Kyriba Webinar: Modernising Global Corporate Payments to Prevent Fraud

04-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Kyriba |

These last few months have highlighted that Payments Fraud continues to be a major problem, with fraudsters quick to leverage the global pandemic, with the amounts involved considerable.

In this session Kyriba’s Paul Simpson will be joined by Helen Alexander from SWIFT and James Bushby from MasterCard, to explain what institutional payment fraud is, with a specific focus on the technology and processes that treasury and finance teams can employ to minimise risk.

In particular, the agenda will follow:

  • What institutional payment fraud is and the internal processes and technology to consider, with SWIFT
  • How a payment hub mitigates against Fraud for Corporates, with Kyriba
  • Introduction to how MasterCard is helping fight Financial Crime

Register your place by filling in the form to your right and we will be in touch!

Date:

November 12th, 09:30- 10:30 (CET)

Contact:

Corporates: Caveat IBOR!

03-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting |

Many of the world’s leading benchmark base rates are about to change; this could impact your business in unexpected ways.

Since Roman times, the phrase ‘caveat emptor’ – let the buyer beware – has been used in agreements as a warning that a lack of due diligence could come back to bite you. For today’s corporate treasurer it might instead be more relevant to use (with apologies to the linguists out there) ‘caveat IBOR’.

For the past 40 years, IBOR has been the benchmark used to determine the interest rates applied to a myriad of financial products. All this is about to change: starting on 31st December 2021 many of these rates will cease to exist and be replaced by ‘Risk-Free-Rates’ (RFRs).

The potential impact of these changes is often seriously underestimated. Corporate companies need to prepare today to be ready for banks wanting to discuss changes to existing contracts in the coming months.

 

The 4 to 6 months ahead of us are arguably the most critical period in the transition away from LIBOR. The time to act is now.
 – FCA July 2020

 

Why should I care about the IBOR transition?

It is highly likely that your organisation will be affected by the IBOR transition. Most corporate organisations underestimate the impact, thinking that the ‘only’ thing that will change is a base rate and its calculation method. Before you join their ranks, take some time to reflect on the following:

  • The IBOR will cease to exist, starting on the 31st December 2021 and be replaced by Risk-Free-Rates (RFRs) with a different basis for calculation
  • These changes will impact financial (e.g. bond, (intercompany) loan, (multi-currency) credit facility) contracts as well as commercial contracts with an IBOR related ‘late payment clause’
  • This in turn will impact processes in the Treasury functions, with knock-on effects to supporting departments, Legal, IT systems, accounting, and tax reporting to name just a few
  • IBOR transition is progressing at a different pace across jurisdictions and financial products (e.g. loans, bonds, and derivatives), adding to the complexity of managing the transition

In the coming months you are going to be approached by your bank(s) to discuss changes to contracts maturing after 2021. To be prepared for these discussions, it is essential that you have a solid idea of what the repercussions of these changes will be on your organisation.

From IBOR to RFRs: a brief history

For the past 4 decades, IBOR (interbank offered rates, including LIBOR and EURIBOR) have been the benchmark for lending, hedge contracts, current accounts, valuation models etc. The (L)IBOR is calculated by processing hypothetical borrowing transactions that are submitted by a few ‘panel’ banks.
In 2012, the LIBOR scandal came to light: it was discovered that since 2008, panel banks had been colluding to illegally manipulate the rates. This set in motion that regulators, central banks, and market participants started a search for a safer alternative to the LIBOR. In 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced that it would not compel or persuade panel banks to make LIBOR submissions after December 31st, 2021.

As a direct result, LIBOR term rates (1m, 3m, 6m, 12m) for USD, GBP, CHF, JPY, EUR will cease to be published as per December 31st, 2021. Other benchmarks such as EONIA and EURIBOR are similarly subject to an interest rate benchmark reform and it was decided to also discontinue the submission of EONIA after December 31st, 2021. Additionally, other benchmarks, such as JIBAR (ZAR), SIBOR (SGD), SOR (SGD) and Euroyen TIBOR (JPY) are undergoing comparable reforms[1]. See the sidebar (at the bottom of this article) for additional IBOR related details.

To minimise the possibility of fraud in future, global working groups have defined a new reference rate and calculation system. As a result, IBOR will be replaced by secured or unsecured transaction-based alternative Risk-Free Rates (RFRs) by the end of 2021. These new interest rate benchmarks are determined on the basis of transactions[2] and are therefore significantly more robust and resistant to manipulation.

Covid-19 will not buy you any time

After the worldwide outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, the world has changed rapidly. Uncertain times have arrived with a looming global economic recession. While many expected the pandemic to postpone the deadline, this does not to appear to be borne out by reality.

UK regulators have indeed postponed the deadline for the cessation of new issuances of GBP LIBOR-referencing loan products maturing after 2021 to the end of Q1 2021, instead of Q3 2020[3]. However, it is widely expected that the deadline for migrating existing LIBOR related contracts to alternative risk-free benchmarks will remain unchanged. Indeed, the FCA even emphasised in July 2020 that the LIBOR deadline is not going to change and that “The time to act is now.”

ISDA agreements and IBOR transition

On October 23, 2020 ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association) finalised the protocols and other documentation by which outstanding derivatives contracts which reference LIBOR can be transformed in order to work with the new RFRs[4]. The FCA has repeatedly urged market participants from all sectors – sell side, buy side, non-financial, to ensure they are ready for the end of LIBOR by adhering to the protocol that ISDA is producing[5].

How will the IBOR transition impact you?

At a basic level, your corporate organisation’s existing IBOR-based interest rates will be replaced by new RFR-based rates. As these depend on a different underlying valuation methodology, any place in the organisation that currently relies on or makes use of an IBOR-based rate could potentially be impacted:

  • Corporates have a variety of products with financial contracts that refer to an IBOR related benchmark. These can be bond agreements, loan agreements, cash pooling agreements, (multi-currency) credit facility agreements, derivatives, intercompany loan agreements and many other instruments. In particular, larger organisations active across multiple regions in the world with more complex non-Euro instruments will be impacted
  • Commercial contracts with e.g. ‘late payment clauses’ with charges involving an IBOR related benchmark will also be impacted
  • Processes and other aspects related to these agreements and contracts across the Treasury functions (such as Corporate Finance, Risk Management and Cash Management & Working Capital) will need to be reviewed, and changed if impacted: Legal, IT systems and interfaces, reporting, accounting (e.g. hedge-accounting), Tax, policies, procedures, valuation models will all require attention
  • Interim milestones intended to smoothen the IBOR transition will lead to a cessation of the issuance of new LIBOR referenced products maturing after 2021. (For example, this will be the case for GBP LIBOR referenced bonds, loans, and derivatives; from Q2 2021, new GBP denominated issuances for these products will already refer to the alternative RFR.)
  • An additional complication is that the IBOR transition is progressing in different stages across different jurisdictions and different financial products
  • And, quite simply, there are many aspects that are as yet unknown, amongst which:
    • what the impact of applying hedge accounting to IBOR referenced instruments will be
    • whether and when alternative reference rate term structures will be available and for which products
    • how compounding daily rates over time will be handled in the absence of a term structure for cash management purposes
    • whether fallback language will be available
    • how liquid the market for (L)IBOR rates will be towards the end date of 31st December 2021
    • whether and when EURIBOR and other IBOR critical benchmarks will be discontinued

The magnitude of change is well-recognised by banks and financial institutions, and they are demonstrating an increasing sense of urgency to address contracts maturing after 2021. Be prepared for a call from your bank in the coming months!

What should you do to prepare?

As the deadline approaches, you will need to know your level of exposure and impact in order to prevent surprises. What will the impact of the IBOR transition be on your TMS and ERP systems, your credit facilities, bank loans, cash pooling, bonds, ISDA agreements and intercompany agreements? What impacts will these have on your processes and supporting systems? Which complexities will need to be managed?

Having this information at hand will enable you to be a proper sparring partner for your banks when they renegotiate contract terms.

