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!

 

Identity fraud, COVID-19 and the Pivotal role of Digital Identity

16-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Refinitiv |

Financial crime, including identity fraud, is growing as sophisticated criminals exploit the ever-expanding capabilities of emerging technology. The COVID-19 crisis has only served to increase opportunities for criminals to benefit from fear, uncertainty and desperation, but digital identity solutions offer banks and financial institutions (FIs) a chance to fight back.


Financial crime and identity fraud: fueled by the digital revolution

As digital connectivity continues to redefine every aspect of our lives, quick, seamless digital experiences have come to embody our new normal. This digital revolution is being driven by a host of interconnected factors, including a changing regulatory landscape and emerging technology that creates an environment with low barriers to entry. Other factors are also at play, including ever-increasing connectivity between entities, increased cross-border activity, and tech-savvy consumers who demand choice, fairness, flexibility, and an omnichannel experience across all areas of their lives. Consumers accustomed to digital retail experiences expect the same 24/7/365 digital experience in other areas of their lives, such as banking and wealth management. Moreover, they increasingly expect tailored, highly personalized experiences.

The result of enhanced connectivity, convenience and increased consumer engagement is a real need to protect against highly sophisticated financial criminals who are harnessing the same digital capabilities to defraud both organizations and individuals. Put simply, the technological advancements that make our lives easier can also benefit criminals, making it easier for them to commit financial crime. According to the World Economic Forum, fraud and financial crime constitute a trillion-dollar industry, and private companies spent approximately US$8.2 billion on anti-money laundering (AML) controls alone in 2017.

Refinitiv’s own research, presented in our 2019 report, Innovation and the fight against financial crime, confirms that financial crime is indeed pervasive and costly. Our findings were collated from a survey of more than 3000 managers with compliance-related responsibilities at large global organizations. We found that nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents were aware of financial crime taking place in their global operations during the 12 months preceding the survey, even though the same companies spent an average of 4% of turnover on customer and third-party due diligence checks. Looking specifically at identity fraud, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has revealed that synthetic identity fraud – where criminals manufacture a new identity using both legitimate and false information – is the fastest growing crime in the U.S.2

COVID-19 has upped the ant

Following the rapid spread of the epidemic , financial crime has accelerated as criminals have found new opportunities to exploit fear, uncertainty and desperation. The FBI provides various innovative examples relating to how criminals are using COVID-19 to defraud individuals, including government impersonators who aim to extract personal information for illegal purposes. And work-from-home fraud, in which victims are asked to send or move money, effectively becoming money mules and enabling criminals.

Forward-thinking banks and FIs are already beginning to accelerate their existing digital transformation programs to mitigate the higher levels of risk anticipated during and after the pandemic. In particular, we expect a significant uptick in the use of digital onboarding and digital identity solutions as more consumers are forced to transact online as a result of lockdown and social distancing requirements; choose to do so for fear of contracting or spreading the virus; and/or are seeking better security when asked to prove their identity.

Even before the pandemic, many firms were increasingly using digital innovation to fight financial crime, including digital identity solutions in the client identification space. Digital identity solutions offer fast, reliable digital identity verification and screening; transcend geographies; boost operational efficiency; and remove the human error factor. Moreover, digital identity helps financial institutions optimize compliance models, improve risk mitigation and protect customers from identity fraud. As the world grapples with the effects of the pandemic, banks and FIs have a real and immediate opportunity to review their systems and controls, while simultaneously accelerating digital transformation and moving away from old-school manual Know Your Customer (KYC) processes.

The far-reaching effects of identity theft

Organizations across the financial services industry are facing a range of common challenges, including rising competition, tightening margins, strict regulatory expectations, the need for greater operational efficiency, and pressure to reduce costs. There is the added fundamental requirement to ensure that the client experience is positive. Customer abandonment levels remain unacceptably high, with over half (56%) of consumers in the UK abandoning bank applications in 2018. Our research suggests that traditional KYC and due diligence processes – which can be time-consuming, inefficient and costly – have contributed to this.

While firms are increasingly aware of the need to ensure better experiences for clients, they also need to consider the ever-growing security threats such as large-scale data breaches, phishing and social engineering attacks. These crimes have made it easier for fraudsters to assume the identities of legitimate account owners via account takeover fraud. The impact of identity fraud is far-reaching, with victims experiencing both financial and psychological damage that can severely impact their behavior and future brand loyalty.

There is therefore an urgent need for banks and FIs to prioritize customer identity protection alongside the accepted need to ensure a positive experience. Many banks and FIs are not moving fast enough to address this issue – and need to become more aware of the wider social risks of identity fraud.

On a more positive note, a highly encouraging finding from our survey was that technology, including digital identity solutions, is increasingly able to help organizations fight back against financial crime while improving client relationships. A significant 94% of survey respondents agreed that the technology they use to detect financial crime is also enhancing customer engagement.

Digital identity: who can benefit?

Digital identity solutions continue to grow in popularity and offer numerous benefits to different industry participants, including retail banks and wealth managers.

Retail Banking

Retail banks, for example, can benefit from enhanced speed, efficiency and security when using digital onboarding and digital identity solutions during customer account opening, where it is necessary to verify and prove the identity of new customers who apply for new bank products and services. Digital identity is also invaluable for customer re-verification and authentication in instances where existing customers seek to make changes to their personal information.

