Tag Archive for: payments

Succesful breakfast session at Proferus

|21-6-2017 | Proferus | treasuryXL | Sponsored content |

We reported earlier that Proferus BV, Amsterdam organised a breakfast session, the first of a series, dedicated to CFOs, Senior Cash Managers and Treasures, this time focusing on Cash Flow Forecasting. The session has taken place yesterday and we want to share a short impression with you.

In their first session Proferus focussed on sharing best practices aound the topics cash forecasting strategies, direct vs indirect approach, the need for cash flow forecasting and forecasting software from CashForce. Nicolas Christiaen,  founder of CashForce gave real life examples of how CashForce is deployed to help companies efficiently deploy cash force forecasting for treasury management.

During the meeting there was a livley discussion about the need of cash flow forecasts and the difference between the direct and indirect method. Ideas were shared as well as experiences and practical examples. The presentation of the cash forecasting system of Cashforce by Nicolas Christiaen was well received and very interesting.

The breakfast session had a good attendance and positive reactions! Proferus already started to plan and organize the next meeting!

If you want to know more about the breakfast session you can download their presentation: [button url=”https://www.treasuryxl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Presentatie-liquiditeitsplanningen-Proferus-1-2.pdf” text=”View presentation” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

treasuryXL & Proferus BV

[button url=”https://www.treasuryxl.com/community/companies/proferus-bv/” text=”View company profile” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]

 

 

 

PSD2 is coming soon: Some information about PSD2 summed up

| 14-6-2017 | Mark van de Griendt | PowertoPay |

PSD2 is approaching soon, just a few months left. But do you know what exactly PSD2 is? And more important, what does PSD2 mean for your businesses? PSD2 enables relations of banks, to use (selected) third-party providers to manage their financial data. In the near future, you maybe will use social media to directly pay your bills, while still having your money safely placed in your own bank account(s).

PSD2

With the coming of PSD2, banks are obligated to provide these (selected) third-party providers access to their customers’ accounts through open API’s. This will enable third-parties to create financial services on top of the banks relation data or banks’ infrastructure.

Banks get a different role and since these third-party companies can now be their competition, banks are working together with these FinTech companies. PSD2 will fundamentally change the order to cash value chain, what business models are profitable, and customer expectations. Through the directive, the European Commission aims to improve innovation, reinforce consumer protection and improve the security of internet payments and account access within the EU and EEA.

For banks, PSD2 might possess substantial business challenges. IT costs will increase dramatically due to new security requirements and the opening of API’s. And, as FinTech’s take over the customer interaction, banks may find it increasingly difficult to differentiate themselves in the market for offering loans. The first business cases show us successful new products for renewed loan offerings based on actual data, PSD2 will boost product development, end-users will take advance of new market propositions.

What exactly will PSD2 bring?

  • The introduction and regulation of third-party payment service providers
  • 2 types of providers will be selected, those that offer:
    • Payment Initiation Services Providers – PISP
    • Account Information Service Providers – AISP
  • The unconditional right of refund for direct debits under the SEPA CORE scheme
  • A two-factor authentication check out system
  • Ban on additional costs for card payments
  • Better consumer protection against fraud, capping any potential payments if an unauthorized payment is made up to €50
  • Improved consumer protection for payments made outside of the EU or in non-EU currencies

Sources:

SEPA for corporates
Evry

 
Mark van de Griendt – Cash Management Expert at PowertoPay

[button url=”https://www.treasuryxl.com/community/experts/mark-van-de-griendt/” text=”View expert profile” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]

Payment threat trends

| 12-6-2017 | Lionel Pavey |

In the article ‘payment threat trends’ on FinExtra.com you can read that the European Payments Council provides an insight into the latest developments on threats affecting payments, including cybercrime. You can also download the document, which is divided in two sections. One analyses threats including denial of service attacks, social engineering and phishing, malware, mobile related attacks, card related fraud, botnets, etc… Another section aims to include early warnings on threats related to emerging technologies which could lead to potential fraud, including cloud services and big data, internet of things and virtual currencies.

Payment policies

Generally, companies will have a secure, written policy for making payments. These will be generated from the purchasing and bookkeeping systems and should be reconciled. Beneficiary static data should be restricted to view only for the staff – only authorized staff can make and amend the data.
Payments relating to creditors should only be processed if a purchase order has been originated internally and is approved. All payments should be uploaded to recognized bank systems and verified with a six-eyes doctrine.

