In November 2018, the Deutsche Bundesbank implemented a working group with the target to analyse and to provide possible applications of eID in payment transactions and cash management as well as an overview of the already existing applications in the German market.
The German Association of Corporate Treasurers (VDT) is a member of this working group, e.g. to support the development of a reliable solution. It is key to enforce electronical eID straight-through processes and to avoid that legal representatives of corporates have to legitimate personally in a bank branch. Elimination of any paper-based processes for legitimation and a fraud resistant authorization process must be a key focus in our daily process of electronic bank account management (eBAM).
Analysing the different applications, the association considers that the online identification function of the identity card (Online Ausweisfunktion des Personalausweises) meets the requirements mentioned above. However, there is an obstacle: up to now not even 50 % of the German citizens have activated the online identification function available.
The VDT sees a major task in making this initiative known to the Treasurer Community in Germany to enforce the implementation of eID processes.
In November 2019, the Deutsche Bundesbank published the final report of the working group containing recommendations to implement electronic identification processes: support of market dynamics, improvement of the conditions of the usage of the eID functionality, higher cooperation between economy and government in regards of legitimation processes.
The German version of this report can be downloaded here
We cordially invite all member associations of the EACT to contribute and share on the developments of this topic in their countries/regions in forthcoming EACT Newsletters.
The KYC working group of the VDT started the new year with a face-to-face meeting in Frankfurt. 17 participants discussed the next steps to ensure that the best practice paper is up to date, i.e. the information already shared in a VDT newsletter on the storage and distribution of ID copied as well as the relevant aspects of the latest amendment to the Money Laundering Act will be incorporated. The updated version will be available in German and English.
After an intensive exchange with SWIFT in the KYC registry last year, this meeting gave exciting insights into ideas and solutions being implemented by e.g. Bertelsmann / Arvato Financial Service, Bellin and Bank Verlag on the subject of KYC, Digitization of the "signature card" and the ongoing eID initiative. This dialogue will be continued - also with other corporates and stakeholders.
The VDT launched the working group in June to deals with the adaptation of internal and external processes to the digital treasury world. They share some of their findings so far.
Read
COVID-19 has certainly impacted the way we communicate from a technical or logistical perspective – I think we’d all agree with that! It has also perhaps raised our awareness around the importance of communications, on a number of different levels.
Read
12 months ago, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) were the topic of think tanks and obscure magazines. These days, not a month goes by without a new headline in the more popular press.
Read
From March to May 2020 the VDT conducted a survey on Payment Factories. The trigger for the survey were the numerous regulatory changes that have had a strong impact on the processing and optimization opportunities in payment processes.
Read
The health crisis linked to the coronavirus epidemic has plunged all countries worldwide into the unknown. Paralyzing a large portion of the population and of companies, the health crisis subsequently gives way to a major economic crisis. Against this backdrop, companies first focused on liquidity. Indeed, with a sudden drop in sales, the cash flow generation slows down or even stops as companies are unable to slow down their cash outflows.
Read