Wealth management

Turning specifically to the wealth industry, the benefits are equally clear. The wealth arena is operating against a backdrop of unprecedented uncertainty as wealth transfer from baby boomers to millennials brings far-reaching changes to business models, in line with the expectation that a new generation requires new strategies and alternative data.

We commissioned research from global research and advisory firm Aite Group, which collated the findings from executive interviews with leading wealth management firms around the globe. The research found that 100% of respondents consider wealth transfer to be one of their top-three concerns. This report also revealed that financial advisors are becoming less product-focused and more relationship-oriented. As the wealth industry continues to shift away from products and towards services, the role of financial planning is taking center stage in the client/advisor relationship. Advisors are increasingly shifting focus from administrative duties and investment selection to client service. Digital identities can enable the shift of work from financial advisor to less expensive parts of the value chain, enabling them to concentrate on areas of added value.

A strong belief in technology

Our research shows that firms overwhelmingly believe in the power of technology in the fight against corruption: 97% of all respondents in our innovation survey said that technology can significantly help with financial crime prevention. There are of course still challenges in adopting digital solutions – nearly three-quarters (73%) reported concerns or obstacles when harnessing technological advancements to reduce risks and costs.

Respondents revealed that only about half (51%) of the data and legal documentation needed to carry out due diligence is obtained, but creating more difficulties, only 54% of this is in a digitized format. While remedies will take time, the digitization outlook is positive with 60% of organizations prioritizing automation and digitization for investment. Respondents indicated that spending on customer and third-party due diligence checks was expected to increase by 51% in the year following the survey, with technology being the biggest investment area. This data was gathered prior to the onset of COVID-19 and is expected to accelerate further as a result.

Digital identity solutions deliver diverse benefits

Digital identity solutions tick many boxes, including:

  • Faster turnaround times. Using digital identity accelerates the pace of business, benefits all stakeholders, and means that banks and FIs can onboard and service more customers, more efficiently.
  • Improved accuracy. Human error is unavoidable in manual identity procedures, but digital equivalents reduce manual keying errors, ultimately leading to better compliance.
  • Better security. Old school security features, including passwords and knowledge-based authentication (KBA), not only cause high levels of frustration among clients, but are also often unsecure.
  • More streamlined operational costs. Digital identity solutions boost efficiency levels, leading to more optimal deployment of resources and cost savings.
  • A more favorable customer experience. Faster turnaround times, fewer touch points and a seamless digital experience all contribute to higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Refinitiv’s digital identification and verification solution, Qual-ID delivers in each of these areas. Built specifically for FIs, Qual-ID enables secure, digital identity verification and screening to boost compliance team efficiency. The solution focuses exclusively on consumer identity. Qual-ID helps with identity verification, document verification, enables anti-impersonation checks to be performed in a variety of robust yet consumer friendly ways.Qual-ID also leverages our market-leading World-Check Risk Intelligence Database to enable screening for financial crime risk within the same solution.

World-Check delivers accurate and reliable information compiled by hundreds of specialist researchers and analysts across the globe, adhering to the most stringent research guidelines as they collate information from reliable and reputable sources, including watch lists, government records and media searches. Incorporating World-Check capabilities into Qual-ID means that customers can verify identity against trusted sources, proof legal documents and screen for regulatory and financial risk – all in one transaction, via one API.
This unique combination of elements delivers a holistic digital identity and screening solution that assists our clients to comply with their legal and regulatory requirements at the time of onboarding.

Technology’s significant and tangible impact

Only 53% of respondents in our innovation survey confirmed that they conduct KYC checks on client identity during onboarding but worse still, only 46% of these checks are considered successful. While these figures are alarmingly low, our research did reveal that those organizations that use technology are almost twice as successful at performing KYC checks on client identity (47%) as their counterparts who don’t use technology (28%). These findings are a clear indication of the significant, tangible impact that the right technology can have in the client identity space, and ultimately in thwarting financial crime.

What is certain is that the digital transformation will continue to gather momentum – digital commerce is expected to grow globally at more than a 20% CAGR by 2022, reaching nearly US5.8 trillion in value. Alongside this growth, another certainty is that sophisticated criminals will continue to exploit emerging technology to advance their illicit activity, both now and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Forward-thinking banks and FIs must therefore harness the power of the best available technology and solutions to prevent financial crime and protect their customers – and digital identity solutions offer an immediate opportunity for success in this critical area.

Partner Interview Nomentia | Best-of-breed cash & treasury management solutions

10-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Nomentia |

It has been a crazy year for OpusCapita with a lot of positive changes. OpusCapita recently joined forces with Analyste and merged into Nomentia.

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

AN INTRODUCTION TO…

 

Meet Jukka Sallinen , Deputy CEO at Nomentia.

Jukka is a cash management domain expert with a strong hands-on background from international and complex payment factory and SWIFT projects. Previously Jukka had been working in various R&D roles, focusing on bank and ERP integrations and security topics.

” We are the bridge between finance and treasury ”

 

 

We asked him 9 questions. Let’s go!