The biggest area of concern relates to electronic payments outside of the abovementioned process – namely via credit cards. If inventory levels are not correctly monitored then it can occur that a one-off purchase order is made. Payment should be made through a recognized payment provider such as Ideal or PayPal. Furthermore, the issuing of credit cards to key personnel leads to many more risks that can not be directly controlled by the company.

Risks for companies

When using a credit card in a public area, there are a few obvious dangers:

  • Card being stolen
  • Open WIFI in the area
  • Skimmers applied to hand held card devices

Up to now, the majority of payments have occurred on stand-alone bank software. As we enter the electronic age of disintermediation, there are many companies offering payment services. Blockchain and bitcoin are the obvious examples. No system is completely secure but, in the past, banks have made good on any loses if it was shown that the banks systems were at fault. However, hacking into Blockchain wallets and taking electronic coins has occurred and the losses are not covered as they are not run by banks or governments.

For a company this leads to direct risks such as monetary loss, fraud and loss of reputation. Also of concern is the danger of company data being stored by external third parties.

Clearly defined doctrine

Despite all the technological advances being made that make payments easier, companies need to stick to a strong clearly defined doctrine for payments:-

  • Only payments via purchasing and bookkeeping systems
  • Restricted use of credit cards
  • Elimination of petty cash
  • Secure protection of the static data relating to creditors
  • Payments offered only through recognized bank software

Blockchain

Blockchain is a reality – its uses go far further than just payments. The technology can not be stopped – the major issues (in my opinion) revolve around the electronic currencies (Bitcoin).
Companies would do well to investigate the advantages that Blockchain offers and consider how it can be implemented within a company. Some of the potential uses include compliance, insurance, finance, energy, supply chain management, human resources, accounting, data, taxes etc.

As for payment threats – stay alert, identify and manage risks, and keep abreast of changes.

Lionel Pavey

 

Lionel Pavey

Cash Management and Treasury Specialist


Safety of payments

Payment fraud – Leoni case

Financial services en Fintech

| 9-6-2017 | Peter Schuitmaker |

 

Onlangs las ik het artikel van Derek White, business banker op Finextra.com. Hij maakt melding van de opkomst van IT technologie op het bankwezen. Met name de opkomst van artificiële intelligentie (AI) in ons leven. Fintech is een samentrekking van financial en technology. Deze technology gaat de koers voor de bankwereld beïnvloeden. Althans, dat lijkt zijn boodschap.

 

Personal assistant in de ‘cloud’

Als eerste opstapje naar de toekomst noemt Derek White de personal assistant (PA). Deze is ge-host in de cloud en communiceert via headset en smartphone met een personal data base, ook beveiligd in the cloud. De PA helpt ons gebeurtenissen en data te herinneren. Ons op eventualiteit te wijzen. Een fraaie gedachte.
Derek werkt (in zijn artikel) deze functionaliteit verder uit met betrekking tot ons financiële leven. De PA helpt ons bijvoorbeeld tijdig om van aanbieder te switchen, bijvoorbeeld als abonnementen aflopen of wanneer er zich betere aanbiedingen voordoen. Optimale inkoop van energie, telecom, data, verzekeringen, enzovoorts gaan dan geheel buiten ons medeweten om. Zo gaat een dergelijke cloud PA ons aankoopgedrag beïnvloeden, of zelfs sturen. Deze PA herinnert zich een eerdere latente behoefte. Maakt ons opmerkzaam op nieuwe aantrekkelijke aanbiedingen. En hopelijk meer dan dat. Onze PA voorkomt financiële stress, door het juiste uitgavenpatroon te kiezen. Passend binnen ons –door de PA vastgestelde– behoeftepatroon en passend binnen het –door de PA vastgestelde– privé budget. Al met al mooie visioenen. En vooral bijzonder dat dit opgetekend wordt door een business banker. Uit een –ogenschijnlijk- traditionele business bank. Met een sterke focus op B2B.

Natuurlijk is Fintech hot. De vele honderden startups die inmiddels in de westerse wereld actief zijn, leveren op een of andere manier traditionele bankproducten: financieren, investeren, betalingsverkeer, risk management, compliance, hypotheken, pensioenen. We horen steeds vaker en meer over bitcoins en blockchain.

