TOMATO CATCH-UP: Newsletter Issue 170 – March 2014
Your monthly resource on working capital, process optimization and issues relating to the world of corporate treasurers, IT professionals and bankers!
Introduction:
Much of the advice in online publications seems so obvious that I wonder if it isn’t just a repetition and we all know the tips already. Once in a while, I come across suggestions that are so logical and doable that it’s worth to compare them to what we already do. That’s the case with "11 steps to Improve Your IT Team's Productivity". Last week, Andreas Carl attended a BNP Paribas Corporate Cash Management Breakfast and summarized the two topics discussed: EMIR and Basel III.
As usual, the newsletter includes a wide variety of topics. Enjoy!
Your Tomato
Regula Spottl and the Tomato Team
Ankündigung: Reval und Tomato AG laden Sie herzlich zur kostenlosen Veranstaltung fit for treasury am 10. April 2014 von 16:30 bis 19:00 Uhr in Zürich ein. Wir werden Ihnen in einem Spezial-Email in ca. 2 Wochen Details über die Themen senden. Erste Informationen und Anmeldung…
Topics
- Our Approach to Consulting and Project Management
- BNP Corporate Cash Management Breakfast Thema „Basel III“
- BNP Corporate Cash Management Breakfast Thema „EMIR“
- Neue Fassung der Liquiditätsstandards für Schweizer Banken
- Stellenwert von ISO 20022: Ländervergleich
- Swiss CFO Day 2014: Zusammenfassung der Referate
- AZEK bietet neues Studium “Experte in Finanzmarktoperationen”
- 11 Ways to Improve Your IT Team's Productivity
- Business Continuity Planning for Organizational Resilience
- Discussion “Has Listening Become a Lost Art?”
Our Approach to Consulting and Project Management
People often ask what distinguishes us from other consultants. Here’s a short answer to this question:
Our offers are short and concise, not longer than 2 to 3 pages. We conduct much of the work at our office. The client informs banks, providers, suppliers that we will gather information and act on their behalf. Daily/weekly updates on the status and success with the client is routine. We visit the client onsite only for internal meetings, banks or providers.
We act like a lawyer: The client entrusts us with a case, we offer the solution(s), the clients agrees or suggests small changes and during the project, we act like internal staff for the client. For 22 years, we’ve enjoyed the trust of our clients based on our guarantee that we’ll provide long-lasting solutions. They also often tell us that they feel comfortable knowing that they can fall back on us to get support and save time whenever they need it.
We search for low hanging fruit that lead to quick but lasting return on investment. We motivate all partners to aim for best practice, state-of-the-art solutions but also to be conservative and monitor and control risks.
Our publications on tomato.ch offer treasury professionals information that help them solve certain challenges on their own. If questions remain, these visitors can simply ask us to step in and complete the task.
For any size project, second opinion, day-to-day work as interim staff: We are three professionals, each with a different professional background and expertise. Our sole goal is to offer you the best solution for your situation while the knowledge remains inside your company! Feel free to contact us at +41 44 814 2001.
BNP Corporate Cash Management Breakfast Thema „Basel III“
von Andreas Carl
Am BNP’ Breakfast informierte Johan Beckers auch über die Konsequenzen von Basel
III für Corporates.
Basel III legt den Banken mehrere neue Mindest-Kennzahlen bzw. neue Arten der Bewertung jener Kennzahlen auf. Um die geforderten Kennzahlen zu erreichen und die umfassenden nötigen IT-Anpassungen finanzieren können, werden sie die Kredite für Corporates verteuern und Kredite an Corporates mit einem tiefen Kreditrating einschränken. Ausserdem werden Collaterals zunehmen und Laufzeiten abnehmen.
Die Regeln Basel III sollen weltweit greifen, sodass ausweichen auf andere Länder und Banken schwierig sein wird.
From the Royal Bank of Scotland: A short guide to the regulation... (English) (the best guide we could find)
BNP Corporate Cash Management Breakfast Thema „EMIR“
Von Andreas
Carl
Am BNP Paribas Corporate Cash Management Breakfast vom 6.3.14, informierte
Johan Beckers auch über EMIR. Ausserdem steuerten die Teilnehmer mit ihren
eigenen Erfahrungen dem Gespräch zu.
