Tag Archive for: corporate finance

7 New Register Treasurers

| 15-10-2019 | by treasuryXL | Kendra Keydeniers

Each year a new class starts with the two year RT program at the Vrije Universiteit (VU). That means that every year we can welcome new Register Treasurer (RT) graduates into the World of Treasury.
On October 3, 2019, the VU was proud to announce that they honored 7 new Register Treasurer graduates.

The post-graduate Executive Treasury Management & Corporate Finance programme at the VU has now been running for more than 20 years. The graduated RT’s of 2019 were part of the 21st class.

The RT programme and its benefits

The programme consists of 6 modules. Treasury (Financial) Risk Management and International Cash Management are traditional treasury disciplines. Corporate Finance is part of the Corporate Financial Management and Capital Markets and Funding module. The embedding of the treasury and corporate finance function in corporate organizations is discussed in the Treasury Organization module. An overview of relevant aspects in financial law and fiscal law is given in the Financial and Fiscal Law and Regulations module.

Each module is concluded with an exam. All modules are organized in such a way to allow for sufficient preparation time for assignments and exams.

5 key main benefits of the programme:

  1. Broad perspective on the corporate treasury and finance disciplines
  2. Master level and state of the art
  3. Interactive sessions
  4. Useful career development opportunities in a different setting
  5. Get connected to the treasury community
A career boost for the RT graduates

The main objective of the programme is to teach high-level courses that boost participants’ professional skills, knowledge and expertise in Treasury Management and Corporate Finance. Graduates of the RT programme recognize opportunities for exciting developments, are able to think out of the box and contribute to in-depth discussions with senior management and board members, which will lead to new career development opportunities and boosts job satisfaction.

Take a dive into RT career stories from graduates

The VU has been delivering RT graduates successfully for a few decades. That means that there are hundreds of graduates working, most of them in corporate treasury. How do their careers look like after they graduated? treasuryXL asked some of the RT graduates about their career development and their thoughts about the RT programme. Check it out:

Graduated as a RT and ready for a new treasury challenge?

Being a RT opens doors to new challenges more easily. Are you looking for an interim or a permanent position? Do you want to work in a small business or rather prefer a big corporation? If you want to make a switch in your career and you are open for a new adventure than I would highly recommend to contact our partner Treasurer Search. Treasurer Search is a successful treasury recruitment company, founded 10 years ago with consultants that have experience in treasury recruitment up to 20 years.

Do you have any questions about the RT programme? Are you a RT who want to share your career development via an interview? Or do you have any other related questions or remarks about the RT topic? You can contact me directly via:

Kendra Keydeniers
Community & Partner Manager at treasuryXL

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to reduce your credit risk

14-10-2019 | Marco Lassche |

It is nice to sell your products at a good price. But what if you have delivered goods to your customer, and he is not able to pay? In this article we give you over 15 options, how to reduce your credit risk.

Although a company that you do business with can look very successful and credit worthy from the outside, there are many examples of unexpected bankruptcies.
Credit risk is the probability that your company incurs a financial loss as your counterparty (customer/supplier), cannot meet its contractual obligations.

In this article we give you guidance, how to control and cover your credit risk. We focus on the sales perspective, however it is also applicable on the purchases side; a prepayment to a supplier causes also credit risk.

Ways to control your credit risk:
  • Make a credit check on your counterparty before onboarding, and make sure to keep doing this during the whole relationship. Credit rating agencies like Creditsafe, Graydon, Dunn & Bradstreet make their business out of running credit checks on companies. They also have good tools (risk alerts), to follow the credit worthiness of your counterparty.
  • Transfer your credit risk and insure your counterparty risk to a credit insurer (Atradius, Euler, Coface). In case you trade with unstable countries, do not forget to insure the political risk. If insurance of your counterparty is not possible, this might be already a warning. However it can also be a just established subsidiary, being part of a bigger credit worthy parent.
  • Bank guarantee: the bank of your customer will ensure the payment if the customer is unable to.
  • Execute the exchange (payment vs. property of goods) with your counterparty at the same time or use a trustable intermediary.
Options with the bank:
–    Direct Collection
–    Letter of Credit (LC)In a direct collection as well as in a LC you handover agreed documents to the bank. The biggest difference between direct collection and Letter of Credit: In a collection the bank pays you only, when the customer paid to the bank. In an LC the bank of the buyer pays you when the agreed documents are delivered by the seller. So for goods that are not easily sold to another counterparty, we would advise to go for a LC.Other options

