TOMATO CATCH-UP - Newsletter Issue 230 - September 2020
Your monthly resource on working capital, process optimization and issues related to the world of corporate treasurers, IT professionals and bankers!
This newsletter is bilingual, English or German, depending on the source.
Introduction
Did you ever use the translation tool Deepl? Years ago, we suggested this online tool to you, our readers. Today, more than ever, I use Deepl to translate short articles into German so I understand them better. Also, I sometimes use it only to make a certain article clearer, as I find it more accurate and nuanced than Google Translate. Moreover, it is available in 12 languages. Another interesting tool you can use to write better English is Ludwig, , which is a linguistic search engine and smart translator that helps you find the perfect word or sentence to express your ideas in English. What is interesting about it is the fact that it gives contextualized examples taken from reliable sources, so you can always be sure your English written texts are flawless in terms of idioms, phrases, and other details that are not always perceived by non-native speakers.
DeepL: https://www.deepl.com/en/translator
Ludwig: https://ludwig.guru/
This month’s Catch-Up includes a very interesting interview with Swiss National Bank on how Swiss instant payment can be included in the real-time payments system in Switzerland and information regarding the way to optimize your payments at your US Business Unit.
Remember that for any challenge related to your financial issues, you can ask Martin Schneider for a discussion that will clarify it. Contact Martin via email or call +41 44 814 2001.
- Zukunft Schweizer ZV: Instant, Cash, Libra, Rolle SNB
- EU-Treasury-Infrastruktur: Gateways, Formate Systeme aus Sicht der Treasurer
- US-Treasury Infrastructure: How to Improve Your US-Business Unit
- Neo-Banks Challenging Financial Sector
- Covid-19 Cross-Border Workers in CH, DE, FR: Tax & Social Security Regulations
- How to Get Your Company Strategy Ready for the Great Reset
- The World’s Most Innovative Economies
- The Surprising Traits of Good Remote Leaders
- Book Tip – Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
- Termine & Events
- From the Desk of Tomato
1. Zukunft Schweizer ZV: Instant, Cash, Libra, Rolle SNB
In der Zeitschrift Clear-IT besprechen die Herren Dewet Moser und Sébastien Kraenzlin von der Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) Digital Payment, SIC5, Instant Payments, Bargeld/Cash, Libra und die Rolle der SNB für Stabilität, Effizienz und Sicherheit:
- Umsatz ZV steigt stärker als BIP, weil die Bürger den Zahlvorgang selbst steuern, als vormals die Banken steuerten
- Alternative Zahlmittel haben den Beweis ihrer Existenz noch nicht erbracht - study with BIS (Bank for International Settlements Basel) for a ‚Distritubed Ledger Technology‘ to change SIC-credits into Tokens
- Schweizer Konzept RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) ist geprüfte Resilienz
- Zukunft liegt im SIC5 Projekt, wo instant Payments ins System integriert wurden. Das bedeutet eine Herausforderung an die Banken und die End-of-Day (EOD) Bilanzsysteme, die diese überdenken müssen, um einen 24 Stunden Echtzeit-Zahlungsverkehr bieten zu können.
A fact finding Interview with Dewet Moser and Sébastien Kraenzlin of Swiss National Bank (SNB) on digital payment, SIC5, instant payments, cash, Libra and the role of SNB for stability, efficiency and security.
- Payment turnover is growing faster than GDP as users are the ones controlling the payment process, rather than banks;
- Alternative payment methods have not yet proven their existence (study with BIS for a 'Distritubed Ledger Technology' to change SIC-credits into Tokens);
- Swiss concept RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) has been proving resilience for many years;
- In the future, SIC5 will be integrated into the instant payments system, bringing a challenge for banks and their End-of-Day (EOD) balance sheet systems, which will have to be rethought in order to provide 24 hours real-time payment traffic;
- There are high expectations for a digital currency;
- In times of great uncertainty, cash in circulation increases sharply, which is also confirmed in the corona crisis;
- Cash will not disappear entirely in the future;
- New drive for ISO 20022 - thanks to CGI and SWIFT.
- EBICS 3.0: more than just a version jump.