Depending on the complexity of your contracts, the IBOR phase out could substantially affect your corporate organisation. Prevent unnecessary loss by preparing yourself, following this three-step approach:

1. Assess impact

The first step you should take is to analyse the IBOR related contracts in use throughout your organisation. Determine which contracts have an IBOR related component and the size of the exposure. Once you have assessed the complexity of your IBOR related contracts, analyse the impact on related areas (ranging from Tax and Legal to IT systems, and procedures, reporting, accounting (e.g. hedge-accounting), and the like).

2. Plan actions

On completing your impact assessment, create a detailed action plan. Define a project team governance to manage this action plan and the status of the transition across different areas, business lines, and geographical locations. In particular, take care to ensure external resource availability regarding e.g. Legal counselling and system provider experts, as demand for these specialists will rapidly increase as the IBOR transition deadline approaches.

3. Act and implement

Step three is the implementation of your action plan throughout the affected areas of your organisation. In this ‘Act’ phase it is important to maintain the conversation with external parties, such as banks and system providers. It is also of vital importance to support the implementation across all relevant business lines and functions, maintaining support for go-live readiness in line with the defined action plan and deadlines.

 

A golden opportunity

The good news is that there is still time to assess the impact of the pending IBOR changes on your organisation and to act upon it if needs be. The sooner you have an idea of the potential consequences for your organisation, the sooner you will be able to mitigate these. This understanding will also give you more leverage in the coming discussions with your bank(s).

Moreover, the IBOR phase out may bring a golden opportunity for corporates to re-evaluate the current contract agreements and look for better deals. Consider this: during the IBOR migration contracts are in fact ‘renegotiated’ and banks will need to come up with a new offer. Will you take that offer as a corporate client? That all depends on your level of understanding and preparation.

IBOR may well be a golden opportunity, but it is up to you as a corporate treasurer to seize it by acting rather sooner than later! Corporates: Caveat IBOR!

If you are interested in how we can help you to assess your IBOR related contract complexity or if you want to understand how we can support your corporate organisation in the IBOR phase out transition, you can contact us on:

[email protected] or look at www.enigmaconsulting.nl

Daniel Pluta

 

 

 

[1] A more extensive overview of IBOR benchmarks and related alternative risk free rates can be found on the website of The Investment Association (in cooperation with Linklaters): Table Interbank Offered Rates (IBORs) and Alternative Reference Rates (ARRs), version September 24, 2020

[2] Source: Interest rate benchmark reform – overnight risk-free rates and term rates, Financial Standards Board, July 12 2018

[3] Source:  Further statement from the RFRWG on the impact of Coronavirus on the timeline for firms’ LIBOR transition plans, Bank of England, March 25 2020

[4] Source: ISDA launches IBOR fallbacks supplement and protocol October 23, 2020

[5] Source: LIBOR transition – the critical tasks ahead of us in the second half of 2020, Financial Conduct Authority, July 14 2020

SIDEBAR

Selected Highlights of IBOR Phase Out Related Facts[1]

General

  • LIBOR term rates (1m, 3m, 6m, 12m) for USD, GBP, CHF, JPY, EUR will cease to be published per December 31st, 2021
  • Overnight, transaction based “alternatives” for these currencies are already live: ESTER (EUR); SONIA (GBP); TONAR (JPY); SARON (CHF) and SOFR (USD)[2]
  • EONIA is based on Ester + 8.5 basis points (since October 2nd, 2019). EONIA will cease to be published per December 31st, 2021
  • As of October 2019, EURIBOR is published as a hybrid rate (mix of actual transactions + panel consultation) and will continue to be published. EURIBOR is expected to be continued into the foreseeable future, however discontinuation is still a possibility. At the time of writing, it is uncertain if and when this will happen
  • Various consultation groups are assessing reform proposals and alternatives, such as:
    • Working Group on Sterling Risk Free Rates regarding GBP LIBOR
    • Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) regarding USD LIBOR
    • Working Group on Euro Risk Free Rates regarding EONIA and EURIBOR
  • Financial institutions have performed a global impact assessment on their financial contracts and have created IBOR migration teams
  • Across different jurisdictions and different financial products, the IBOR transition is progressing in different stages
  • Calculation methodologies across different alternative RFRs could differ and a term structure is still missing for most of the alternative benchmarks

ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association)

  • On May 14, 2020 a summary of the response to the “ISDA 2020 Consultation on How to Implement Pre-Cessation Fallbacks on Derivatives” was published. The majority of market participants support a combination of pre-cessation and permanent cessation fallbacks without optionality or flexibility in the IBOR Fallbacks Supplement and IBOR Fallbacks Protocol[3]
  • On July 21, 2020 Bloomberg and ISDA announced that Bloomberg Index Services Limited (BISL) had begun calculating and publishing fallbacks that ISDA intends to implement for certain key interbank offered rates (IBORs)[4]
  • ISDA launched the IBOR Fallbacks Protocol and the IBOR Fallbacks Supplement to implement the new fallbacks for legacy and new derivative contracts on October 23, 2020. From effective date January 25, 2021, all new cleared and non-cleared interest rate derivatives that reference the definitions will include the fallbacks[5]

SIDEBAR

Central Counterparty Clearing houses

  • On July 27, 2020 LCH, Eurex Clearing and CME Group implemented a discounting switch from EONIA to Ester for cleared OTC EUR denominated derivatives related to Price Alignment Interest (PAI[6]) and Price Alignment Amount (PAA) regarding Settle-to-Market collateral[7]
  • On October 19, 2020 LCH, Eurex Clearing and CME Group implemented a discounting switch from EFFR to SOFR for cleared OTC USD denominated derivatives related to Price Alignment Interest (PAI) and Price Alignment Amount (PAA) regarding Settle-to-Market collateral

USD LIBOR transition and Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC)

  • The ARRC issued a deadline on September 30, 2020, in order to establish RFP processes to facilitate the eventual publication of (a) forward-looking term SOFR rates and (b) the ARRC’s recommended spread adjustment for transition of legacy contracts[8]
  • From September 30, 2020 onwards, new syndicated business loans must include ARRC hardwired fallback language
  • From October 31, 2020 onwards, new bilateral business loans must include ARRC hardwired fallback language
  • From December 31, 2020 onwards, no new Floating Rate Notes referring to USD LIBOR and maturing after 2021 should be issued

GBP LIBOR transition and Working Group on Sterling Risk Free Rates

  • New bonds issuances maturing after 2021 and referring to GBP LIBOR should be ceased after Q1 2021[9]
  • New loans issuances maturing after 2021 and referring to GBP LIBOR should be ceased after Q1 2021
  • Initiation of new linear derivatives linked to GBP LIBOR that expire after 2021 should cease after Q1 2021

 

[1] The list of highlights does not have the intention to give a complete overview of all events and only reflects recent developments

[2] A more extensive overview of IBOR benchmarks and related alternative risk free rates can be found on the website of The Investment Association (in cooperation with Linklaters): Table Interbank Offered Rates (IBORs) and Alternative Reference Rates (ARRs), version September 24, 2020

[3] Source: Summary of Responses to the ISDA 2020 Consultation on How to Implement Pre-Cessation Fallbacks in Derivatives. A pre-cessation announcement would be an announcement that the IBOR benchmark is no longer representative of the interbank lending rate. A cessation announcement would be a public announcement that the administrators of different IBOR benchmarks have or will cease to provide IBOR benchmarks

[4] Calculations published by BISL include the adjusted RFR (compounded in arrears), the spread adjustment and the ‘all in’ IBOR fallback rates for the following IBORs across various tenors: the Australian Dollar Bank Bill Swap Rate (BBSW), the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR), Swiss franc LIBOR, EURIBOR, Euro LIBOR, Sterling LIBOR, HIBOR, Euroyen TIBOR, Yen LIBOR, TIBOR and US Dollar LIBOR (see https://www.isda.org/2020/07/21/bloomberg-begins-publishing-calculations-related-to-ibor-fallbacks/ )

[5] Source: ISDA launches IBOR fallbacks supplement and protocol October 23, 2020

[6] PAI is the overnight cost of funding collateral. It is debited from the receiver and transferred to the payer to cover the loss of interest on posted collateral. Imagine an Interest Rate Swap, cleared through a CCP such as LCH, Eurex Clearing or CME Group. At the beginning of the life of the swap the PV is close to zero, so worth little to either party. Over the life of the trade the value of the floating leg will vary leading to an NPV to one of the parties. The change in this NPV from day to day is what Variation Margin is, calculated and moved by a CCP on a daily basis.

