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Dutch FinTech Awards (21 April): discount via treasuryXL
| 12-4-2017 | treasuryXL |
Dutch FinTech Awards & Conference
You are more than welcome to join the Dutch FinTech Awards and Conference of 2017 where innovative and disruptive FinTech companies are awarded. Meet 400 hand picked entrepreneurs, bankers, investors and advisors, demonstrate thought leadership, extend your network and develop business. Join the festive award ceremony on 21 April 2017.
What is happening?
Tens of thousands of finance jobs are vanishing. Google, Apple, Facebook and countless FinTech startups are disrupting the financial sector. Innovative companies are eager to please millions of frustrated banking customers. Investors are fascinated by the phenomenal profits made by banks struggling with outdated technology.
Get your ticket with discount
We have the opportunity to give you a 150 EUR discount on a regular ticket.
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We hope to meet you at the Dutch Fintech Awards 2017 at the Rabobank HQ in Utrecht on 21 April.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
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SaaS-oplossingen optimaliseren het managen van bankrekeningen
| 11-4-2017 | Mark van de Griendt | treasuryXL
In 2014…
In het verlengde van de SEPA- en IBAN- invoering kijken veel ondernemingen bewuster naar de processen die samenhangen met het beheer van bankrekeningen en het contact met hun banken. Daarnaast wordt veel gesproken over Electronic Bank Account Management (EBAM).
Of het nu gaat om het digitaal openen of beëindigen van conto’s of om de uitwisseling van informatie, zoals het beheer van tekenbevoegdheden, van EBAM wordt verwacht dat het in het gegevensverkeer tussen banken en klanten niet alleen voor transparantie, efficiëntie en kostenbesparingen zorgt, maar ook voor het voldoen aan governance-eisen.
Om echter van de voordelen van EBAM te profiteren, moeten de meeste ondernemingen eerst hun interne processen optimaliseren, stelt Mark A. van de Griendt, Sales Director bij TIS. “Deze optimalisatie wordt bereikt met een strak ingericht Bank Account Management (BAM), in combinatie met daarop afgestemde software.”
Bij veel bedrijven is het beheer van de bankrekeningen niet optimaal georganiseerd. Het proces verloopt niet transparant en niet efficiënt. Op lokaal niveau worden autonoom rekeningen geopend of beëindigd. “Dit gebeurt vaak zonder dat het hoofdkwartier of de treasury-afdeling het weet. Onduidelijk is dan of de banken aan de eisen voldoen die de onderneming aan de financiële partners stelt,” weet Van de Griendt. “Daarnaast heeft een groot aantal banken dan toegang tot essentiële bedrijfsinformatie, zonder dat centraal geregistreerd is welke partijen dat zijn. In het gunstigste geval worden Excel-tabellen door de treasury-afdeling verzameld om tot een overzicht te komen.”
Ondernemingen moeten hun interne processen, die te maken hebben met het openen en beëindigen van bankrekeningen en met de veranderingen bij tekenbevoegden, analyseren en indien nodig opnieuw inrichten. Met een centraal BAM-platform creëert een onderneming de basis voor eenheid in het datamanagement en een duidelijke taakverdeling bij het verwerken van belangrijke informatie met betrekking tot bankrekeningen.
Op deze manier is op het gebied van transparantie, centralisering, kostenreductie en governance al veel te bereiken, nog zonder dat EBAM uitgerold wordt. Concreet betekent dit: een onderneming structureert zijn bankrekeningprocessen. In het ideale geval door het gebruik van workflowsystemen.
Laat software de workflow ondersteunen
Hoe komt een onderneming tot een geoptimaliseerd proces? Van de Griendt: “Door software, die alle data samenbrengt die voorheen in afzonderlijke Excel sheets werd bijgehouden. De software verzamelt informatie die verder gaat dan de individuele bankrekening; van belang is immers ook de rating van de bank, of aanwijzingen hoe het ERP-systeem met de betreffende instelling moet communiceren.”
Vervolgens moeten alle processen die te maken hebben met het openen of beëindigen van rekeningen en met het doen van transacties in de workflow-software opgenomen worden. Hierbij worden ook de processen vastgelegd waarvoor het vier-ogen principe geldt.
Cloud-oplossingen zijn snel inzetbaar
In tegenstelling tot enige jaren geleden, zijn er nu krachtige en efficiënte Bank Management Oplossingen die de workflow ondersteunen. “Deze oplossingen structureren en automatiseren werkprocessen. Vooral cloud-oplossingen, die op SaaS-basis worden afgenomen, zijn snel inzetbaar zonder langdurige IT-implementaties,” stelt Van de Griendt.
Voor een optimaal proces is een geautomatiseerde inventarisatie van bankrekeningen, de daaraan gekoppelde juridische documenten en de tekenbevoegdheden nodig. Op die manier heeft de treasury-afdeling van het hoofdkantoor altijd een compleet overzicht en voldoet aan alle governance-eisen
Als bovengenoemde maatregelen zijn doorgevoerd heeft een onderneming al een grote stap gezet op de weg naar een efficiënter Bank Account Management. Vervolgens kan de stap naar EBAM gezet worden. In dat geval communiceert de onderneming op basis van XML-bestanden met de bank. In deze digitale communicatie worden ook tekenbevoegdheden en rechten van verschillende verantwoordelijken automatisch meegenomen.
