Tag Archive for: treasury

Webinar: How to streamline your banking landscape

| 14-5-2019 | BELLIN |

The expert guide on how to streamline your banking landscape with the perfect combination of banks, channels and formats

This webinar sheds light on the complexity of diverse bank connectivity options for each corporation. What channel or combination of channels are you going to use to connect to your banking partners in a process- and cost-efficient way? Will you capitalize on host-to-host connections or will you be taking advantage of SWIFT, get your own BIC code and become bank-agnostic? Find out about various options and multiple ways of combining them to eventually configure the custom-tailored payment setup that perfectly suits your treasury’s needs.

Webinar start: 6 June 2019 | 16:00 CEST
Webinar run time: approx. 20 min

Register here

Presenter
Anton Wahl, Senior Treasury Consultant

Anton Wahl is Senior Treasury Consultant and Payments Specialist at BELLIN and in charge of various projects. He has extensive experience with international SWIFT, H2H and EBICS payment implementation projects. Anton joined the BELLIN team in 2008 and first worked for the Service & Support Team before changing to Consulting & Implementation in 2015. He is a certified SWIFT Specialist for Corporates and obtained the designation Certified Payment Professional from Frankfurt School of Finance.

About BELLIN

BELLIN is the global leader in technology for corporate banking and treasury. We provide solutions for the financial sector, catering to a range of clients from large multinationals to SMEs and banks. Founded by a treasurer, BELLIN has been championing innovation and out-of-the-box thinking since 1998. With the treasury software tm5 as the centerpiece, BELLIN makes a fundamental difference by offering solutions that zero in on the relationship between corporates and banks and cover everything from payments to FX, cash and risk management. BELLIN is an international company with offices on four continents, powered by a trailblazing fintech spirit and yet firmly rooted in the heritage of German craftsmanship and engineering. BELLIN delights 500 clients and over 80,000 users around the globe.

 

 

Corda Settler, Ripple and SWIFT: mariage à trois?

| 07-05-2019 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL

My last blog was about the IBM World Wire, a blockchain based platform for global payments. Another competitor in the blockchain payments world I have written about regularly is Ripple. Both are thereby targeting centralised payments messages network SWIFT.

IBM and Ripple however are not the only players in the blockchain payments world. Late last year R3 launched its new Corda Settler platform using Ripple’s XRP. But here it comes. In January SWIFT announced a partnership with R3 were they are collaborating to test Corda Settler, specifically to “integrate gpi with Corda Settler.” However, as Corda Settler depends on the XRP token, the partnership puts SWIFT and Ripple, the two rivals in an indirect connection. Will that result in a love triangle or even a “marriage a trois”? And could that work?

But first: What is Corda Settler?

In December last year, R3 announced the launch of Corda Settler. Corda Settler is designed in such a way to give companies a new fast, secure and reliable way to move crypto and traditional assets on a distributed ledger. The Corda Settler app is an open-source decentralized application (DApp), that runs on the Corda blockchain. It is aimed to facilitate global (crypto) payments across enterprise blockchain networks with Ripple’s XRP as its base currency. Corda Settler thereby focuses on the settlement of payments transactions between crypto and traditional assets within enterprise blockchains.

Corda Settler uses XRP

Both Corda and Ripple are open-source blockchain platforms with a focus on serving enterprise businesses. Therefore, it makes sense that Corda selected XRP, the globally recognized cryptocurrency, as the first and only supported cryptocurrency for settlement on the platform.

“The deployment of the Corda Settler and its support for XRP as the first settlement mechanism is an important step in showing how the powerful ecosystems cultivated by two of the world’s most influential crypto and blockchain communities can work together.” “While the Settler will be open to all forms of crypto and traditional assets, this demonstration with XRP is the next logical step in showing how widespread acceptance and use of digital assets to transfer value and make payments can be achieved.” Richard Gendal Brown, CTO at R3

While Ripple’s XRP is the first cryptocurrency supported by the Corda Settler, in the future it is very likely that R3 will make settlement in other cryptocurrencies possible.