INTERVIEW

1. Nomentia, what is the core business and what is its mission??

Our vision is to create solutions that make the life of modern CFO’s and Treasurers easier. We provide best-of-breed cash and treasury solutions that are the bridge between Finance and Treasury. Best-of-breed means that we focus on challenges that matter for modern CFO’s and treasurers to stay ahead of the curve and help their business to prosper.

We solve the challenges that professionals face in their daily work:

End-to-end & total visibility of cash flows is ever important. By visibility we of course mean visibility to cash flows, bank accounts, payments and future cash flows. But today, visibility is also more and more a risk & compliance related challenge. To whom I am going to pay? How do I mitigate the risk of fraud? Another visibility challenge is the whole topic of working capital where cash & liquidity forecasting & analytics solutions will play a role.

While visibility could be classified as internal challenge an example of external challenge Treasurers are facing is financial crime which is globally a trillion-dollar industry. Payment fraud and cybercrime faced by corporates remains significant and growing problem. To fight back corporates are mitigating these risks by harmonizing bank connectivity & payments into a centralized payment hub.

Finally, finance organizations seeking for return of investments from their Treasury or Finance solutions typically look increasing automation and efficiency in financial processes. Automating & harmonizing bank statement processing and accounts receivable reconciliation (automatic matching) holds typically largest savings potential.

By focusing on these challenges that matter to modern CFO and Treasurers, Nomentia is different. Monolithic finance and treasury systems are not quick and flexible enough to face the challenges of today and thus remain largely un-used.

2. OpusCapita recently formed a new company together with Analyste. What was the main reason for this? 

There is a growing need for choosing best-of-breed cloud solutions to solve particular business challenges today’s organizations are facing, which cannot be addressed by traditional monolithic tools. And treasury and finance organizations are no different. We are in a journey to create a leading cloud native cash management company as one.

3. What constitutes this Nordic powerhouse?

We took the best practices of both companies and combined them into one integrated solution for Finance and Treasury professionals. Nowadays, companies need multiple tools and systems. Is anyone convinced that the trend would go backwards? I mean look at your mobile phone. More apps keep coming and we as consumers add more. As business consumers we don’t want to be different, right?

A modern company needs a sales and customer relationship management, marketing automation tools, billing systems, project management tools, HR systems and various business solutions – and Finance & Treasury are no different. Often at some point we fall into the trap of looking for one platform to solve all challenges. But there never will be one, because we cannot possibly know everything a platform needs to solve to adapt in changing business environment. You end up using only small fraction of such monolithic platform with a very high price tag or building very customized solutions.

4.You talk about best-of-breed, what does it mean and what is the customer benefit?

Now, what does this mean for treasury and cash? A one-for-all solution would be a single solution to solve all your finance & treasury & cash management issues. That at least used to be sort of IT’s dream come true. One can clearly see benefits such as having less systems to integrate or less business partners to deal with. Also, commonly heard argument is to claim you would have “all the data at your hand in one place” which often shrinks into a mere sales argument.

While choosing best-of-breed companies can build network of integrated products and solutions. Benefits are often ones like paying and implementing only what you really need, much quicker implementation time and thus quick payback time, more standard features and no customization and vendor locking. Even the integration – a classical tarpit in IT projects – is often surprisingly simple because best of breed providers works very well together

Treasury or Finance is not an island. It is not the treasury that really is changing but the world around it. How companies are purchasing goods, sales are becoming digital, buying journey shifting to marketplaces and technology and software connecting everyone and concerning almost any business will sure keep changing the work that needs to be done by Treasury and Finance teams. Our claim is that networks and best-of-breed is more adapted to change.

5. How does the customer journey look like from start till end? And how long does a project take?

This really depends on the customers and their needs and how their internal processes look as well. We adjust to our customers’ needs.

6. Can you give us an outlook on the product developments that are scheduled?

The most important achievement is that we’ve now released our first versions from next generation Nomentia products that are based on a modern cloud architecture. We have been working on for the last four to five years to come up with the next generation – which is by the way already fifth generation if we look how our products have evolved from 80’s. Our customers should expect a whole new user experience from all our applications as many modules have not only got a completely new front end in HTML5 but a backend and business logic as well.

One of the new developments our customers should be looking carefully is that we are bringing better productized analytics capabilities to our next generation product as we speak. With analytics capabilities we mean payment behavior analytics and statistics, performance analysis and working capital related key performance indicators.

7. What has been your best experience in your career at OpusCapita, now Nomentia?

Next spring shall mark me already fifteen years in the company. Both OpusCapita and Analyste had gone such an exciting journey first as an independent company and then as part of larger enterprises, and finally again independent but together. It’s hard for me to rank all the memories I’ve collected with such a fantastic team and individuals that have participated into this journey. However, I still do remember with warmth some of the early development projects that helped us to become more international, such as joining to SWIFT Lite 2 program as global early adopters in 2013. And of course, winning the hearts of first global customers for the new service back then.

I’ve always got inspiration from challenging projects, working with new technology, and working to productize something that no one has done before. I feel that our employees at Nomentia are in a privileged position, since we work with such an exciting customer base and deliver software for so critical processes.

8. What has been the biggest success story of OpusCapita, now Nomentia, so far?

Although both Analyste and OpusCapita  have their roots in early 80’s we’re truly living the moments of biggest success right now. The company has never been filled with such a talented people, have such great solutions, and finally a market position to grow and create a European (or rather global) Fintech success story.

