# Charles Blommaert (@dcblommaert.eurosky.social)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/dcblommaert.eurosky.social
Location: Belgium

## Experience

- **Company Secretary & Group Leader Corporate Secretariat at Euroclear** (2009 – 2011)
  •  Executive Secretary of Euroclear Bank's Management Committee
  •  Deputy company secretary of Euroclear Bank
  •  Secretary of the Euroclear Cross-Border Market Advisory Committee
  •  Coordinating board and management reporting for the Euroclear group
  •  Internal trainer for courses on writing effective management and board papers
  •  Coordinating an international team in 6 countries
- **Internal Audit Director at Euroclear** (2001 – 2005)
  Senior auditor leading
  • Audit of strategic projects (settlement infrastructure upgrade, Single Settlement Engine, ESES Platform)
  • Audit of banking operations (middle office, front office, credit monitoring)
- **Business Analyst at J.P. Morgan (Euroclear Operations Centre)** (1992 – 1998)
- **Executive Secretary of the Risk and Operating Committee at Euroclear** (2012 – 2017)
  •  Executive Secretary of Euroclear Bank's Risk and Operating Committee
  •  Secretary of the bank's Operations Management, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer (COO)
  •  Coordinator of the bank's third party assurance SOC1 reporting (ISAE 3402) & PwC liaison
- **IT Communications Director at Euroclear** (2005 – 2009)
  •  Internal communications manager for global IT project delivery divisions
  •  Responsible for management reporting and communication, drafting  papers and presentations for executive management (e.g. board papers, strategic presentations)
  •  Secretary of Euroclear's IT Management Committee
  •  Secretary of Euroclear's group roadmap prioritisation committee
  •  Secretary of various programme steering committees
- **Supplier Governance Lead at Euroclear** (2017 – present)
  • Manager of Euroclear Bank's third-party governance framework to ensure effective control and regulatory compliance
  • Chair of the Euroclear Group Outsourcing Committee
  • Providing management assurance and maintaining an adequate control framework
- **Business Analyst at Euroclear** (1992 – 1998)
  Euroclear Operations Centre, operated by JP Morgan
- **Senior Business Analyst at Euroclear** (1999 – 2001)
  Senior business analyst on custody developments:
  •  Implementation of a new platform for automated witholding tax processing in 30+ markets
  •  Implementation of IRS 1441 Tax Regulations in 2001, including presentations to clients in Vienna, Zurich, Geneva

## Education

- **Lund University** — MOOC, Greening the Economy - Lessons from Scandinavia
- **Nyenrode Business University** — Lean Leadership Programme (2017 – present)
- **ICMA Centre** — Operations Certificate Programme (OCP) (2003 – present)
- **University of Durham** — Certificate, EU Law and International Economics (1990 – 1991)
- **Universiteit Gent** — MBA, Business Communication (1988 – 1989)
- **KU Leuven** — Certificate (1987 – 1988)
- **Universiteit Gent** — MA, History (1983 – 1987)
- **Atheneum Voskenslaan Gent** (1977 – 1983)

## Skills

- Business Writing
- Corporate Governance
- Sustainability
- Operational Risk
- Global Custody
- Swedish
- Norwegian
- Climate Change Adaptation
- Climate Change Impacts
- Governance
- Ecological Design
- Low Carbon Economy
- Lean Process Improvement
- Financial Services
- Outsourcing governance
- Euroclear
- ISAE 3402
- EU Law
- Communication
- European Union
- Social Media
- Securities
- Settlement
- European History
- Financial Risk
- Management
- Financial Markets
- Banking
- Business Analysis
- SWIFT payments
- Collateral Management
- Fixed Income
- Internal Audit
- Capital Markets
- Equities
- Operations Management
- Committees
- Analysis
- Corporate Actions
- Bonds
- Back Office
- Business Communications
- Auditing
- Payments
- Operational Risk Management
- Cricket
- SAS70
- Internal Communications
- Company secretary

## Certifications

- PRINCE2 Foundation — Office of Government Commerce
- Corporate Secretary — ICSA: The Governance Institute
- Language Level Test Swedish: B2 (CEFR) — Folkuniversitetet
- Climate Fresk workshop — Climate Fresk
- ICMA Operations Certificate Programme — International Capital Market Association (ICMA)
- Level Test Norwegian (Bokmål): B1 (CEFR) — Lingu AS
- Climate Adaptation and the Cost of Inaction — Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

## Projects

- **Euro single currency (European Monetary Union phase 3)**
  As per 1 January 1999, the Euro replaced the legacy currencies of 11 European nations, creating a single European currency for 300 million citizens. Not only were bank notes and coins replaced and bank accounts converted into Euro, a large number of securities
- usually (semi) government debt
- was converted on that day. As Euroclear was the biggest depositary of such securities, our role was key to the success of the new currency.

As the responsible business analyst, I wrote the algorithm that applied the various national rules on the redenomination of their debt instruments.

I also analysed & resolved the issues related to complex cases, such as the  redenomination of french government debt traded in units, or the conversation of Italian tax amounts under the pro rata temporis taxation system for which Euroclear acts as withholding agent (including presenting the latter at the Italian Ministry of the Treasury,  as they had not understood the impact on international investors).
- **Implementation of the Central Securities Depositories Regulation (CSDR)**
  With CSDR, the European Union implemented a framework for the Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) of the EU. The regulation was rolled out through a phased approach from 2014, addressing various aspects, such as improving securities settlement efficiency and addressing operational risks, including those related to outsourcing.

As Supplier Governave Lead, I was responsible to implement the processes to make Euroclear Bank compliant for all outsourcing related actvities, contributing to Euroclear's authorisation, ensure continued compliance and regulatory reporting to the National Bank of Belgium and provide regular assurance to management, integrating new regulations in the following years, e.g. EBA Guidelines on Outsourcing, ESMA Cloud Outsourcing Guidelines, or Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
- **US tax reform (IRC Section1441)**
  Effective from 2001, the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) changed its withholding regulations under Section 1441 with respect to payments made to non US resident beneficiaries, and the role of qualified intermediaries (QI) acting as tax withholding agent. The reform impacted all foreign institutions that hold US Securities on behalf of nonresident aliens. A QI like Euroclear is responsible for the correct classification of US Securities,  collecting the documentation, splitting the correct tax rate at source, and make the tax payments to the IRS.

As leading business analyst,  I re-engineered the process to identify the correct tax payment,  automated the validation of tax certificates and deriving the correct tax rate and the booking of net and gross income amounts as applicable. Together with the leading tax lawyer and the head of tax operations, I did a road show to major European banks to help them to prepare for the business impact of the new rules.

## Volunteering

- Board member at Vriendenkring van de Voskensscholen
- Member of the Executive Committee at Cricket Belgium
- Founding chairman, life member, elderly statesman & supporter at Arcadians Cricket Club Ghent
- Member at Union of European Federalists (UEF)
- Member at Volt Europa
- Chairman at Cricket Vlaanderen

## Honors and awards

- ICC Centennial Medal for Outstanding Services to Cricket

## Languages

- Norwegian (limited_working)
- Dutch - Nederlands (native)
- English (native)
- French - français (full_professional)
- Italian - italiano (elementary)
- Swedish - svenska (professional_working)