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Meet our Experts – Interview François de Witte
07-07-2020 | François de Witte | treasuryXL
After having worked for more than 30 years in banking, our expert François de Witte launched his own consultancy activity, FDW Consult, specialized in finance and treasury consulting. From 2014 to 2016, he was also Solution Partner Treasury & Finance at USG Professionals. Since then he took up several assignments, including one in the automotive sector with Ginion Group and with Ibanity, part of Isabel Group in the area of PSD2 and open banking. He currently is Senior Project Manager Treasury at Gaming1 (part of Ardent-Group). He is also co-founder and CFO of SafeTrade Holding. Key areas of expertise:
We asked him 11 questions, let’s go!
1. How did your treasury journey start?
My roots are not really in treasury, because I have spent 30 years in banking with ING. Mid-2013, I made a major career move to treasury & finance. I could thereby leverage on the expertise I acquired in both Corporate Banking and Payments & Cash Management.
2. What do you like about working in Treasury?
The diversity of topics and people with whom you are in contact. The treasurer monitors the cash & finance, and is in the frontline of the circulatory system of the company. In addition, in view of the technology developments and the globalisation, treasury is a fast moving discipline,
3. What is your Treasury Expertise?
Based upon a gap analysis, during the first couple of years, I strengthened my expertise in the other areas of treasury by self-training. I also started training in some subject matters, at the university and at other training organisations, and this is a good way to keep yourself updated on the latest developments.
4. Do you have examples of risk mitigation, creation of opportunities and/or cost savings?
I have done quite a number of consultancy assignments. In one of them, thanks to a complete review of the processes, including also the business, we managed to gain some 10-15 days working capital management. In another project, we reviewed the account structure and the bank lines and could generate substantial savings. During a treasury scan, I was able to identify foreign exchange risks, which had not been spotted by the management.
5. What has been your best experience in your treasury career until today?
In my current assignment, we have selected a TMS-solution (Kyriba) and are currently finalising the implementation. Simultaneously we created a cash pooling and an In-House bank and streamlined the processes.
6. What has been your biggest challenge in treasury?
When starting in treasury, I did not have experience on the field, and needed to switch from a banker’s approach to a corporate approach. If you want to be successful, you need to also have operational experience. I have spent at the start quite a lot to train myself and to get up to speed in treasury.
7. What’s the most important lesson that you’ve learned as a treasurer?
Cash is and remains king. It is very important to make the management aware of the importance of cash, even if a company is in a cash-rich position.
8. How have you seen the role of Corporate Treasury evolve over the years?
The Treasurer is becoming a business partner of the whole group. As a treasury, you get a good transversal view of the business flows. This is very nice because you are in the cockpit of the finance department.
9. The coronavirus is undoubtedly an unprecedented crisis. In general, can you elaborate on the impact this virus has on treasury from your perspective?
The COVID crisis was a wake-up call. It reminds us that it is important to keep the focus on cash and working capital management. It also highlighted the importance of good well-balanced banking relationships. During the last years, some corporates did not put the right attention to this.
10. What developments do you expect in corporate treasury in the near and further future?
Cash will remain dominant. In addition, we have the automation enabling to work more efficiently. I also see AI (Artificial Intelligence) as enabler, e.g. for cash forecasting. Blockchain will also add value in some areas, such as documentary trade.
11. What is your best advice for businesses without a Treasurer?
Even if you do not have the critical mass to justify a treasury department, give it the right attention. Try to understand the drivers of your cash generation and to identify the risks. I would also recommend to invest in a treasury management scan.
François de Witte
Founder & Senior Consultant at FDW Consult
Does your business need support in Treasury or a Treasury QuickScan?
5 examples for improving Financial Stamina
| 03-07-2020 | Stichting MKB Financiering | treasuryXL
It is quite easy to determine the financial stamina of a SME. Solvency is a reliable measure of this. If a company has a solvency of 35% or more, the company is in a healthy condition and has sufficient borrowing capacity for further growth. If the solvency is less than 35%, it is advisable to work on improving the condition. Borrowing money further affects solvency, so be cautious about this and work on improving the condition or improving solvency. The question now is: how?
