • Compounding intervals
  • Discount and annuity factors
Module 2: Payments, Cash Management and Banking Relations

Speaker François De Witte / Consultant

  • Payments (Process, Tools)
  • Liquidity Management
  • Cash-Flow Forecasting
  • In-House Banking
  • Banking Relationship
Module 3: Trade Finance in context of uncertainty

Speaker: Benjamin Defays / Treasury Manager

  • General contact, cultural aspects
  • Why trade finance in treasury
  • Bank Guarantees, Burgschafts, Surety Bonds, Letters of Credit, Cash against Documents
  • Alterative security instruments
  • Disruptive technologies
Module 4: Introduction to Counterparty Credit Risk Management and Cash Collection

Speaker: Benjamin Defays / Treasury Manager

  • Concepts & Practices/Types of Credit Risks
  • Understanding Financial Statements and Ratios
  • Credit Scoring/Ratings – S&P, Bloomberg models
  • Collecting overdue receivables – setting priorities
  • Strategies dealing with overdue invoices
  • Debt collection services development
Module 5: Practical Aspects of International Finance Regulation

Speaker: Lievin Tshikali  

  • KYC, GDPR, EMIR, Bale III
  • International sanctions and their impact on transactions & overall business activities
  • Anticorruption (FCPA, UK Bribery Act)
  • EU competition law compliance
  • INCOTERMS
  • Drafting a contract (main considerations)
Module 6: Risk Management applied to treasury

Speaker: François Masquelier / Group Treasurer

  • FX, Interests
  • Counterparties
  • Others (Reputation, etc…)
  • Objectives of Hedge Accounting
  • Required documentation and formalisation of Hedge Accounting relationships
  • Different types of hedges (Fair Value, Cash Flow, Net Investment)
  • Booking adjustments of different hedge types
  • Typical examples of different hedge types
Module 7: Technologies applied to treasury

Speaker: François Masquelier/ Group Treasurer

  • New Technologies
    • Blockchain, Crypto-currencies, Smart Contracts
  • Treasury Console (Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters)
  • TMS, Financial Technology
Module 8: Cyberfraud: what you need to know to manage this ever increasing risk

Speaker: Thierry Hamon / Cash management & security expert

  • Getting an overview of the different cyberattacks techniques currently used
  • Understand the possible consequences of cyberfraud and what needs to be protected
  • Learn 50 ways to protect

Some homework might be proposed for some modules, there will be continuous control in the form of intermediary exams (under the form of QCM) and a final exam will be sanctioned by an attestation delivered by ATEL (The Luxembourg Association of Corporate Treasurers).

There might also be one or two “extra-activity”, such as a visit in a bank trading room or/and a special guest speaker addressing the cursus participants on a specific subject (still to be defined, optional events).

 

Target Audience

 

Anyone willing to acquire an in-depth knowledge in corporate treasury and wishing to exercise this knowledge in practice.

 

Prerequisites

 

  • Basic background in finance or accounting
  • For the Advanced Excel workshop, a preliminary (good) knowledge in Excel is required.

Course Material

 

The course material can be downloaded free of charge via your portal the day before the start of the course (download the Client Portal User’s Guide here).

 

Certificate

 

At the end of the programme, the participants will receive a “Certificate of Attendance” delivered by the House of Training, and an attestation of “Exam Success Pass” delivered by ATEL.

In order to get certified, an 80% rate of attendance and a 60% average score on the examinations are required.

The participants will also receive a one-year free membership to ATEL (www.atel.lu) giving a number of advantages.

 

Register Here

 

 

Francois de Witte

 

François de Witte

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Report: Intercompany Netting – Insights that Warrant a Response

12-01-2022 | treasuryXL | Coprocess |

 

Download your copy of the Netting Report to understand more about the benefits of netting solutions, adoption rates and types of companies using netting, and more.

If your organization regularly processes payments between your subsidiaries, it could make sense to implement a structured intercompany netting solution to streamline processes and save on FX trades and transaction fees. But how do you know if it makes sense or when the time has come to take that next step for processing intercompany payments?

Download this report to review the results of recent netting research and get insights into netting use and benefits. The results can help you understand:

  • The benefits of intercompany netting
  • What factors drive the implementation of a netting solution
  • Adoption rates and types of companies using netting
  • How to build the business case for intercompany netting

 

Click here, enter details, download & receive

 

 

 

Partner Interview | VP of GTreasury, Michele Marvin: 9 questions & answers on treasury technology innovation

11-01-2022 | treasuryXL | GTreasury |

 

For three decades, GTreasury has stayed ahead of treasurers’ pain points with new innovations in digital treasury.

