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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
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
Does your treasury have a digital mindset?
| 25-9-2017 | Patrick Kunz |
In an previous article I have talked about the IT changes that make life easier for a treasurer in the future (or now already). In this article I want to talk about the digital mindset of the person using the IT – the treasurer. Treasury is a numbers game. We treasurers use these numbers to optimise the cash or risk of the company. We make money with money. These numbers have to come from somewhere in the organisation and it is usually never treasury itself.
BIG data
Big data is a hot topic in treasury but for treasury it was around longer. The treasurer needs to get their input information for all over the company. Cash inflow from sales, cash outflow from procurement and investment teams, HR etc. All this data needs to be gathered. The digital minded treasurer thinks about optimal ways of gathering this data: automatically. The treasurer starts its day with the actual cash balances and then looks forward. He/She basically needs to predict the future. How great would it be if all this data would be available with the push on a button. An ideal world ? Maybe, but it is possible. Bank statements can be automated to be loaded collectively or in a Treasury Management System. The treasurer starts the day with up to date cash balances, and he has not started working yet as this was automated. He then updates the cash forecast. How? By pushing update in his cash forecasting system. Sounds too easy? True, it took weeks to find out where to find the needed input information and to automate getting this data grouped together and in a structured way. But a digital minded treasurer knows that the data is somewhere in the organisation; it only needs to found and linked to the treasurers information recourses so it is always available. The treasurer only has to check the validity and the quality of the data and see if it needs improvement. In this way the digital minded treasurer can automatically create a cash forecast and continually improve it. A cash forecast should be ready before the second morning coffee. In an ideal world it would be ready with a push on a button. Artificial intelligence makes it possible. The digital minded treasurer is steering it.
Process improvements
The digital treasurer looks at ways to improve its document flows and payments. Not only looking at costs but also looking at how many (manual) interventions are needed. FX deals can be setup to straight through processed (STP) while blockchain would make it possible to improve the speed of payments or document flows globally. Everything is connected, as payments go from a process to straight through and instant it has an immedicate effect on the cash availability and forecasting. While now the bank is the place to go for bank accounts and payments this might not be the case in 10 years. The digital treasury might be able to setup his own bank in the future. By using technology.
The future
The treasurer makes sure that he is on the steering wheel while technology makes it possible for him/her to check his surroundings so he does not crash. A bigger front window makes for a better view forward (forecasting), a higher max speed makes for quicker travel (updating changes in forecasting), adaptive cruise control saves effort on speeds control (automatic updating and AI, STP). The treasurer knows he needs to keep the engine running to keep moving. He also realises that he does not need to be a mechanic to do this; however he needs to be able to tell the mechanics quickly why the car is not moving as the treasurer wants it to be so the mechanic can fix this. Or maybe the digital treasurer might change the car for a plane in the future, or even a rocket?
It is clear that technology and treasury are interconnected. Already now and even more in the future. A treasurer therefore needs a digital mindset to survive and keep up with the information needs of his department and the company as a whole. And it’s not rocket science (yet).
Patrick Kunz
Treasury, Finance & Risk Consultant/ Owner Pecunia Treasury & Finance BV
The IT savvy treasurer
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