PSD2, Fintech and major shifts in Global Economy keeps Annika Westerholm going in Kone Treasury
This blog series is dedicated to Cash — from startup’s to corporate treasuries.
We had very fascinating chat on Fintech, PSD2 and Cash & liquidity with free-time football player Annika Westerholm in Miami -room in 7h floor in Kone building with beautiful sea-view over Keilaniemi.
Annika started in Kone Treasury in February 2017. With 8,8 billion annual revenue, Kone has operations in 60 countries and more than 10 cash pools bringing eur 1 Mrd Cash in hand. Annika is in responsible for Cash & Liquidity solutions in Kone.
Her story starts back from 1994, when Finland was in deep recession. She started her Treasury career in 1994 in Finnpap international and continued from front-end dealer to risk management and towards senior Treasurer positions in Cultor, Sonera, UPM, Tieto, Ahlstrom, SEB Global Transaction Banking and Valmet. Just when she had done the three and a half years hands-on work clear in Valmet, which was a spin-off from Metso, the head-hunter called and had an offer not to refuse.
“This is once of the life-time opportunity for me” Annika says “our globally centralized treasury structure really keeps us going.”
Business decisions from North-America to Asia-Pacific, China and India are done locally, while all Treasury operations have been centralized in the 13th floor in Keilaniemi.
“With Brexit, Trump, and the accelerating technological revolution, we are living in the middle of a major shift in world politics and the global economy. Our centralized treasury structure shifts our focus in risk management towards understanding local markets and balancing between visibility and control, compliance and safety.“ Annika says “Because of our centralized trading on behalf of emerging markets, also understanding and follow-up of the local legislation in regulated markets, like China, Indonesia and India, is very important part of our daily work.”
Kone is invoicing locally, while the payments are centralized. PSD2 has a big impact in bank interfaces & payment solutions in next years. “We have a lot of discussion on different scenarios and fintech solutions with banks and our treasury colleagues, but it seems for me that the outcome is still unknown.” Annika says. For Kone, this area clearly opens an opportunity window.
Annika is global business owner of cash & liquidity in Kone. This is familiar area for her, as she has previously set up and split out several cash pools. “We always should keep in mind, what is the core business model of industry. Business model defines the focus points of cash forecasting process. Even in established business, there is a difference between project based business and services.” Annika says.
Her next step is to put all of her efforts and knowledge in Cash. In Kone, the key function of Cash is to ensure the required liquidity available for business decisions and the profit distribution to owners. Credit risk increases it’s importance and the excess cash is invested in low-risk sources.
With Annika’s great experience and high energy-level, it’s very clear that Kone has only to win.
The author is the Founder of BackedByCFO, CFO As A Service from seed to IPO, the greatest passion to help CEO’s with cashflow and metrics
