How does the FATF help fight financial crime?

01-12-2020 | treasuryXL | Refinitiv |

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plays a crucial role in the global fight against crime, corruption and terrorism through its Mutual Evaluation assessment. How has the FATF evolved since its birth 31 years ago, and what role does it play in anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT)?

  1. The FATF is an intergovernmental body that oversees global efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
  2. To become part of the FATF group, a country must undergo a ‘Mutual Peer Review’ to determine its levels of compliance with FATF’s Recommendations.
  3. The FATF’s methodology change, introducing the Effectiveness Assessment, is yielding more accurate results of a jurisdiction’s levels of compliance with its AML/CFT global standard.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body that was established in 1989 by the G7 nations to combat money laundering. For the first 12 years, of its existence it was a little-known organization. However, it came to prominence after 9/11 when its mandate was expanded to include additional Recommendations to combat the financing of terrorism and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Since then, the FATF mandate and Recommendations have been endorsed by different UN resolutions, and it has been transformed to adapt to different emerging threats. In 2008, after the global financial crisis, FATF’s role as an international standard policy-making body in AML and CFT was expanded by the G20. It was given the ‘soft power’ to generate the necessary political will to bring about legislative and regulatory reforms in countries.

The FATF Mutual Peer Review

Countries wishing to become members of the FATF group must commit to a ‘Mutual Peer Review’ system. This will determine the country’s levels of deployment and compliance with the FATF Recommendations, which have been set as the international AML/CFT standard. The FATF oversees these reviews in conjunction with different international members and observers such as the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, and the European Commission.                                                                                       
In addition to the information received from the assessment team performing the review, the FATF Mutual Evaluation’s Effectiveness Assessment also considers information from the FATF team that visits the country being evaluated. The Mutual Evaluation team comprises highly trained experts drawn from FATF member countries and international bodies.

 

Recommendations focus on effectiveness

Until 2013, the results of the FATF review were largely focused on the technical implementation of the Recommendations into the local legislations. However, because of the high levels of money laundering (ML) and financing of terrorism (FT) globally, the FATF decided to enhance its methodology to focus more on effectiveness rather than just technical compliance. This revised methodology helped to produce the expected tangible results in the fight against AML/CFT. It shed light on many countries that had previously been evaluated, but who under the new methodology began to show serious weaknesses in the fight against ML and FT. This resulted in the number of countries and jurisdictions on the FATF Grey List — those who were placed under increased monitoring — to start growing.

The FATF Mutual Evaluation employs peer pressure from other countries, as well as bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank, which impels the assessed countries to act. Negative mutual evaluation outcomes not only seriously damage the reputation of the assessed countries and embarrass its governments, but might also generate replicated systemic risks of coercion by other international institutions such as the European Commission. And the new methodology is working. In recent years, the Effectiveness Assessment is yielding more accurate results of a jurisdiction’s levels of compliance with FATF’s AML/CFT global standard. Many jurisdictions are now finally realizing the coercive power of the Mutual Assessment.

New evaluation methodology

The fourth round of Mutual Evaluations from FATF continued the shift towards concentrating on how effectively regulations are deployed rather than mainly focusing on technical compliance and whether country laws and regulations are in place in accordance with the FATF Recommendations.

This can be very challenging for a number of countries in many sectors, including some that have previously been assessed to be complying with the standards before the introduction of this new evaluation methodology.

The pressure to ensure that legislation was changed and that industry sectors complied with the Recommendations was achieved by targeting the industry sectors that posed the highest AML/CFT risk. At least this was the case in the Middle East and Africa. The early years concentrated on the banking and financial sectors, including the capital markets. This focus was later broadened to non-banking remittances and payments organizations and money exchanges. This was followed by the insurance sector and so on.

Non-financial sectors under the spotlight

The last few years has seen Mutual Evaluation reports focus on the designated non-financial business and professions (DNFBPs) sectors — real estate, lawyers, accountants, gold and precious stone dealers, for example — that had been previously overlooked area by past evaluations. For example, the EU Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which came into effect in January 2020, further strengthened its AML/CFT legislation to fall in line with the FATF, when it included a number of new sectors.