Holland Fintech

Alleen al in Nederland zijn er ruim 300 startups die zich verenigd hebben in Holland Fintech. Dit zijn bevlogen ondernemers die, niet gehinderd door wetgeving, overhead, organisaties en structuren technologie ontwikkelen voor moderne financiële dienstverlening. Zij zien de traditionele gevestigde orde juist als een knelpunt voor economische groei. En de eigen Fintech branche als aanjager van maatschappelijke vooruitgang. Met technologie als drager en financiële dienstverlening als focus.

Ten slotte

De visioenen van Derek White zijn prachtig. Maar innovatie in de financiële wereld komt vast uit een andere dynamische omgeving.

 

Peter Schuitmaker

Registered Advisor for Business Transfer and Succession

 

What is the Blockchain and why you should care

| 7-6-2017 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL |

You might visit this site, being a treasury professional with years of experience in the field. However you could also be a student or a businessman wanting to know more details on the subject, or a reader in general, eager to learn something new. The ‘Treasury for non-treasurers’ series is for readers who want to understand what treasury is all about. Our expert Carlo de Meijer is a blockchain specialist and tells us more about this new technology.

Blockchain

Blockchain is an immutable digital database or ‘distributed ledger’ that allows multiple parties to  transfer and store information (records) securely and reliably, shared via a peer-to-peer network of computers. There are public (or permissionless) blockchains where everybody is free to participate and private (or permissioned) distributed ledgers where only selected parties may enter the network.
The ledger is maintained collectively by all participants in the blockchain system based on a set of generally agreed and strictly applied rules.  It enables digital transactions to be validated quickly and to be securely maintained through cryptography, computational power and network users without the need  for a trusted third party.
In addition to transactions, blockchain has also the ability to run so-called smart contracts, to be coded and connected in such a way that the contract automatically executes an event if certain preconditions are met. Smart contracts could be used in real estate transactions to transfer title and release escrow when ownership is confirmed. Peer-to-peer insurance is potentially another use case.

Main characteristics

What are the main characteristics of a blockchain?
Blockchain has special qualities that makes it better than traditional databases: trusted, decentralised, shared, secure and automated.
·         Trusted: the distributed nature of the network requires computers servers to reach consensus, which allows for transactions to occur between unknown parties in a trusted way.
·         Decentralised: Blockchain allows to trade directly with any counterparty in a secure, fast and cost effective way, without making use of a central authority or third party intermediaries (middlemen) to approve transactions and set rules.
·         Shared: servers or nodes, maintain the entries (known as blocks) and every node sees the transaction data stored in the blocks when created. Each counterparty has its own copy of the same ledger. It allows anyone to obtain an accurate view.
·         Secure: the database is built to be immutable and irreversible, which means that there is inherent security. Posts to the ledger cannot be revised or tampered with. The information is tamper-proof and visible for all parties involved.
·         Automated: Software is used to generate and record information about the transaction (when it took place, and the chronological order of all transactions). This results in a chain of information, stored in a so-called block; hence the name blockchain.

Use cases

What are use cases for blockchain?
As the blockchain can be used to store and send anything of value, applications may be numerous. These do not limit to financial transactions such as payments, remittances, supply chain finance, securities settlement, stock trading etc. The potential may well be beyond the financial sector ranging from securing  intellectual property, health records, land registry and ownership records, marriage contracts, identity management, voting records, vehicle registries, tax collection etc.
What are the benefits of blockchain?

Conclusion

There are many benefits to be gained from using blockchain technology. Immutability, coupled with its immediacy, assured provenance  and transparency are core blockchain attributes. Removing the middlemen for transaction increases the speed and eliminates transaction fees for consumers and institutions alike. Other business benefits are also relatively easy to imagine, such as in facilitating identity authentication, privacy, access management, regulatory compliance.

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

Breakfast Session: Cash Flow Forecasting

| 2-6-2017 | Olivier Werlingshoff | Proferus BV | Sponsored content |

 

Proferus helps companies enhance their forecasting processes to fully take advantage of new opportunities and to get in control over their cash flows. Proferus will host their first breakfast session of a series dedicated to CFOs, Senior Cash Managers and Treasures, this time focusing on Cash Flow Forecasting.

Proferus

Proferus has expertise developing tailored solutions to improve cash management and treasury processes and has a strong partnership network to help companies introduce new tools and techniques to achieve their goals.

Breakfast Session

On June 20th, Proferus will host the first breakfast session of a series dedicated to CFOs, Senior Cash Managers and Treasures, this time focusing on Cash Flow Forecasting.

