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National Blockchain Coalition: No Dutch Polder model!
| 8-5-2017 | Carlo de Meijer |
National Blockchain Coalition: raison d’être
The creation of the Coalition is an initiative of Team ICT, last year set up by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and is one of the action points in the “Digital Agenda” of the Dutch Government to accelerate the digitalisation of the economy.
The partners in the Coalition are convinced there is increasing need for corporates and government bodies to realise synergies between existing blockchain initiatives, facilitate them and bundle and share the knowledge already gained. Al these initiatives are being brought into the Coalition. But they also agreed that there is a need to create coherence between policy, regulation, supervision, maintenance and execution.
Main goal of the Coalition is to establish the preconditions needed for trusted and reliable blockchain applications. The collaboration aims, by means of collective initiatives, cooperation and knowledge sharing, to enable the Netherlands become front runner in the field of applying blockchain technology.
Some quotes (originally in Dutch!)
“The Blockchain Coalition stands for innovation and an open network approach. Cooperating on difficult issues that no one can solve on its own”. Minister Kamp
“Developing and introduction of blockchain ask for a coordinated approach of challenges by parties form various sectors. If The Netherlands in this pioneer stadium takes the chances there are, we could become a frontrunner in the blockchain area in the world”. René Penning de Vries, Team ICT
“We as employers organisation are extremely positive about this initiative and its timing. If we (in the Netherlands) collectively shoulder this project, I am firmly convinced that we will be frontrunner worldwide on blockchain.” VNO-NCW chairman Hans de Boer
“Most important lesson is that you cannot pick up this (blockchain) theme alone. Most value will be created if you bring more parties together and unites. That is also one of the main reasons to get to work with blockchain via a consortium”. Mariken Tannemaat, Chief Innovation Officer Nationale Nederlanden
Partners
This joint initiative has 23 founding partners and 8 sustaining organisations. Because the application of blockchain technology is expected to have a big impact on the financial sector, as well as logistics and energy sector, these are the best represented sectors in the Coalition.
From the financial services side banks like ABN AMRO, ING en Volksbank and insurer Nationale Nederlanden participate.
Other partner organisations are: Havenbedrijf Rotterdam, Enexis, Alliander, de Koninklijke Notariële Beroepsorganisatie, Brightlands, CWI, Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (ILT), de KvK, RDW, Rijksdienst voor Identiteitsgegevens, ECP | Platform voor de InformatieSamenleving.
From the government side participating bodies are: Ministeries van Economische Zaken, Infrastructuur en Milieu, Veiligheid and Justitie en Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties.
From the knowledge centre side: TU Delft, Universiteit van Tilburg, Radboud Universiteit, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, NWO and TNO.
Supportive organisations include: AFM, Betaalvereniging Nederland, De Nederlandsche Bank, de NVB, DutchChain, SIVI, StartupDelta en Verbond van Verzekeraars.
Action Agenda
The action agenda is a joint initiative of the above mentioned organisations. In this action plan it is described which steps the Coalition is going to take in the coming period to realise the various goals. The agenda contains three lines of action to boost blockchain expertise and operational readiness in The Netherlands.
The partners of the National Blockchain Coalitie will primarily focus on the development of digital identities, with which persons, objects and legal persons in the blockchain can perform transactions as part of a blockchain. Working on these identification processes requires the focus on both interoperability (APIs) and standardisation.
”Goal is to create stronger identities for persons, so that repetitive verification is not needed. This is one of the preconditions needed to let blockchain function well”. Program manager Ad Kroft.
Besides that the Coalition will also work on solutions in the field of legislation and acceptation. It is thereby their intention to work on the right conditions under which blockchain can be used.
Also arrangements have been made regarding education, knowledge sharing and strengthen skills. The third line of action is realisation of the Human Capital Agenda to improve the level of knowledge and skills on blockchain, both at an information-technical as well as on social-scientific, economical, legal, ethical and business themes.