The non-financial sector often has the misconception that AML/CFT regulations are solely for the banking and financial sectors. A key shortcoming identified by FATF across many jurisdictions in emerging markets is that DNFBPs are falling short of FATF expectations. Recent evaluation reports from several countries show that DNFBPs have less comprehensive, and sometimes limited or no understanding, of AML/CFT regulations and the risks that they are facing.

However, the new approach of measuring effectiveness rather than technical compliance might keep many countries’ institutions and companies to consider: “Are our sanctions and transactions screening just a checklist process, or do they show the real effectiveness of our AML/CFT risk process as defined by FATF?”

To Hedge or not to hedge – The Natural hedge myth

| 30-11-2020 | Bas Meijer |

Corporate firms have the primary objective to be profitable. From a Treasury perspective, the main goal is to increase cash and add value. Nowadays, an increasing amount of Corporate firms engage in international business. Therefore these firms can be exposed to unrelated business exposure, such as interest rates, FX and commodities pricing depending on the business model pursued.

How do you deal with potential orders with these kind of exposure? I have seen companies going bankrupt because they did not (fully) hedge their potential orders and applied the wrong instruments.

Exposure differentiation

In order to hedge, the distinction must be made between the type of exposure:

  • A committed exposure: invoices, signed orders
  • An expected exposure: unsigned orders, expected budget

Both types of exposures need different products to be eliminated. Do all exposures need to be hedged? No. Transactional exposures should be fully hedged. Internal loans or hidden equity not always. In general, equity is not hedged. Internal loans depends in the way these are structured. In which currency is the loan granted, what are the cash flows etc. This is tailor made.

Natural Hedge & Holistic Hedges

The Natural hedge myths: there is only a natural hedge if the cash-in and cash-out are in similar currency and at approximately the same time, and applicable to transaction exposure only. This means that there is hardly any natural hedge.

Finally the holistic approach: some providers are selling holistic hedges. In general these are based on statistical studies. Holistic hedge approach adds uncorrelated exposure to the corporates, with the goal to lower the total exposure. In the world of statistics there is always room for error. When using this approach, the corporate firms should be aware of this. Not only the board, but also the auditors. I have seen enormous errors on this approach, resulting in not eliminating the risk but increasing the risk.

Cost of hedging

Is hedging expensive? No. There are many different ways to hedge the exposures, and there are many different providers to do this. Some of these are too expensive. Use a Treasury Specialist to analyse the cost of hedging and come up with alternatives. The Treasury Specialist has a high rate of return and attributes to the bottom for years to come.

More important is to quantify your exposures. The exposures are not limited to the cash flow only, but can also be embedded in your processes. Using a Treasury Specialist will lower your cost of hedging, assures that your organisation hedges the correct exposure with the right instruments, can massively attributes to the bottom line and protect you of becoming tomorrow’s news.

Thanks for reading, comments are welcome!

 

Bas Meijer

Treasury Specialist

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for a Junior Payments Officer – Russian Speaker (m/f)

27-11-2020 | Treasurer Search | treasuryXL

Help build the treasury and finance function of the Amsterdam satellite office of a prominent Russian trade organisation.

Tasks Payments Officer

  • Operationally manage incoming and outgoing payment flows in SAP and (Russian) banks;
  • Reporting and analysis of various financial processes;
  • Administration of legal documentation;
  • Support finance and accounting managers.

Ideal Payments Officer

This is a first or second career step of an Amsterdam (region) based Russian speaker with a foundation in finance. All these aspects are must-haves. Experience with banking, SAP and accounting processes are considered a nice-to-have.

Our Client

Our client is very prominent in Russia. Her Amsterdam offices helps in connecting to the rest of the world.

Remuneration and Process

The expected base salary for this position is €40K. For candidates that qualify and are interested, further information is available.