[7] LCH Discounting Switch Ester and SOFR

CME Discounting Switch Ester and SOFR

Eurex Clearing Discounting Switch Ester and SOFR

[8] ARRC USD LIBOR Transition Timelines, New York Fed, version September 9 2020

[9] UK RFR Roadmap | 2020-21 intermediate update, Bank of England, September 2020

Partner Interview Series | This is a must read story about Enigma Consulting

27-10-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting |

Get inspired by the extensive and catchy story of Robert-Jan Wekking about Enigma Consulting. Robert-Jan takes you into the warm corporate culture, mission, expertise, innovation and their continues investment in knowledge with great examples.

Enigma Consulting is a revolutionary knowledge hub in the field of Payments, Digitisation, Risk & Compliance and Treasury. They are a connecting factor in the financial sector thanks to our consultants’ engagement with their clients, both banks and companies and solution providers.

AN INTRODUCTION TO

Robert-Jan has more than 25 years of experience in payment transactions and he advises corporate clients in the areas of treasury, risk management and bank connectivity.He understands the solutions in the market, both from the B2B and B2C perspective.

Robert-Jan switches easily between executive and operational level within companies and the banking sector, as he easily combines his strategic vision with substantive process and product knowledge. He has a wide network with contacts at all (international) banks, which can speed up the implementation of corporates connectivity with their banks.

We asked him 11 questions. Let’s go!

 

INTERVIEW

1. Tell us more about Enigma Consulting and its mission

Enigma Consulting has in-depth knowledge of all ecosystems that are relevant in payments, transaction value chains and financial markets. Transactional connectivity and digitization increase the prosperity and well-being of consumers, companies and the public sector and thus serve a social interest. Our mission is to contribute to the development of efficient digital transaction traffic and to ensure that this is done in an innovative, sustainable, honest and effective manner with controlled business operations. Combined with a correct attitude and behaviour, this contributes to the translation of legislation and regulations into ethical business operations and a better market position. We follow developments closely, research, analyse and make connections. Our consultants reflect, structure and help organisations to achieve their goals.

2. What is the core topic Enigma Consulting aims to address and how does it differentiate it from the other players in the market?

Digitalization is all about the exchange of data, whether these are payments, information, identities, contracts, signatures or any other regular consumer or business transactions. The complexity of exchanging transactions is constantly increasing; regulations, fraud and data protection are just three of the factors impacting this complexity.  On the other hand, innovative technology is continuously providing easier interaction between data, leading to better and integrated business propositions and making client journeys faster, more friction less and safer.  This is exactly in this domain where Enigma operates.  We leverage our in-depth knowledge of payments and transactions to advise and implement.

We distinguish ourselves from other players by looking at the end-to-end value chain, not only from the viewpoint of efficiency but also with a perspective on regulations and compliance. We understand the guiding laws and regulations and can translate them into practical advice to make sure that our clients remain compliant. We recognize that laws and regulations applying to financial institutions are becoming stricter and that attention is now also shifting towards corporates.

Our legal consultants are specialised in transaction and data related legislation, and we have strong connection with for example DNB and AFM in relation to our guidance of our clients.

Our consultancy practice focuses on the  financial-,  corporate- and retail sectors, hence we understand the complexities affecting those areas. With our knowledge of the ecosystems and  vendor solutions we play the matchmaking role between individual client wishes and the solutions available in the market.

This combination of end-to-end view, legislation and compliancy, working in different sectors, and the matchmaker role gives us a unique position. The fact that we not only advise but also take responsibility for  implementations during the past 20 years, makes us a trusted and recognized partner for our clients.

3. Why choose customers for Enigma Consulting?

Our knowledge of payments and other transaction processes is often the starting point for customers to reach out to us. Our capability to advise and implement solutions from an end-to-end perspective is the basis for our interaction with our customers.  Additionally, customers also appreciate the fact that we are able to advise at a strategic level, but at the same time are pragmatic enough to look for feasible and not theoretical answers.

We have strong relationships with a number of our clients, some even stretching back over more than 20 years. This is something we foster, not only by delivering more than what is expected, but also by working closely together. For instance, our Treasury Barometer is an example where we cooperate with the Rabobank, whilst at the same time we are participating in a number of their projects.

At the end, it all comes together with trust, in the quality of delivery, in our people and in the overall relation. This is how we ensure that we will be shortlisted again the next time.

4. What has been the biggest challenge for Enigma Consulting regarding customer projects so far?

The most challenging projects are when we are asked to take end-to-end responsibility for delivering a complete project. Quite often, this means that we have a team onboard and the client is looking at us as lead consultant to get the job done. A good example is the setup of a complete bank payments infrastructure. Apart from the fact that these assignments are exciting and demanding, it is always challenging to make it happen in an environment with its own complexities.

For our individual consultants, stepping into a new assignment always has its own challenges.

Customers ask for us for different reasons, and our consultants have to quickly adapt to start advising the client. This means not only understanding the clients’ business, but primarily building trust relations with the client and their stakeholders. Hence for every consultant the adaptability towards the new environment is always an important challenge.

For myself personally, I am proud to have led a number of strategic programs, like SEPA, Instant Payments and iDIN.  Besides building completely new products, the key challenge is always to work and build bridges between internal and external parties (Banks, DNB, governmental bodies) with sometimes opposing objectives. Working with all these parties and ultimately developing a new product is what makes me happy and proud of my role as consultant.

5. Can you tell us in what sector you see the most innovative developments regarding payments and how does Enigma Consulting react to these?

One of the most exciting aspects of payments is the continuous innovation in the field. However, it is never a revolution but more an evolution. An example are the digital currencies. I believe that in the long run, these might become as important as, or even replace, the current way of paying. But it will take many years to get there. Where it started with the cryptos and Facebook’s Libra, the central banks are now seriously embracing it.

Additionally, the technical transitions to APIs and SaaS, Open Banking and Instant are ingredients for completely new business innovation. Through API and SaaS, corporates can select best in class software modules and integrate them, rather than select single platforms that will still sub-optimise their process. The introduction of Instant Payments in Europe will ultimately change the way the treasurer needs to forecast and manage their accounts.

In the B2C or C2C world, the client journey will continuously improve, seamlessly and friction less, with data integration as a key element.

Through our assignments, we are constantly in the middle of this innovation. For example, we are the leading consultancy firm in the Netherlands for supporting FinTechs, cryptos and payment software companies with their PSD2 application. Our role in digital identity and Mobility as a Service provides us with insights in yet other areas of innovation.

In order to keep all our consultants informed, we have a weekly meeting with our consultants to discuss the latest trends.

We also leverage this knowledge to assist our clients with their questions around innovation. For this purpose, we have initiated the Enigma Innovation Lab, an accelerator environment to answer client specific questions around innovation, vision building or technical solutions by injecting are our own knowledge combined with our ecosystem of solution providers and subject matter specialists, all facilitated by various methodologies like Design Thinking.

6. Do you experience differences in the world of payments before COVID19 and the time we live in now? What are the differences?

The differences are not that when you look at the regular payment products themselves. But we do see COVID as a steppingstone for digitalization. E-commerce and e-commerce payments have shown significant growth and people are spending increasing amounts of time online. The volumes of payments facilitated by Payment Service Providers are going through the roof.

Also “Cash is King” is the phrase that everybody uses, but this should now be “Digital Cash is King”. Volume of physical cash is dropping significantly, being taken over by contactless payments.

I believe these are just indicators for a bigger change, which is the acceptance of the consumer to step into a full mobile journey.

Customers are now more familiar with working with a cashless wallet and seem also to be willing to adapt faster to other contactless, digital processes. Examples are registration, ordering food and payments in restaurants (for example via QR). But also using mobile apps to order your groceries. Clearly, this has already been taking place for many years, but I believe that COVID has accelerated this transformation through necessity.  People are therefore more willing to change their attitude. What is interesting is whether this transformation will continue, or whether people will step backwards to the old normal or step forward to a new normal.

