13-03-2023 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL | LinkedIn | Recently I read a very interesting and stimulating article in a Dutch newspaper. It was about the Community Currency named Sarafu that is used in Kenya’s rural communities thereby trying to solve the issue of proper circulation of finances.
07-03-2023 | Bart Jansen | treasuryXL | LinkedIn | Bart Jansen is een ervaren Treasury professional. Hij is gedreven, resultaat gericht, hands-on en in de uitvoering rustig, betrouwbaar en communiceert gemakkelijk met een gezonde dosis humor. Na bij diverse grote bedrijven te hebben gewerkt, zoals Coca Cola, Grandvision, Nuon en Gasunie werkt Bart tegenwoordig voor zichzelf.
28-04-2021 | treasuryXL | Pieter de Kiewit
The great Dutch philosopher Johan Cruijff said: “Je gaat het pas zien als je het door hebt”, roughly translated “you only see if you get it”. I recently thought about this when visiting and working with a mid-sized local company. Their treasury team was much bigger than the teams of companies in the same industry two or three times their revenue size. In this team, for example, they had two employees full-time entering manual payments. Data and instructions are gathered from a multitude of systems and typed into banking software. Time is lost, mistakes are made, staff demotivated and money lost. They refused to hire a qualified candidate who could help because his expected base salary was a few thousands of euros too high…..
Recently the Dutch regulatory body for financial markets, AFM, published this research that shows that companies would benefit from a more mature market in alternative funding. One of their observations is that new solutions, for instance in working capital, are accepted even though the rates that have to be paid are preposterous. They see the market grow, not enough focus on credit rating and doubt if the market will stabilize in a professional manner. A stronger regulatory framework is suggested. I am in doubt, who will do the audit?
Those who are in need for strong treasury seem to ignore the available expertise. Distrust? Lack of time? Afraid of treasury lingo?
Personally I hope that entrepreneurs and CFOs will train their critical thinking and only use what they understand. Cost that are hidden in the total price of their treasury solutions are regretfully accepted easier than a separate price for the right solution and one for the advice. That is regrettable because one of the effects is that companies get perhaps the cheapest but the wrong solutions.
We have a simple suggestion: digest what you know about treasury and ask the most obvious question you can think of. Ask the expert panel and pass our suggestion forward to anyone you might think have a proper question. It is a matter of time until we get it all. I am sure.
Take care, Pieter
Owner at Treasurer Search
| 03-03-2020 | treasuryXL | Pieter de Kiewit
You might remember our previous blogs about the Rent a Treasurer. In this joint effort with Treasurer Search, we make high calibre treasury expertise available for organisations with treasury exposure without a specialist on board. Treasurer Search is in constant communication with the treasury labour market and knows who has what expertise and is available. treasuryXL has a wider network that includes CFOs of mid-sized companies and a very strong communication machine. Combining both enables the Rent a Treasurer service.
What we notice in our market research is that treasury is not well known by these CFOs, so they do not put it on their priority list. But CFOs do understand quickly the upside when speaking with and learning from a treasurer. Often not wanting extra headcount is mentioned as a reason not to act upon treasury opportunities. And many specialized treasury consultants are a better match with multi-billion corporates and costly. So mid-sized companies often rely on bankers and auditors. But many bankers focus too much on revenue and the knowledge of auditors is often not deep enough.
Currently we work with a core team of eight bringing the Rent a Treasurer concept to the next level. Six team members cover various subsets of treasury tasks and complement each other. Kendra represents treasuryXL and I work on behalf of Treasurer Search. We are the support. Our goal is to organise more meetings with CFOs and help them successfully save costs, mitigate risk and create opportunities through appropriate treasury solutions. We tell interesting stories, on a regular basis, to decision makers who might be interested and we will increasingly do so.
It gives me great pleasure to inform you that one of the team members, Niki van Zanten, currently works as a Rent a Treasurer on two different assignments where FX risk has the most prominent focus. With the first client, he has been able to save substantially on cost already in his first week. Niki is the perfect example of an expert who learnt in the Champions League, with Cisco & Philips, and applies his knowledge helping mid-sized companies.
If you want to know more about Rent a Treasurer or introduce us to your business network, please let me know. I am convinced many more can benefit from good treasury. We will keep you updated.
Owner at Treasurer Search
| 04-08-2020 | by Kendra Keydeniers |
A couple of months ago, we started the ‘Meet the Expert’ interview series with experts from the treasuryXL community with different treasury expertise.
