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Banking license Klarna & Adyen: The end of their competitive advantage?
| 5-7-2017 | Pieter de Kiewit |
Compliance
As to compliance in the banking sector this might be a challenge. The regulators think that by imposing new legislation on banks they will prevent all that went wrong in the past. I think this is an illusion. The effect is an increasing demand for experts who can take care of compliance. As a treasury recruiter I know bankers, also the ones with the proper expertise are fleeing the bank because compliance is demotivating a lot of them. This results in an increase in recruitment assignments and salary levels. This is not an issue relevant for Amazon.
The upside for the PSPs in comparison to Amazon is that they will be able to work with state of the art technology and challenge traditional banks who have to work with legacy systems. As far as I know, Amazon is not planning to close traditional outlets. And retail always has had a quite modern infrastructure. I cannot see yet how they would be able play the technology trump as hard as the PSPs can.
Both modern challengers do have an obvious competitive advantage. Especially for the PSPs I wonder if the extra burden of compliance will outweigh this advantage. Both client perception and cost levels will have to be monitored closely. The interesting thing of this all is that, by the time we might be able to know, the market situation might have been flipped twice again. It are interesting times, not?
Pieter de Kiewit
Owner Treasurer Search
More to read from this author:
Interesting transfer Joop Wijn from ABN to Adyen
18.000 bankaanbiedingen… and counting…up and down!
| 4-7-2017 | Rob Bekker |
Op 30 juni j.l. publiceerde de Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM) haar voortgangsrapportage inzake het Uniform herstelkader rentederivaten MKB (‘UHK’). De teller voor het aantal MKB-klanten dat valt binnen het toepassingsgebied staat op 18.000. Hiervan is het leeuwendeel klant van Rabobank of ABN AMRO. Dit aantal zal nog oplopen, immers nog niet alle dossiers zijn beoordeeld. Wat dat betreft kan de teller nog oplopen.
Wat de countdown betreft…Het door de banken versturen van bankaanbiedingen ter compensatie gaat opnieuw langer duren dan oorspronkelijk aangegeven. ING, Van Lanschot, de Volksbank en Deutsche Bank geven nu aan alle betreffende MKB klanten vóór jaareinde een bankaanbod te kunnen doen. Voor Rabobank en ABN AMRO zal dit doorlopen tot in 2018. Voor de groep kwetsbare klanten geldt dat deze, conform het UHK, met voorrang wordt behandeld. Naar verwachting kan deze groep in september dit jaar een aanbodbrief tegemoet zien met in elk geval een voorschot op de coulancevergoeding. Dit voorschot zou dan minimaal 80% van de coulancevergoeding betreffen, ofwel van stap 3 in het UHK. Deze stap lijkt ’t meest eenvoudig te berekenen en sowieso gemaximeerd op EUR 100.000,-, maar is ook afhankelijk van stap 1 en 2. Toch in elk geval een stap(je) vooruit.
Dat de herbeoordeling dus geen eenvoudige rekensom betreft moge opnieuw duidelijk zijn. Kennis en inzicht vanuit de treasury discipline zijn hierbij onontbeerlijk, zelfs met een leidraad als het UHK. De AFM geeft aan dat de banken in hun aanbodbrieven de MKB klanten zullen adviseren het bankaanbod zorgvuldig te beoordelen en zo nodig daar een adviseur voor in te schakelen (voor eigen kosten, dat dan weer wel). Het simpele feit dat het de banken zelf kennelijk al veel moeite kost om een en ander te herbeoordelen doet veronderstellen dat dat in elk geval een goed advies lijkt.
Ondertussen gaat de countdown verder !
Rob Bekker
Associate Partner at Treasury-linQ”
Meer artikelen van deze auteur:
Rentederivaten in de ban…of toch niet?!
Herstelkader rentevaste MKB leningen?