For the retail sector and corporates, before COVID they already had to understand how to become more relevant in the mobile cashless digital world.  COVID is demanding corporates to speed up this thought process.

7. How does the future of payments look like in your perspective? And how will it change the world?

Digital currencies will be an important element in our future, adopted stepwise, and will be overlooked by market systems and regulators. There will be a continuous drive for integrating payments in the client journey, seamless, frictionless and supporting the Internet of Things. Hence payments will be a key enabler of future growth towards the digital world. Digitization is also very attractive for fraudsters, money laundering etc, as your counterpart is not always visible anymore. The need for trustworthy digital identities will be an important building block for this roadmap.

At the same time, the pressure of fraud, regulations and compliance will shift from banks to other parties (corporates) in the end-to-end value chain. Where banks are currently the gatekeeper, corporates will have to integrate this responsibility in their own business processes.

Hence the roadmap to digital, whether it is digital payments, or any other data transaction, will demand continuous change from all parties in the value chain. This will be a stepwise change, but fast enough to need to keep an eye on it.

8. What has been the biggest success for Enigma Consulting?

The biggest success for Enigma is that we have made a transformation from payments “only” to understanding the full transaction, risk and data value chain. For example, we have made a transition from bank payments to treasury payments and risk processes, but also from payments to compliance, and to integrated transactions and data models.

During this period, we have also changed our internal organisation.  We have been running a number of Young Professional Programs. These next generation talents bring us a more diverse view of the world, which makes our proposition to the market stronger and our internal culture more diverse. As a result, we believe that we have the foundation for supporting our clients, now and in the future, with a passion for payments and transactions.

9. How does Enigma Consulting keep on innovating and stay one step ahead of its competitors?

Our ambition is to be recognised as a though leader in the domain of payment and transactions. Investing in knowledge is the basis for our current and future advisory services.

This means that we continuously invest in gaining and sharing knowledge with our consultants and clients. We have organised this in a number of ways.

We have introduced the so-called Theme Lifecycle within Enigma. When we expect a theme becomes relevant for our business, now or the future, we start a workgroup to progress this theme from idea through different stages. It starts with writing a one pager based on study and analysis, called the exploring stage. We validate the readiness for every next stage (exploring, campaigning, harvesting) so that we invest time in those subjects that also become relevant for the market. All our consultants participate in one or more themes, which helps keep them engaged with innovation and market developments.

Every week we organise meetings to discuss news and articles. On turn, every consultant is responsible to select a number of articles to be discussed during this half hour meeting.

For our clients, we have regular Breakfast and Brains meetings to share our insights and to have open discussions on a specific subject. The success is that clients that even might compete in a certain sector, are always willing to learn and share from our and other clients’ experiences.

Finally, we also participate in and cooperate with FinTechs. We support them by leveraging our network of solutions, whilst their innovative ideas are a good source for future improvements, leading to a broader ecosystem that benefits our clients.

10. We are heading to the end of 2020, can you give us an outlook on the scheduled developments for the upcoming year?

The best outlook would be that we leave COVID-19 behind us, however I think that COVID will strongly influence the developments and investments in 2021. There are a number of scheduled developments which will impact corporate clients. Corporates will have to put their capacity in the IBOR Migration.  Also, the transition to XML messages will impact the operating architecture and bank connectivity of corporates.  In parallel, the transition to instant payments including batches will have to be put on the calendar of the finance function.

And in parallel, it is recommended to continue to look at the potential of open banking and further integration of payments data in the corporate business processes. An example is how payment data can improve the risk profiles of insurance companies.

In summary, enough subjects to keep an eye on. Sitting still and waiting is not an option.

11. A great initiative is that Enigma Consulting supports charity projects, what kind of charity projects does Enigma Consulting support, why and how?

The why should never be a discussion, the real discussion is what you can do. One of our activities is the ZEPA challenge.  Our consultants do like sports, and a lot of them love to cycle. When the transition to SEPA was going on, some of our consultants took the initiative for this challenge: cycling from Zeist to Paris in 24 hours. We have done this now 3 times, and a number of our clients’ employees have also participated.  This year’s event was cancelled, but we are already “ready” for the next challenge. There is not a fixed charity goal, the last charity was support for the education of young refugees.

Apart from the above, we have a warm partnership with “Goede Doelen” charity organisations in Netherlands and facilitate a free payments helpdesk for them.

It is of crucial importance to us to participate in an open and honest society, in which diversity and inclusion are critical. This is important for our own culture, as as an organisation we benefit from our consultants and they, in turn, foster these values in their personal lives.

Is it time to revisit your bank connectivity solution?

| 29-09-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting

A lot of organisations have implemented a corporate payment hub for bank connectivity at the time SEPA was introduced in Europe (2012). Since then the technology has changed drastically and new solutions offer richer functionality at a far more efficient operating model via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). It is time to revisit your bank connectivity domain!

The usage of Corporate Payment hub solutions for bank connectivity between the corporate ERP/TMS systems and their bank relations is growing strongly. Trends as digitization, standardisation and the increased focus on fraud– and risk management make the automation of the connectivity with banks a topic on the management agenda. There are currently three interesting developments that result in an increased focus on bank connectivity in the Dutch marketplace:

  1. The increased focus of being in control by the Corporate treasurer

In the past the Treasurer was merely focused on the high value/low volume treasury payments and not too much looking at the commercial payment flows. From the discussions of Enigma with many corporate treasurers we see an increased focus on being ‘in control’ e.g. reduce manual activities, reduce the number of tokens for Electronic banking systems, have real-time insight in liquidity. The enhanced propositions of TMS systems and network facilitators like SWIFT, further encourages he logical step to automate the bank connectivity. This includes not only the automation of the payment flows but also the receipt and distribution of bank statements internally.

  1. New solutions are introduced with a revolutionary operating model

On the solutioning side we see interesting developments as well. New (fintech) vendors like Cobase, OpusCapita or TIS take (multi-tenant) SaaS as starting point reducing the IT footprint and enabling corporates to benefit from developments for other clients as well. Especially on the bank connectivity we see a shift in “tailor made customer demand” to “best-practise solution provider experiences” and therefore leveraging investments done for other clients which are already ‘part of the standard solution’. Some vendors even go further to support the entire bank onboarding ‘as a service’ making life very easy for corporates that do not want to know details about formats, channel options and contacts. Other (as well SaaS) vendors like BELLIN or Serrala focus on the creation of complete ecosystems and partnerships with other solution providers further strengthening the value proposition and relevance.  

  1. Replacing (legacy) Payment Hub solutions

A third interesting development is that ‘early stage’ payment hub solutions are at the end of their economic life cycle and need to be replaced. With the introduction of SEPA in 2012 a large number of corporates decided to implement a payment hub. Main focus at that time was on reducing the complexity of change to their existing IT landscape. At that time Payment hub solutions especially played a role in:

  • File conversion or enrichment capabilities from legacy (domestic in NL Clieop) formats to SEPA formats
  • SEPA Direct Debit mandate management to manage the (too complex) ‘first’ versus ‘recurrent’ rulebook guidelines and generation of mandate IDs
  • An alternative for ‘bank connectivity’ channels that banks decided to phase out to simplify their SEPA programmes (e.g. ING Finstream channel)

The state of technology at that time was completely different than nowadays. API’s, SaaS or Cloud did not exist. IT deployment method was ‘on-premise’ with a significant IT footprint and initial CAPEX investment.

In the past months Enigma Consulting has had multiple discussions on the necessity to replace these ‘early days’ payment hubs. Our Request-for-Proposal projects have interestingly resulted in a quite positive business case for different reasons:

  • Large additional investments (sometimes upgrades) are required in the legacy solutions to improve the IT security or make new business features available. New solutions immediately will eliminate these costs.
  • Pricing was high in comparison to current (often shared) solutions with more attractive pricing.
  • Some vendors have changed ownership and focus on the payment hub solution is gone (or ambitions at that time have not paid out) whilst new solutions do understand current market drivers and developments in the payment domain. One vendor recently informed their clients that they intend to withdraw entirely from the market.
  • New SaaS/Cloud solutions significantly reduce the IT footprint and therefore require far less (often scarce) capacity from IT for maintenance/upgrades.
  • Current Payment hub solutions offer a wider range of services and can be integrated far easier (API’s) with other solutions that are as well required (e.g. cash management, fraud, treasury, ERP).
  • Many payment hub solutions now offer a full support for ‘on-behalf’ POBO/COBO processing in combination with in-house banking and/or virtual account solutions.