“The Corda Settler is agnostic to which payment method is used. Whether it’s JP Morgan coin, or Wells Fargo coin, or BAML coin, or HSBC coin, it doesn’t matter to us. We have no horse in that race.” “We don’t have any financial incentives one way or another. We’re just trying to get as many people onto our platform as possible.”David Rutter, CEO of R3

How does Corda Settler work?

The platform is still in its first stages of development. Corda Settler supports payments of all sorts to be settled through “any parallel rail supporting cryptocurrencies or other crypto assets”. Also any traditional rail capable of providing cryptographic proof of settlement can settle payments obligations. In the next phase of development, the Settler will also support domestic deferred net settlement and real-time gross settlement payments.

In its current phase, when a payment obligation arises on the Corda blockchain during the course of business, any of the parties involved now have the option to request settlement using XRP. The other party can be notified that settlement in XRP has been requested and that they must instruct a payment to the required address before the specified deadline presented to them.

After they make the payment, an oracle service will ensure the validity of the payment and settle the obligation. Uniquely, the Corda Settler will verify that the beneficiary’s account was credited with the expected payment, automatically updating the Corda ledger.

What does Corda Settler mean for the parties involved?

It is clear that in the transaction initiated by Corda Settler, the receiving party doesn’t need to use Corda to receive the payment. At the same time, it is not mandatory for the sending party to use XRP or any other cryptocurrency.

This means that using the Corda Settler; one can send XRP or dollar and the receiver can accept the payment in an entirely different currency. “Settlement Oracle” will broadcast the actual settlement notification. It can be operated through different entities like exchanges, banks, and others.

It will thus allow banks and other financial institutions to build their blockchain networks with minimum overheads. They don’t need to integrate the R3 technology fully. All they need is to let their clients receive deposits via Corda-enabled services.

SWIFT partnership with Corda

End January SWIFT has announced its partnership with R3’s Corda Settler to launch a proof-of-concept (PoC). The trial would see the interaction of SWIFT’s payments standard framework GPI (Global Payments Innovation) with R3’s trade finance platform.

“Following the recent launch of our Corda Settler, allowing for the payment of obligations raised on the Corda platform, it was a logical extension to plug into SWIFT gpi. SWIFT gpi has rapidly become the new standard to settle payments right across the world. All the blockchain applications running on Corda will thus benefit from the fast, secure and transparent settlement provided through the SWIFT gpi banks.” David E. Rutter, CEO of R3

Global Payments Innovation (GPI)

This trial will integrate SWIFT’s GPI Link cross border payments gateway with R3’s Corda Settler platform to enable the continuous monitoring and control of payment flows, settle GPI payments through their bank, and receive credit information.

SWIFT’s GPI is a messaging system based on existing messaging standards and bank payment processing systems. It has rapidly become the new standard to settle payments right across the world. The integration will also support application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as SWIFT and ISO standards to ensure global integration and interoperability.

It aims to provide quick and cost-effective transfers between SWIFT members. Through GPI “SWIFT hopes to assist banks enhance their relevance within the fast-evolving international payments ecosystem – by delivering immediate value to SWIFT’s members’ customers”.

Goal of the SWIFT-Corda Settler PoC

The objective of the PoC-trial is to try out interlinking of trade and e-commerce platforms with GPI – SWIFT’s new standard for cross-border payments and is an extension of other SWIFT trials with blockchaintechnology. These platforms need global, fast, secure and transparent settlement, preferably using fiat currencies.