9. The year is 2025, what have been the OpusCapita/Nomentia successes over the last years?

The world of CFO and Treasurer is changing probably faster than never. Our five-year plan is obviously to grow significantly, which means double-digit revenue growth year-on-year. Much of our growth comes from international markets where I would expect us to cement our positions in several new markets as a viable and market leading choice of a modern CFO.

We will be significantly larger and stronger European Fintech company than we are today. When it comes to successes, I believe it is all about the journey rather than single events. We must work hard every day to win our customers hearts, and to have an atmosphere where employees find it exciting to wake up every Monday and be a part of our success story. Work hard, learn something new every day, and do it with a smile, and the journey will reward you.

 

treasuryXL announces collaboration with Treasury Delta

| 5-11-2020 | treasuryXL | Treasury Delta | VENLO, The Netherlands, November 5, 2020 – treasuryXL, the community platform for everyone who is active in the world of treasury, and Treasury Delta, an Irish FinTech company, which has brought to market an innovative platform that uses digital technology to connect companies, banks and treasury management […]

Read more

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:

Partner Interview Series | The deeper dive with Treasury Intelligence Solutions (TIS)

03-11-2020 | treasuryXL | TIS |

2020 is a special year in so many ways. For our partner TIS it has been a great year with an expansion of the BENELUX team and a realisation of a double digit growth.

In this interview we will take the deeper dive with TIS Benelux. What have been the greatest successes in the BENELUX? What are the biggest changes in this market? How do you see the future of corporate payments?

TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH), founded in Walldorf, Germany in 2010, is a global leader in managing corporate payments. The Financial Times named TIS as one of “Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies” for 2019 and 2020. Offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the TIS solution is a comprehensive, highly-scalable, cloud platform for company-wide payments and cash management.

AN INTRODUCTION TO

Meet Aderito Duarte, Sales Executive at TIS and responsible for new business in the BENELUX region.

Aderito has spent over 10 years in the SaaS industry working for different vendors in various sales (leadership) roles, both in local and international markets. He is an ambitious sales professional with a record of over-achievement and demonstrated success in a highly competitive market.

He has a strong background in new business sales and relationship building. Performance, development and contribution are the key words that drive his career and enable him to mobilize the team, partners, clients and prospects.

We asked him 7 questions. Let’s go!

INTERVIEW

1. What is your background and why did you decide to join TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions)?

For very long time I worked as a sales executive for large organizations like ADP, Oracle and SAP.  Then I decided it was time for something different, something more agile and more entrepreneurial. At TIS I can act as a true entrepreneur and always put my customers first. I contribute to my customers’ success while having fun and developing myself together with other colleagues from the Benelux Team. I cannot wish for more.

2. Tell us briefly about TIS, its solution and the most important benefits for your customers.

TIS was founded in 2010 in Walldorf, Germany. Its core offering is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service platform for corporate payments and cash management. Currently there are about 180 colleagues working from six offices globally including Germany, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and USA. The TIS solution has been successfully used for many years in both large and medium-sized companies, including Adecco Group, Hugo Boss, Fresenius, Fugro, LANXESS, OSRAM and QIAGEN. More than 25% of DAX companies are already TIS customers. Working with TIS allows customers to significantly reduce cost and manual effort in their payment processes. The risk of manual errors can be mitigated, and treasury teams are freed up to direct their attention to more strategic and value-adding tasks. The TIS platform creates an end-to-end payment experience by connecting to virtually any ERP system and any bank with an extensive payment format library. Instead of a plethora of different E-banking tools, all payments can be made securely through one platform, anytime, anywhere. With such consolidation of payments and accounts information, the clients can have a centralized overview of real-time cash visibility.

3. What have been your greatest successes in BENELUX?

Looking at 2020, a year full of challenges for us all, I am very proud that we will realize double digit growth.  Next to that we are building a diverse team with different competences and skills to serve our customers’ needs. Another important aspect to the TIS Benelux success is the strong partner community we are building to support our customers in the region. For example, recently we formed a new partnership with Cashforce and extended our partnership with Orchard Finance.  Above all these achievements, the feedback we receive from customers in the Benelux explains why we received the 2019 TMI award for outstanding customer experience. For example, Simon Karregat, Group Treasurer at Fugro NV says: “With TIS, we have a central overview of worldwide payments, and now just use one platform instead of different banking tools. This enables us to embed our payment transactions within our ERP landscape and realize straight-through processing.” It is always our top priority to generate true business value for our clients.

4. What in your opinion are some of the biggest changes in this market in BENELUX?

Recently we have received many questions from both Treasurers and IT professionals concerning the digitalization or streamlining of the corporate payment process in the big context of the S/4HANA migration. When it comes to SAP (ECC) ERP migration to SAP S/4HANA, there have been a lot of initiatives in the organizations to guarantee a smooth and on-schedule move. The area of corporate payments is a critical part in this migration due to its impact on the group-wide business continuity. It is important to understand customers current needs and determine the appropriate S/4HANA migration scenarios. For that, TIS has published a Whitepaper to help our customers understand the complexity of such migration and the importance of choosing specialist vendors such as TIS in order to maximize the win with SAP S/4HANA.