Is bank connectivity a topic on its own?

Not per se. Although the topic itself can perfectly be addressed as single issue we see that our clients link the required change in this domain to a broader discussion on their financial value chain. Often a required change in the bank connectivity domain goes hand-in-hand with broader discussions on the Target Operating Model for payments, incorporating all market developments (outside in), internal ambitions (inside out) and discussion on the bank relation(s) itself. The selection of the best fitting vendor for the payment hub should than be seen in the broader perspective of a mid-term payments roadmap.

So what to do now?

We advise you to (let) revisit the solution you have in place for your bank connectivity. If not automated yet, there might be a strong business case to change this by improving efficiency and reducing risks. If a solution is already in place, there may be arguments to benefit from a replacement by one of the new solutions that offer more for less. You could even look beyond only bank connectivity and look at the entire payments domain to check if you are sufficiently prepared for the future taking into account all market developments in the payment domain.

Contact

Are you interested in how we can help you with your bank connectivity challenge or do you want to understand how we can support you with your Payment Roadmap?

Just contact me on: [email protected] or look at http://www.enigmaconsulting.nl

 

 

Only 5 days left until the International Treasury Management Virtual Week 2020

| 16-09-2020 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

Don’t miss the Treasury Event of the Year! If you haven’t signed up already, here is a reminder to join this great virtual event with incredible speakers and live sessions.

Virtual Event

Now more than ever, we need to learn and engage with other treasury professionals around the world, so that we can navigate and overcome the unprecedented challenges we are facing.

As the current situation unfolds, the role of the corporate treasurer is evolving and becoming more strategic than ever before. The complexities and function of treasury within the business is changing even more rapidly. The question is: What does the future of treasury look like and how will this affect my team? And where can I turn for world-class advice on building resiliency, supporting the business and addressing future challenges?

Look no further than EuroFinance’s International Treasury Management Virtual Week taking place 21-25 September. It will see world-leading treasurers and economists come together to address these issues, deliver big picture global insights and share the essential granular knowledge you and your team need for the path ahead. In the spotlight will be the latest on cash flow forecasting, supply chain finance, tech, liquidity and FX and payments plus much more.

Speakers and Live Sessions

The line-up of speakers is impressive with the likes of Shell, Alibaba Group, HP Inc., eBay, Finnair, Microsoft, Intel Corporation, Schlumberger, Booking Holdings Inc. and Rio Tinto holding centre stage in one of the 75+ live sessions. But don’t worry if you miss a session, they will be available on-demand for you to watch at a time that suits you.

The custom-built virtual conference platform will bring the experience of a live event to life in a virtual world. It offers plenty of opportunities to network and learn from your global peers, plus a smart calendar to build your schedule.

Free Registration

The great news is, the 2020 event comes without a price tag! It is free for corporate treasurers. So, you can get all the world-class expert knowledge and insights you expect from the leading treasury event without the costs of registration, flights, accommodation or even expenses.

What are you waiting for? Set your treasury team up to thrive not just to survive.

Register for free today!

 

EuroFinance International Treasury Management Virtual Week 21-25 September 2020

| 25-08-2020 | Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

The pandemic sent shockwaves through global financial markets and confronted businesses with extreme scenarios.

Virtual Event

Now more than ever, we need to learn and engage with other treasury professionals around the world, so that we can navigate and overcome the unprecedented challenges we are facing.

As the current situation unfolds, the role of the corporate treasurer is evolving and becoming more strategic than ever before. The complexities and function of treasury within the business is changing even more rapidly. The question is: What does the future of treasury look like and how will this affect my team? And where can I turn for world-class advice on building resiliency, supporting the business and addressing future challenges?

Look no further than EuroFinance’s International Treasury Management Virtual Week taking place 21-25 September. It will see world-leading treasurers and economists come together to address these issues, deliver big picture global insights and share the essential granular knowledge you and your team need for the path ahead. In the spotlight will be the latest on cash flow forecasting, supply chain finance, tech, liquidity and FX and payments plus much more.

Speakers and Live Sessions

The line-up of speakers is impressive with the likes of Shell, Alibaba Group, HP Inc., eBay, Finnair, Microsoft, Intel Corporation, Schlumberger, Booking Holdings Inc. and Rio Tinto holding centre stage in one of the 75+ live sessions. But don’t worry if you miss a session, they will be available on-demand for you to watch at a time that suits you.

The custom-built virtual conference platform will bring the experience of a live event to life in a virtual world. It offers plenty of opportunities to network and learn from your global peers, plus a smart calendar to build your schedule.

Free Registration

The great news is, the 2020 event comes without a price tag! It is free for corporate treasurers. So, you can get all the world-class expert knowledge and insights you expect from the leading treasury event without the costs of registration, flights, accommodation or even expenses.

What are you waiting for? Set your treasury team up to thrive not just to survive.

Register for free today!

 

Supervision costs 2020: AISPs versus other payment institutions

| 12-08-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting

It is mid-2020 and that means that the costs of this year’s financial supervision have been announced. Looking at the payment institutions, there are some notable changes to report. For example, the supervisory costs that DNB passes on to payment institutions will increase significantly. This is partly due to an expensive relocation and subsequent calculation for 2019. The costs of AFM supervision have decreased somewhat.

Blog continues in Dutch language…

Achtergrond

Gedurende 2019 bestond er grote onduidelijkheid hoe om te gaan met de nieuwe betaaldienstverleners die als gevolg van PSD2 de markt hebben betreden: de betalingsinitiatiedienstverleners (PISP’s, dienst 7) en rekeninginformatiedienstverleners (AISP’s, dienst 8). Enigma Consulting heeft inmiddels zes vergunningaanvragen voor deze nieuwe diensten succesvol afgerond, en zocht het uit.

Bekostiging financieel toezicht

Sinds 2015 moeten de financiële instellingen de kosten van het financieel toezicht zelf dragen. De doorbelasting van de kosten vindt plaats naar draagkracht en betreft een percentage van de provisie-inkomsten. Bij de traditionele betaaldienstverleners (dienst 1 t/m 6) zijn provisie-inkomsten relatief eenvoudig te bepalen: deze omvatten de transactiekosten die door de betaaldienstverlener in rekening worden gebracht.

PSD2

Voor de nieuwkomers is lastiger te bepalen wat provisie-inkomsten zijn. Met name de AISP’s, waaronder een aantal boekhoudsoftwareleveranciers, hanteren een abonnementsmodel van soms tientallen euro’s per maand. In dit abonnementsmodel wordt met name betaald voor de software. Het ophalen van rekeninginformatie – voorheen via bankkoppelingen, nu via PSD2 API’s – wordt veelal niet separaat in rekening gebracht. Transactiekosten zijn evenmin van toepassing op AISP’s. In 2019 was de vraag aan DNB dan ook hoe provisie-inkomsten voor dergelijke partijen moesten worden geïnterpreteerd.

Provisie-inkomsten

Kort uitgelegd omvatten de provisie-inkomsten de, al dan niet incidenteel van derden ontvangen respectievelijk nog te ontvangen, vergoedingen uit hoofde van de vergunningplichtige betaaldienstverlening in de ruimste zin van het woord. Uitleg van DNB destijds, leidde ertoe dat werd gesteld dat ook abonnementsopbrengsten hieronder zouden worden verstaan. In potentie zou dit een enorme kostenpost betekenen voor de AISP’s.