“With the gpi Link, banks will be able to provide rapid, transparent settlement services to e-commerce and trading platforms, opening up whole new ecosystems to the speed, security, ubiquity and transparency of gpi and enabling them to grow and prosper in the new digital economy. Given the adoption of the Corda platform by trade ecosystems, it was a natural choice to run this proof of concept with R3.” Luc Meurant, SWIFT’s Chief Marketing Officer

“SWIFT GPI will integrate directly to Corda Settler, the application that allows participants on the Corda blockchain to initiate and settle payment obligations via both traditional and blockchain-based rails. This will enable obligations created or represented on Corda to be settled via the large and growing SWIFT GPI network”.R3 co-founder Todd McDonald

While SWIFT is keen to experiment with the possibilities opened up by blockchain-based trades, they are much less enthusiastic about using cryptocurrencies such as XRP.

Objective

The SWIFT and R3 Corda Settler trial will enable corporates to authorise payments from their banks via a GPI link to their bank through the Corda Settler platform. GPI payments will be settled by the corporates’ banks, and the resulting credit confirmations will be reported back to the respective trade platforms via GPI Link on completion.

By enabling trade platform ecosystems using Corda to integrate ‘GPI Link’ into their trade environments, SWIFT hopes to extend its reach beyond member banks to include to a wider range of corporates and markets.

The first stage of the PoC will work with R3’s Corda blockchain platform, Corda. SWIFT says it will not limit ‘GPI Link’ to R3’s DLT-based trade environment. SWIFT has plans, if the Corda PoC is successful, to extend the trial to other DLT, non-DLT and e-commerce trade platforms. The results of the PoC will be demonstrated – as a prototype – at Sibos in London in September 2019.

Corda Settler: Fiat currencies versus XRP

Swift said it is not (yet) using XRP on Corda Settler!. And that for a number of reasons.

“All trade platforms require tight linkages with trusted, fast and secure cross-border payments mechanisms such as GPI. While DLT-enabled trade is taking off, there is still little appetite for settlement in cryptocurrencies and a pressing need for fast and safe settlement in fiat currencies”. Luc Meurant, SWIFT’s chief marketing officer

According to SWIFT CEO Leibbrandt banks simply are not prepared to use a cryptocurrency as a clearing unit due to its price volatility. It appears that most banks prefer to use Corda’s technology for rapid and transparent settlement services in fiat currency rather than cryptocurrencies. Most enterprises prefer to settle via traditional payment mechanisms, albeit wishing for greater visibility into what is happening to payments and receipts. This leads to the need for trade platforms to have fast and safe settlement in fiat currencies.

“I think that the big part of Ripple’s value proposition is the cryptocurrency XRP. There we do find the banks are hesitant to convert things into a cryptocurrency right now because of the volatility in the currencies.” Leibbrandt, SWIFT CEO

Another reason why SWIFT is hesitant (not willing) to use crypto currencies is because the legal status of XRP and other cryptocurrencies remains unclear due to the current uncertain regulatory environment. Risk averse financial institutions are unlikely to adopt cryptocurrencies until regulations become clearer.

Ripple’s CEO Garlinghouse however argues back that “with SWIFT payments taking days and XRP payments clearing within seconds, SWIFT transfers are actually subject to much greater volatility due to fluctuating foreign currency rates”. At present, the banks take on that volatility risk by guaranteeing the amount sent will match the amount received. Because of XRP’s speed, which executes transactions in a matter of seconds, Ripple says it ‘eclipses’ volatility risk. With near-instant XRP-backed transfers, that volatility risk is actually completed eliminated.

“I hear people talk about volatility and I feel like they’re propagating this misinformation. Mathematically, there’s less volatility risk in an XRP transaction than there is in a fiat transaction.” Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO

Garlinghouse countered SWIFT’s legal arguments saying that every XRP transaction is vetted for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. Finally, Garlinghouse added that XRP payments greatly reduce systemic risks to banks in smaller economies, which have to use large amounts of money to prefund international transfers.

Mariage à trois?

With the launch of a universal settler app for payments on the Corda blockchain platform, using XRP as its first crypto payment trail, this may bring the Corda and XRP ecosystems into closer alignment.