Another trend we see is, people are working more from home and need the right tools to manage payments, location independently, which potentially increases the risk of fraud. Our view is that payment security is a much broader topic than just payment fraud. Therefore, payment fraud prevention or detection can only be a meaningful exercise when it is an integral part of a company’s overall payment security strategy. While it is not necessary to centralize all the actual payments’ process to prevent fraud, it is key to bring all functions and information together using a single payments’ gateway. Here you can read more how the TIS platform supports our customers to protect their organizations from payment fraud.

5. The world is changing rapidly especially in financial services, how does TIS stay one step ahead of its competitors?

Our solutions are based on a deep understanding of the market, the customer’s needs and our continuously updated vision for the future. Ten years ago, when TIS was founded, there was almost no bank-agnostic payments platform that allowed Treasurers to manage all accounts, transactions, and balances from one platform. Treasurers lacked transparency and cash visibility to make informed decisions. In-house solutions were expensive and time-consuming to develop. Joerg Wiemer, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of TIS, was then the SVP and Head of Global Treasury at SAP. He knew the problem inside and out because he was living that problem every day. When the company was founded, the market was still skeptical about using a cloud solution for payments. However, Joerg and Erol Bozak (cofounder and Chief Product Officer of TIS) believed that cloud was the answer to corporate payments and cash management with its high scalability, fast roll-out and a centralized overview regardless of the complexity of a company’s payments landscape. As many treasury teams all over the world are working from home nowadays, a cloud-based payments platform has been proven to be a blessing to our customers who have confirmed to us that they did not have to make significant changes to their payments processes. Meanwhile TIS continuously grows its payment format library, connects to more banks worldwide, and invests heavily in adding meaningful innovations to the platform.

6. In 5 years from now, how will TIS look like?

In 2019 and 2020, two years in a row TIS has been named by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s fastest growing companies. In 2019, the total payment transaction volume of the company was more than that of PayPal. We believe that the demand for agile, flexible and scalable cloud-based payments platform will only grow. This year May, TIS received $20 million additional funding from renowned technology venture funds. We are planning to use this funding to accelerate product development and to further scale operations in Europe and in the US, in order to meet growing international demand. It is hard to predict the future, but I would say in five years from now, TIS will grow its footprint in more regions and it will play a much bigger role in the ecosystem beyond corporate payments.

7. What is TIS’ vision for the future of corporate payments?

Rather than one-stop finance solutions, the future of corporate payments lies in Best-of-Breed solutions. We can observe this trend in the consumer market, where consumers expect to pick and choose from solutions that best meet their needs. In corporate payments, this is still a fairly new concept, however, one with great promise. Corporates get the best products and services in the market that are enabled through APIs, most importantly, that fit best to their specific corporate needs. This new Best-of-Breed ecosystem will also allow corporates to share data more easily with their business partners, helping them achieve better information sharing and service offering.

If you want to learn how TIS can help you gain cash visibility and full control over your payments, please reach out to me via [email protected] or request a demo at www.tis.biz/en.

What is a forward exchange contract? (Dutch item)

| 21-10-2020 | Erna Erkens | treasuryXL |

Een valutatermijncontract is een contract tussen twee partijen met een valutadatum in de toekomst (bijv. 1,2,3 6 of 12 maanden), maar waar u nu de valutakoers voor afspreekt. Die staat dus vast.

Ongeacht hoe de koers beweegt tijdens de looptijd van uw termijncontract. U weet precies waar u aan toe bent. Het is één van de manieren om uw bedrijf te beschermen tegen een valuta- / wisselkoersrisico.

Als u internationaal handelt en u gaat een bedrag in een vreemde valuta ontvangen of betalen, dan kan dit  valutarisico’s met zich meebrengen. Doordat de valuta- / wisselkoersen veranderen kan uw resultaat worden beïnvloed. Dit kan positief maar ook negatief zijn. Een valutatermijncontract is een manier om dit risico beperken.

Een valutatermijncontract kan voor u dus interessant zijn als u nu al weet dat u in de toekomst een bedrag in vreemde valuta moet betalen of gaat ontvangen. Maar als de wisselkoers op de afgesproken datum gunstiger is dan op het moment dat u het termijncontract heeft afgesproken profiteert u daar niet van. Daar tegen over staat, dat als de koers veel slechter geworden is in de tussenliggende periode kost u dat ook geen geld.

U moet er wel zeker van zijn dat u het bedrag in de vreemde valuta moet betalen of ontvangen. U gaat immers een contract aan en u bent verplicht om de afgesproken hoeveelheid vreemde valuta te kopen of verkopen op de afgesproken datum. Ook als uw internationale overeenkomst niet door gaat. Een valutatermijncontract is geen geschikt instrument als u nog in het offertestadium zit met de andere partij. Als de opdracht toch niet doorgaat,
kunt u het valutatermijncontract namelijk niet meer zonder kosten beëindigen. Tijdens een offerte periode kan een valuta optie een oplossing zijn.

Voordelen van een valutatermijncontract

Het afsluiten van een valutatermijncontract brengt een aantal voordelen met zich mee.

  • U bent beschermt tegen ongunstige koersontwikkelingen voor het afgesproken bedrag en de afgesproken looptijd.
  • U heeft duidelijkheid en zekerheid over de kosten of de opbrengsten in Euro’s.