De toelichting die DNB geeft op de regeling bekostiging financieel toezicht 2020, leidt gelukkig tot een andere, meer redelijke conclusie. Er zijn, zo meldt DNB, namelijk partijen die alleen het basisbedrag betalen (lees: dus geen variabele verhoging op basis van provisie-inkomsten). Mede om die reden wordt het basisbedrag van EUR 2.000 wel verhoogd naar EUR 5.000:

Kosten prudentieel toezicht door DNB, afhankelijk van provisie-inkomsten

2019 2020
Provisie-inkomsten € 2.000,= vermeerderd met € 5.000,= vermeerderd met
€ 0 – € 1 mln. € 65,41 per € 1000 € 101,50 per € 1000
€ 1 mln. – € 10 mln. € 18,97 per € 1000 € 34,60 per € 1000
€ 10 mln. – € 50 mln. € 1,31 per € 1000 € 2,49 per € 1000
€ 50 mln. € 0,13 per € 1000 € 0,26 per € 1000

Kosten gedragstoezicht door AFM, afhankelijk van provisie-inkomsten

2019 2020
Provisie-inkomsten Vaste jaarlijkse kosten Vaste jaarlijkse kosten
€ 0 – € 0,2 mln. € 702,= € 651,=
> € 0,2 mln. – € 0,5 € 1.532,= € 1.224,=
> € 0,5 mln. – € 1 mln. € 2.495,= € 1.994,=
> € 1 mln. – € 5 mln. € 3.404,= € 2.720,=
> € 5 mln. € 4.369,= € 3.491,=

Rekenvoorbeeld
Onderstaand rekenvoorbeeld laat zien het verschil zien tussen een traditionele betaalinstelling (PSP) met EUR 4.000.000 aan provisie-inkomsten (PI) en AISP:

2019 2020 PSP 2020 AISP
DNB basisbedrag € 2.000,= € 5.000,= € 5.000,=
PI in range
€ 0 – € 1 mln.		 € 65.410,=
(1000 x € 65,41)		 € 101.500,=
(1000 x € 101,50)		 –
PI in range
€ 1 mln. – € 10 mln.		 € 56.910,=
(3000 x € 18,97)		 € 103.800,=
(3000 x € 34,60)		 –
AFM PI in range
€ 1 mln. – € 5 mln.		 € 3.404,= € 2.720,= € 561,=
(o.b.v. € 0,= PI)
Totaal € 127.724,= € 213.020,= € 5.561,=

Deze cijfers laten zien dat de kosten voor de PSP’s fors toenemen, terwijl de kosten voor AISP’s in verhouding beperkt zijn. Interessant is hoe deze verhouding en de absolute kosten zich de komende jaren gaan ontwikkelen.

SOURCE

Electronic signatures – basic step towards digitization?

| 27-07-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting

The COVID-19 virus forces companies to work differently. Within a few days the use of Zoom, Teams and other video conference resources grew and it turned out that a large number of functions could be performed from home. Supportive administrative and operational systems such as corporate treasury management systems are also readily available, which means that new ways of working were quickly embraced. However, not everything works automatically. One of the examples is signing contracts.

Blog is in Dutch

Nu steeds meer processen worden gedigitaliseerd en geautomatiseerd, is het geen wonder dat de vraag naar elektronisch ondertekenen toeneemt. Door het juridische tintje aan ondertekenen vinden veel organisaties dit nu nog lastig. Met het oog op de efficiency proberen organisaties de tijd en kosten te verminderen die zijn gemoeid met ondertekening van een contract of overeenkomst.

Waar een zogeheten “natte” handtekening juridisch rechtsgeldig is, geeft het elektronisch ondertekenen van contracten kopzorgen aan bijvoorbeeld de treasurers bij het tekenen van financiële contracten. Een veel gehoord geluid is dat treasurers toch maar even naar kantoor komen om met de pen te tekenen, of allerlei acties nemen om contracten rechtsgeldig te laten zijn.

Allard Keuter van Signicat, Esther Makaay van Connectis en Robert-Jan Wekking van Enigma Consulting leggen uit hoe de elektronische handtekening ook voor deze processen ingezet kunnen worden. Allard Keuter en Robert-Jan Wekking  werkten eerder samen aan de ontwikkeling van de digitale identiteit iDIN en adviseren bedrijven bij het digitaliseren van hun bedrijfsprocessen.

Welke vorm heeft een elektronische handtekening?

Elektronische handtekeningen komen in vele vormen voor. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan het inscannen van een geschreven handtekening, maar ook het invullen van een naam op een elektronisch formulier of een vinkje zetten. Ook het inloggen met een authenticatiemiddel in de mijnomgeving om een akkoord te geven of het elektronisch ondertekenen met een eID, een digitale identiteit zoals bijvoorbeeld DigiD of iDIN, zijn vormen van een elektronische handtekening. De verschillende soorten elektronische handtekeningen hebben verschillende kenmerken en zijn niet allemaal even betrouwbaar. Het belangrijkste verschil is eigenlijk hoe de identificatie van de ondertekenaar heeft plaatsgevonden.

Wat betekent een elektronische handtekening juridisch?

Er is geen wettelijk kader voor de gewone geschreven handtekening. Wel wordt de handtekening in sommige gevallen voorgeschreven, als vormvereiste. De elektronische handtekening kent wel een wettelijke basis. Sinds 1999 was dit in een Europese richtlijn geregeld en vanaf 2014 is deze vervangen door de eIDAS verordening. Deze bepaalt onder meer dat er sprake is van drie niveaus handtekeningen:

  1. De gewone elektronische handtekening

    Hieronder valt bijvoorbeeld een ‘scan van de fysieke handtekening’, de ‘krabbel’ aan de deur, of het vinkje online. De betrouwbaarheid ervan is laag, en het is eenvoudig na te maken. De ontvanger kan wellicht wel controleren of de handtekening overeenkomt, of aantonen dat iemand iets heeft geaccepteerd, maar zekerheid dat deze ook écht door de wederpartij is gezet heeft hij niet.

  1. De geavanceerde elektronische handtekening

    Een geavanceerde elektronische handtekening kent meer waarborgen dan een ‘gewone’
    elektronische handtekening. Deze vorm vereist onder meer dat de ondertekenaar uniek geïdentificeerd kan worden, en dat een verandering (na ondertekenen) van het document gesignaleerd kan worden.

  1. De gekwalificeerde elektronische handtekening

    Een gekwalificeerde elektronische handtekening is een geavanceerde handtekening waarbij bovendien nog een gekwalificeerd certificaat is gebruikt. Gekwalificeerde certificaten mogen alleen door een gecertificeerde TSP (Trust Service Provider) worden uitgegeven.

Het is duidelijk dat de juridische bewijskracht toeneemt, naarmate er een hoger niveau van handtekening wordt gebruikt. In ieder (Europees) land is het in ieder geval zo dat een elektronische handtekening, in welke vorm dan ook, niet door een rechtbank geweigerd mag worden als bewijslast. Alleen de gekwalificeerde elektronische handtekening is in de EU juridisch gelijkgeschakeld aan de ‘natte’ handtekening, de juridische waarde voor de andere vormen is overgelaten aan de lidstaten. In Nederland is de geavanceerde variant bijvoorbeeld ook gelijk aan de ‘natte’ handtekening wanneer deze voldoende betrouwbaar is. En dat hangt weer af van het doel van ondertekening en ‘alle overige omstandigheden’.

Signicat heeft een rapport laten opstellen door advocatenkantoor Bird & Bird, waarin de juridische situatie voor 7 Europese landen uitgezocht is. Het beschrijft hoe er in de praktijk wordt omgegaan met bekrachtiging, erkenning en bewijslast van elektronische handtekeningen in Zweden, Denemarken, Noorwegen, Finland, Duitsland, België en Nederland.

Het belang van identificatie

In de meeste gevallen is het van belang dat de ondertekenaar ook geïdentificeerd wordt: wie ondertekent er en mag deze persoon wel tekenen? Denk bijvoorbeeld aan de bevoegdheid om te handelen namens een bedrijf of een controle of de ondertekenaar ouder is dan 18 jaar.

Als gebruik wordt gemaakt van een online applicatie waarbij gebruikers ingelogd zijn, is als het goed is bekend wie er bij welk user account hoort. Dit is in veel gevallen voldoende betrouwbaar. Voor getekende documenten die ook buiten de organisatie gedeeld moeten worden is het gebruik van een eID of digitale identiteit voor de hand liggend. Daarin is de identificatie dan geregeld: door authenticatie met dat eID worden de persoonsgegevens van de ondertekenaar vastgelegd.