Together with Strategic Treasurer, GTreasury surveyed hundreds of global treasurers for the 2021 Treasury Technology Survey Report. A must-read for any corporate treasurer, several findings are particularly eye-opening as treasurers (and the office of the CFO) navigate the next era in treasury technology.

In this comprehensive and transparent interview with Michele Marvin, Global VP at GTreasury, she discusses the ongoing evolution of digital treasury, how new acquisitions and partnerships have shaped GTreasury’s treasury technology ecosystem, and some of the most important findings of the recent treasury technology survey.

Read below for Michele’s thoughts to our nine questions.

Introduction Michele Marvin

 

 

Michele Marvin is a VP at GTreasury, a treasury and risk management platform provider. Prior to joining GTreasury in 2019, Marvin has held leadership roles at several large technology companies, including most recently at Flexera and Zebra Technologies.

 

 

INTERVIEW

 

1. How has GTreasury’s treasury and risk management system evolved with the industry?

GTreasury was one of the first treasury management system (TMS) providers to see the transformative potential of cloud technologies and the future-proof flexibility that a SaaS approach can deliver. Times change but our purpose has always remained the same: modernizing corporate treasury to enable customers to optimize liquidity, manage risk, gain more insight from their data, and maximize their day-to-day productivity. While the tools to accomplish these goals are always evolving, I would argue no one understands what treasurers need to be successful more than GTreasury. We live and breathe digital treasury, and understand that it takes a complete, connected ecosystem to drive true transformation.

2. How would you describe GTreasury’s customer base?

Our platform is used by more than 800 organizations around the world and from across virtually all industries. Customers come to GTreasury either as they leap forward into SaaS-based digital treasury, or when they are seeking to replace alternatives that don’t have enough connectivity into banks and market data resources, don’t have the user experience that treasurers are looking for, or aren’t as advanced in their capabilities (such as AI-fueled cash forecasting).

3. GTreasury has made headlines this year for its acquisitions and partnerships – how have these fit into the company’s roadmap and strategy?

We acquired Coprocess in March 2021, a longtime leader in intercompany netting. As with our previous acquisitions, the deal with Coprocess was spurred by customer feedback for netting capabilities fully-integrated into a treasury management platform, and by our own research. Coprocess brings GTreasury a true multi-tenant, SaaS-delivered solution that’s easy to scale. Users are up and running extremely fast, and it is highly configurable to treasurers’ unique netting process and organizational structures. We’ve also been continuing to make Coprocess a standalone solution for those who want to use intercompany netting outside of a TRMS.

We also recently partnered with Treasury Strategies to add the bank fee analysis technology NDepth into our treasury ecosystem. Corporate treasurers’ biggest expense is often bank fees, but few organizations are able to regularly monitor this expense with the accuracy and insight needed to effect change. With bank fee analysis now powered by NDepth, GTreasury customers have the most powerful bank account management tool, a repository of auditable electronic bank statements, and the mechanisms necessary to help treasurers connect with banks, internal systems, and other third parties.

Strategically, each of our acquisitions and partnerships bolsters the capabilities of our core products and supports further digitalization of the office of the CFO. That’s by design. We want to proactively stay ahead of treasurers’ pain points by providing a seamless, connected, and complete digital treasury experience, and we want to ensure that the right integrations and data access is available to empower the CFO’s office. We’ll continue to make purposeful acquisitions and partnership that support these goals.

4. GTreasury and the treasury consulting firm Strategic Treasurer recently released the 2021 Treasury Technology Survey Report. Before getting into the data itself – who was surveyed?

The survey collected responses to 50+ questions from more than 250 treasurers (with a global sampling). This recent report was really the first-of-its kind to look at how far along organizations are in their digital treasury transformations, the technologies they are most excited about, and where resistance remains.

5. What were some of the key findings that treasurers should pay attention to?

Significant technology adoption is anticipated. Payment factories, treasury aggregators, and TMS solutions are expected to realize 35% to 45% growth over the next two years.