  • Use an escrow account of the warehouse.
    The warehouse releases the goods to the buyer, when they received the payment, and forward the payment to the seller.
  • In case of transport of the goods by ocean freight you can use the shipper to be the intermediary.
    When your sold goods are transported by sea, you can give the release to the shipper to handover the Bill of Lading (property document) to the buyer. Normally this is done after payment of the buyer.
  • Use factoring. You sell your debtor at a discount to a factoring company. Make sure that you cannot be liable for non-payment (non-recourse basis).
  • Ask for a parent guarantee if the counterparty that you trade with is part of a big parent company. This parent guarantee can also be used to get an insurance at your credit insurer.
  • Diversification. Try to limit credit exposure on one customer, one region (concentration ratio’s). Ensure that a non-payment of one not covered counterparty will not put you in any liquidity squeeze and put your company at stake.
  • Give collection responsibility to the sales team. A trader works mainly for its sales bonus. In my opinion, to be eligible for the bonus, the whole order to cash cycle should be fulfilled. What if you give already bonus to a sale, but the invoice is not paid. So give the trader also the responsibility for collection. In this way he will be more critical with onboarding his customers, agreeing on payment terms and fight for the invoice to get paid.
  • Create your own financial buffer; an umbrella for rainy days.
  • Limit the number of payment terms for your customers, and make sure that you keep them within the Terms & Conditions of insurance company.
  • Determine who within the company has the responsibility for the credit risk management and setting the credit limits. Most of the time this is a collaboration between treasury, sales and controlling team, and final responsibility at CFO.

As said, running a business hardly goes without credit risk, but there are a lot of tools that can help you to limit it to an extent that is acceptable.

Please feel free to contact me if you need any further information or assistance in setting up a framework to control your credit risk.

 

 

Marco Lassche 

Founder and Owner of at Bedrijfskostenexpert
Treasurer and Project Manager at Van Caem Klerks Group
treasuryXL Ambassador

What is Treasury? By Marco Lassche

10-10-2019 | Marco Lassche | Kendra Keydeniers

What is treasury?

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “what is Treasury?”. Many people will think about pirates and big see ships that sank deep into the bottom of the ocean including their ‘treasure’. A mystery treasure map will lead the finder to a treasure worth a lot of money. In some way Treasury and Treasure have definitely similarities, it is about money and other valuables.

Find out what Treasury is……

Treasury

Treasury or Treasury Management is the task to manage the firm’s liquidity and mitigate its financial and operational risk, with the goal to safeguard an organizations’ holdings. Let’s make this more specific. In each organization treasury tasks exist, regardless if the organization is big/small, profit/non-profit, nationally operating/ multinational. Although entrepreneurship is always bearing risk, this should be limited to a certain extent in order not to jeopardize the survival of the company. For each company this is different. For a company like Apple with a net profit margin > 20% losing 4% on its FX exposure has a much smaller impact on profitability, than for a WallMart with a net profit margin of 2-3%. In small organizations treasury is mostly done by the CFO or finance department. Bigger organizations have their own treasury departments, controlled by the CFO. In general, the bigger and more international the organization operates, the bigger and more complicated the tasks of treasury get.

3 main Treasury Categories of Tasks

Treasury management, can be divided in 3 main task categories.

  1. Cash & liquidity management (short term):
    a. This is mostly the day-to-day operations. Make sure that payments that are due are being paid in time to the correct account.
    b. Manage your bank accounts in an effective and efficient way
  2. Corporate finance (long term): How do you want to finance your company? What is the best mix for equity and debt, based on the long term scenarios for a company.
  3. Risk management (short & long term):
  • Liquidity risk: the risk that you cannot pay your bills in time (salaries, suppliers)Market Risk (or price risk) is the risk that changes in market prices (e.g. foreign exchange and interest rates), cause losses to the business;
  • Credit Risk is the risk that a counterparty default causes loss to the business;
  • Operational Risk (cyber & security, internal fraud).

Although the basic tasks for treasury remain the same over time, the content of the tasks evolves over time. Due to external factors like technology, regulations or new financial products, some tasks are less time consuming nowadays then they were in the past.

The future treasurer

A treasurer is someone who manages and oversees the treasury side of financial management of an organization. Tasks like bank selection, reconciling bank statements and managing cash flow are typical for a treasurer.

Payments these days can be automatized to a high extent, a TMS (treasury management system) can help the treasurer. However risks in cyber fraud are increasing. Also increased regulations by banks and/or government take more time of the treasurer. In the past a treasurer only went to his own bank for financing, these days there are many other options for financing or reducing financial risks. It is the task fort the treasurer to keep up-to-date with developments, and to be the consultant for the organization on treasury related subjects.