Positives
Blockchain has the potential to make business processes more efficient and reliable. The Coalition partners foresee great possibilities within the country for improvement of service delivery, better control of production processes, cost savings, reduction of fraud and reduced cyber risk.The Coalition also foresees positive effects on the autonomy of citizens, transparency of transactions, cybersecurity and reduction of administrative burden.
“Blockchain plays an important role in the further strengthening of trust in the world of digital transactions. This technology brings positive effects for the efficiency of organisations that are active in the financial sector.” Arjan van Os, Head Innovation Centre
No Poldermodel
Collaboration, certainly when talking about blockchain is a necessity. To discuss the rules of the game, agree on common issues etc. But the participating partners in this Coalition should prevent that the final results are weakened compromises (for the sake off!!). The partners in the Coalition should keep in mind that in this field a Polder model to keep everybody satisfied is not the way!!!! Because that will leave the Netherlands behind, not in front. Besides, the benefits of blockchain can only be reaped at the maximum in an international context. And not isolated. This asks for international cooperation.
Carlo de Meijer
Economist and researcher
Autorisaties en bevoegdheden vastleggen – ook noodzakelijk voor het MKB
| 5-5-2017| Jan Doosje |
Helmi van Bergen van Juridiqua heeft onlangs een interessant artikel gepubliceerd over autorisaties en procedures rondom autorisaties. Vorig jaar heb ik een artikel voor TreasuryXL geschreven betreffende autorisaties en procedures met betrekking tot cash en treasury management. Ik zie het artikel van Helmi van Bergen in het verlengde hiervan.
“Bureaucratische” regels
Het is mij bekend dat veel bedrijven in het MKB wars zijn van al teveel bureaucratische regels. Echter, als deze “bureaucratische” regels (lees: autorisaties) helder en kernachtig zijn geformuleerd, geformaliseerd en ook gecommuniceerd zijn levert dit ook (of wellicht vooral ook) in het MKB veel rust in de bedrijfsvoering op.
Door een goede implementatie in de (financiële en logistieke) systemen hoeft het werken met autorisaties overigens ook niet te leiden tot een uitbreiding van indirecte kosten het is eerder te verwachten dat er efficiënter gewerkt kan worden (minder discussies en minder onduidelijkheden). Het argument van hogere kosten kan m.i. gemakkelijk weerlegd worden en is dus geen excuus om procedures en autorisaties niet vast te leggen.
Autorisaties
Zowel eigenaren/directie als de medewerkers kunnen veel winnen bij het invoeren van autorisaties en een autorisatietabel. Geen discussies of onzekerheden bij de medewerkers of iets al dan niet mag of voor welk bedrag er (bijvoorbeeld ) een verplichting aangegaan mag worden. Het is uiteraard aan de ondernemer zelf om te bepalen in hoeverre hij zijn staf- of lijnorganisatie het vertrouwen wil geven om zaken zelfstandig op te pakken, uiteraard ook afgezet tegen zijn ‘risk appetite’ en financiële draagkracht. Voor veel werknemers zal het een verrijking van hun werkzaamheden betekenen, de organisatie spreekt (impliciet) vertrouwen uit en dat werkt veelal enorm motiverend.
Voorwaarde is wel dat er voldoende waarborgen in de procedure zijn opgenomen waaruit blijk dat functionarissen hun bevoegdheden niet te buiten zijn gegaan en dat er, naast beloning, ook “straf” gegeven kan worden als bevoegdheden worden overschreden.
Vanuit oogpunt van certificering helpt het ook als procedures formeel worden vastgelegd en ook blijkt dat er navolging aan wordt gegeven alsmede controle op bestaat. De organisatie heeft meer grip op het proces en heeft meer zekerheid dat doelstellingen op de juiste manier worden behaald.
Ook de accountant zal over het algemeen blij worden van een juist ingevoerde procedure en autorisatietabel. Dit geeft een goed beeld over de mate van professionaliteit van de organisatie.