Contact person



Kim Vercoulen

T: (0850) 866 798
M: (06) 2467 9339



 

APPLY HERE

Savings and investment banks have a lot of potential for improvement in the onboarding process for customers

24-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting |

(Dutch Item)

Hoe digitaal en gebruiksvriendelijk verloopt het proces om klant te worden bij spaar- en beleggingsbanken? En wat kunnen zij opsteken van banken die een betaalrekening aanbieden? In een nieuw onderzoek van Enigma Consulting komt naar voren dat spaar- en beleggingsbanken hun onboardingsproces naar een hoger niveau kunnen brengen door te leren van de klantreis van banken die reguliere betaalrekeningen aanbieden. Wat vooral opvalt is dat de onboarding bij spaar- en beleggingsbanken nog hoofdzakelijk via de website verloopt, terwijl betaalbanken de onboarding via de app aanbieden en overduidelijk meer inzetten op innovatieve oplossingen. Een bijdrage van Marc Groot, Managing Consultant bij Enigma Consulting en expert binnen het onboardingsdomein.

Als expert in het klantonboardingsdomein publiceerde Enigma Consulting in juni 2020 een artikel over de onboardingsprocessen van de belangrijkste ‘betaalbanken’ in Nederland. Dit onderzoek heeft een vervolg gekregen, waarin naar de onboarding van spaar- en beleggingsbanken is gekeken, die worden aangeduid als ‘niet-betaalbanken’. Banken die  – onder andere – een betaalrekening aanbieden, noemen we betaalbanken.

Wanneer onboarding niet via de app mogelijk was, is de onboarding uitgevoerd via de website op de smartphone. Het onboardingsproces is per bank doorlopen en beoordeeld aan de hand van verschillende criteria. De onderzoekers hebben zich in het onderzoek geconcentreerd op de klantervaring, waarbij niet achter de schermen is gekeken bij de onderzochte banken. De klantreis is beoordeeld op basis van drie categorieën:

  • Innovatie: door handig gebruik te maken van innovatieve technieken, zoals een selfiefilm en de NFC-chip voor het uitlezen van legitimaties, kunnen gebruiksvriendelijkheid en fraudepreventie bij elkaar gebracht en versterkt worden.
  • Gebruiksvriendelijkheid: het gemak waarmee de klant het proces doorloopt, de doorlooptijd, de begeleiding van de klant door het proces en de aanwezigheid van technische barrières.
  • Veiligheid en fraudepreventie: alle banken hebben de verantwoordelijkheid om fraude te voorkomen en de klant correct te identificeren. De banken zijn beoordeeld op basis van hoe de klant wordt geïdentificeerd,  klantidentificatie- en verificatiemethoden en in hoeverre deze  aan de voorkant voldoen aan de geldende wet- en regelgeving.

De volgende afbeelding geeft weer welke spaar- en beleggingsbanken zijn meegenomen in het onderzoek en welke het beste zijn beoordeeld per categorie.

Niet-betaalbanken weinig innovatief

Allereerst is gekeken in hoeverre niet-betaalbanken innovaties gebruiken in het onboardingsproces en hoe dit zich verhoudt tot betaalbanken. Bij de identificatie van een klant gaat de bank af op de door de klant verstrekte gegevens. Een voorbeeld is een kopie of scan van het paspoort. Vervolgens verifieert de bank de identiteit door vast te stellen of de opgegeven identiteit overeenkomt met de werkelijke identiteit, bijvoorbeeld door een selfie-foto. Innovaties in het onboardingsproces zijn onder meer vernieuwende klantidentificatie- en verificatiemethoden en het uitlezen van de legitimatie via een foto in de app of via een NFC-chip.

Bij de niet-betaalbanken bieden alleen beleggersbanken DeGiro en Semmie de mogelijkheid aan om via een foto het legitimatiebewijs te delen met de bank. Bij de overige niet-betaalbanken dient de klant een scan van het legitimatiebewijs te maken en deze vervolgens te uploaden of te mailen. Daarbij moet de klant de persoonlijke gegevens handmatig invoeren op de website. Dit leidt tot een langer proces en kan leiden tot incorrecte invoer van de klant. Verder bieden de niet-betaalbanken geen van alle een selfie-foto, selfie-film of stemopname aan als middel voor klantverificatie.