Now SWIFT has partnered with blockchain consortium R3, we are in the strange position wherein SWIFT will be possibly be trailing Ripple XRP-powered payments. Through its experimental integration with R3, SWIFT may be indirectly integrating with XRP, though Leibbrandt has no desire to work with XRP directly.

It is still to be seen whether SWIFT will move beyond the proof of concept stage. But that might change. The future of SWIFT and Ripple’s relationship will not lay in the hands of present CEO Leibbrandt, as he will be stepping down as SWIFT CEO in June. His successor may be more receptive for the new world.

It is still speculative  that the proof of concept — or a future trial — could see SWIFT being more interested in cryptocurrency settlement. On the other hand Ripple will do its utmost by leveraging its relationship with R3 to convince (SWIFT-related) banks to take the dive into cryptocurrency via the Corda Settler platform.

For now, the complex links between SWIFT, Ripple, and R3 are sure to trigger continued debate about the future of global finance.

Read the full article here

 

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

IBM Blockchain: growing competition in payments

| 30-4-2019 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL

Last year October I wrote a blog about IBM’s World Wire project. In that month they announced to come to the market with a global blockchain network for cross-border payments and foreign exchange for regulated financial firms using digital assets. But at that time it was not yet ready for production.

A month ago the firm has announced that World Wire has been sent into limited production. According to IBM “this is the first blockchain-based network that integrates payment messaging, clearing, and settlement on a single network”. The World Wire network will support instantaneous foreign exchange payment and settlement in locations in more than 70 countries, supporting close to 50 currencies and 45 banking endpoints.

This will definitely lead to growing competition in the payments industry. What could that mean for institutions like Ripple and SWIFT?

Why is World Wire needed?

But firstly, why is World Wire needed? And other blockchain solutions? International money transfers especially remittances make up an important part of the global economy. According to the World Bank, migrants across the world sent an estimated $574 billion to relatives in their home countries in 2016.

Current global payment systems however are not adequate enough for the high number of transactions that are happening across the world. Nowadays banks have to go through inefficient processes involving many intermediaries for both the clearing and settlement to conclude these transactions. Sending money across borders today is as a result a time-consuming and costly process.

What is World Wire?

On March 18, IBM announced the launch of IBM World Wire, a global network for regulated financial institutions to simultaneously clear and settle cross-border payments in real time. First unveiled last year October, World Wire now has entered the production stage.

“We’ve created a new type of payment network designed to accelerate remittances and transform cross-border payments to facilitate the movement of money in countries that need it most.” “By creating a network where financial institutions support multiple digital assets, we expect to spur innovation and improve financial inclusion worldwide.” Marie Wieck, General Manager, IBM Blockchain.

The platform is designed for fast and easy cross-border payments, foreign exchange, and remittances, thereby integrating payment messaging, clearing, and settlement on a single, unified network. The aim of the IBM Worldwide Wire payment system is to remove the function of banking intermediaries to international payment options, thereby lowering the cost and at the same time the transaction speed.

“World Wire’s novelty in the blockchain space regarding settlements is that payment messaging and instructions for settlements can happen in real-time. Hence driving all sorts of efficiencies into the process mainly because you’re doing things on one network, i.e. reconciling information and post fact isn’t necessary.” Jesse Lund, VP Blockchain and Digital Currencies IBM

The platform is developed on the open-source Stellar’s blockchain network. This operates as the backbone of their payment solution, allowing cross-border payment settlements in near real time using digital assets as a bridge currency. It is said that the settlements can be done in five to 10 seconds.

Read the full article of our expert Carlo de Meijer on LinkedIn

 

Carlo de Meijer 

Economist and researcher

 

Information Session at VU Finance Amsterdam

| 25-4-2019 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam |


We would like to invite you to the Information Session of the Executive Education finance programmes at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on Tuesday 7 May 2019.