Blog continues in Dutch language.
Actief de solvabiliteit verbeteren
Er zijn een aantal mogelijkheden om actief de solvabiliteit, lees financieel uithoudingsvermogen, van een bedrijf te verbeteren. We noemen vijf voorbeelden met daarbij de behorende kenmerken:
1. Winstinhouding
Door jaarlijks de winst aan het vermogen toe te voegen en geen of nauwelijks dividend uit te keren groeit het eigen vermogen gestaag. Een gezonde methode. Echter, deze vergt veel tijd. Het vergt soms jaren van sparen en de hand op de knip houden.
2. Balansverkorting
Het afstoten van overbodige activa en een scherper werkkapitaalbeheer (verkleining voorraad, sneller innen van debiteuren) voeren. Dit zijn eenmalige verbeteringen. Het aanwezige eigen vermogen verbetert er niet door.
3. Inbreng extra kapitaal door de ondernemer / aandeelhouder(s)
Net als winstinhouding is dit een gezonde methode; áls de aandeelhouders over middelen beschikken: breng het in! Op de spaarrekening levert het immers geen rendement. En dankzij de toename van het eigen vermogen kan de schuldpositie afnemen.
4. Inbreng kapitaal door derden
Kapitaal door derden inbrengen kan vanuit vrienden- of familiekring, maar ook via informal investors, participatiemaatschappijen en ROM’s. Een prima oplossing Hiermee kan snel een aanzienlijke verbetering van de vermogenspositie worden gerealiseerd. Overigens zijn veel ondernemers terughoudend: de ondernemer is niet meer enig aandeelhouder en moet dus meer verantwoording afleggen. Een argument dat voorbij gaat aan de voordelen: andere aandeelhouders brengen niet alleen geld in, ook vaak hun kennis, visie en netwerk. Het biedt extra kans op professionele groei van het bedrijf
5. Werknemersparticipatie
Dit is een instrument waardoor medewerkers van een bedrijf kunnen deelnemen in (certificaten van) de aandelen van hun werkgever. De medewerkers worden mede eigenaar van het bedrijf. Het levert naast (beperkt) extra eigen vermogen ook iets extra’s op: nog meer betrokkenheid en vaak positieve gedragsverandering. Deze vorm van financieren past in de moderne tijd waarin medewerkers meer onafhankelijk, bewust en vaak specialistisch opgeleid zijn. Een medewerkersparticipatie kan leiden tot extra (ver-)binding.
Eigen vermogen versterken niet eenvoudig
Hoe fraai deze opsomming van mogelijkheden ook is, in de praktijk blijkt het voor de meeste MKB bedrijven niet eenvoudig te zijn het eigen vermogen te versterken. Er zijn geen ‘eenvoudige’ loketten voor eigen vermogen zoals die er zijn voor vreemd vermogen (via banken en de non-bancaire kredietverstrekkers). Er is geen loket voor de MKB onderneming met een balanstotaal van € 300.000, die bijvoorbeeld behoefte heeft aan een eigen vermogensverbetering van € 50.000. Het ontbreken van zo’n loket voor eigen vermogen ‘drijft’ ondernemers dus automatisch naar de markt van vreemd vermogen.
Financieringsgraad te hoog door vreemd vermogen
Vreemd vermogen is goedkoop, fiscaal aantrekkelijk en goed verkrijgbaar. Dat heeft geleid tot een hoge financieringsgraad (dus lage solvabiliteit) van MKB ondernemingen. Gevolg: het financiële uithoudingsvermogen is aangetast én kan niet eenvoudig worden hersteld. Een dilemma dat vraagt om nadere aandacht.
