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Regulation of ICOs: the end or beginning of a healthy market?
| 29-9-2017 | Carlo de Meijer |
The latest cryptocurrency boom however is beginning to stall as a growing number of regulators worldwide turn their attention to the ICOs world and have decided to come into action. China recently decided even to ban these ICOs. And others such as the US SEC, Singapore, Hong Kong, Russia and others followed soon though in a more lighter variant.
Is this the end of fundraising via ICOs or should it be seen as the beginning of a healthy market?
ICO hype
ICOs have become highly popular. In the past months there has been a complete hype around ICOs. ICOs have allowed digital currency start-ups, to raise millions of dollars quickly, in many cases from ordinary investors. The ICO fever is especially triggered by the success of Ethereum, the platform that invented the digital currency Ether. Already in 2014 Ethereum arranged a very successful ICO.
More than $1,6 billion has been raised worldwide from these ICOs up till now. China for example has seen 65 ICOs and 2.62 billion yuan ($400 million) raised from more than 100.000 individuals so far in 2017.
Read the full article of our expert Carlo de Meijer on LinkedIn
Carlo de Meijer
Economist and researcher
Hot topics in corporate treasury, the survey results
| 28-09-2017 | treasuryXL |
Last month we organized a small survey, one question, to find out which treasury topics are highest on the to-do the list in corporate treasury. In cooperation with Treasurer Search we reached out to our network. Due to the set-up of the survey I want to describe the results in two separate lists. We asked one question: “make a list with a maximum of five topics”. As this was a free text survey, there was a variety of answers. In total, we had to digest a list of roughly 125 topics mentioned. I want to emphasize that the scientific methodology for this survey would not have been approved by my graduation professor.
The first list is based upon key words only, with a very narrow read on topics:
Bear in mind that topic 1 has been mentioned 11 times, topic 8 is mentioned 5 times. This list gives you an indication but compares strategic with operational. And both FX as well as the USD & GBP topic in one list feels suboptimal.
After some internal discussion, we decided upon a different approach. Based upon what we encounter in corporate treasury every day, we decided to cluster topics on the same abstraction level and came upon the following list, in order of how often topics were mentioned:
Here the difference between the difference between topic 1 and topic 7 is almost a factor 6. This list, in my opinion, paints a clearer picture. I am a bit surprised how prominent topic 1 is, how low funding is on the list and about 3rd party risk being on the list.
We will use the list to gather extra content and the students of the Hogeschool Utrecht will write blogs, using this list as input.
We look forward to your response on the results of this survey. See also https://www.treasuryxl.com/treasuryxl/hu-treasury-papers-digging-into-the-treasury-hot-topics/
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Lessons to learn: a higher euro threatens corporate Europe; how to handle this
| 26-9-2017 | Rob Beemster |
These currency moves will be welcomed when you are importing from the US and/or UK. However, when you are exporter, than you don’t feel jitters but the pain will seriously hurt you. Many exporters see their UK/US market share diminish, or maybe even disappear. Normally, when a currency of an export market drifts down ( so the own currency gets more expensive ) we see price adjustments of the exporter.
First he will decrease his own margins, then he seeks price adjustments of his suppliers. After that , the whole chain will be analysed to look for improvements and cutbacks.
The Chinese have a saying that every crisis offers new chances. What chances would a weaker sterling and weaker dollar offer European exporters?
A, analysing the whole value chain, may offer new insights whereby you can create higher and/or cheaper production Most probably, these insights can give opportunities to improve your sales to other markets as well. Improving your chain, constantly, is a very wise technique to stay ahead of your competition. Before the introduction of the Euro, Germany worked on this strategy for years. Bundesbank was a strong supporter of a firm German mark, so German exporters had to be aggressive and innovative to keep their business alive.
B, doing business outside the Euro territory brings currency risk. This is a component of your business you have to face. However, currency risk on new and running orders can be hedged. By doing so, you will protect your cash flow ( read profit ). When profit margins are low, it is extremely important to have a good currency strategy. But even when margins are fairly high, a long currency move may take off your market share. Sterling has gone down for almost 2 years now. So a “safe market” should be hedged with a currency strategy too. A lucrative market may drift away by an ignorant behaviour of exporters.
Barcelona valuta experts can help you installing a decent currency strategy. We do not look for the cheapest way of doing your transactions but we look to your whole currency process. In the graph, below, you will notice that currency risk is present during the whole process. We can help you from the first step: the offer to prospects till last payments are done.
We have a very interesting proposition for you, a free currency scan. After answering six easy questions, we can judge your currency overall / risk position. We will discuss the result with you, all without any obligation. Are you interested? Call us on +31228528579 or mail to [email protected] and we will pass you the questionnaire.
Rob Beemster
Owner of Barcelona valuta experts BV