Lesen Sie das gesamte Clear-IT Interview in Deutsch
2. EU-Treasury-Infrastruktur: Gateways, Formate Systeme aus Sicht der Treasurer
Aus einem Bericht von ‚Der Treasurer‘: Unter Mitarbeit der HCBC befragten die beiden Institute 223 Corporates. Die Hälfte der Antwortenden im Bericht sind CFOs, die andere Hälfte sind Treasurers. Mehr als die Hälfte der befragten Unternehmen nutzen demnach ein System eines TMS-Anbieters:
- 1/4 haben 1 bis 2 Mitarbeiter Treasury, 1/3 sind ein Team von 3 bis 5 Mitarbeitern
- 1/2 der Befragten sind mit ihrem TMS zufrieden
- 2/3 Dritteln wird die Entscheidung, welche Treasury-Infrastruktur genutzt wird, vom Leiter Treasury getroffen
- 2/3 Drittel der Befragten entscheiden sich für bankeigene Systeme
- 1/4 nutzt ERP-bezogene Systeme
- 1/4 nutzen Excel-Sheets, dies in grossen wie auch kleineren Corporates
- 1/5 in grossen, 1/4 in kleineren Corporates möchten ein anderes TMS oder wollen von Excel auf ein TMS wechseln.
Die verwendete TMS-Infrastruktur hängt stark vom Umsatz der Unternehmen ab. In Unternehmen mit einem Umsatz von mehr als 1 Milliarde Euro nutzen 72% der Befragten das System eines TMS-Anbieters.
ERP-bezogene Systeme sind eher in grossen Unternehmen zu finden. Nach Tomatos Erfahrung hat dies mit der Expertise im Unternehmen zu tun. Grosse und Grösste Unternehmen leisten sich die Expertise Inhouse. Kleinere Firmen, also unter 1 Mrd. Umsatz nutzen die jahrelange ausgereifte Kompetenz zum Beispiel von Tomato AG Finance+IT.
Bei kleineren Unternehmen setzen 44% ein TMS ein. Unternehmen dieser Grössen wählen überdurchschnittlich oft ein bankeigenes System. Dies bestätigt auch unsere langjährigen Tomato Erfahrungen bei Segmenten bis ca. 300 Mio. Umsatz. Für dieses Kundensegment erstellten wir dieses pdf
Do you prefer English, similar information and prose? DerTreasurer and HSBC asked 223 Corporations CFO and/or Treasurers on TMS, Payment Systems, Gateways and Formats.
48% of those surveyed are satisfied with their TMS. Currently, more than half of the respondent companies already use a system from a TMS provider. For two thirds of the companies surveyed the decision as to which treasury infrastructure to use is made by the Head of Treasury. Two-thirds of those surveyed decided in favor of the bank's own systems, while a further quarter uses ERP-related systems.
After all, more than a quarter of those surveyed also use Excel sheets. The TMS infrastructure used depends heavily on the turnover of the companies. In companies with sales of more than EUR 1 billion, 72% of those surveyed use the system of a TMS provider. ERP-related systems are also more likely to be found at large companies. At smaller companies, only 44% of them have used TMS to date. In contrast, companies of this size use a bank's own system more often than average.
Martin Schneider comments: this also confirms also our ¼ century experience. For smaller corporates up to 300 million sales Tomato prepared years ago this pdf. We are happy to answer your questions.
In German read the detailed report with graphics ‘DerTreasurer’
3. US-Treasury Infrastructure: How to Improve Your US-Business Unit
Insights from the webinar from JP Morgan Chase, where Kevin Weber, VP of Finance for the Energy Equipment Segment at Arcosa, presents his findings on sending invoices to clients (webinar from 1:23:00 onwards).
Many US companies resist including their bank details on invoices, claiming that this would increase the risk of fraud. Without bank details, clients must print out a check and send it to the supplier's address. Instead of physically going to the supplier's address, invoices are often routed to the bank's lock box.
During COVID, checks were sent to a physical address instead of a lock box regardless of whether anyone was in the office. As a result, the liquidity of the companies sank drastically or even dried up. This shows that a change is necessary.
We at Tomato advise the US-based branches of our European client companies to (a) inform the clients with a separate letter about their bank account details, and (b) print the bank account details on their invoices. For paying invoices with lump sum, we recommend that they continue to use the BAI2 format to provide payment details to customers. This way the reconciliation can be automated.
Like Kevin Weber, we strongly recommend that companies remove the lockbox address from the invoice and include the bank details instead. Another option is to send a special notification to inform clients that they will receive the funds in their bank account electronically via ACH.
At Minute 1:33:00, Weber explains for the account receivables management their payment terms of 30 days to reduce DSO.
On account payables: starting at 1:36:00 onward, Kevin Weber invites suppliers to pay earlier with a 0.5% or 1% invoice amount reduction for paying early.