Daarentegen gebruikt een meerderheid van de betaalbanken wel innovatieve identificatie- en verificatiemethoden. Vijf betaalbanken laten hun nieuwe klant een selfie-foto maken, drie kiezen voor een selfie-film en twee voor een stemopname. Verder worden bij vier betaalbanken de persoonsgegevens automatisch overgenomen in de app door middel van een scan van het legitimatiebewijs of door het uitlezen van de NFC-chip van het paspoort.

Onboarding via app bij niet-betaalbanken nog in kinderschoenen

Kijkend naar gebruiksvriendelijkheid is het bij vrijwel geen enkele niet-betaalbank mogelijk om de volledige onboarding te verrichten via de app. Dit kan alleen bij vermogensbeheerder Semmie. Deze jonge fintech-onderneming maakt in alle categorieën een goede indruk. Bij de overige gevallen gaat de klant grotendeels door het proces via de website. De klant vult de persoonlijke gegevens handmatig in via een webformulier. Bovendien heeft een deel van de niet-betaalbanken überhaupt geen app waarin zij hun diensten aanbieden.

Bij de niet-betaalbanken onderscheiden BinckBank, DeGiro, Lloyds Bank en Semmie zich positief qua doorlooptijd. De klant weet binnen een uur wat het spaarrekeningnummer is. Bij Semmie moet aangetekend worden dat het rekeningnummer nog niet direct actief is na de onboarding, vanwege de afhankelijkheid van de acceptatie door hun depotbank.  Bij de andere spaar- en beleggingsbanken varieert deze doorlooptijd van binnen een dag tot binnen een week.

Uit het onderzoek komt naar voren dat banken waarbij de onboarding via de app verloopt beter scoren op gebruiksvriendelijkheid en innovatie. Het grote voordeel van mobiele apps in vergelijking met mobiele websites is de betere klantervaring. Mobiele apps zijn geoptimaliseerd voor een grote hoeveelheid aan smartphones en schermresoluties, apps werken sneller dan websites en apps kunnen gebruikmaken van apparaat-eigenschappen, zoals camera of GPS. Bij onboarding via een website zijn deze apparaat-eigenschappen niet mogelijk.

Een belangrijk element van een goede gebruikerservaring is dat de klant zo snel mogelijk gebruik kan maken van de rekening en diensten. Bij een aantal betaalbanken is de rekening binnen een uur al actief en kan de klant transacties uitvoeren. Om dit te realiseren is een gedigitaliseerde klantreis noodzakelijk. Bij de meeste betaalbanken is het mogelijk de onboarding volledig te doorlopen via de app. Duidelijk is dat bij de niet-betaalbanken een flinke stap valt te maken in het aanbieden van de onboarding en dienstverlening via een app.

Veiligheid kan gebruikersgemak verlagen, innovatie is de oplossing

De derde categorie is ‘veiligheid en fraudepreventie’. Voor banken is het van groot belang dat zij op de hoogte zijn van de laatste wet- en regelgeving en de processen volledig compliant zijn in relatie tot KYC en AML.

Zowel betaalbanken als niet-betaalbanken gebruiken de identificatiestorting regelmatig. Bij niet-betaalbanken is het primaire doel van de identificatiestorting het moeten verifiëren van een vaste tegenrekening. Bij betaalbanken gaat het om afgeleide identificatie van de klant.

Bij de niet-betaalbanken komt de identificatiestorting acht keer terug. BinckBank, DeGiro  en Semmie maken het mogelijk om via iDEAL te betalen, terwijl de overige niet-betaalbanken nog steeds een handmatige overboeking hanteren. Deze handmatige overboeking is tijdrovend en gaat buiten de directe flow van de klantreis om. iDEAL is de oplossing hiervoor.

De betaalbanken hebben iDEAL nagenoeg standaard opgenomen in de klantreis. Bij zes betaalbanken die de identificatiestorting gebruiken, kan de klant bij vijf de storting uitvoeren via iDEAL en bij één gaat dit via een handmatige overboeking.

Innovatie en app zetten betaalbanken op grote voorsprong

Uit het onderzoek kunnen een aantal conclusies getrokken worden. Ten eerste lopen niet-betaalbanken ver achter op betaalbanken op het gebied van innovatieve  klantidentificatie- en verificatiemethodes. Ten tweede bieden niet-betaalbanken het onboardingsproces hoofdzakelijk aan via de website, terwijl de onboarding bij betaalbanken verloopt via de app.