EMIR besteht seit dem 12. Februar 2014 mit Meldepflicht für alle Derivatgeschäfte (börsengehandelt oder over the counter, und egal ob mit einer Bank abgeschlossen oder konzernintern). Anmerkung: Kassa/Spot Geschäfte sind nicht meldepflichtig. Details auf unserer EMIR page.
Bis zum schweizerischen Finanzmarkt Gesetz sind Schweizer Gesellschaften noch ausgenommen, aber Schweizer Unternehmen müssen sich dennoch mit dem Thema Emir und für die USA mit Dodd-Frank befassen.
Derivat-Transaktionen mit EU-Banken melden zwar i.d.R. diese auch für den Corporate (BNP tut dies kostenlos). Die Schweizer Gesellschaft benötigt dennoch eine LEI (siehe unser Blog). Transaktionen von Schweizer Firmen mit EU-Banken produzieren sogenannte Unmatched Trades, welche vor der Behörde aufgezeigt werden müssen, möchten EU Banken allenfalls klein halten.
Neue Fassung der Liquiditätsstandards für Schweizer Banken
Medienmitteilung 17.01.2014 - FINMA eröffnet Anhörung zur Totalrevision des Rundschreibens "Liquidität Banken".
Ab 2015 wird ein neuer, international harmonisierter Liquiditätsstandard für Banken gelten. Das Eidgenössische Finanzdepartement führt mit einer Revision der Liquiditätsverordnung die kurzfristige Liquiditätsquote (Liquidity Coverage Ratio) ein, die auf den Basel-III-Mindeststandards beruht.
Gleichzeitig passt die Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA das Rundschreiben 2013/6 "Liquidität Banken" entsprechend an. Die Anhörungsfrist dauert jeweils bis zum 28. März 2014. Medienmitteilung…
Press release - FINMA opens consultation on full revision of "Liquidity – banks" circular
Im KPMG Blog “Überarbeitung der Liquiditätsstandards für Schweizer Banken“ listet Anna Sommer die wichtigsten Änderungen auf einen Blick. Details...
Stellenwert von ISO 20022: Ländervergleich
Im Schweizer Zahlungsverkehr läuft die Umstellung von proprietären auf die ISO 20022-Standards – sowohl im Kunde-Bank- als auch im Interbank-Datenaustausch an. In anderen Ländern hat ISO 20022 in RTGS-Systemen verschiedene Systeme und Prioritäten.
Im Artikel “ISO 20022: Wie machen es die anderen?” zeigt Gabriel Juri von SIX Interbank Clearing die vergleichbaren Standards und Einführungspläne in Australien (RITS), Japan (BOJ-NET), Grossbritannien (CHAPS Sterling) und Indien (RTGS ) auf.
Ausserdem enthält der Artikel die Einfűhrungsphasen in der Schweiz. Details… (pdf, 2 Seiten)
Learn more about ISO 20022, the “single standardisation approach (methodology, process, repository) to be used by all financial standards initiatives” at http://www.iso20022.org/
Swiss CFO Day 2014: Zusammenfassung der Referate
Das Thema für den Swiss CFO Day im Casino Zug am 22.1.14 war Passion for Performance. Die mehr als 300 Teilnehmer verfolgten die Themen verschiedener Referenten mit Interesse. Im Newsletter des CFO Forum Schweiz – CFOs finden Sie Zusammenfassungen der verschiedenen Referate zu den Themen:
- Performance Management im globalen Unternehmen
- Business Performance and Transparenz – Schaffen Sie wirklich Mehrwert fűr die Linie?
- Transformation – hin zur performance-orientierten Finanzorganisation
- Performance und Teamwork bei Tempo 1000
Details ... click on “CFOs Newsletter I / 2014
AZEK bietet Studium “Experte in Finanzmarktoperationen”
Einer unserer Leser schrieb uns: „AZEK bietet neu einen Lehrgang für Finanzmarktoperateure an. Meines Wissens gibt es so etwas noch in keinem anderen Land.“
Der Studiengang zum Eidg. Diplom des Experten in Finanzmarktoperationen FMO involviert 2 Semester und evtl 2 Vorkurse. Auf deutsch in Zürich und auf französisch in Genf.
Der Lehrgang richtet sich an Personen, die praktische Erfahrung im Finanzbereich haben bzw. beruflich im Gebiet des Middle- und Back-Office, IT, Organisation, Buchhaltung, Revision und Audit sowie im Support-Bereiche tätig sind und einen Lehrabschluss haben. Details...