Content

In this session Proferus we will focus on sharing best practices and a round table about the following topics:

  • Cash Forecasting strategies Direct vs Indirect approach
  • Round table The Need for Cash Flow Forecasting
  • Cashforce Cash forecasting 2.0

Joining us in this breakfast session, Nicolas Christiaen Founder of CashForce will give real life examples of how CashForce is deployed to help companies efficiently deploy cash force forecasting for treasury management.

Date & Time

Tue 20 June 2017, 08:30 h  – 10:00 h
Add to Calendar

Location

Proferus
87 De Entree
1101 BH Amsterdam-Zuidoost
View 

Proferus would be pleased to welcome you.
If you want to register for the event please click on this link.

 

Blockchain and Supply Chain Finance: the missing link!

| 19-5-2017 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL |

Our expert Carlo de Meijer is our blockchain specialist and publishes his articles on a regular basis. We present his latest article about blockchain and supply chain finance in a shorter version.
Carlo writes: Whereas the focus on the use of blockchain long time has been on payments and securities, an important but still undervalued use case has been supply chain finance. But that is changing. The complexity and scale of existing supply chain finance solutions has posed major challenges in ensuring adequate funding and efficient operations. According to some blockchain technology has the potential to be a game-changer for supply-chain finance. Let’s have a look.

Present state

Supply chain finance (SCF) is a generic term for a wide variety of financing instruments, used to finance various parties in a supply chain. SCF refers to the use of short-term credit to balance working capital between a buyer and a seller, thus minimising aggregate supply chain cost. Businesses can use supply chain financing to build stronger relationships with suppliers, decrease currency risk and ultimately improve liquidity.

Financial institutions offer supply chain financing solutions aimed at improving the purchaser’s working capital, and the supplier’s liquidity, by providing an efficient payables platform to streamline the payment process. Compared to the “old-fashioned” Letter of Credit, SCF now also encompasses new trade finance instruments including factoring, reverse factoring, payables financing, and dynamic discounting. Reverse factoring is the most popular and most widely used supply chain finance instrument. In reverse factoring, receivables are sold to a bank at a discount as soon as they are approved by the buyer. The bank then commits to pay the company’s invoices to the suppliers.

It is important to understand that supply chains are complex by nature; various parties are involved from raw goods supplier, producer and distributor all the way up to the consumer. This has posed major challenges in ensuring adequate funding and efficient operations.

Blockchain and supply chain finance

The question is: what can blockchain mean for supply chain finance and how could it be applied?

A blockchain-based supply chain finance solution more specific via so-called smart contracts will essentially enable all parties in a supply chain finance solution to act on a single shared ledger. A supplier and manufacturer, along with every other participant, will solely update their parts of the transaction, enabling efficiency and an “unprecedented” level of trust and transparency on a ledger record that is immutable.

“If you talk to supply chain experts, their three primary areas of pain are visibility, process optimization, and demand management. Blockchain provides a system of trusted records that addresses all three.” Brigid McDermott, vice president, Blockchain Business Development & Ecosystem, at IBM

Blockchain technology can offer great potential for both corporates and banks in terms of increased control, speed and reliability of their supply chain and at a fraction of the cost of their current infrastructure. Payments made via this digital system can be monitored by both parties, meaning that suppliers are no longer at a disadvantaged positon in the buying process while they wait for processing. Blockchain will speed up the process, giving the two companies more control, and in the long-term would ultimately create more robust supply chains.

Because the bank can see both the original contract as well as the order placed with “Company B by Company A”, it can verify both authenticity and provenance. Further, if the contract tracks manufacturing or transportation events, the bank can also know the state of fulfilment at any given time. What should be quite clear is that the visibility and auditability that are main characteristics of blockchain technology allow financial collaboration across supply chain echelons, not just bilaterally.

The time required from initiation to payment can therefore be dramatically reduced. In addition to the reduced transaction time, other benefits for importers and exporters include reduced bank fees (due to less manual activity on the part of the banks), reduced time for loan approval, and reduced risk of fraud. This way of financing a supply chain is radically cheaper and more efficient than the current way of doing business.

Blockchain: the missing link

Using blockchain may provide a simple system of secure record keeping that allows the bank redeeming CFS “to ensure that the CFS presented by the holders has been used to finance appropriate supply chain smart contracts”. At the same time suppliers using the blockchain system may retain the privacy that is need in their financial transactions with their sub-suppliers.