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The Euro from a treasury perspective
| 10-4-2017 | Hans de Vries |
Let’s start with the beginning. One must be aware that the introduction of the Euro is the world’s largest economic policy experiment so far with heavy repercussions on the autonomy of the countries involved with regard to their monetary regimes. So naturally this expedition has met a lot of criticism ever since the beginning, the creation of the European Monetary System (EMS) on March 13,1979.
The Euro skeptics mostly feared that the wide-spread adoption of the Euro would deteriorate the economies of countries that accepted this currency and was in favor of the larger countries, like France and Germany, that now could easily manipulate the Euro’s puppet strings. Main belief was that the Euro would weaken instead of strengthen the European economy.
As from the start, Euro stronger than expected
Although the Euro met quite some negative public attention, looking at more than 15 years of Euro, the track record has not been that bad at all. As the graph shows, after a relatively weak position against the USD at the beginning of this century, the Euro has held a strong position against the USD as from 2003 on, although weakening after 2014 in the aftermath of the banking and economic crisis that followed it. However, the predicted downfall of the Euro never took place. Remarkable phenomenon was that when the value of the dollar was higher, it was regarded in the media as a sign of weakness of the Euro against a “strong” Dollar and when the value of the Euro was stronger than the USD it was regarded by the analysts as a sign of weakness of the Dollar.
More important is that the introduction of the Euro as per January 1, 1999 has indeed brought the predicted transparency to the European market but also to the global market. This transparency has contributed to the substantial growth (5-40% according to Bun and Klaassens) of the internal trade flows within the EU countries due to the fact that the Euro has lowered the fixed and/or variable costs of exports. Prices can be compared across the whole Eurozone, allowing companies to choose the most price-competitive suppliers. The newly exported goods are of lower unit values than those previously exported because the Euro has made exporting them profitable, particularly for small exporters. Don’t forget that with 28 member states in 2014 Europe was the strongest economic player on global level taking care of 17,1% of the World GDP whereas the USA had a share of 15,9% and Russia 3,3%.
From a more monetary viewpoint the Euro brought price stability. Inflation in the Eurozone has been around 2-2.5% for most of the time since its creation.
A strong Euro mitigated the impact of the volatility of dollar-denominated commodity prices.This advantage was particularly visible before the beginning of the financial and economic crisis, when the oil price and the price of some other important food commodities reached unprecedented peaks. Due to the Strong Euro or weak USD, the consequences for the European market were relatively minor.
Euro leads to transparent treasury operations and substantial cost reductions
In today´s Euro environment, most Treasurers in Europe only have to deal with the USD, GBP and sometimes CHF and the Nordic Currencies. This makes live quite overseeable and has substantially enhanced their risk portfolio. The same applies for the Treasurers outside the Euro zone, who are now freed from the hassle of the past European currency palette.
Although a number of Euro critics pointed their finger at the Euro as direct cause for the Banking crisis a few years ago, it is almost impossible to imagine the consequences of the crisis in and outside Europe if every European country had been dealing with their own currencies. This would have resulted in a pandemonium of devaluations and revaluations with even more severe consequences for the values of all national and international operating companies and even more bank bankruptcies. Not to mention the impact this might have had on pension funds and other investment vehicles on short and longer terms.
From a corporate perspective, the benefits of the introduction of the Euro are therefore quite clear.
But also the consumers more and more are sharing the benefits of the common Euro market. Not only during travels abroad but also internet shopping becomes more and more international with new initiatives on the way to support payments like the Fast Payment project.
Looking at all these benefits, the current anti Euro sentiment in a number of European member states is from an economic point of view hard to understand and might pose a serious threat on the future European economic development.
Consequences of a Euro exit from a treasury and cash management perspective
Imagine getting back to the world without the Euro. This means an enormous rise of the operational costs considering:
Banking industry as sole winner
The only party that will benefit from this skip of the Euro development is the banking industry, because of the margin to be made on currency exchange, swaps and other derivates, and the backshift to a Non-Sepa/ international payments environment with substantial higher transaction costs. Looking at the public opinion on banks in general ever since the bank crisis, it’s hard to believe that the populist movements in Europe are in favour of this development.
Take the loss or start a counter movement?
This leaves us with the question, what benefits are there to gain by consumers and businesses alike by leaving Europe and the Euro? Looking at the economic development of the Euro countries today and all the benefits the Euro has brought the corporates and consumers, there is no clue why we should not stick to the current status quo and enhance it in any possible way.
It is therefore high time to start advocating the true merits a United Europe has been gaining thanks to the pan European ideals: a unprecedented war free community already lasting for more than seventy years combined with an enormous economic and cultural development.
Hans de Vries
Treasury/ Cash Management Consultant