The EU and blockchain: taking the lead? (I)
| 3-7-2017 | Carlo de Meijer | treasuryXL |
European Commission
#Blockchain4EU Project
Last week the European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC), together with The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs, have announced the launching of the #Blockchain4EU Blockchain for Industrial Transformations initiative to develop industrial use cases for blockchain and DLT.
The project, which will run until February 2018, will take a look at how blockchain technology and other distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) can be applied to nonfinancial sectors.
The project’s objective is to identify, discuss and communicate possible uses and impacts of blockchain and other DLT objects, networks and services within EU industrial or business contexts. The project will thereby initially focus exclusively on logistical and validation use cases, such as supply chains, assets monitoring, intellectual property rights, and certification authentication. Outputs from the project will contribute to the risks and opportunities assessment that will ultimately outline the approach that Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will take with blockchain and DLT applications in the future.
Virtual currency legislation
Last year July the European Commission adopted a proposal for legislation to amend the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (4AMLD) that will bring virtual currency exchanges and wallet providers into the EU’s anti-money laundering framework. In this proposal only those engaged in exchanging between virtual and fiat currencies are included. Virtual currency to virtual currency exchanges are not covered (for example, Bitcoin-to-Ether exchanges will not be regulated). And only those wallet providers offering custodial services “of credentials necessary to access virtual currencies” are to be included in the legislation.
The proposal is now under the European Council and the EP. Member states will have to transpose the Directive into national law and that is expected by half 2018.
EC February Statement on blockchain
In February this year the European Commission Vice President Andres Ansip published an official statement in reaction to EP questions, saying that “the Commission is planning to grow its support for blockchain projects”, and that ”the Commission is actively monitoring Blockchain and DLT developments”. This statement went into detail about the efforts the Commission is undertaking, both within and beyond the scope of the task force (see below), highlighting potential technology pilots focused on ‘decentralised innovation ecosystems”.
“The Commission is already supporting [distributed ledger tech]-enabled projects (DECODE, D-Cent, MyHealth MyData). Support activities are going to increase in the coming months (e.g. Decentralised Data Management). A study will be launched to investigate how DLT can help in reshaping public services and preparing for EU specific DLT actions to address relevant EU challenges.” Andres Ansip
The Commission has set up an internal FinTech Task Force, following a report on virtual currencies from European Parliament Member Jakob von Weizsäcker, published in May 2016. This Task Force involves all relevant services working on financial regulation, technology, data and competition to ensure “that our assessment reflects the multi-disciplinary approach that FinTech developments ask for”.
Blockchain Observatory
The European Commission (EC) established/set up a European Union (EU) Blockchain Observatory in April this year in response to a European Parliament mandate to strengthen technical expertise and regulatory capacity. The EU blockchain observatory is being developed under the framework of the European Commission’s Task Force on FinTech. It is expected to deliver its final recommendations in the course of this year.
The observatory task is to create a platform for the European blockchain community and provide up-to-date information on relevant initiatives around the world as well as development of the technology and related opportunities and challenges. Aim is to assist the EC in determining what role – if any – public authorities can play to encourage the creation of such technologies and to develop policy recommendations.
Blockchain proof-of-concept on blockchain
According to a Communication of February this year addressed to EU institutions including the European Parliament and the European Central Bank, the European Commission wants to create a Blockchain proof-of-concept focused on regulation.
A pilot project is aimed at reinforcing the capacity and technical expertise of national regulators with regard to distributed ledger technology. The pilot would center on improving knowledge and awareness of the technology among the EU’s regulatory community. For that purpose the Commission launched a public consultation effort on financial technology more broadly, one that is seeking input on how it can improve market efficiency and accessibility. This consultation focused on three areas: increasing consumer trust and empowerment reduce legal and regulatory obstacles; and, support developments of ‘and innovative digital world’.
As for next steps, the Blockchain Observatory will continue to engage industry representatives to get a feel for where to focus their regulatory efforts.
You can read the full article by clicking on this link. The second part of our summary will be published soon.
Carlo de Meijer
Economist and researcher