There are still challenges to be dealt with, too, such as the need to implement paperless trade, issues of data privacy, and how to get all members of a supply chain to participate. If global supply chains are to gain the full benefit of this technology for managing payments and related data, all parties that play a role in global trade must be involved!

By providing this missing piece of the information and supply chain management puzzle, blockchain may become the missing link!

Blockchain SCF projects

Since early this year the number of blockchain projects to improve supply chain finance is growing firmly. Especially IBM is very active in this area and partnered with companies in China and India to work on new blockchain-based solutions. IBM also teamed with Danish logistic and transport company Maersk Line, to create a new solution to digitize the global, cross-border supply chain using blockchain technology. Start-ups are at the same time popping up to help bridge the gap to this new technology, such as blockchain-based financial operating network Fluent, which aims to streamline supply chain finance.
“Blockchains built into supply chains can offer trust and accountability, as well as compliance with government regulations and internal rules and processes, resulting in reductions in costs and time delays, improved quality, and reduced risks,”Arvind Krishna, IBM Research Senior Vice President and Director Yijian Blockchain Technology Application System

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

 


You can read more about the different SCF projects in the complete article of Carlo de Meijer on LinkedIn.

 

 

Long term or short term debt – your choices

|18-5-2017 | François de Witte |

You might visit this site, being a treasury professional with years of experience in the field. However you could also be a student or a businessman wanting to know more details on the subject, or a reader in general, eager to learn something new. The ‘Treasury for non-treasurers’ series is for readers who want to understand what treasury is all about. Today our expert François de Witte will explain de difference between long term and short term debt.

One of the main tasks of the treasurer is to ensure that the company has the required funds to operate. The treasurer will usually contact the banks for this funding. They can also extend long term loans (LT) or short term loans (ST).

Raising short term debt has several advantages, because it is more flexible, there is a lower cost due to the lower margin (smaller risk profile than long term debt) and usually lower interest, funds can be raised quickly and usually, you can repay your debt without penalty.

However, there are some drawbacks. The required repayment comes quicker than for LT loans, there can be potential difficulties in renewing short term loans, and it will be more difficult to combine ST debt with a fixed rate interest.

For this reason, many corporates take up long term loans. It helps them to improve the financial structure (better liquidity ratio). During the term of the credit facility, there is no renewal risk, and long term loans can be taken up with fixed or floating interest. Many banks will see long term loans as a prerequisite to finance fixed assets and investments.

In that case, the corporate will have to accept a higher price on these loans, a longer set up time and a possible prepayment penalty in case there is a fixed interest rate during the long-term loan.

Financing policy

The classic financing policy aims to match the maturity of the financing with the maturity of the assets. Under this policy, long term assets will be financed by long term loan, and short term assets by short term loans. An area of concern are the working capital needs. Are these to be considered as long term assets as short term assets? Usually the uncompressible part of the working capital need is considered as a long-term asset, whilst the fluctuating part (including the seasonal requirement) is considered as short term asset.

Some companies use a more aggressive financing policy and chosse short term financing to finance all the working capital needs, which can be risky. Others are more conservative and use long term loans to finance also the fluctuating part of the working capital needs.

Bank Financing versus bonds or Commercial Paper financing

Usually midcorporates and smaller corporates will use bank financing, also for the long-term financing, because it is easier to be set up. There is no need to have a complex prospectus or to ask for an external rating and there are less disclosure and reporting requirements. In addition, there is more flexibility in the repayment schedule, and it will be easier to negotiate a floating rate.

However larger corporates, those with an external rating or a large name recognition, will also consider bond or Commercial Paper financing. The bond financing will allow for longer term maturities, and the possibility to lock in the interest rate for longer periods. Bonds and commercial papers enable a diversification of funding sources, and can be traded in the market. In addition, there is no obligation provide side business to the lenders.

Bond financing

The world’s bond market can be divided into two broad groups:

  • The domestic bond market (issued in a country by resident issuers)
  • The international bond market (issued in a country or in the international markets by non-resident issuers). These also include the Eurobonds

Different bonds

The most common bonds are the straight bonds. In this case, the issuer issues securities for a fixed term with an annual or semi-annual interest payment at a fixed rate.

Example: Issuer A issues on 10/6/2017 EUR 100 Million debt at 6 % for 7 years.  In this case, the bondholders are entitled to receive an annual interest rate of 6 % (also called the coupon) on the 10th June of each year from 2018 until 2024, and the full reimbursement of the loan on 10/6/2024.