TreasuryXL.com will help you with this by following the latest trends on all aspects of treasury.

 

 

Marco Lassche 

Founder and Owner of at Bedrijfskostenexpert
Treasurer and Project Manager at Van Caem Klerks Group
treasuryXL Ambassador

The impact of PSD2 on payment transactions

| 07-10-2019 | TIS |

This September the new EU directive PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) came into force. It is an extension of the Payment Services Directive, which was intended to harmonize the rules for payment products and services. Although this amendment affects every consumer who uses online payment services, and although sufficient notice has been given in advance of the amendment, few people know what the new EU Directive is all about. For this reason, it is not uncommon for bank customers to be confronted with an account blockage after the changeover, when logging into their online bank account, which causes a lot of confusion between banks and customers. As a result, several questions arise:

  • What has changed for the customer as a result of the changeover?
  • Can the new regulation keep the promised security standards?
  • To what extent are companies – especially Treasury- affected?
What is PSD2?

PSD2 is intended to regulate payment services and payment service providers in the European Economic Area (EEA) and throughout the European Union (EU). It aims to make cashless payments more secure, customer data better protected and data transmission over the Internet more reliable. In addition to the changes for customers, who are to experience more security through increased authentication, there are also significant changes for banks. From now on, banks will be obliged to provide third party service providers with access to customers’ account information via a standardised interface (PSD2 API) if the customer gives the consent. For banks, this means that they must surrender a large part of their power of disposal. For customers, this means that they can now make all their payment transactions without having to log into their online bank account. This is convincing for the customers, because specialised fintechs are ahead of banks and offer solutions that allow all your financial transactions – even within different bank accounts – to be carried out with only one application. This is nothing  new in the world of B2B, where corporates use payment solutions with the exact same purpose for years now.

Is PSD2 safe?

A change in the conditions of payment transactions often raises the question of whether it can actually meet the promised security standards. Especially in this case, where customer information is passed on to a third-party service provider. If lacks in security arise, there is a higher risk to become a target for cybercrime, which automatically puts bank customers’ confidential account information at risk. The European Banking Supervision and BaFin are taking it very seriously. In order to make the customers’ choice for the right third-party service provider easier, they provide a directory of reliable, registered and licensed third-party service providers.

Find out what makes TIS particularly safe!
PSD2 for Treasury?

Consumers demand real-time, round-the-clock payment services and this demand is growing. This brings changes in payment transactions that have an impact on the businesses, especially on corporate treasury which looks after cashflow. Most up-to-date account information becomes more crucial for a treasurer. The new PSD2 API interfaces could help, since it enables more direct communication with the bank and access to real-time account information.

About TIS
TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH) is the leading cloud platform for managing corporate payments, liquidity and bank relationships worldwide. The company delivers SMART PAYMENTS to help customers make BETTER DECISIONS.

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

Do you want to make better decisions through real-time reporting?

| 05-09-2019 | TIS |

BETTER DECISIONS THROUGH REAL-TIME REPORTING:
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ABOUT CASH FLOWS & CASH POSITIONS

How do strategic professionals decide on the best path to success for their company? The key is in transparency and real-time reporting across company-wide cashflow and liquidity levels, bank, customer and supplier relations and working capital. When cashflow visibility is the lifeblood of your company, you want full control and knowledge. Direct access to insights on profitability and potential business risks allow users to drive better decisions based on solid business intelligence, accessible anytime and anywhere.

SCENARIO
BETTER DECISIONS: Companies now have the power of the Business Discovery Manager – a business intelligence module within the TIS cloud platform. Supplier, salary and treasury payments can be easily analyzed along with cash flows, liquidity and working capital via easy-to-use dashboards and reports. The tool, enhanced through state-of-the-art BI technology, enables users to access all strategic insights in a single, flexible, web-based and multi-bank, multi-ERP capable platform available 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world.

 

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE FACTSHEET HERE

 

About TIS
TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH) is the leading cloud platform for managing corporate payments, liquidity and bank relationships worldwide. The company delivers SMART PAYMENTS to help customers make BETTER DECISIONS.

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

 

 

Why Steven decided to explore the World of Treasury

| 02-09-2019 | by treasuryXL | Kendra Keydeniers

Steven de Klein decided to take a deeper dive into the world of treasury and started the RT program in 2014. He graduated as Register Treasurer (RT) in 2017. Before moving into treasury, he studied Business Economics in Nijmegen. His first experience in treasury was a good one, “The field of treasury is much greater than most people expect” said Steven.