Kortom, spaar- en beleggingsbanken hebben veel verbeterpotentieel als het gaat om klantervaring en digitalisering van het onboardingsproces. Tegenwoordig voeren steeds meer bedrijven een ‘app first-strategie’ waarbij alle diensten, en dus ook onboarding, via de app verlopen om zodoende een vlekkeloze mobiele online ervaring te kunnen bieden. We zijn immers tegenwoordig meer online via onze smartphones dan via andere apparaten.

Innovatie en gebruikersgemak zijn op een positieve wijze nauw met elkaar verbonden. Door gebruik te maken van innovaties, wordt de veiligheid van het proces bevorderd zonder dat dit ten koste gaat van de gebruiksvriendelijkheid.

TRAINING: PSD2 & Open banking: impact on the financial ecosystem and new challenges

| 23-11-2020 | Francois De Witte

On December 16th, our Expert Francois de Witte will present a Webinar in collaboration with Febelfin-Academy, regarding PSD2 & Open banking: impact on the financial ecosystem and new challenges.

This training program prepares participants for 2 major challenges of the upcoming years in banking: PSD2 & Open Banking. This will have a major impact on the financial ecosystem and will create new challenges.

The goal of this training course is to:

  • Make participants aware of the ways PSD2 & Open Banking affect banks and other players in Europe;
  • Understand the impact of the technical requirements with a focus on strong customer authentication;
  • Outline the risks and responsibilities of the involved parties within the new regulatory framework;
  • Understand the impact of Open Banking APIs (Application Programming interfaces;
  • Understand the impacts of the PSD2 & Open Banking the financial ecosystem;
  • Evaluate the risk and opportunities created by PSD2 & Open Banking the banks and the new players;
  • Determine action plan for your company.

Target Audience

This training course can be followed by multiple target groups:

  • Managers of a banks/PSP’s/Fintechs involved with the payments and digital strategy
  • Product Development Experts (payments)
  • Service providers involved with Open Banking
  • Corporate Treasurers
  • Compliance officers

Prior Knowledge

Advanced: offers practice-based applications to complement the theoretical knowledge already acquired through the “basic level” courses (in-depth learning).

There is no specific preparation required. For persons who are less acquainted with PSD2 and payments, some pre-course reading material can be made available.”

Program

This training program prepares participants for two key challenges of the upcoming years in banking: PSD2 and Open Banking.

Part I: PSD2 and Open Banking – overview:

  • PSD2: Scope and Basic Principles
  • XS2A (Access the Accounts)
  • New Players: AISP and PISP
  • SCA (Strong Customer Authentication)
  • Consent and SCA
  • Requirements for the Banks and TPPs
  • Timetable
  • Trends in Open Banking

Part II: Open banking architecture: Implications for banks and the New Players

  • XS2A: Risks, Responsibilities and obligations of the related parties
  • XS2A: Availability Requirements
  • Setting up the SCA in Practice
  • SCA: Optimization of the Exemptions
  • Security requirements ensuring consumer protection
  • Addressing the fraud and cyberattack risks
  • Technology: building interfaces – APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)
  • European initiatives to standardize the interfaces
  • Practical aspects – Role of Aggregators
  • Group Exercise

Part 3: PSD2: Potential impact on the market and next steps

  • Global impact on the market – New Players
  • Impact on the Payments Landscape
  • Impact on the Cards and Digital Payment Instruments
  • Impact on the Merchants and the e-commerce
  • Impact on corporates
  • FinTech Companies: ready to disrupt banks?
  • Implication on the Digital Banking Strategy
  • The new role of competition and cooperation
  • Action Plan for Banks and New Players
  • Group Exercise

Practical information

Duration: One day training

Date: December 16, 2020

Hours: 9AM-5PM (6 training hours)

Location: This training will be given online

Additional information: This training course will be given in English

Pricing: Members (€510), Non-Members (€610), Partner BZB (€510)

REGISTER HERE

Digital Finance Summit | The World After | 24 November 2020

| 20-11-2020 | François de Witte | treasuryXL |

Only 4 days left for the Digital Finance Summit, the highly renowned conference focusing on the ever-increasing digitalisation of the financial industry, is back again this year to set the path for a bright and more dynamic future at the heart of Europe.