Details of the English held Chase JP Morgan’s webinar:
To view and listen, you need to enter your basic credentials. When listening to such long webinars, you can increase the listening speed on the YouTube as showed on the picture below.
4. Neo-Banks Challenging Financial Sector
Kollegen, Freunde und Treasurers im Tomato Umkreis nutzen und testen die neuen Digitalbanken wie Revolut, N26 und neon. Selber habe ich mich für neon entschieden und nutze dies als Haushaltkonto. Der Grund für neon ist einfach: Die Geldeinlagesicherung der zugrundeliegenden Bank, der Hypothekar Bank Lenzburg.
Ihr Feedback zu Revolut und Anderen nehme ich gerne auf. Mögliche Fragen zu neon beantworte ich gerne - teste ich seit vielen Jahren Banken, Konten und deren Dienste.
The process at neon:
To open an account, you can use a smartphone app, submit a photo of an official ID, and the data is checked via a video call or the digital identification procedure approved by the Swiss Financial Market Authority (Finma). The customer then receives a debit card for purchases in Switzerland or abroad and has a bank account that allows for credits to be paid in and payments to be made at home and abroad.
Neo-banks are gaining market share in the banking sector as they offer more innovative solutions and fewer and more transparent fees. However, so far digital banking offers have not proven attractive enough for consumers. Only one traditional bank, Bank Cler, has developed an app comparable to what neo-banks offer, according to a comparison done by Swiss Public Television. One-tenth of Swiss residents have already used new online banking solutions provided by neo-banks at least once, according to the Swiss Payment Monitor 2019.
Ressources:
Details auf swissinfo.ch in DE. This article is in 6 languages: DE, EN, FR, IT, ES, PT and Chinese
New digital banks don’t have branches or counters, and attract thousands of customers. The article from FinTech here calls them neo-banks or challenger banks (challenger banks have a banking license, whereas neo-banks rely on partner banks to operate; Further to read in English are fintechnews with German statistics
5. Covid-19 Cross-Border Workers in CH, DE, FR: Tax & Social Security Regulations
Simon Koch, Tax Global Mobility Services at KPMG, discusses the implications of Swiss government’s consultation agreements with Germany, France and Italy regarding the tax treaties and rules for cross-border commuters.
Cross-border commuters must return to their home country every day in order to qualify as a cross-border commuter for tax purposes. For daily cross-border commuters, the work place applies for Germany, France, and Italy. For weekly- or international commuters, it is accepted for Germany and France that COVID-19 workdays in the state of residence are considered work days in the state in which the person would have worked if no COVID-19 measures had been taken. For countries that have not signed separate agreements with Switzerland, no form of relief applies.
For Swiss employees with Swiss, EU or EFTA nationalities, stay-at-home orders and foreign home office days will not lead to a change in social security subordination, even if the cross-border employees are considered multi-state workers or assignees. For Germany, France, and Austria, the term for the implementation of the regulations has been extended until 31 December 2020.
6. How to Get Your Company Strategy Ready for the Great Reset
The Covid crisis has forced businesses to rethink their approaches to cohesion and has uncovered the inequalities across our society and the need for a more resilient and inclusive economy.
Society should prioritize:
- The long-term health and well-being of citizens;
- The creation of new employment opportunities and policies that protect society against future shocks;
- Build a better society founded on a shared commitment to sustainability.
The pandemic has uncovered a common facet of commercial interactions in all sectors: the need for reliable, fast, and relevant digital connectivity, as we are moving to an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world. In the process of unlocking the digital economy, of true importance is being aware of the fact that now the CEO must also be the Chief Digital Officer, leading the digitization of the business.
The route to business recovery and growth must be coupled to sustainability. Companies need to uproot and reimagine their strategies, prioritizing purposeful engagement with public, private, and civil society stakeholders. Moreover, they need to focus on training and reskilling people for a digital future.
Read details in English at World Economic Forum
7. The World’s Most Innovative Economies
The Global Innovation Index ranks Switzerland as the world's most innovative economy. R&D, ICT, and technology outputs are among the factors that were taken into account. Moreover, the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) latest Global Innovation Index ranks Switzerland first for the 10th consecutive year, with Sweden coming second and the US third.
Switzerland scores well across the index's seven areas and is particularly strong in its R&D expenditure and innovative business sector. It also ranks highly in its quality of innovation, second only to the US (high-quality universities and scientific publications).
The index is based on two sub-indices - the Innovation Input Sub-Index and the Innovation Output Sub-Index. The former looks at the elements of national economies that go into enabling innovative activities, while the latter looks at the results of these activities.