Treasury needs to deal with an increasing availability of alternative financial products, intensifying risk management requirements, regulatory and compliance constraints.
What do our experts think about this rapidly growing movements within the treasury world? What developments do they expect in the future? What opportunities do they see?
We interviewed 10 experts over the last 10 weeks and asked them about their treasury career, experiences, the future of treasury and of course how COVID19 impact treasury from their perspective.
Did you miss an interview? No worries, here is a full overview of the ‘Meet the Expert’ series:
Bertus van de Kamp
Senior Business Consultant & Cash Management Specialist
Wim Kok
International Business Consultant & Trade Finance Specialist
Aastha Tomar
FX & Derivatives | Debt Capital Markets | MBA Finance | Electrical Engineer | Sustainability
Michael Ringeling
Corporate Treasury, Corporate Control and Banking
Olivier Werlingshoff
Cash- and Treasury management
Ger van Rosmalen
Trade Finance Specialist
Francois De Witte
Owner at FDW Consult | Sr. Project Manager at Gaming1 | CFO at Safetrade Holding
Arnoud Doornbos
Interim Treasury & Finance | Consultant | FX & Interest Derivatives | Treasury Outsourcing| Risk | Fintech | TMS
Vinzenco Masile
Treasury Expert/Credit Risk Manager
Arnaud Béasse
Debt Management Specialist
A big thank you to everyone that worked with me on this series, to everyone that selflessly shared their knowledge and experience with all of us! You guys rock.
If you’ve enjoyed our series so far, don’t worry, this is just the beginning! We are looking into more perspectives to share with you later this year when we will start the second ‘Meet the Expert’ interview series.
Take care and thanks for reading,
Kendra Keydeniers
Community & Partner Manager at treasuryXL
| 25-2-2020 | by Kendra Keydeniers |
Cash Management is one of the three primary disciplines of Corporate Treasury. (Risk Management and Corporate Finance are the other two.) Cash management is often described as monetary logistics management. This analogy works quite well. It is the discipline of Treasury that is devoted to the management of planned expenditures, so it is highly focused on operational efficiency and process optimisation. It is about optimising the flow of money coming in from customers, some money going into savings, and other money going out to pay the bills. Since this is such a vital process to any organization, it is not hard to understand how cash management can make or break a company.
Historically, large companies have used multiple bank accounts to gain insight into the activities of their local subsidiaries. In an extreme example, a retail chain might have held a different bank account for each local shop, so that a large retailer could easily hold over 500 accounts! Today, such unnecessary complexity is considered unprofessional. Insight into local activities can be achieved through proper bookkeeping, and extra bank accounts cost extra money. Modern bank accounts also tend to feature more extensive payment capabilities than in the past. A single European bank account, for example, will allow you to send payments within most European countries. Nevertheless, the operations of global businesses still often require multiple bank accounts. In addition, many companies like to hold accounts with banks that are widely recognized by customers in the local market.
In small companies, cash management need not be separate from bookkeeping. The two activities may be done within the same department. In larger companies, though, these activities are specialised. This is because the skill set required for bookkeeping is different from that of cash management. Furthermore, in larger companies it is important to segregate duties for purposes of operational control: the one sending the invoice should not be the one who processes the related payment. Lastly, it is important to mention that in larger companies a distinction is made between cash flows, on the one hand, and income and expenses, on the other. In the financial accounts of a large corporation, revenue is booked when a sale is made. However, it might take some time before this revenue actually reaches the company in the form of cash. Until it does, booked revenue is generally irrelevant to the cash manager. The same is true for expenses. An expense may be booked, but from a Treasury perspective, until an expenditure is disbursed, it is still considered cash on hand.
In smaller companies, cash managers also manage foreign exchange, but FX management is a separate field of expertise. It might be the role of a cash manager to set up bank accounts in various currencies. By doing this, the cash manager lowers operational costs by preventing repetitive transactions between the same currency pairs, which can generate unnecessary fees; but, this is not FX Management. (The FX Manager researches market developments that have an impact on Treasury operations, and often plays a more analytical or strategic role.)
When the IBAN was introduced a few years ago, this new standard for bank account numbers made international electronic payments easier. In theory, it allows companies to work with fewer bank accounts, making cash management easier and cheaper. However, some companies argue that doing local business requires having a local bank, so they maintain multiple international bank accounts, despite the convenience of the IBAN.