11 Ways to Improve Your IT Team's Productivity
Jennifer Lonoff Schiff bases the tips on suggestions from CIOs, IT executives, productivity and leadership experts and project managers. She is a contributor to CIO.com and runs an organization focused on helping organizations better interact with their customers, employees, and partners.
The 11 tips for getting the most out of your IT team include
- Set goals -- and be "Agile" in your goal setting.
- Communicate goals, expectations, background info and roles from the start.
- Provide tools and infrastructure that promote collaboration and efficiency.
- Streamline workflow, eliminate barriers and reduce unnecessary tasks.
- Hold regular team meetings – but be aware of overkill.
- Reduce reporting and don't micromanage.
- Provide real-time feedback -- both positive and negative.
- Turn off distractions.
- Implement a smart pay-for-performance program.
- Offer development opportunities.
- Nourish them, literally. Provide snacks and drinks. (Think Google/SAS)
If you’re an IT boss, do you see any suggestions that you may need to pay attention to? If you work in an IT environment, these tips may help you to have a constructive discussion with your boss. Remember, what never works is a complaint about inefficiencies or uncertainties that are not specific and don’t offer a solution. Full story…
Business Continuity Planning for Organizational Resilience
In the GTNews article Gaining Competitive Advantage from Business Continuity Management, the business continuity expert Nat Forbes talks about what “robust contingency planning” involves.
Business continuity planning (BCP), which he calls organizational resilience, is not just planning for events such as fires and flooding and considering them a cost to the company. “Real resilience includes being able to handle the full range of responses a company needs to keep its business going, whatever happens”, stresses Forbes. The article includes examples of various companies’ continuity plans. Full story… (registration required, free).
The article reminded me of 7 Tips to Improve Your Resilience in Business and Finance, which Martin Schneider wrote after the economic downturn of 2008. “Based on our clients' situations, we've learnt the following 7 steps as being the most crucial,” he suggested. Critical areas:
- Liquidity Planning and Cash at Hand
- Improve your Risk Management
- Procurement and Supply Chain
- Sales and Client Relationships
- Improve Your Credit Risks
- Improve Your Balance Sheet
- Review Your Business Model
As an avid pilot, Martin used flying as a metaphor for turbulent situations, so he suggested that “at Tomato, we have years of experience in these topics. Our tips are recession proof. Actually, we like flying in turbulent weather and we are able to pilot you to save grounds. Full story with Details to each Point…
Discussion “Has Listening Become a Lost Art?”
James Heskett threw out the question on listening in Harvard’s newsletter a few weeks ago. In the last newsletter summed up the responses in a piece he called “When Is Listening Not a Good Strategy?”
All readers agreed that listening is important to effective leadership. Here are some responses:
- “It starts at the top. If we as management don't listen or don't know how, we can't tap the full power of the amazing talent in our own organizations. Listening is learning."
- "Listening is assuming the responsibility, generosity to do something with whatever you hear. After all it is someone's gift to you."
- "When you feel you are being listened to, then it helps you connect to the other person but it also helps you hear yourself."
- For listening to be beneficial, the listener has to be able to put himself in the other person’s shoes.
While several respondents suggested that listening is a lost skill, others argued that it’s always been a problem.
An excellent question one reader raised: "How many times (do) you have an answer as soon as you heard the main topic, suddenly your mind stopped listening and started developing your argument?" We probably are all guilty of this. Pay attention! Full story…
From the Desk of Regula Spottl, Greensboro, NC
Forbes just published this year’s list of America's 20 fastest-growing cities. Number 1 is Austin, TX, number 2 is Raleigh, North Carolina.
In the last newsletter, I wrote about SAS, America’s best-place-to-work company. SAS is located west of Raleigh, in the Research Triangle Park. Actually, more than 170 companies have outposts there, including IBM, GlaxoSmithKline, Syngenta, Credit Suisse, and Cisco.
These companies can hire from among several major universities in the area such as North Carolina State University, Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill.
The combination of universities and job opportunities has made for a highly educated population. In addition, the area offers a great quality of life, good health care, a good climate year-round and affordable cost-of-living.
I’m not bragging, but we really are in a good spot here!