BCR Publishing
We are the leading provider of news, market intelligence, events and training for the global receivables finance industry.
Working with industry leading organisations, experts, governments and universities, BCR Publications delivers expertise in factoring, receivables and supply chain finance to a global audience.
BCR has long been a beacon of innovation and excellence in the realm of receivables finance, playing an instrumental role in shaping the industry’s international landscape. Through its comprehensive conferences, insightful publications, and thought leadership, BCR has facilitated crucial dialogues and connections among industry professionals, driving forward the development of receivables finance globally.
Gartner Blockchain Spectrum: a great tool for CIOs
| 08-4-2019 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL
CIOs of companies are increasingly showing their interest in blockchain technology. In PwCs 2018 survey amongst a large number of business executives from 15 different industries in various countries, more than 80% of the respondents said their company was actively involved with blockchain technology. Some more than others. This is not surprising given the fact that blockchain may bring a number of great opportunities for enterprises, ranging from improvements in business processes to a complete overhaul of business models.
CIOs are under growing pressure to give guidance to decisions on ‘if’ and ‘how’ they should implement blockchain in their company. Within corporates there is a growing focus on the business challenges that blockchain could solve. CIOs however struggle with the issue of how and where to apply this technology as understanding is far from complete. While this technology is developing and changing fast, the features of blockchain are not (yet) fully mature, and current frameworks are far from adequate.
Looking at the various blockchain solutions that are coming to the market there is a lot of confusion which one would really meet the needs of companies when making up their decisions. This makes it for CIOs a very complex exercise.
Gartner recently launched its Blockchain Spectrum that should enable CIOs to take the right decisions and “make the right investments at the right time”.
PwC Survey: present attitude of CIOs
PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) recently launched a survey amongst a large number of CIOs from various industries on their attitude towards blockchain. It gives us some interesting insights about the CIOs present view on blockchain technology.
Survey results
This survey shows that many CIOs embrace blockchain. One of their findings was that 84% of the surveyed had at least some interest around blockchain. Not surprising given the enormous hype surrounding this technology. But the idea what blockchain really means for their company and how it should be implemented is still rather limited.
Looking more detailed into the survey results a very diverse picture of how companies are involved arises. For many CIOs blockchain is not yet a priority, at least compared to other new technologies including AI, Big Data analytics, and cloud. Only 15% has gone live while 10% is in the pilot stage. The large majority has just started in terms of research (20%) and development (32%).
The industries that are thereby leading are financial services (46%) and industrial products and manufacturing (46%). It should be mentioned that the financial services sector fell back from 82% in 2017. The survey respondents however still believe that financial services will remain the “current and near-term leader” of blockchain adoption. But there is increased potential in other areas such as energy & utilities, and healthcare.
Non-optimal blockchain solutions
Most blockchain initiatives today are Proof of Concepts (PoCs) that do not have real value. The existing models for blockchain that corporates operate are immature and therefore not suited to realise the various capabilities of blockchain technology. Most trials do not account for the evolutionary nature of blockchain “that leads to a spectrum of possibilities over time”.
“Inadequate understanding, lack of proven scalable models, inability to think beyond today’s business paradigms, lack of talent, and internal and external pressure to do something lead to tepid proofs of concept (POCs).” Gartner
Only 5% to 10% of current PoCs is expected to eventually “graduate to a preproduction” solution, with “major refactoring of requirements and architecture”. Even the ones that move beyond PoCs use just a “subset of blockchain capabilities” and that within current business models. They offer little or no decentralization and tokenization, being the most valuable features of blockchain.
This has much to do with “unwillingness or inability” to think beyond today’s business models and processes, according to Gartner.
Read the full article of our expert Carlo de Meijer on LinkedIn
Carlo de Meijer
Economist and researcher
New update for the community: Treasurer Test
| 02-04-2019 | by Roy Baaten |
Dear peer goup members, treasurers, financials and friends of the community.
It has been a while since we updated you on the treasurer test.
First of all, we would like to thank everyone who helped us in one way or the other. A special thanks for those who made the test as a peer group member and provided us with very valuable feedback.
From the start we communicated that everyone will receive their report at the same time when the peer group is complete. We nearly completed the senior categories of the peer group but have to invest in finding candidates for the categories “no experience in treasury” and “treasurers with up to two years of treasury experience”. We are working very hard so everyone can receive their report they worked so hard for. We are almost there!
If you are a candidate for the aforementioned categories or know people who qualify and might want to take the test, send an email to [email protected] We appreciate your help.
We will inform you again if we have more news.
[button url=”http://www.treasuryxl.com/community/experts/roy-baaten/” text=”View expert profile” size=”small” type=”primary” icon=”” external=”1″]
[separator type=”” size=”” icon=””]
Bank Account Management | A treasurer’s guide
| 01-04-2019 | TIS Treasury Intelligence Solutions | treasuryXL
Risk and liquidity management are top of mind for treasurers in today’s business climate highlighting the importance of bank accounts. They are necessary to pay, receive and store money and also to protect resources and facilitate treasury management. Companies must have at least one bank account, some have hundreds and a few require thousands of bank accounts to conduct their business. Bank accounts are also the means by which companies are connected to other businesses, people and the banks where the accounts are held. This makes the business of bank account management not only an important task but in the current hyper-connected environment of cybercrime, terrorism, fraud and tax evasion a mission critical function. Failure to properly manage bank accounts has the potential to cause material disruption or business failure for the account holders.
Complexity is not your friend when it comes to managing, closing or opening bank accounts worldwide.
We understand the wealth of information at hand, as well as the importance of making use of it in an efficient, safe and cost-eff ective manner. The TIS SaaS solution enables organizations regardless of industry or ERP environment to maneuver their bank account landscape by providing a user-friendly and central “single source of truth”—all in one platform. Complete transparency across users, workflows and bank accounts along with the rights to manage these is what empowers our users.
Bank Account Management
(BAM) consists of the policies, procedures and actions taken to open, close or modify accounts held by a business with a financial institution.
This includes the negotiation and management of account services and fees, mandates governing the account, authorized users of the account and methods of communication regarding account activity. It also includes managing the interrelationships among accounts, regulatory reporting and compliance.
Companies address bank account management (BAM) in many different ways but may not be addressing all of the elements in an expanding universe of tasks. The dimensions of the challenge include:
-The need for banks to know their customers and the customers of those customers to protect against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. This is familiar to treasurers through KYC, KYCC, FCPA and AML.
Do you want to find out more about this topic? Then read the whole guide. Download it for free!