Read more about Cash Management and check out these treasury topics as well:
What is Working Capital Management?
Kendra Keydeniers
Community & Partner Manager at treasuryXL
| 09-12-2019 | by RBS |
Blockchain is a new disruptive technology that together with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data promises to change the way we do business today. It seems to have a major potential to make supply chains more efficient and transparent by cutting out middlemen and creating possibilities to do trusted peer-to-peer transactions on a global scale. However:
These and other questions related to Blockchain will be answered at the event.
January 27, 2020
16:00 – 20:00
Programme:
15:45 – 16:00 Welcome with coffee
16:00 – 17:00 Blockchain in the supply chain: financial and sustainable solutions
Victor van der Hulst, Blockchain expert Windesheim University of applied sciences
17:00 – 17:10 The logistics applications of Blockchain
Ron van Duin, professor of applied sciences, Rotterdam University of applied sciences
17:10-17:30 Best blockchain thesis award
17:30-17:45 A proven blockchain user case: Dutch & Belgian government: Waste transportation
Martijn Broersma LTO Network
17:45 – 18:00 Coffee break
18:00 – 19:00 Break out sessions
19:00-19:30 Wrap up
19:30-20:00 Social drinks
The event is a cooperation between the Masters of International Business the SIA-RAAk project Blockchain for SME’s and the National Blockchain Thesis Table. It’s aim is to disseminate knowledge acquired by applied research and stimulate the cooperation within the triple helix: business, research and education. For questions contact: [email protected]
| 19-11-2019 | by Kendra Keydeniers |
In 2016 we launched our website with the goal to bring everybody who is interested in corporate treasury into our community. We are convinced many will benefit from bringing treasury expertise to a broader audience and experts having in-depth and up-to-date knowledge.
Every day we post new articles and blogs for our readers and if you like scrolling through your timeline you can see our latest news via social media. Friday is our recap day and all of our subscribers receive our weekly newsletter just before the weekend will start. So much is happening constantly.
Over the last months we looked back and discussed with treasury and community management experts how to move forward. As a result we made changes to our site in order to act future proof.
How to inform Treasurers and Non-Treasurers
In the past we tried to make a split between content for treasurers and those who have to deal with treasury not being an expert. We named the last group non-treasurers. This distinction seemed to make sense but in reality was not very practical. A lot of information is relevant for both groups, not all treasurers are experts in all treasury sub categories and there are non-treasurers who have in-depth knowledge.
We also assumed treasurers and non-treasurers use different social media channels, visit different events and consume different products & services. As it turns out this is partly true, there is a huge overlap in their media consumption and this is a good thing. A social media post about forecasting where the treasurer, the controller and the CFO respond is valuable for all.
Our analysis is that a lot of our valuable content does not reach all relevant audiences.
Website redesign
The most important change we made in our site is the first investment to enable further relevant steps. We have introduced an overview of the most relevant topics. With input from experts we had to make choices between being comprehensive and being an attractive read. We created an overview serving both the treasurer as well as the non-treasurer. As an example, cash pools will often be a treasurer topic, working capital management a topic also for non-treasurers and both groups will enjoy a good read about FX management.
The set of topics is not cast in stone. With your input we can tweak and adjust in order to be trendsetting and -following. Do know that reorganising all blogposts and other content in order to put them in the right category is quite a choir: over the years we posted about 700 blogs!
Topic overview:
What is next?
Building upon this investment we will initiate further initiatives. Answering questions about specific topics and offering tailormade information can be done. This is a good thing for both our reader audience, as well as our partners. It will be easier to get detailed insight, as dossiers will be organized in a sensible structure and relevant further info can be offered.
Enabling the match between subject matter experts with those who need input will be easier. You will know who is the expert in FX, trade finance, TMSs, et cetera. Broadcasting from these experts through social media channels can be done better: we will steer away from “spray and pray” and will be sharpshooters.
We are excited about these changes and are thrilled for the upcoming period. Will you join us and do you have any further input? Thank you and see you in our topical environment.
On behalf of Team treasuryXL,
Kendra Keydeniers
Community & Partner Manager at treasuryXL
Join treasuryXL as a partner!
The treasuryXL Partner Program is designed for organizations offering products or services in treasury, cash and risk management.
Newsletter & eBook
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and receive your 41 pages ‘easy-to-read’ eBook, What is Treasury?