Steven is Cash & Currency Manager at Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, a Dutch dredging and heavylift company. With its roots in the Netherlands, Boskalis has over 100 years’ experience in hydraulic engineering, coastal protection and land reclamation. The head office is located in Papendrecht and they have an extensive network of branches around the world. They operate in 90 countries and across six continents, with a versatile fleet of more than 900 vessels and floating equipment. Shares in the company have been listed on Euronext Amsterdam since 1971.

We asked Steven 4 questions about the RT program:

  1. What for you was the main reason to start a career in treasury?

    During my final year at the Radboud University in Nijmegen where I studied Business Economics, I started at a small advisory firm specialized in (corporate) financing. That was my first experience in treasury and it suited me well. Soon afterwards I joined a development & construction company that showed me that treasury was more than just financing and before you know it, you are a ‘treasurer’.

  2. Why did you start with the RT program?

    After working within the same company for a few years I noticed that my learning curve was leveling out. I started to investigate what treasury courses and programs where available and found that the RT program is without any doubt the best and most comprehensive treasury course available in The Netherlands.

  3. How did the education help you in your career?

    Not only did I gain a lot of new knowledge about treasury, but also about related topics such as macro-economics, fiscal law and (hedge) accounting. This helps to connect the dots a lot better when you’re back at your daily job. It also brought me a new network of people, good memories and I even think my current job at Royal Boskalis Westminster NV.

  4. Are you still in touch with your peers?

    Absolutely, during the 2-year program you built a strong relationship with your peers, since you do spend almost a full day per week with them. This is also one of the bigger benefits of the RT program in comparison to at-home studies.

We have more RT stories to share with you. Read the RT story of Bouke, Michel, Jarno, Mathieu and Richard and/or read more info about the RT program here.

The post-graduate Executive Treasury Management & Corporate Finance programme combines two finance disciplines: Treasury Management and Corporate Finance. These disciplines largely overlap and are inextricably connected.

After a successful completion of all required modules, the title of Registered Treasurer (RT) is conferred by the Registered Treasurer foundation.

As of last year the Register Treasurer (RT) program at the University of Amsterdam is taught in English. This is an important change as the program used to be in Dutch.

The course started on 1 September 2019. 

 

 

Key findings from the 2019 Treasury Compliance Survey

| 26-08-2019 | TIS |

Spending too much time and energy on compliance issues? You’re not alone. 41% of large companies identified this as their number one concern about the regulatory environment. Join Strategic Treasurer and TIS on August 29th as they reveal the exclusive results to the comprehensive 2019 Compliance Survey.

The 2019 Compliance Survey polled treasury and finance practitioners on their experiences, practices, and perspectives regarding a broad variety of compliance and bank account management operations. The survey captured both the macro and micro elements of the compliance landscape that are impacting treasury, identified how new regulatory developments are being accounted for, and gained insight to the various technologies and strategies leveraged by organizations for managing compliance on an ongoing basis. This session will cover highlights from the survey and include commentary from respected industry leaders as to what this means for you.

Register here!

Date: 29th August 2019

Timing: 11:00 AM EST

 

 

 

 

 

 

Embracing technology to deliver value from treasury

| 16-08-2019 | TIS |

Join Giancarlo Laudini, SVP Global Sales & Marketing Operations, TIS and Ernie Humphrey, CEO, 360 Thought Leadership Consulting to discover what fuels career success in treasury in today’s world. We will discuss the evolving role of technology in treasury success, how to leverage technology it your advantage, and how to embrace business partnering to impact decisions across the enterprise.

 

Register here!

Date: 11th September 2019

Timing: 5 PM CET

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Bouke decided to explore the World of Treasury

| 15-08-2019 | by treasuryXL | Kendra Keydeniers

 

Bouke Weijmans graduated as Register Treasurer (RT) in 2014. Bouke has a strong interest in process optimization and building treasury departments from the start. He currently works at Aalberts Industries as a Cash and Treasury Manager.

Aalberts Industries is a Dutch manufacturer that engineers mission-critical technologies for ground-breaking industries and everyday life.

We asked him 7 questions about the RT program:

 

  1. What was your main reason to start a career in treasury?

    Actually I rolled into the field of treasury when working at Flow Traders. During my study business administration at the VU I always believed I would develop my self in the field of process optimization. About 6 months after I joined Flow Traders the person in charge of treasury left the company and I was asked to pick up the role.

  2. Why did you start with the RT program?

    Eager to learn more about my new role in treasury I started looking for opportunities to develop myself. As a former VU student I found following classes of the RT program was the best way for me to do this.