Conclusie
In aanvulling op het artikel van Helmi van Bergen concludeer ik het volgende:
Het vaststellen van procedures en vastleggen van autorisaties is ook voor het MKB erg belangrijk vanwege de volgende redenen :
Vraag die nog beantwoord dient te worden in welke mate de vastgestelde autorisaties ook in het Handelsregister vastgelegd dienen te worden.
Ik hoop middels deze blog extra input gegeven te hebben aan het artikel van Helmi van Bergen.
Jan Doosje
Owner of Fimterim Advies & Consultancy
Meer artikelen van deze auteur:
Basisprincipes van interne beheersing op het gebied van treasury – Deel I
Basisprincipes van interne beheersing op het gebied van treasury – Deel II
The end of the Euro as we know it – when the party ends?
| 4-5-2017 | Lionel Pavey |
The papers are full of stories about the level of Government debt within the Eurozone (Italy has a debt to GDP ratio of more than 130%), probable new bailouts for Greece, lack of suitable bonds to purchase for Quantitive Easing, Brexit, the rise of populist rightwing politics etc. Well at least we have all the bad news out in the open – don’t we?
Target 2
A new problem has arisen that was partly accelerated by QE – namely the outstanding national balances within Target 2. This is the “Trans European Automated Real-time Settlement Express Transfer System” foe the Eurozone. The key word is “Settlement” as I shall explain.
When a financial transaction is agreed 2 actions have to happen – clearing and settlement. Clearing entails all the actions that must be undertaken up to settlement, such as delivery of bonds, securities or shares. Settlement means the exchange (transfer) of money for goods or bonds etc.
When a party in Italy buys goods from the Netherlands, they instruct their bank to debit their account and credit the account of the seller. This is a cross-border transaction. But, within the Eurozone monetary settlement does immediately take place between banks. The Italian bank will have its balance reduced at the Banca D’Italia and the Dutch bank will have its balance credited at de Nederlandsche Bank. However, the balance is not settled between the 2 central banks – a new claim is shown on their books.
At the end of 2016, according to the Euro statistics website Italy has a negative Target 2 balance of EUR 420 billion with other countries in the Eurozone. This amount has been accumulated over the years since 1999 and now represents more than 25% of GDP. This is on top of the Italian Government debt of 130% of GDP. If a country were to leave the Eurozone they would be liable to immediately settle their Target 2 balances – something that is not realistic. Under the current agreement the other countries within the Eurozone would be liable to cover the debt. Target 2 balances do not have to be settled as countries would never default appears to be the thinking.
At the other end of the scale, Germany has an outstanding claim on other Eurozone countries of EUR 830 billion. At the moment these amounts are shown at full face value in the books – it would appear that politically, no one wants to acknowledge that the claims can not be settled in full under the current constraints within the Eurozone. If the Eurozone are 100% committed to supporting the Euro and, the balances are not going to be settled within the foreseeable future then, eventually, something will have to break.
Emperor with no clothes
Confession time – I am English (and proud of it). If I had been able to vote in last year’s referendum in the UK, then I would also have voted for Brexit. This does not make me anti-European; rather the reality of the Eurozone is very much like the fable of the Emperor with no clothes. Everyone sees it, but no one will say it. Perhaps, a solution can be found that does not mean debt forgiveness, writedowns, defaults or exits, but common sense would imply that this is wishful thinking.
When I was a young boy at Grammar School I had to learn some poetry for my English Literature exam – it included D.H. Lawrence. As a wild youth I could cope with Shakespeare, had a hard time with Chaucer, but fell in love with a poem by Lawrence entitled “A Sane Revolution”. He told us to make a revolution for fun and not in seriousness. Also I knew the poem as it was quoted by Mott the Hoople who got me through my teenage years with their music.
The creation of the Euro is a revolution in European history, but could it ever be called sane?
TARGET 2 BALANCES
Source: http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/reports.do?node=1000004859
GOVERNMENT DEBT
Source: http://www.debtclocks.eu/select-an-eu-member-state.html
Lionel Pavey
Cash Management and Treasury Specialist