  • APIs are becoming must-have capabilities. Seventy-three percent of corporate treasury groups indicated that APIs are critical to their current processes. Machine learning capabilities are also drawing outsized focus from treasurers further along in their modernization initiatives.
  • The gap between cash forecasting importance and reality is high. While cash forecasting is very important to 84% of treasurers, only 38% indicate they are performing at a high rate of accuracy.
  • Fraud prevention gains a heightened focus. Thwarting fraud is a top focus for 77% when considering the application of new technology in product development. Treasurers also report high demand for incorporating automation into fraud prevention processes.
  • Resistance to formats remains. Comparing legacy formats to newer and more enriched formats like XML, treasurers showed surprisingly high levels of resistance to adoption.

6. What are the benefits that treasury teams are missing out on by still using legacy data formats?

Really the biggest shortcoming of legacy data formats is the formatting itself. Legacy data formats are inconsistent and can vary across different banks. They also store information held in single run-on strings, requiring customers to decipher messy text blobs to understand critical transaction information. Newer formats are far easier to work with. Systems can parse information into separate fields, making information much clearer to users, thus expediting processing and routing.

Treasury teams reap substantial benefits from these formatting advantages, including improved visibility of their cash position, easier cash tracking, and reductions in manual errors. Ultimately, clearer formatting increases operational efficiency, enabling daily reconciliation practices that minimize fraud and accelerate month-end closings.

7. GTreasury is also uniquely connected to how a broad set of treasurers have responded to ongoing pandemic-related business uncertainties. What are a couple stories or trends that have emerged from that research and from speaking with treasurers across the world?

We’ve been working with Strategic Treasurer throughout the lifecycle of its really fascinating and ongoing survey (The Global Crisis/Recovery Monitor), digging into treasurers’ responses to the pandemic. Two trends really stick out to me:

Ongoing economic uncertainty accelerated treasury projects that could add efficiency. In particular, digital automation and process optimization became must-haves as treasurers needed to provide reporting to executives at a faster rate. Most treasurers reported being on the road to more automation and treasury process modernization, but the pandemic kicked those initiatives ahead. Manual slowdowns that might have been tolerable pre-pandemic quickly proved to be a liability.

Cash visibility and forecasting became even more important (and will stay that way). Cash forecasting reporting became a daily event for many treasurers (more often than once-a-day in some cases), as businesses needed to make critical decisions against an ever-changing environment. Even as the pandemic subsides, many treasurers believe the pace and importance of reporting on cash visibility and forecasting won’t revert to pre-pandemic norms. Newer capabilities like AI-fueled cash forecasting (we added SmartPredictionsTM last year) will continue to make these reports more accurate and efficient to produce.

Also, for a specific story on how one of our customers, Canadian Tire, quickly shifted focus from historical data to real-time data because of the pandemic, check out Data-Driven Treasury in Global Finance.

8. Speaking of cash forecasting, GTreasury and Strategic Treasurer also just put the 2021 Cash Forecasting & Visibility Survey. What were some of the key takeaways that treasurers will want to pay attention to?

The report is worth a read for any treasurer (and available for full download here). Among the findings likely to pique interest among treasurers and CFOs are:

  • Treasurers want real-time global cash position updating. The majority of treasurers are seeking global cash positions that can update on a real-time or intraday basis, but many report being stuck with weekly (or less frequent) updates. Just seven percent of survey respondents are currently achieving real-time cash position updates.
  • The use of AI and ML in cash forecasting is nascent but accelerating. While just 6% of respondents are currently using AI/ML for forecasting, the report indicates that number should swell to 27% of organizations within the next two years.
  • More budget is being allotted for treasury and forecasting technology. Over the next year, more than 35% of companies plan “extremely heavy spending” on treasury systems and forecasting.

9. What excites you most about where digital treasury is headed?

Digital treasury ecosystems are rapidly becoming more integrated and more robust. For treasurers, this is enabling unprecedented efficiency. I was just speaking with a customer who leads corporate treasury at an international beverages company – he told me he and his team freed up 40% of their daily bandwidth following a migration to modernized treasury infrastructure. There are night-and-day gains to be made by modernizing treasury processes with the right technology.

The benefit here is that as new tools automate treasury minutiae, CFOs and treasury teams are gaining a free hand to focus on strategy. The role of the treasurer is evolving thanks to this increased capacity, and it’s exciting to see teams exploring new strategic territory where they can contribute and deliver value. Establishing netting processes and ensuring their excellence is a strong example of the advantages digital treasury can enable. Superior risk management along a more extensive time horizon is another. At the end of the day, digital treasury technology enabling improved cost controls and visibility is empowering treasury teams to introduce and optimize financial management processes in entirely new areas, and we’re eager to see it.