Digital Finance Summit is at the crossroads between Tech Talent, Regtech, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Blockchain, Crypto-assets, Artificial Intelligence, Crowdfunding, Cybersecurity and Banking. It gathers global innovators looking to get inspired by a unique blend of industry leaders and turboboost the whole European FinTech ecosystem!

ONLINE EVENT | NOVEMBER 24 | 2020

Due to the current sanitary situation, this year’s edition goes entirely ONLINE!

For the 5th year in a row, FinTech Belgium is preparing a creative programme spread over 3 stages with Keynotes, Workshops and the European FinTech Pitch Battle!  And, of course, be prepared for the most qualitative networking in Digital Finance in Belgium!

REGISTER NOW!

 

 

 

Nomentia Webinar: Building the Bridge Between Treasury & Finance: Communication, Collaboration, Technology

| 18-11-2020 | treasuryXL | OpusCapita |

Finance & Treasury leaders are being challenged to become more engaged in driving results across the enterprise. This requires alignment across the Office of the CFO before these leaders can have success in impacting performance in HR, Operations, Marketing and Sales. How can treasury & finance leaders identify and mitigate barriers to effective communication and collaboration to maximize the value delivered by the Office of the CFO?

Join us to discover how to earn trust within and across departmental lines, and up and down the org chart at your company.

We will empower you to:

? Identify the skills you possess and/or need to develop to build deeper mutually beneficial relationships within and across departmental lines.

?Leverage technology to communicate with impact in any business environment.

?Raise your IQ relative to how and why treasury & finance work at your company.

?Define opportunities to impact the performance of your colleagues in treasury & finance at your company.

REGISTER NOW

About Nomentia

Nomentia is a Nordic powerhouse for global cash management. We believe in a world in which businesses can make the right decisions no matter how unpredictable the times are. Our SaaS-based platform offers solutions for cash forecasting and visibility, global payments with bank connectivity, reconciliation, in-house banking, guarantees, and FX dealing. We serve 2,300+ clients in over 100 countries processing more than 200 billion euros annually. Cash is king!

Treasury Delta’s corporate treasury RFP platform: How does it work and why collaborate?

| 18-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Treasury Delta | Having a hard time dealing with complex and time-consuming RFP processes?

Newsletter Subscription Special 2020: Exclusive Win Edition

17-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Treasurer Test

Partner Interview SpendLab | Leaders in Spend Justification

17-11-2020 | treasuryXL | SpendLab |

SpendLab Recovery generates liquidity for clients by using their Accounts Payable Recovery Analyzer (APRA). APRA is a technology platform that combines over 400 algorithms, Big Data, AI, and machine learning, and audits all the raw Accounts Payable data in any ERP system to identify anomalies. Several examples of anomalies include but are not limited to: undue payments, double invoices, overpayments, and overpaid VAT. Over the past years, SpendLab has analysed over 321 million invoices and has recovered more than €200 million EUR for its clients.

We asked the company 10 questions, let’s go!

INTERVIEW

1. Can you tell something about SpendLab Recovery?

SpendLab is the Dutch market leader in spend justification and has grown significantly during the past years. The organization is a former spin-off of the Dutch government with a 98 year old heritage in procurement. SpendLab is specialized in generating liquidity for clients by analyzing- and identifying anomalies in raw Accounts Payable data. Besides the generation of liquidity as part of Treasury, we provide compliance reports that are used by our clients to achieve compliance objectives.

2. What was the main reason to start SpendLab Recovery?

During our analyses back in the day we identified that a significant number of invoices and payments were processed incorrectly in Accounts Payable departments of organizations. As a result of these incorrect processes, liquidity could be recovered over multiple historical years.

During the years we significantly invested in our technology in order to provide our clients with a value proposition that is comprehensible, covering all aspects of an Accounts Payable recovery audit. Despite the approval of financial years by Auditors and Accountants, we are able to recover liquidity from the Accounts Payable for our clients. Nowadays we provide liquidity, a 100% analysis of the administrative Accounts Payable processes, and compliance -and risk reports that can be used for compliance purposes.