We also see quite frequently the issuance of Floating Rate Notes. This is a medium term or long term bond with a coupon based upon a floating rate based on a benchmark rate (e.g. Euribor or Libor) plus a “spread” based upon amongst others the credit quality of the issuer.

Zero-coupon bonds that do not foresee for periodic interest payments, but for the full reimbursement of the capital and interest at the final maturity of the bond.

Convertible bonds can be exchanged later or with another instrument, mostly shares.  The coupon is usually lower because of the option granted to the bondholder.

Public bonds are bonds issued by a bank syndicate through a public offering with prospectus. These bonds are focusing both on the retail and on the professional investors. They also must comply with the specific requirements for the prospectus, which sometimes needs to be submitted beforehand to the competent authorities for approval.

A private placement (or non-public offering) is a bond issue through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors. Private placements have less heavy constraints in term of prospectus.

Since 2000, the global bond markets size has nearly tripled in size. Today it is worth more than $100 trillion

(Source: Bloomberg, June 2016).

François de Witte – Founder & Senior Consultant at FDW Consult & Flex Treasurer

[button url=”https://www.treasuryxl.com/community/experts/francois-de-witte/” text=”View expert profile” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]

[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]

More articles of this author:

Treasury for non-treasurers: Short term loans from a treasury perspective

Working capital management: Some practical advice on the optimization of the order to cash cycle

Management of bank mandates – EBAM – A lot of challenges

[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]

 

Better Decisions through real-time Reporting: Business Intelligence about Cash Flows & Cash Positions

|17-5-2017 | Joerg Wiemer | TIS | Sponsored content |

How do strategic professionals decide on the best path to success for their company? The key is in transparency and real-time reporting. If it comes to the responsibility of the treasurer or financial professional this means deciding about company-wide cash flow and liquidity levels, bank, customer and supplier relations and working capital.

When cash flow 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.

 

Source: TIS Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH

Challenges

You can’t manage what you don’t measure

  • A lack of visibility over liquidity, working capital and cash flows at the C-level, in treasury, controlling, accounting, Sales and
    purchasing departments.
  • No transparency regarding bank relationships, liquidity positions and account turnover
  • No transparency regarding customer and supplier relationships, as well as incoming and outgoing cash flow

TIS Business Discovery Manager

Company-wide unified automated analysis of cash flow, liquidity and working capital in various departments of Corporate headquarters and in local subsidiaries

  • Multi-bank capable
  • SAP ERP integration via certified plug-in; connection to any ERP, HR and treasury system
  • State-of-the-art BI technology and functionality in a single SaaS solution
  • Support of customer-specific BI tools; support of self-service BI functionality
  • Business Intelligence as a Service: Ready for use throughout the company within seconds without any complex IT projects
  • No changes to bank or system landscape required; the solution is flexible and easily adaptable
  • ISO 27001 certified for data security

 Customer value

  • Better decisions based on complete visibility of liquidity, working capital and cash flows
  • Ability to quickly answer essential questions without the need for any extensive IT projects

Your benefits

C-Level executives:

  • Instant reports about cash flow performances (total of all inflows and payments) of the various local subsidiaries compared to one another over a specific time period
  • Identification of corporate risks and value-adding activities to drive future growth
  • Tangible insights to support internal and external audits
  • Power and data to provide strategic advice to sales and procurement departments

Treasury and controlling teams:

  • Answers to key questions, such as: How much liquidity is available at which bank? What is the net cash flow for a specific currency over a specific time period for a group of companies (natural hedge)? How much working capital does a local subsidiary require in a specific time period?
  • Increased compliance, transparency, and more efficient processes paired with reduced costs

Accounting teams:

  • Visibility of when a supplier was paid, or when a customer paid a local subsidiary over a certain time period
  • Insight into the value of inflows made by customers via various bank accounts and ERP systems over a specific time period

Sales teams:

  • Insight into the value of inflows made by customers and the overall payment behavior of the customer base

Purchasing teams:

  • Transparency across values of overall payments to a supplier via various bank accounts and ERP systems over a specific time period

Source: TIS Treasury Intelligence Solutions GmbH

Business Discovery Manager: never struggle to answer any of these business-critical questions again

 

joerg wiemer

Joerg Wiemer

CSO and Co-Founder of TIS

 

The IT Savvy Treasurer

| 9-5-2017 | Patrick Kunz |

 

We cannot switch on the news without hearing about technological advancements which, supposedly, make our lives easier, better or smarter. We all embrace these, get used to them and cannot do without them anymore. Sometimes we think back to the time before these advancements and cannot image how we lived without them. The same applies to treasury.