It concerns:

This evening gives an insight into the content and organisation of the different programmes we offer.

Anyone interested in these programmes is welcome. We herewith kindly request you to inform potential candidates in your office or your network, about this evening.

Please register here.

We look forward to meeting you!

PROGRAMME

17.30 hrs.             Welcome with coffee, tea, and sandwiches
18:00 – 18:45 hrs. Investment Management & Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
19:00 – 19:45 hrs. Risk Management for Financial Institutions (RFMI)
20:00 – 20:45 hrs. Treasury Management and Corporate Finance (TM&CF)

LOCATION

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Agora complex
De Boelelaan 1105
Amsterdam

CONTACT

Investment Management (IM) & Chartered Financial Management (CFA)
Emiel Erbé
[email protected]
020-5986118

Risk Management for Financial Institutions (RFMI)
Michelle Habets
[email protected]
020-5986159

Treasury Management & Corporate Finance (TM&CF)
Myrthe Scholze
[email protected]
020-5987231

 

 

Trusted Payments

| 25-2-2019 | François de Witte | treasuryXL |

In any business transaction, there are risks. The Buyer wants to be sure to receive the goods or services before he makes the payment. On the other hand, the Seller wants to be sure to have his money before he releases the goods or deliver the services. The risks increase when the Buyer and the Seller are not within the same country.

In order to bridge this gap, for large overseas cross border transactions, the banks have developed specific services, such as the documentary credit, the documentary collection and the bank guarantees. Whilst these instruments prove to be reliable, they are quite expensive and paper-based, and hence are not suited for transactions of lower amounts or with small margins.

In my current company, SafeTrade Holdings, which deliver services linked to the domestic and cross-border sale of used vehicles, we were confronted with this problem, in particular for the cross-border sales of used vehicles.

At the start, the parties – who do not know each other – do not trust each other. The Seller wants to make sure to get the cash payment at the end of the sale. The Buyer wishes to avoid a risky cash transfer and ensure that the vehicle matches his expectations and that the payment will only be released once the car has been delivered.

Safe Trade has been looking for an innovative service aimed at ensuring payment security. We have discussed with various providers in the market and have found one smart solution, the trusted payment, developed by Digiteal, a FinTech which is also a Payment Institution recognized by the National Bank of Belgium.

How does it work

The trusted payment aims to establish a relationship of trust between two parties carrying out a financial transaction within the framework of a common project (used vehicle purchase-sale, real estate operation, etc.).

The process is initiated by the Seller or an Intermediary who will invite the Buyer to transfer the cash to a trusted account (segregated account), which can be compared to an electronic safe. The money can only be released once both Buyer and Seller confirm the success of the operation to release the money.

The stages of the transaction are the following:

  1. Account creation by the Buyer and the Seller. The Intermediary creates via the Digiteal application a request inviting the Buyer to pay the sale price in the trusted account. The Intermediary will bear the transaction cost.
  2. The Buyer pays the amount of the sales price to the trusted account. The Seller and the Intermediary are notified as soon as the money has arrived on Digiteal’s segregated account.
  3. The Seller, the Intermediary and the Buyer are ready for the exchange. The Buyer verifies the condition and conformity of the vehicle. The Buyer and the Seller validate the transaction through the Digiteal application
  4. Once validated, the sale price is released from Digiteal’s segregated account and transferred to the bank account of the Seller and to the one of the intermediary. The Seller receives the confirmation of the release of the funds in his favour and the money will be on his account within 2 working days at the latest.
  5. The Buyer leaves with the car.