3. What is, in your perception, the core issue that SpendLab Recovery solves?

Administrative departments within organizations consistently encompass irregularities that lead to the loss of liquidity, despite the level of automation that is adopted. There will always be a continuous flow of business operations inside an organization, and if there are any checks in place, then these checks are mostly reactive and are used as an add-on for a team or employee. SpendLab specifically focuses on the Accounts Payable and is able to identify any irregularity within the raw AP data. Thereupon, we recover rightful liquidity for clients that they can use for value-adding activities.

4. What are the biggest advantages of using SpendLab Recovery?

From our own perspective the generation of liquidity from the Accounts Payable of financial years that were audited and ‘’closed’’ is a great advantage for our clients. Specifically, we are remunerated for the amount of liquidity that we recover.

In terms of Procurement, the Procurement department is usually in the lead during the contracting phase. However, after this phase a lack of insights and active control exist in how suppliers perform in processing invoices. Through our approach and the methods that we use, you could say that we are educating the suppliers of our clients in processing invoices correctly. Besides, it creates awareness that our clients are performing Accounts Payable Recovery Audits on a structural basis.

5. How does the customer project phase looks like from start till actual results?

Our recovery analysis consists of six project phases and requires approximately four months to conduct. The first results will be visible after only eight weeks. Below the project planning can be found.

6. How fast can customers experience the impact of SpendLab Recovery after implementation?

The average lead time of a recovery project is four months. The first payments from suppliers, however, will be collected after just two months. SpendLab is only charged based on the payments that are received, on the basis of no cure no pay.

7. What is the biggest challenge you ever experienced with SpendLab Recovery?

In the very beginning of Account Payable recovery audits, research was done based on spreadsheets. In the past five years we have invested significantly in our IT-platform APRA®. Nowadays, we have a team of more than twenty employees in the Technology department that are continuously developing software for Recovery. The transformation from manual research to automated research in combination with Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence has been the biggest challenge within SpendLab, and could not have been possible without the team and the investments that had to be made.

It has been a challenging choice to completely focus on IT development. However, this choice has enormously helped our organization in optimizing our service, identifying anomalies in Accounts Payable data, and remaining thought leader in the field of Accounts Payable recovery.

8. What have been the latest successes around product development?

Remote and safe access to ERP systems. Whereas our Data Collections team used to literally fly all around the world to align data requirements and to safely collect the raw data of the Accounts Payable that we need for our recovery audit, we can now align and safely collect (ISO:27001; ISO:9001 certified) the data remotely with and from our clients. SpendLab is now able to conduct a complete Accounts Payable recovery audit on a remote and digital basis. Since March 2020, COVID-19 has only accelerated this level of digitization and the service that we provide for our clients.

Moreover, as an organization we have completely changed our way of working. We now work from our platform on a digital and remote basis. Just like every success, this could not have been achieved without challenges.

9. Can you give us an outlook on the product developments and tell us a bit more about your vision?

We have gone from subsequent recovery analyses over five financial years to periodical visualizations. Together with our clients we have developed a complete recovery service, which we can utilize several times a year over the current financial year. Instead of conducting subsequent recovery audits, we are now aiming to provide our clients with a subscription agreement in which some of our clients even take care of the recovery themselves.

Despite that organizations keep optimizing their internal -and external processes, there will always be errors in processes. Based on the collaboration with and input from our clients, we have invested in optimizing our compliance -and risk reports. We can now offer the visualization of these reports in Power BI, which allows our clients to have live and real-time insights in the Accounts Payable.

10. The world is always changing, how does SpendLab Recovery stays one step ahead of its competitors?

SpendLab has always chosen to conduct Accounts Payable recovery audits only, and we are now an absolute leader in spend justification. This leadership role allows us to partner up with top leading international organizations and to discuss the current and future capabilities that they require from our recovery service. By commencing structural dialogues with leading organizations and system suppliers we challenge tomorrow’s needs in Accounts Payable solutions.

 

Interested in a free SpendLab Recovery demo and see how your company can benefit?

Contact us!