Wat spreekt u af in een valutatermijncontract?

U sluit een overeenkomst met een andere partij, meestal uw bank of een valutabroker, waarin u afspreekt:

  • Welke valuta u wilt kopen en welke valuta u wilt verkopen.
  • De looptijd van de transactie. Dus per welke datum u de aan-/verkoop wilt doen. De datum heet in het contract de valutadatum.
  • De wisselkoers waarop u de transactie wilt afsluiten. De vastgelegde wisselkoers wordt de termijnkoers genoemd.

Wat kost het afsluiten van een valutatermijncontract?

ls u een valutatermijncontract afsluit hoeft u hiervoor geen kosten te betalen. De kosten zijn al verwerkt in de wisselkoers (marge) en er zijn verder geen andere kosten. Als u de zaak doet bij een valutabroker moet u nog een (meestal kleine) vergoeding betalen voor de betaling van de bedragen en misschien ook voor de ontvangsten op de rekening van de broker. Bij de bank gaat het op de vreemde valuta rekening en daar zijn verder geen kosten aan
verbonden. Voor de eventuele betaling moet u ook wel transactiekosten betalen maar deze vallen niet onder de kosten van het termijncontract.

Wat als u het valutatermijncontract toch tussentijds wilt beëindigen?

Het is tijdens de looptijd niet mogelijk om de overeenkomst kosteloos te beëindigen. Het is wel mogelijk om nog een valutatermijncontract af te sluiten, maar dan tegengesteld. In dit contract worden dezelfde bedragen en
valuta opgenomen, alleen tegen de huidige wisselkoers. In de nieuwe wisselkoers zijn dan weer de kosten (marge) voor de bank opgenomen. Op de afgesproken valutadatum worden dan beide valutatermijntransacties afgewikkeld op de rekening. Wat overblijft is het verschil in geld tussen de 2 koersen van de twee valutatermijncontracten. Er blijft dan dus een resultaat over. Dat kan voor- of nadelig zijn.

Wat gebeurt er als u de valuta later moet betalen of later ontvangt?

Als door omstandigheden de datum van betaling of ontvangst uit de originele overeenkomst verschuift, kunt u het valutatermijncontract verschuiven door gebruik te maken van een valutaswap. Wilt u hier mee over
weten, mail mij dan op [email protected].

Hoe werkt het in de praktijk: een voorbeeld van een valutatermijncontract

Er is een bedrijf Cool Fashion BV. Cool Fashion BV zit in het hogere segment van de herenmode. Cool Fashion BV laat voor het eerst een deel van de collectie produceren in China. De afspraken zijn gemaakt en kleding is over 6 maanden in de haven van Rotterdam. Het gaat om een levering van USD 250.000. Op het moment dat beide partijen akkoord zijn, is de EUR/USD koers 1.1250. De Chinese producent wil in USD betaald worden. Deze USD moeten worden
aangekocht door Cool Fashion BV. De betaling gaat in 2 keer. USD 125.000 na 3 maanden en USD 125.000 als de kleding in Rotterdam aankomt, dus over 6 maanden. Cool Fashion BV heeft als calculatiekoers aangehouden 1.1000 in de boekhouding.

Cool Fashion BV kan wachten met de aankoop van de USD tot de datum van de betaling. Dus over 3 maanden USD 125.000 kopen en over 6 maanden weer USD 125.000. De kans is heel groot dat de EUR/USD koers tussendoor flink beweegt. Deze koersbeweging kan van grote invloed zijn op de winst op dit deel van de collectie.

Cool Fashion BV kan er voor kiezen om op het moment van het akkoord tussen Cool Fashion BV en de producent uit China de USD op termijn aan te kopen. Dat kan door een valutatermijncontract af te sluiten.

Wat is een termijncontract?

Een termijncontract is een afspraak met bijvoorbeeld een bank, waarin Cool Fashion BV nu de afspraak maakt met hun bank om nu met een looptijd van 3 maanden de eerste USD 125.000 aan te kopen met een valutadatum 3
maanden verder.

Stel het is 1 juli, dan zal Cool Fashion BV USD 125.000 per 1 oktober aankopen. De USD worden dan op 1 oktober (als dit een werkdag is) op de USD rekening geboekt en de Euro’s worden ook op 1 oktober ten laste van de Euro rekening geboekt. Bij het afsluiten van een termijncontract is het noodzakelijk om een vreemde valuta rekening te hebben, in dit geval een USD rekening.  Er moeten ook een aantal documenten w orden getekend met de bank en er moet (interne) limietruimte voor zijn. Dit is een onderdeel van de kredietpositie de klant bij de bank heeft.

Stel de actuele koers van de EUR/USD is 1.1250. Dan is op dit moment de termijnkoers over 3 maanden 0.0021 hoger. Dus is de koers per oktober 2020: 1.1250 + 0.0021 = 1.1271.

Het verschil tussen 1.1250 en 1.1271 noemen we het agio.

Er is sprake van een agio als de termijnkoers hoger is dan de  actuele koers van vandaag. De oorzaak ligt in het renteverschil tussen de 2 valuta’s in het betreffende valutapaar. In dit geval is de Euro rente lager dan de USD rente. Dit verschil was 6 maanden geleden nog veel groter. Toen was het verschil tussen de USD rente en de Euro rente veel groter. De USD rente was toen veel hoger dan nu. De FED heeft sindsdien een aantal keer de rente verlaagd door onder andere de coronacrisis.