 

 

I am 35 years old; my experience in treasury was always linked to IT. I sometimes hear stories from older treasurer who worked without computers, later tabulating/punch cards and still managed to do a good job in their field. Of course times have changed; information is faster than in these days and also the need to process it. We all had to embrace the new technology. In this blog I will try to analyse the link between IT and treasury and try to make predictions about the future or at least where I wish the future would go (in treasury terms).

Payments

In the old days payments were a manual process with people entering them in the banking system or sending them to the bank via fax. Nowadays, we link our ERP system with the banking system and have a batch file automatically added to the bank. With bulk payments a payment hub can be used which will make the whole process bank independent, fast and cheap. If wanted and needed the whole process can be made straight-through by automating it from creating a payment to approving it.

The future will make payments even faster (instant payments should be possible in the sepa region from November onwards), cheaper and more bank independent (PSD2 regulation allows non banks to link with your bank and provide (payment) services). Maybe we will be using our facebook account for payments sooner or later. Bitcoin could be an alternative payment currency and/or be used to hedge non deliverable currencies (to achieve this the volumes need to increase significantly).

Risk management

An important part of the treasurers work is risk management. Hedging FX, interest rate, commodity prices are daily business for a treasurer. Doing the deal is easy, doing the right deal is more difficult. A treasurer can only hedge correctly if he knows what he is hedging: the exposure. To know the exposure information of the business is key. The reason for the exposure originates in sales (FX) or procurement (FX and Commodity). These departments need to be aware that the actions they take might have consequences for the treasurer and therefore the treasurer needs to have some information. I have been at companies where sales was daily generating a lot of USD exposure at a EUR company. They were supposed to let finance know about positions. Often this was done at day’s end or forgotten and done a day later. Result: an exposure on USD without the treasurer knowing it; a risky position. IT helped to fix this. Sales entered a deal in a program and the relevant FX exposure was automatically shared with the treasurer via an API to the Treasury Management System. The treasurer could  decide directly whether he needed to hedge or not and even aggregated deals to get better rates at the bank. For small deals a link was set up with a FX trading platform to STP them at the best rate.

The future in risk management will be even more automation within the company (internal) but also with connections to banks and risk solution providers. Prices are becoming more transparent due to the fact that bank independent solutions are available which compare prices, in real time. Risk management sales is becoming less a bank business. Brokers are having less hurdles to enter the market, due to IT platforms in the cloud.  Why pick up the phone and call your bank for a EUR/USD quote when you can compare prices via an online platform and directly trade it? Often you don’t even have to settle via your own bank accounts but you can have it directly sent to your customer or supplier.

For Trade Finance blockchain will become the new standard. The financing and shipping of commodities is a rather paper based process which is inefficient and slow. Blockchain could automate and improve the speed massively. The challenge to achieve this is big as there are many parties involved,  but initiatives have started so the future is beginning now.

Information

As above examples show information is key to a treasurer. Even more so, as treasury is often a small team and most of the information comes from other departments. To get this information the treasurer can use several nice IT solutions. The ERP systems helps, but the treasury needs to know where to find the information. A treasury management system is often used to sort all treasury related information. TMS can link with ERP systems or other systems to gather information. The TMS will sort this information so that the treasurer is well informed and can make decisions.  When I started in treasury 10 years ago the market for TMS was small; systems were expensive and limited in use (payments only, fx only etc). Nowadays a TMS does not have to be expensive anymore. A SME (Small medium enterprise) could use it to upgrade their treasury information. Most TMS can be used for all aspects of treasury (cash Management, risk management, corporate finance, guarantees etc). This will give the tech savvy treasurer an edge. The treasurer with most information can make the best decision. In treasury taking decisions while being well-informed often means either costs saving (e.g. better cash position, lower working capital) or lower risk. The IT savvy treasurer contributes to an optimally functioning company; he/she should be considered a business partner; he knows your cash position, your risk position and your balance sheet, hopefully in real time at all times.

 

Patrick Kunz

Treasury, Finance & Risk Consultant/ Owner Pecunia Treasury & Finance BV

 

 

 

Other articles of this author:

Flex Treasurer: The life of an interim treasurer

How much are you paying your bank?