  3. What are key words that you would use to describe the program?

    The program is small scaled and interactive, which allows active discussion between teachers and students touching issues treasurers run in during their day to day work.

  4. Which topics covered were most interesting?

    I was still a little green in the world of treasury when I started. Therefore, the topics about treasury, cash management and corporate finance where really useful.

  5. What surprising elements did the program hold that you did not expect?

    I liked the fact you also get schooled in the field of fiscal law. It gave me a better understanding how transfer pricing works and what implications this can have for a company.

  6. Are you still in touch with your peers?

    I’m not in active WhatsApp groups, however the world of treasury is quite small and you run into each other from time to time. It’s always nice to catch up at such occasions.

  7. Did following the program influence your relation with your family, friends and/or colleagues?

    Following and preparing classes takes some time and planning which means sometimes you have to say no to social events. This can be difficult from time to time but no permanent harm has been done.

We have more RT stories to share with you. Read the RT story of Michel, Jarno, Mathieu and Richard and/or read more info about the RT program here.

The post-graduate Executive Treasury Management & Corporate Finance programme combines two finance disciplines: Treasury Management and Corporate Finance. These disciplines largely overlap and are inextricably connected.

After a successful completion of all required modules, the title of Registered Treasurer (RT) is conferred by the Registered Treasurer foundation.

As of last year the Register Treasurer (RT) program at the University of Amsterdam is taught in English. This is an important change as the program used to be in Dutch.

The course will start on 1 September 2019. Why wait? Apply today!

 

 

Blockchain een hype? Training voor Financials

| 01-08-2019 | by treasuryXL | Kendra Keydeniers

Training: Blockchain voor Financials

Is blockchain een hype of gaat het de wereld echt drastisch veranderen? Wat is de gigantische impact van blockchain op de toekomst van uw financiële functie? Ontdek in twee dagen wat blockchain is, hoe u het toepast en hoe u ermee begint in uw eigen functie, organisatie of bij uw klanten

Uniek: Ontvang waardevol advies op uw eigen Blockchain Case

Breng uw eigen blockchain-use case in en deze wordt al tijdens de training besproken en beoordeeld op haalbaarheid. Ontvang bruikbare tips en adviezen waarmee u direct na de training verder kunt.

In deze training onthullen blockchain-experts Paul Bessems en Jeroen Perquin de nieuwe wereld van blockchain en geven u daarbij vele aanknopingspunten om direct met blockchain aan de slag te gaan binnen uw organisatie of netwerk. Paul en Jeroen illustreren de theorie met vele voorbeelden uit hun eigen praktijk waardoor de potentie van blockchain direct duidelijk wordt. Schrijf direct in.

Inclusief 2 E-learning modules

Bij dit programma ontvangt u 2 E-learning modules die uitstekend aansluiten op uw training. Haal alles uit Blockchain voor Financials en behaal 4 extra PE Uren.

Online modules Blockchain voor Financials:

  • Wat is Blockchain?
  • Blockchain in de praktijk
 Periode 2 dagen
 Investering. 1895 euro ( excl. BTW )
 Certificaat
14 PE-uren klassikaal + 4 PE-uren E-learning
 Datum / Locatie
17 en 18 december 2019 
Hotel Mercure Amsterdam Airport

27 en 28 mei 2020 
Randstad

22 en 23 september 2020 
Randstad

Uw voordelen
  • Nieuw | Wat is blockchain en waar gebruikt u het voor?
  • Disruptief | Wat zijn de gevolgen voor uw functie/organisatie/netwerk?
  • Begin! | Hoe start en (bege)leidt u een blockchainproject?
  • Design | Ontwerpoefening met de Harvard Case Methode
  • Praktijkgericht | Ga naar huis met uw eigen aangepaste use case
Onderwerpen
  • Wat is Blockchain?
  • Het verhaal achter Bitcoin
  • Blockchain in de praktijk
  • Data Economics
  • Toekomst van Blockchain
Boeken en materialen

Alle deelnemers ontvangen:

  • Het boek ‘Blockchain Organiseren voor managers: een andere kijk op managementinnovatie’ van Paul Bessems en Walter Bril.
  • De mogelijkheid tegen gereduceerd tarief community member te worden met toegang tot blockchain experts en het Kenniscentrum Blockchain Organiseren met artikelen, scripties, onderzoeken etc.
Voor wie?

Dit programma is specifiek ontwikkeld voor financials zoals controllers, financieel managers, financieel adviseurs en financieel directeuren die betrokken zijn bij (management) innovaties zoals blockchain en digitalisering.

Schrijf vandaag nog in!