Get in touch with GTreasury to learn and explore more, click below.

 

 

 

 

 

Digital rules (URDTT) for Trade Finance: What, How and When?

10-01-2022 | Wim Kok | treasuryXL | LinkedIn

 

Watch Episode 1 of a series of free, educational videos focusing on Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT)

 

 

Trade Advisory Network Limited and treasuryXL Trade Finance experts launched their first episodes of a series of free, educational videos on URDTT. There will be 6 episodes in total covering all aspects of the development, interpretation, and application of URDTT in the context of a digital trade strategy. In the upcoming 6 months you can expect one educational video per month.

What can you expect in the first episode?

This first episode focuses on the background to the decision to create a new set of rules for digital trade transactions and provides definitions of some of the most important terms. Subsequent episodes will focus on the use of electronic records, payment obligations and, the role of banks/non-bank financial service providers.

Duration: 19.20 min

WATCH NOW FOR FREE

Enjoy, explore and develop!

Interested to know more about this topic and the upcoming educational videos? Contact our Expert Wim Kok.

 

Wim Kok

International Business Consultant
Trade Finance Specialist

 

 

 

 

Four Things Every CFO Should Know About Treasury

06-01-2022 | treasuryXL | TIS | LinkedIn |

This article is intended as a precursor to TIS’ latest whitepaper that highlights how CFOs can use their knowledge of the treasury function to spearhead initiatives that drive higher revenue, better financial decision making, and greater process automation and control. After reviewing how modern treasury groups typically operate, we will analyze the main benefits that a fully-optimized treasury team can provide to the CFO and an organization at large. To assess the full suite of data, insights, and commentary, download the whitepaper.

A CFO’s Summary of the Treasury Function

Although most CFOs will (or should) have a robust understanding of how the treasury function operates, let’s start with a quick synopsis for those who may be newer to the role.

At the highest level, treasury is a subset of the finance department that is responsible for safeguarding their organization’s most important asset (cash) as well as providing transparency and control over the day-to-day processes necessary for the company to meet its financial obligations (i.e. payments). This means that at its core, the treasury function most commonly performs:

  1. Cash and liquidity management
  2. Payments and bank account management
  3. Financial Risk, Fraud, & Compliance Management

Of course, certain treasury teams will have additional duties levied onto them depending on the size, complexity, and structure of their organization. For instance, cash flow forecasting, FX trading, debt and investment activity, and cash pooling or netting are all functions that commonly fall under treasury’s purview, but it ultimately depends on the specific makeup of their organization.

Moving beyond these core roles, however, it’s also important to note that treasury groups, even those at multibillion-dollar, multinational companies, often consist of five or fewer individuals. In fact, data from 2020 showcased that the average treasury size for U.S. organizations, regardless of company size or complexity, was just four personnel. Further data from 2020 shows that the majority of these teams are accustomed to working remotely, with team members often located across entirely different regions and time zones.

But while treasury staffing might be kept to a minimum, the best teams still manage to optimize their processes by relying heavily on technology automation instead.

In order to function at the highest level, modern-day treasury teams utilize a variety of digital technologies that range from bank portals and Excel spreadsheets to cloud-based ERPs and TMS platforms, payment hubs, business intelligence solutions, and many other specialty systems. In 2021, the majority of solutions that treasury teams use are SaaS-based and connect via APIs with other SaaS solutions in their company’s environment, including other back-office solutions as well as external partner, vendor, and 3rd party platforms.

Thus, for organizations that are smart about their hiring decisions and that leverage finance and treasury technology in a strategic and efficient manner, even the smallest of treasury teams can excel at their roles and boost financial productivity.

However, on the opposite end, organizations that either ignore or underutilize their treasury group can end up with significant gaps in their financial processes, particularly from a payments, liquidity, and risk management standpoint.

 

Four Things Every CFO Should Know About Treasury

Download our latest whitepaper to gain additional data, graphics, and commentary!

Access the whitepaper.

About TIS

TIS is reimagining the world of enterprise payments through a cloud-based platform uniquely designed to help global organizations optimize outbound payments. Corporations, banks and business vendors leverage TIS to transform how they connect global accounts, collaborate on payment processes, execute outbound payments, analyze cash flow and compliance data, and improve critical outbound payment functions. The TIS corporate payments technology platform helps businesses improve operational efficiency, lower risk, manage liquidity, gain strategic advantage – and ultimately achieve enterprise payment optimization.

Visit tis.biz to reimagine your approach to payments.