Figure: Trusted Payment with split:

Benefits of the solution and next steps

The main benefits of the trusted payment solution are that it secures a sale transaction. Other benefits include:

  • The fact the all processes are digital and can be processed on an intuitive mobile application
  • There is a full KYC, but this is handled in a user-friendly way
  • The trusted payment supports the split billing
  • The amount to be released to the Seller can be amended.
  • The pricing is competitive

The solution will be extended to other goods and services, where we are currently developing new use cases. We are also examining the possibility to provide alternatives to replace the signing process leading to the release of the funds. One could imagine that at the start of the transaction, the Buyer and the Seller agree on a specific set of documents which would trigger the release of the money through a Smart Contract. This could avoid litigation between the Buyer and the Seller.

François de Witte – Founder & Senior Consultant at FDW Consult; Managing Director and CFO at SafeTrade Holding S.A.

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Blockchain and big Data​: A great mariage

| 12-2-2019 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL

Blockchain and Big Data are among the emerging technologies that are high on many companies’ agendas. Both are expected to radically transform the way businesses and organizations are run in the upcoming years. Long-time developing in a separate way, at first sight one might assume that these technologies are mutually exclusive. But that idea is rapidly changing.

There are growing expectations that distributed ledgers will help enterprises finally get to grips with Big Data, which thus far is struggling with a number of challenges. They are both powerful on their own, however when combined they may bring a large number of opportunities. Some even say that blockchain and Big Data are made for one another.

“Big Data is an incredibly profitable business, with revenues expected to grow to $203 billion by 2020. The data within the blockchain is predicted to be worth trillions of dollars as it continues to make its way into banking, micropayments, remittances, and other financial services. In fact, the blockchain ledger could be worth up to 20% of the total big data market by 2030, producing up to $100 billion in annual revenue.” Chris Neimeth, COO of NYC Data Science Academy.

In this blog I will look at what the interception of these two innovations may bring. Could blockchain be the solution for the existing Big Data issues and challenges?

Big data and data science/analytics: present challenges

Big Data is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. Every business wants to get insights into usage patterns of their consumers. Massive datasets are thereby analysed using advanced statistical models and data mining. These Big Data sets will become even more prevalent over the coming years.

“It’s not the amount of data that’s important. It’s what organizations do with the data that matters. Big data can be analysed for insights that lead to better decisions and strategic business moves.” Data Analytics Company SAS

“Data analytics has become the key to corporate competitive advantage because of its role in identifying emerging market trends. In turn, companies can use this information to make quicker and better decisions that help them drive profitability”.EY

The rise of Big Data has presented a slew of issues for both big businesses and everyday consumers. With the growth in data good analytics is becoming all the more problematic. Some major problems to data management and analytics include so-called dirty data, inaccessible data, and privacy issues. And as Big Data increases in size and the web of connected devices explodes, it exposes more of companies data to potential security breaches..

With the advent of Big Data, data quality management is both more important and more challenging than ever. Companies that are dealing with large datasets should ensure that the data are clean, secure and not been modified and come from an authentic source. They have to make sure that the latest version is synchronized among all of the data centres in real time. It should also be ensured that these data are accessible. For most, however, the data silos are still a major issue and a full company-wide digital transformation is still more concept that reality.

Blockchain and Big Data: two sides of the same coin

Main question is: how do both technologies relate to each other, if any? Notwithstanding blockchain has not been explored extensively in aspects of Big Data management and analytics, both technologies could and should be seen as two sides of the same coin.

While blockchain is focused on recording validating data (data integrity), data science analyses data for actionable insight, making predictions from large amounts of data (prediction). While blockchain is changing data management, the latter is transforming the nature of transactions. Or said in another way: “If Big Data is the quantity, blockchain is the quality”.

Read the full article of our expert Carlo de Meijer on LinkedIn

 

Carlo de Meijer

Economist and researcher

 

Management of Large Treasury Teams

| 11-2-2019 | by  Pieter de Kiewit |

Last month I was contacted by one of our clients -we found many staff members for them- about the organisation of the treasury team. The team has over 10 employees and recently has undergone extensive changes. We both know there is not one way to set up a team and after a short brainstorm, we decided it might be a good idea to gather her peers for a round table meeting. What can we learn from each other?