The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report also looks at economies' innovation capability. Germany came first in the 2019 edition, the US second place, and Switzerland third.
Details in English at World Economic Forum
8. The Surprising Traits of Good Remote Leaders
Steven Charlier, Chair of Management at Georgia Southern University in the US, explains why strong in-person leadership skills don’t necessarily translate to being a good virtual leader.
New data shows that the confidence, intelligence, and extroversion (usually the traits of the executive suite) are not enough online. Instead, workers who are organized, dependable, and productive take the reins of virtual teams. Virtual teams tend to informally anoint leaders who actually do the work of getting projects done.
The face-to-face teams tend to choose leaders with the same confident, extroverted traits that we often see in organizational leaders. Those chosen as remote leaders are most of the time the doers, who tend towards planning, connecting teammates with help and resources, keeping an eye on upcoming tasks, and getting things done. These leaders are goal-focused, productive, dependable, and helpful.
Virtually, the emphasis shifts from saying to doing. People are more likely to be seen based on what they actually do, not based on who they are.
9. Book Tip – Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
In the work from home context, distractions are everywhere, and learning to deal with them is sometimes a challenge. For this reason, our book tip of the month is Indistractable by Nir Eyal, which is centered on the idea that people can control their so-called distractions and own their time.
Key takeaways:
- Distraction stops us from achieving our goals;
- Traction leads us closer to our goals;
- By understanding our pain, we begin to control them and find better ways to deal with negative urges;
- Distraction is about more than our devices;
- All motivation is a desire to escape discomfort;
- Anything that stops discomfort is potentially addictive, but that doesn’t make it irresistible;
- Time management is pain management;
- Evolution favored dissatisfaction over contentment;
- We can manage distractions that originate from within by changing how we think about them;
- We can’t call something a distraction unless we know what it is distracting us from;
- Planning ahead is the only way to know the difference between traction and distraction;
- If we don’t plan our time, something or someone else will.
https://www.nirandfar.com/indistractable/
- Als Ersatz für den verschobenen auf 2021 Swiss Treasury Summit offeriert die HSLU sechs einstündige Online-Workshops im Herbst 2020: Details und Anmeldung.
- Vom 7. Bis 9.Oktober 2020: der Kongress in Alpbach/AT aufgrund der schönen Bergwelt physisch in den Tiroler Bergen das 34. Alpbacher Finanzsymposium mit dem Thema Globalisierung trifft De-Globalisierung
Die Veranstaltung und zur Anmeldung - Drei Tag an der HSLU / IFZ in Zug am 21&28.10.2020 und 4.11.2020: Aktuelle Herausforderungen im Corporate Treasury, Seminar in Zug
- Wednesday 4.11.2020: Info-Veranstaltung aller Weiterbildungen, HSLU Zug, Zeit: 18:15 bis 20:30 Uhr
- Friday morning 30.10.2020: Swissquote Conference on Finance and Technology, this year virtual via Zoom.
Agenda with two topics:
10:30 – 11:15 Morten Linnemann Bech (BIS Innovation Hub) “Central bank digital currency” anno 1962
11:15 – 12:00 Antoine Savine and Brian Huge (Superfly Analytics at Danske Bank)
The conference is made possible by Swissquote, Swiss Finance Institute and EFPL Lausanne
To register - Ab 5.11.2020: Certified Corporate Treasurer des VDT in Frankfurt Der Kurs mit 5 Modulen beginnt am November 2020 und geht bis April 2021.
- bis 26.11.2020: Structured FINANCE im Corona Jahr digital. Details…
Alle diese Termine sind unter https://www.tomato.ch/messen-seminare.html
Andreas Löhrer ist Professor am IFU Institut für Unternehmensführung Kompetenzzentrum Finanzmanagement und Controlling.
Wie überraschend und vielfältig die versteckten Talente doch sind: Ein langjähriger Freund und Compagnon entpuppte sich als heimlicher Krimiautor. Acht Jahre hat er an seinem Erstlingswerk "Wie die Katze" gearbeitet und ist Autor und Verleger gleichzeitig. Der Krimi erscheint sowohl als Taschenbuch wie auch als eBook Mitte November. Krimibegeisterte sind herzlich eingeladen auf www.wiediekatze.ch mehr über die Geschichte, den Autor, die Entstehung des Krimis und die Meinungen der Leser/innen der ersten Stunde zu erfahren. Schaut doch einfach mal rein. - Viel Erfolg, Andi!