Cool Fashion BV kan ook de 2e USD 125.000 per 1 januari 2021 (6 maanden) aankopen met een termijncontract. De koers van vandaag is 1.1250 het agio voor 6 maanden is 0.0045 punten.

Dus dan is de termijnkoers 1.1250 + 0.0045 = 1.1295.

Dit is als u koper bent van USD en dus verkoper van de EUR een voordeel. Als u verkoper bent van de USD en koper van de EUR, dan is dat voor u een nadeel. De aankoop van de Euro’s wordt duurder.

Het misverstand over termijnkoersen

Dagelijks heb ik contact met medewerkers van bedrijven, die internationaal handelen. Een bedrijf, wat internationaal handelt en een valutarisico heeft, krijgt vaak te maken met de termijncontracten. In een termijncontract staat de termijnkoers.

Een veelvoorkomend misverstand is, dat mensen denken dat als de termijnkoers hoger is dan de huidige koers, dit komt doordat de verwachting is dat de koers zal gaan stijgen. Dit is een misverstand.

De hoogte van de termijnkoers is niet afhankelijk van de verwachting van de koers, maar van het verschil van de rentestanden van de 2 muntsoorten in de valutakoers over de periode van het termijncontract.  De termijnkoers is afhankelijk van het renteverschil tussen de 2 valuta van het valutapaar. We nemen als voorbeeld de
EUR/USD koers. De EUR rente is lager dan de USD rente. Dat zorgt ervoor dat de EUR/USD koers op termijn hoger is dan de koers van vandaag. Dat betekent dat als u koper bent van USD en verkoper van EUR de USD op termijn goedkoper wordt.

Hieronder vindt u wat dit op 3, 6 en 12 maanden voor u uitmaakt.

We gaan van een actuele EUR/USD koers uit van 1.1250

Wanneer u EUR/USD verkoopt en dus USD koopt op 3 maanden is de koers 1.1271
Dat is over USD 1.000.000 EUR 1.656.17 meer opbrengst

Verkoopt u EUR/USD en dus USD koopt op 6 maanden is de koers 1.1295
Dat is over USD 1.000.000 EUR 3.541.39 meer opbrengst

Verkoopt u EUR/USD  en dus USD koopt op 12 maanden is de koers 1.1345
Dat is over USD 1.000.000 EUR 7.443.32 meer opbrengst.

Dus als u koper bent van USD en verkoper van Euro’s werkt de termijnkoers in uw voordeel. Als u verkoper bent van USD en dus koper van EUR werkt dit helaas in uw nadeel. Dit zegt overigens helemaal niets over het nut van het wel of niet aan- of verkopen op termijn. Het is wel iets om rekening mee te houden bij bijvoorbeeld de calculatiekoers die u berekend. Zeker als u verkoper bent van USD en koper van USD. Dan heeft u minder opbrengst in Euro’s.

Een valutatermijncontract is een complex financieel product. Laat u daarom altijd goed informeren door een financieel expert voordat u een valutatermijncontract afsluit.

Erna Erkens

 

 

Erna Erkens

Owner at Erna Erkens Valuta Advies (EEVA)


Bron

Technology in 2024: Is your trading desk ready?

20-10-2020 | treasuryXL | Refinitiv |

Traders around the world find themselves having to adapt quickly to AI and emerging technologies, the move to automation, and the need to demonstrate best execution.

To understand what this means for the future, Refinitiv teamed up with Greenwich Associates to produce a three-part series called ‘The Future of Trading’.

In our first report, we found broad consensus (78%) that technology has created better and more efficient financial markets.  However, opinions vary on what will bring the greatest future impact—and how soon.

AI and machine learning are widely expected to be the most disruptive. Beyond that, perspectives are split: traders are looking for immediate impact from execution management systems (EMS) and from short and longer term investment in trade performance analytics. Across capital markets, though, the focus is firmly on long-term, strategic and defensive cybersecurity and real-time risk management solutions.

Access full report

Sign up for The Dutch Top 100 Credit Managers

19-10-2020 | treasuryXL |

De Vereniging Voor Credit Management (VVCM) start met het samenstellen van een Top 100 Credit Managers in Nederland. Heb jij als credit manager bijzondere projectresultaten behaald? Of ken je iemand anders die in deze lijst niet mag ontbreken? Lees dan verder…

Over de VVCM Credit Managers Top 100

De VVCM Credit Managers Top 100 zet jouw succes in de schijnwerpers. Deelname aan deze competitie kan jou helpen om de groeiambities van jouw bedrijf verder waar te maken, of je eigen carrière een boost te geven. Een nominatie levert ook contacten met andere koplopers en ingangen in het netwerk van de VVCM op.

De VVCM hecht veel waarde aan de professionalisering van het vakgebied Credit Management in het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven. Welke bijdrage lever jij hieraan? Heb je je workflow gedigitaliseerd of geautomatiseerd, maak je gebruik van innovatieve tools, heb je hick-ups in het order-to-cash proces op weten te sporen en geëlimineerd, heb je het bedrijfsresultaat geoptimaliseerd, het topmanagement van strategisch advies voorzien? Meld je aan!