Last Friday a small group of treasury people managers, each of their teams has 10 members or more, gathered for a two hour meeting. The expected topics were team structure, hierarchy, job titles and the profile of the ideal treasury team member. Our hypothesis was that there are certain standards most of us can apply to optimize our treasury teams.
After a brief introduction it became quickly clear there were more than enough topics, two hours was not enough. And the aforementioned standards might exist but this meeting did not result in making them very clear. This in line with a previous blog I wrote about the shape and size of treasury teams. The following observations dominated the meeting:

  • The size and structure of a treasury team depends on questions about the company like: is it a HQ treasury or treasury hub?, what is the geographical footprint of the company?, what is the primary process of the company?, what is the maturity of the company as a whole and the willingness to invest in support functions?
  • Technology has an increasing impact on corporate treasury. Cloud and other solutions enable outsourcing, although the following remarkable statement was made: “if you can outsource it,  you can automate it”. One of the participants told exciting initiatives using robotics;
  • Substantial time was spent on HR aspects like how to deal with Millenials, age versus IT literacy, hiring the ambitious and unstable candidate versus the stable non-ambitious one and how do you screen to hire the proper candidate (see also our blog about the Treasurer Test).

The variety of topics, the different points of view and approaches applied by treasury managers is inspiring. As was the energy and enthusiasm of all participants. Together with them I will decide how we will proceed. Let me know if you want to join this initiative!

Pieter de Kiewit

 

 

Pieter de Kiewit
Owner Treasurer Search

 

 

Effective Finance & Treasury in Africa: Unlocking Africa’s potential

| 8-2-2019| Eurofinance | treasuryXL |

As Africa strives to modernise and reform, the continent continues to offer enormous business opportunities. Nevertheless, in an environment of permanent market, regulatory and geopolitical change, optimising liquidity and risk management is key to successfully leveraging these opportunities.

While we move towards an economy of prediction in which data is the raw material of business, digitalisation is changing the way companies manage treasury in Africa. Lack of visibility, speed and control will soon be a thing of the past. Initiatives such as Vision 2020 in Nigeria are fast driving digitalisation in areas that include legal and finance. The adoption of real time payments and faster reconciliation in several markets are helping treasuries improve working capital. Mobile solutions have changed the payments landscape in Kenya specially and increasingly across the region. Blockchain technology could help drive efficiency too.

Who should attend?

Corporate treasury and finance professionals who are responsible for their company’s African operations – whether you are already in Africa or thinking about it.

Product, sales and marketing teams from financial institutions and service providers who want to meet with corporate treasurers and better understand the challenges they face in Africa.

Why attend?

Hear how you can tap into the potential of this dynamic region

Connect with other treasurers and finance professionals operating in Africa facing the same challenges as you and finding ways to overcome them.

Meet the key banks and solution providers operating in the region.

Hear corporate case studies from treasurers who have overcome the challenges you are currently facing.

Hone in on your area of interest by joining round table discussions on: Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, West African Economic and Monetary Union and Trade Finance in Africa.

Thursday 7 March 2019
8 AM – 6 PM
Greenwich Mean Time

Hilton Canary Wharf, London, UK

For more information or if you want to register for the event visit the events website.

 

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ACT CASH MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE

| 31-1-2019 |  treasuryXL |

The 15th edition of the ACT Cash Management Conference takes place on 12 February 2019 in London.

The ACT’s flagship cash management event of the year provides a unique opportunity to share best practice, hear practical case studies from leading corporates and network with fellow cash management and treasury professionals.