Ook hierin zijn verschillen in de mate van betrouwbaarheid: social logins werken met door de gebruiker zelf ingevulde gegevens (“self-assured”), maar er zijn ook eIDs waarbij de identificatie van de gebruiker veel sterker gedaan is. Voorbeelden daarvan zijn iDIN en eHerkenning.

Hoe kun je dit gebruiken?

Veel bedrijven zijn al van start gegaan met elektronische handtekeningen in één of andere vorm. Met het breed beschikbaar komen van digitale identiteiten zoals iDIN en eHerkenning zijn ook deze vormen van ondertekening, dus met een betrouwbare identificatie van de ondertekenaar, breed beschikbaar. Ook in andere Europese landen zijn digitale identiteiten beschikbaar, waardoor het ondertekenen van contracten over de grens via gebruik van verschillende eID middelen geïntegreerd toegepast kan worden.

Er zijn verschillende manieren om elektronische handtekeningen te gebruiken.

Het tekenen van contracten kan volledig geïntegreerd worden in de eigen omgeving van het bedrijf. Door middel van een API naar de omgeving van een trust service provider wordt de technische uitvoering van de digitale handtekening uitbesteed, waardoor het voldoet aan de eisen die eraan gesteld worden. Opties als meerdere documenten tegelijk ondertekenen, meerdere ondertekenaars, ook buiten de eigen organisatie, doorsturen naar een andere ondertekenaar zijn allemaal mogelijk, volledig geïntegreerd via de eigen omgeving.

Een andere optie is gebruik maken van een Signing portaal.  De te ondertekenen documenten worden geupload in het portaal, met de gegevens van de ondertekenaars. Vervolgens handelt het Signing portaal het proces af, inclusief uitnodigingen tot tekenen en het uitsturen van herinneringen.

De juiste keuze voor uw organisatie hangt van verschillende facetten af, zoals het aantal documenten, de workflow waarin het ingepast moet worden, de snelheid van tekenen, en de benodigde betrouwbaarheid van de handtekening.

Signicat heeft hiervoor een buyers guide gepubliceerd die bedrijven helpt de juiste keuze te maken.

Deze tijd van werken versnelt de vraag naar digitale oplossingen. Het implementeren van een oplossing als het Signing Portaal kan direct helpen om de eerste zorg rondom contracten weg te halen. Wel wordt geadviseerd om in parallel te onderzoeken hoe op langer termijn de elektronische handtekening past in de gehele interne en externe bedrijfsvoering, waardoor stapsgewijs de stap naar volledige digitaliseren van documenten bereikt wordt.

 

SOURCE

Small progress in onboarding process, Challenger banks remain leading

| 15-07-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting

Nowadays, mobile banking apps from pay banks are of great importance to bind and retain customers. The corona crisis stimulates companies to take steps in the field of digitization. For banks, a fully digital, fast and secure customer onboarding process is an ideal image to work towards. The onboarding process of the challenger banks still appears to have a considerable lead over the onboarding process of the major banks. This last group of banks has made few groundbreaking developments in the past year. On the other hand, interesting developments can be observed at a number of other banks examined. Triodos, Knab and ASN Bank in particular have made significant improvements.

Blog is in Dutch

De onderstaande overzichten geven grafisch weer welke bewegingen hebben plaatsgevonden bij de verschillende banken in het afgelopen jaar.

Grafiek vergelijking begin 2019 en begin 2020

Score begin 2019 = bol met dunne zwarte rand// Score begin 2020 = bol met dikke zwarte rand

Triodos, ASN en Knab zetten stappen vooruit

In het onderzoek van 2019 was één van de conclusies dat ASN en Triodos moesten oppassen dat het verschil met de overige banken niet te groot zou worden. Qua gebruiksvriendelijkheid heeft Triodos de afgelopen periode een aantal verbeteringen doorgevoerd. Zo heeft de online omgeving op de website een volledig nieuwe look-and-feel gekregen. Het onboardingsproces zelf is ook laagdrempeliger geworden. Zo moest de klant een jaar geleden nog een fysieke kopie van het legitimatiebewijs toesturen per post. Inmiddels kan deze kopie ook digitaal worden geüpload, waardoor het gebruikersgemak aanzienlijk is toegenomen.

ASN heeft de veiligheid van haar onboardingsproces verstevigd. In een uitzending van Rambam werd de noodzaak van deze versteviging aangetoond omdat het mogelijk bleek met een vervalste kopie van een paspoort een rekening te openen. ASN heeft daar lering uit getrokken en het lek gedicht.

Ook bij Knab zijn opvallende verbeterslagen doorgevoerd. Waar de klant voorheen de onboarding startte via de website, is het proces inmiddels volledig via de app uit te voeren. De app is ook gemoderniseerd. Verder is het mogelijk om het paspoort te scannen, een pincode via de app te registreren en is het koppelen van de identifier en de bankpas niet meer nodig. Het gebruikersgemak is met de nieuwe ontwikkelingen positief beïnvloed. Met het oog op het know your customer proces krijgt de klant een uitgebreide vragenlijst voorgelegd.

Challengerbanken zijn snel, papierloos en innovatief

De challengerbanken houden de traditionele banken achter zich met een volledig digitaal en papierloos proces, een korte doorlooptijd en innovatieve oplossingen. De online banken dwingen de gevestigde orde nog altijd tot een verbeterslag als het gaat om gebruikersgemak en snelheid. Daarnaast zijn de fintechs stabiel als het gaat om veiligheid.

Monese en Openbank zijn nieuwkomers in het onderzoek. Bij Monese wordt de legitimatie via een foto uitgelezen en identificeert de klant zich via een selfiefilm en stemopname. Deze functionaliteiten scoren goed op gebruikersgemak. Echter is op het gebied van fraudepreventie en veiligheid veel verbetering mogelijk. Het komt voor dat de klant een betaalpas ontvangt met een foutieve naam. De naam van de klant wordt bij het uitlezen van de legitimatie niet altijd correct overgenomen en het systeem maakt daar een eigen interpretatie van. Daarbij vraagt de bank niet om een controle van de identiteitsgegevens door de klant zelf. Op dit vlak zijn gebruikersgemak, snelheid en veiligheid niet in balans.

Ook bij de Spaanse onlinebank Openbank, die in februari 2020 de Nederlandse markt betrad, verloopt het onboardingsproces volledig digitaal. De klant kan zich identificeren via een identificatiestorting of via een videogesprek. Een medewerker van Openbank stelt in het videogesprek enkele verificatievragen. Vervolgens wordt een foto gemaakt van de consument en het identificatiemiddel. Naar onze mening is de verificatie via een videogesprek een veilige en digitale manier om te achterhalen of de persoon die de rekening aanvraagt ook echt de opgegeven identiteit heeft. Daarentegen kan een videogesprek voor een klant wel een drempel zijn om het proces af te ronden. Verder dient de klant de voorwaarden te ondertekenen via een digitale handtekening.

Bij Revolut kan de klant de pinpas nu activeren in de app. Er is geen bevestiging per telefoon meer nodig. Daarnaast is een uitgebreidere toestelregistratie ingevoerd. Bunq, Moneyou en N26 hebben het onboardingsproces via de app het afgelopen jaar onveranderd gelaten.

Wat verder interessant is, is dat challengerbanken, zoals Bunq, Monese en N26, een aantrekkelijk ‘referral model’ aanbieden. Als klant krijg je een beloning wanneer je een nieuwe klant aanbrengt. Deze beloning vertaalt zich vaak in de vorm van een geldbedrag.

Grootbanken stabiel

Het onboardingsproces laat bij de grootbanken geen opvallende ontwikkelingen zien. Bij ABN Amro is het rijbewijs toegevoegd als legitimatiemiddel en dient een klant verplicht door alle schermen van de ‘instellingen’ te gaan, zoals de limieten en alerts. ABN Amro scoort goed op veiligheid. De bank geeft aan dat zij voor de veiligheid alle post apart verstuurt. Zo ontvangt de klant vier verschillende brieven – voor de betaalpas, pincode, activeringscode voor de betaalpas en de identifier. Bovendien dient de klant voor ieder toestel waarmee mobiel wordt gebankierd een uitgebreide toestelregistratie te doorlopen. Deze extra beveiligingsstappen gaan enigszins ten koste van de gebruiksvriendelijkheid.