Hoe werkt deelname?

Zoals elke wedstrijd kent de VVCM Credit Managers Top 100 spelregels. Bijvoorbeeld over wanneer je voldoet aan de criteria. Dat is eigenlijk al als je in een credit management functie werkzaam bent en leiding geeft aan een team. Het maakt niet uit wat je officiële functietitel is, of je lid bent van de VVCM of niet en welke sector je vertegenwoordigd. Iedereen is welkom voor deelname!

We zijn op zoek naar bijzondere, baanbrekende, laterale, innovatieve, verrassende initiatieven die een significant, aantoonbaar positief effect hebben gehad op de kwaliteit van creditmanagement. Beoordeling vindt plaats via expertpanels. Deze (externe) deskundigen beoordelen de inzendingen binnen hun vakgebied. Zij bepalen volgens dezelfde criteria de uiteindelijke volgorde en wie zich 1 jaar lang in de Credit Managers Top 100 kan profileren.

Wat mag je verder verwachten?

De VVCM wil jou graag helpen om een volgende stap te zetten. Dit doen we door:

  • De mogelijkheid om inspirerende blogs en vlogs de publiceren
  • De mogelijkheid tot het geven van een gastcollege of kennissessie
  • Een online event en aandacht via social media
  • Contacten met andere prominenten en partners

In de afgelopen jaren zijn er al veel Credit Managers van het Jaar uitgeroepen en de variatie is groot. Overeenkomst tussen al deze credit managers is dat ze als eindverantwoordelijke betrokken zijn geweest bij een verbeterproject waarin creditmanagement een prominente rol heeft gespeeld.

MELD JE AAN

Is a Letter of Credit (L/C) a dying product?

| 13-10-2020 | Ger van Rosmalen | treasuryXL

In this blog , Ger van Rosmalen explains why you need to ask for a Transferable Letters of Credit when your bank doesn’t want to increase credit limits but even want to lower credit limits.

This blog continues in Dutch language…

Is een Letter of Credit ( L/C) een uitstervend product? Nog steeds worden wereldwijd door importeurs en exporteurs risico’s afgedekt met L/C’s. Als ik kijk naar de afgelopen jaren met het toenemende aantal bedrijven dat ik mocht helpen met het structureren van L/C deals dan ben ik ervan overtuigd dat L/C’s het bedrijfsleven nog lange tijd zullen helpen om de kloof tussen onbekende importeurs en exporteurs financieel te dichten. Ja, er zijn alternatieven en daar moeten we onze ogen niet voor sluiten maar deze zijn (nog) geen gelijkwaardige vervanging voor deze in mijn ogen uitstekende betalingsinstrumenten.

Transferable Letters of Credit

Bijzondere aandacht verdienen daarbij de Transferable Letters of Credit. Een speciale vorm van een L/C die uitkomst biedt als de bank kredietlimieten niet wil verhogen of zelfs verlaagt. Je doet bijvoorbeeld mooie deals met een prima winstmarge, maar je bank beweegt niet mee.

Stel je verkoopt een machine aan een klant, en die machine koop jij weer bij een producent. Hoe kun je een dergelijke deal structureren zonder dat het ten koste gaat van je beperkte werkkapitaal? Een Transferable L/C kan hier uitkomst bieden.  Je ontvangt een Transferable L/C van je koper voor een machine ter waarde van EUR 100.000. Je koopt de machine bij een producent voor EUR 90.000 en die vraagt zekerheid van betaling. Het L/C dat je hebt ontvangen kun je overdragen naar de producent voor EUR 90.000 die op dat moment zekerheid van betaling krijgt. Als de producent heeft geleverd zal de financiële afwikkeling als volgt plaatsvinden: de documenten voorgeschreven in het L/C worden door de producent via zijn bank bij jouw bank aangeboden. Zijn de documenten goed, dan mag de bank de inkoopfactuur vervangen door de verkoopfactuur en zal de marge op jouw rekening achterblijven.

Klinkt simpel, toch is het dat niet, want er gelden belangrijke spelregels. De in- en verkoop condities moeten naadloos op elkaar aansluiten dus inkoop in EUR dan ook verkoop in EUR, verkoop op CFR basis dan ook inkoop op CFR basis. De goederen mogen evenmin bewerking ondergaan. Hier moet je even voor gaan zitten, maar het maakt deals mogelijk die je anders misschien moet laten lopen. Hoewel het een bancair product is, bieden banken het in mijn ogen te weinig aan als alternatief voor kredietverlening. Soms omdat de bank er weinig of geen ervaring (meer) mee heeft of het niet wil doen omdat de exporteur hier niet veel ervaring mee heeft en de bank daarom een reputationeel risico denkt te lopen.

Conclusie

Met een goed onderbouwd verhaal kun je dergelijke L/C transacties heel goed gebruiken om jouw groeidoelstelling te realiseren, met comfortabele zekerheid van betaling.
Mijn advies is om expliciet te vragen om een Transferable L/C en neem niet te snel genoegen met een afwijzing.

TradelinQ Solutions kan je daar heel goed begeleiden. Neem vrijblijvend contact op voor meer informatie.

 

 

Ger van Rosmalen

Trade Finance Specialist