Programme

The payments landscape: keep up to date with the latest changes in payments innovation and regulation:

  • the latest regulatory changes and payment fraud (panels)
  • cross-border payments, the New Payments Systems Organisation (breakout sessions)
  • setting up a payments factory (best-in-class case study)

Cash management evergreens: lack of control and visibility remain the top cash management challenges for treasurers. Discuss key questions such as:

  • what really makes good cash management? (panel)
  • cash pooling structures and trapped cash (breakout sessions)
  • how to get cash forecasting right from the beginning (best-in-class case study)

The bigger picture:look beyond day-to-day cash management and listen to frank discussions on:

  • the profitability of cash management products from a bank’s perspective (panel)
  • designing an optimised liquidity portfolio (breakout session)
  • the future of cash management innovation (panel)

For more information or if you want to register for the event visit the events website.

 

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Treasury Intelligence Solutions: Centralizing Corporate Payments System

| 29-1-2019 | TIS Treasury Intelligence Solutions | treasuryXL

Interview with CEO and Co-Founder of TIS Jörg Wiemer by CIOReview

In today’s era where the face of IT is changing drastically, enterprises are facing a multitude of challenges germane to regulation, risk management, and most importantly performing business to business payments. Having served as senior vice president and global treasury veteran at SAP, Jörg Wiemer, the CEO and Co-founder of Treasury Intelligence Solutions (TIS) highlights that corporate transactions often involve multiple parties from both internal and external departments, and the legacy systems often cause recurrent delays in payments. The failure to bring this mission-critical process under control may affect the supplier relationship to the extent that the supplier may discontinue the business relationship. In the thick of grave challenges, modern CIOs are keen to bring in a robust technology that assists them to streamline payment processes. At TIS, the leadership brings to bear its vast experience to aid enterprises to efficiently and effortlessly manage corporate payments and cash flows through a SaaS platform.

The platform works as a central hub that is dedicated for enterprises to manage, organize, and analyze their corporate payments flowing across and within the organization. Through the power of SaaS, TIS’ cloud-based platform helps clients quickly connect their ERP systems with different banks to manage bank accounts. Moreover, the platform allows enterprises to perform analysis of liquidity and cash flow in real time. It also conveniently addresses complexities triggered by different communication protocols and channels, enabling clients to communicate and process transactions in their customers’ preferred language. “The clients can simply leverage the library of bank formats and the bank connector, which we have built over the last year, to allow transactions between ERPs and banks seamlessly,” informs Wiemer.

By challenging the status quo of legacy solutions, the TIS platform empowers multiple leadership executives with the ability to make smarter decisions and assists them to process, view, and analyze transactions in real time using a cash flow analytics feature. Cementing the digitalization objective of enterprises, the TIS cloud platform helps keep processes fully under control through increased efficiency, visibility, and transparency in corporate payments and audit trails.

“The clients can simply leverage the library of bank formats and the bank connector, which we have built over the last year, to allow seamless transactions between ERPs and banks”

Citing an instance, Wiemer brings to fore the case of a luxury goods company, Oettinger Davidoff AG, which faced the challenge in standardizing their payment processes while restructuring their ERP systems to migrate to SAP S/4HANA. Aside from centralizing their international payment transactions, the retail company sought to achieve a better overview of a large part of the liquidity in the company. Partnering with TIS, the client had seamless SAP integration and quick bank format hosting, which helped them successively onboard all the bank accounts to SAP without any hassle. Fast-forward to today, the client has about ten bank accounts of foreign subsidiaries in Switzerland that are connected to the TIS platform to perform all of the international payments of local subsidiaries.

Having researched the potential market for corporate payments solutions, Wiemer states that the total market for “ERP systems” is roughly about $80 billion (ERP) per year and for “payments” $1,000 billion per year, respectively. Tapping this huge market, TIS initially plans to expand its wings to Europe and the U.S. within the next month. The success of TIS reflects in its rich portfolio of clients from diverse industries including finance and insurance, retail and automobile, among others. Emphasizing the fact that TIS continues to help customers switch into a new way to collaborate and execute payments, Wiemer concludes saying, “The fintech industry will fuel the payments industry to become more efficient over time, and it will have customers save cost immensely.”

Original published on CIOReview