Bij ING en Rabobank hebben geen wijzigingen plaatsgevonden. Bij ING verloopt de onboarding met een Android-besturingssysteem soepel. Onboarding via het iOS besturingssysteem (Apple) is echter nog steeds niet mogelijk. Deze klanten zijn aangewezen op het onboardingsproces via de website.

Klantidentificatie en -verificatie

Identificatiemethoden zoals een videogesprek, selfiefoto en selfiefilm worden steeds relevanter. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) heeft in de ‘Leidraad Wwft 2019’ aangegeven dat instellingen naast een identificatiestorting één of meerdere andere betrouwbare methoden dienen te gebruiken om de identiteit van de klant te verifiëren. Bij een identificatiestorting staat niet vast dat door een andere instelling een adequate identificatie en verificatie is uitgevoerd, stelt de DNB. Sommige banken maken gebruik van de identificatiestorting zonder andere methoden te gebruiken ter verificatie van de identiteit van de klant. Deze banken zullen aan de slag moeten met hun identificatie- en verificatieproces om te voldoen aan de richtlijnen van de DNB.

Superieure onboarding klantreis bij andere banken?

Samenvattend kan worden gesteld dat de grootbanken weinig waarde hebben toegevoegd aan hun onboardingsproces. Achterliggende reden kan zijn dat zij niet worden geprikkeld om het proces verder te ontwikkelen, omdat zij verwachten dat hun marktaandeel toch wel op peil blijft. De banken die vorig jaar niet uitblonken in hun klantreis, hebben prioriteit gegeven aan het verder digitaliseren en verbeteren van de klantervaring.  Hiernaast hebben meerdere banken de look-and-feel verbeterd.

Interessant is hoe deze betaalbanken zich verhouden tot andere financiële instellingen. Bieden financiële instellingen met alleen een spaarrekening en/of een beleggingsrekening een veiligere, innovatievere of gebruiksvriendelijkere klantreis? Om die vraag te beantwoorden heeft Enigma Consulting de onboarding van elf andere financiële instellingen onder de loep genomen. Hiervan volgen de uitkomsten in een vervolg op dit artikel.

Als u meer waarde wilt halen uit uw onboardingsproces of meer wilt weten over de nieuwe richtlijnen met betrekking tot afgeleide identificatie, dan kan Enigma Consulting u voorzien van advies.

 

Source

Crypto Service Providers bound by the Dutch Wwft obligations

| 05-06-2020 | treasuryXL | Enigma Consulting

The Dutch Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) law, better known as the Wwft, is recently modified and executed. The most obvious change is undoubtedly that crypto service providers have come within the scope of anti-money laundering legislation.

Blog is in Dutch

Wat is er gewijzigd?

In 2018 voerde de Europese Unie een set van wijzigingen door in de bestaande Europese antiwitwaswetgeving. Nu, twee jaar later, is deze actualisatieslag ook doorgevoerd in de Wwft.

De volgende zaken zijn onder andere toegevoegd aan de Nederlandse antiwitwaswetgeving:

  1. De uitbreiding van het toepassingsbereik naar nieuwe takken van sport. Vanaf heden moeten bijvoorbeeld ook belastingadviseurs, kunstdealers en makelaars de Wwft-voorschriften naleven.
  2. Het maximale bedrag voor anonieme prepaidkaarten en van toegestane terugbetaling in contanten zonder klantidentificatie is teruggebracht tot respectievelijk €150,- en €50,-.
  3. Aanbieders van diensten voor het wisselen tussen virtuele valuta en fiduciaire valuta en aanbieders van bewaarportemonnees (hierna: cryptodienstverleners) dienen zich verplicht te registreren bij De Nederlandsche Bank (hierna: DNB).

Waarom zijn virtuele valuta in scope van de wetgeving gekomen

De EU achtte de aanpassingen noodzakelijk omdat het witwasrisico zich meer en meer op voorheen niet onderkende gebieden bleek te manifesteren. Vooral het toegenomen gebruik van virtuele valuta stemde de wetgever bezorgd. Vanwege het anonieme karakter van veel virtuele valuta lenen deze zich immers bij uitstek voor witwaspraktijken. Om witwassen en terrorismefinanciering het hoofd te bieden is daarom de registratieplicht voor cryptodienstverleners in het leven geroepen. Geen registratie betekent dat cryptodienstverlening in of vanuit Nederland niet is toegestaan.

Voor bestaande partijen is een overgangsperiode van zes maanden ingesteld, maar uiterlijk 21 november 2020 moeten ook zij het registratietraject succesvol hebben afgerond.

Hoe gaat registratie in zijn werk?

Voor een succesvolle registratie moeten cryptodienstverleners bij DNB aantonen dat zij er een beheerste en integere bedrijfsvoering op na houden. Het voldoen aan de gestelde voorwaarden vergt nogal wat van een onderneming. Zo moeten cryptoaanbieders een set aan procedures en beleidsstukken overleggen waaruit bijvoorbeeld blijkt hoe onderkende integriteitsrisico’s zijn ondervangen en op wat voor manier het cliëntenonderzoek is vormgegeven en ingericht. Ook dient de organisatiestructuur adequaat te zijn opgezet, waarbij onder een onafhankelijke compliancefunctie aanwezig dient te zijn. Naast de genoemde organisatorische vereisten is ook een toetsing van de bestuurders en aandeelhouders verplicht ten aanzien van geschiktheid en betrouwbaarheid.

Zowel op administratief gebied als voor de praktische organisatieinrichting heeft de registratieplicht dus een grote impact. Indien DNB overtuigd is dat de cryptoaanbieder volledig voldoet aan alle registratievereisten schrijft DNB de cryptodienstverlener bij in het openbare register van cryptodienstverleners.

Piece of cake?

Nou, niet bepaald. Hoewel het niet gaat om een vergunningsaanvraag maar ‘slechts’ om een registratieaanvraag zijn de voorwaarden waaraan een cryptodienstverlener moet voldoen geen sinecure. Witwasbestrijding is dan ook een serieuze zaak.

Flink obstakel

De bijkomende administratieve, organisatorische lasten en compliance-inspanningen vormen dan ook voor menige marktpartij een flink obstakel. Bovendien ervaren de cryptodienstverleners de verwachte doorlopende toezichtskosten als hoog. De registratieplicht heeft de afgelopen periode dan ook al de nodige reuring teweeggebracht in het cryptodomein. Een aantal partijen heeft de ontwikkelingen niet afgewacht en is gestopt of vertrokken naar landen waar het toezichtsregime een stuk gematigder is ingericht. Zo staakte BitKassa per 19 mei de dienstverlening en vertrok cryptobeurs Deribit onlangs naar Panama. De consequentie van een vertrek uit de EU is wel dat cryptodienstverlening hier niet is toegestaan.

Gedegen kwaliteit

Hoewel de vereisten voor registratie in Nederland niet licht zijn, impliceert een inschrijving als cryptodienstverlener wel dat de bedrijfsprocessen van de geregistreerde partij van een gedegen kwaliteit zijn. Dit schept vertrouwen bij klanten en leveranciers en voor veel organisaties is dat een belangrijke reden om toch in Nederland voor een registratie te opteren. 

Vooralsnog onzeker

Voorlopige schattingen van het ministerie en DNB gingen uit van ongeveer 75 registratieverzoeken. Hoeveel van deze aanvragen daadwerkelijk zullen worden gehonoreerd is vooralsnog onzeker. Ter voorbereiding heeft DNB guidance afgegeven die de kans op een succesvolle registratie aanzienlijk vergroten. De komende maanden zullen duidelijk maken welke cryptodienstverleners daadwerkelijk door DNB worden bijgeschreven in het register. Dan wordt ook beter inzichtelijk in hoeverre de registratieplicht het bestaande Nederlandse cryptolandschap wijzigt.

 

Geert Blom

Senior Consultant at Enigma Consulting