Toegang eigen vermogensversterking MKB verbeteren
Een verbetering van de eigen vermogenspositie van MKB bedrijven leidt tot een verbetering van het financiële uithoudingsvermogen, hetgeen vervolgens de toegang tot overige financiering verbetert. Binnenkort gaan we nader in op de vraag: op welke wijze zou voor het MKB de toegang tot eigen vermogensversterking verbeterd kunnen worden?
Bron
Overwhelmed by FX Administration? Your Provider Can Help With That
02-07-2020 | treasuryXL | XE |
Foreign exchange isn’t always about the big trades. For many organizations that deal with international currencies, they find that their FX needs start small. It may not seem like it, but your routine, day-to-day operations could be a larger FX risk exposure than you think.
Whether your ordinary operations are taking up time and resources that could—and should—be devoted to other matters or your current processes aren’t as efficient as they could be, one important step to managing your organization’s FX risk is taking a look at how your organization is handling transactions.
If you feel that you’re having trouble handling your transaction volume or you’re not handling your international payments as well as you could be, don’t worry: this is where your FX provider can help you out.
What can go wrong with day-to-day transactions?
Depending on how many your business makes each day, these typical, everyday operations could be taking up a large portion of your business’s time and resources. This time and resources could be more valuably spent elsewhere. Assess your operations and think carefully—are there any areas of your business that you think you’re neglecting because of how much time you need to devote to minute transactions? Are you missing out on the bigger picture because you’re too focused on the small things? When you assess your foreign exchange risk exposures, remember to consider everyday operations as well as the larger scope.
In addition, elaborate, inconvenient processes could end up causing trouble for your business. If, for example, you rely on employees to take care of manual data entry or transactions, there’s always the chance that human error could cause some unnecessary delays, or worse.
This is a common problem for fast-growing SMEs. Founders and owners want to monitor international payments and ensure that everything is being taken care of according to their standards, but they don’t have the time to monitor and physically process everything the way they’d like to.
Who should you turn to in order to ensure that your payments are being taken care of in a way that is efficient but still effective and up to your standards? This is where your FX provider comes in.
How can your foreign exchange provider help?
As we’ve said before, your foreign exchange provider does much more than help you find the best exchange rates. FX providers offer a wide range of products and services to assist their clients with their overseas payments, and one of these services is processing (or even automating) payments.
For example, your provider may be able to create a system that grants some users administrator rights to do the processing work while reserving payment authority for specific individuals. They can also offer secure, reliable, and straightforward processing, and they should be able to help you trace delayed payments. Depending on the volume and nature of your payments, they may also be able to help you automate them, or at least vastly cut down on the amount of time and resources it takes to make a transaction.
Finding the right solutions can take time, and it starts with the right FX provider. If your current provider doesn’t offer these solutions, or you haven’t found theirs to be as effective as you’d like, it’s important to shop around until you can find the provider that can help you to manage the administrative side of your transactions while maintaining the right level of quality and security.
At XE, they provide a broad range of currency services and products to businesses around the world. XE experts will work with you to ensure that your foreign exchange procedures are the right ones for your business and its needs.
Get in touch with XE.com
About XE.com
XE can help safeguard your profit margins and improve cashflow through quantifying the FX risk you face and implementing unique strategies to mitigate it. XE Business Solutions provides a comprehensive range of currency services and products to help businesses access competitive rates with greater control.
Deciding when to make an international payment and at what rate can be critical. XE Business Solutions work with businesses to protect bottom-line from exchange rate fluctuations, while the currency experts and risk management specialists act as eyes and ears in the market to protect your profits from the world’s volatile currency markets.
Your company money is safe with XE, their NASDAQ listed parent company, Euronet Worldwide Inc., has a multibillion-dollar market capitalization, and an investment grade credit rating. With offices in the UK, Canada, Europe, APAC and North America they have a truly global coverage.
Are you curious to know more about XE?
Maurits Houthoff, senior business development manager at XE.com, is always in for a cup of coffee, mail or call to provide you detailed information.
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