Oliver opened the session by explaining that the primary reason for the meeting is one of administration and the necessity of appointing an auditor for the Association. He followed by summarizing the year to date to the attendees including making the comment that there have been a large number of corporate members joining recently including welcoming Swiss Post earlier in the week. The three regulatory events held recently alongside in FINMA were very well received, especially given the open opportunities for Q&A. This was recognized as being of significant value to FINMA as well as they were able to receive direct feedback from the community rather than only hearing from the usual lobbyists. Oliver also mentioned the upcoming Crypto Valley Conference, the fact that we are on-track from a sponsorship perspective, and that this will be the world’s first conference focused on academia in the blockchain space. The growth of the Association across Switzerland has also been strong in 2018, with a growing number of events and networking opportunities outside of Zug. The new Taxation Working Group will be publishing its first materials over the next few weeks, with involvement of the tax authorities themselves. Finally, Oliver mentioned the Association’s recent Swiss Fintech Award, which recognized the influence that the Association has had in the community since its inception 12 months ago.
Rene introduced brag Buchhaltungs und Treuhand AG, who is not a member of the Association (which is a pre-requisite) and the firm will be re-elected each year. The meeting attendees voted unanimously for their appointment as auditor.
Kevin spoke about the annual conference coming in June. IEEE has decided to only associate their logo to one blockchain conference globally and CVA is proud to have been awarded that honour. The level of involvement of academic speakers is especially notable and is being recognized as a dominant source of innovation that will eventually drive future corporate opportunities. Kevin also spoke at a high level about the many other upcoming events across Switzerland including the Annual General Meeting that will take place in May. Details of all of the events are on the Association website.
There were no other topics that had been sent in and therefore we moved to the close where Oliver opened to the floor for general questions which covered the opportunity to collaborate further with banks, ideas for establishing other chapters, and the Association’s activities beyond events and working groups that aim to drive positive impact in the ecosystem across financial infrastructure, regulation, operationalizing the ever-growing number of inbound requests, continuing to grow assistance for startups as well as establishing a research agenda along with more formal publications – not only in Switzerland but increasingly on an international basis.
Financial information is king and Thomson Reuters Corporation holds the crown. The company is the market leader in financial data (ahead of rival information provider Bloomberg). Thomson Reuters provides electronic information and services to businesses and professionals worldwide, serving the financial services, media, legal, tax and accounting, and science markets. Data is primarily offered online, and to a lesser extent via CD-ROM and print formats; nearly all revenues come from subscription sales to its plethora of offerings. Thomson Reuters was created in 2008 as the result of the $16 billion cash and stock purchase of news service Reuters by information provider The Thomson Corporation.
Operations
The company is organized into four business units. Its Financial & Risk segment accounted for more than 50% of total net sales in fiscal 2014. The segment provides news, information, and analytics to financial institutions.
The company's Legal segment provides online and print information, decision tools, software, and services that support legal, investigation, business, and government professionals. The Legal unit accounted for more than 25% of total net sales in fiscal 2014.
Thomson Reuters' Tax & Accounting segment offers integrated tax compliance and accounting information, software, and services to accounting firms, corporations, law firms, and governments. The unit accounted for 11% of total net sales in fiscal 2014.
The company's Intellectual Property & Science segment provides comprehensive intellectual property and scientific information, decision support tools, and services to governments, academia, publishers, corporations, and law firms. The Intellectual Property & Science unit accounted for 8% of total net sales in fiscal 2014.
Geographic Reach
Thomson Reuters has a truly global scale indeed. The company operates in more than 100 countries, and more than 40% of revenues come from outside the Americas. The business has US offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and Texas, and international offices in London and Bangalore, India.
Sales and Marketing
Thomson Reuters sells its products and services directly to its customers. In addition, it has been successful in selling some of its products and services online directly to customers. Focusing some of the marketing and sales efforts online has allowed it to broaden the range of customers and reduce sales and marketing costs.
Financial Performance
In fiscal 2014 Thomson Reuters' revenue was $12.6 billion. That was a decrease of $95 million compared to fiscal 2013. The primary reason for the drop was decreased sales from the company's Financial & Risk unit partially offset by increased sales from the Tax & Accounting segment.
The company's net income was $1.9 billion in fiscal 2014. That was a dramatic increase compared to the previous fiscal period. The primary reason was due to decreased operating expenses.
Thomson Reuters ended fiscal 2014 with $2.3 billion in cash on hand from operations. That was an increase of $263 million compared to the prior fiscal year.
Strategy
The company's growth strategy mainly involves developing new products, services, applications, and functionalities to better meet its customers' needs.
