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What’s on International Treasurers’ radar.
With three trillion or so on corporate balance sheets, the hope in the deal economy is that some of this cash will find its way into strategic acquisitions and not just share repurchases. Intel’s $7.7bn deal for McAfee helped the hope meme, as August (normally a slow month) is set to surpass March as the biggest M&A month this year. $39bn of the $175bn in deal flow this month came from BHP Billiton’s hostile bid for Potash Corp. Here's more... August 20, 2010 -
What’s on International Treasurer’s radar screen this week.
With Dodd-Frank now signed into law, we join many in looking to shed light on its impact for treasurers. And, as we have noted, sorting out the impact will be a long-term project. Already, however, we have seen some unanticipated outcomes, like rating agencies being caught up on expert liability questions. July 22, 2010 -
What’s on International Treasurers’ radar this week.
Topping the list of topics discussed at this week’s editorial meeting were rumors that the FASB was considering new language for the Financial Instruments ED pertaining to hedging accounting . . . July 15, 2010 -
What’s on the International Treasurer radar screen this week?
This week’s editorial meeting brought forth a number of key issues starting with a discussion going on amongst members of the Global Cash and Banking Group (GCBG) concerning intercompany lending rates. July 08, 2010 -
Issues on International Treasurer’s radar screen.
This week’s editorial meeting raised a number of issues starting with FX items being considered for upcoming peer group meetings, further consideration of issues related to procurement of banking services, including the potential need for treasurers to be focusing their bank counterparty and operational risk concerns on custodial banks. July 01, 2010 -
What’s on International Treasurer’s radar screen this week?
This week’s editorial meeting raised a number of issues starting with three related to the procurement of banking services. June 24, 2010 -
A roundup of topics International Treasurer is investigating.
With the global economy beginning to look a lot like it’s not fully out of crisis mode and governments desperately seeking revenue, treasurers are responding by rexamining their exposure, starting with the euro and ending with the taxman. For instance, although International Treasurer has sensed that many corporate FX managers have been sanguine about the euro’s current swoon (in some cases due to favorable hedges), it doesn’t mean they’re not looking out to positions over the next 18 months to potentially lay on new hedges. Here are some of the other issues that recent dialogue with our advisory board have highlighted: June 10, 2010 -
A roundup of topics International Treasurer is investigating.
The march toward doing more with less in the post recession (or the current possible double-dip post post-recession era) continues unabated. With that in mind, International Treasurer is looking into how treasuries can leverage technology to ensure that payment data is clean in order to avoid bounced payments, unnecessary fees and other inefficiencies along the bulk payment management continuum. May 27, 2010 -
A roundup of topics International Treasurer is investigating.
On deck for International Treasurer is learning more about the Corporate Funding Association (CFA). One of its founders is a member of The NeuGroup’s European Treasurers’ Peer Group, which meets next week. The CFA, or “Project CFA” as it has been dubbed, is working to set up a financing cooperative whose sole purpose would be to grant long-dated (5 to 10 years) euro-denominated credit facilities to its corporate members. April 15, 2010 -
A roundup of issues International Treasurer is investigating.
Some treasury teams have found that offering specialized services to business units helps offset some cost-cutting pressure. More importantly, it allows them to leverage their existing intellectual capital—or unique access to it through treasury relationships with third parties—to deliver value the company might not otherwise capture. February 11, 2010 -
By Joseph Neu
It takes a global credit crisis to move talk of unbundling credit pricing from other services toward action. Banks clearly have hit the reset button on pricing credit, making it dearer from an availability and pricing standpoint. Treasurers, meanwhile, can only hope that it is somewhat in line with a “market price,” or a fair value assessment of the relative credit risk of lender and borrower. June 23, 2009 -
By Bryan Richardson
One of the biggest problems confronting risk managers as they seek to embed risk-based analysis into business decision-making is that risk too often connotes the idea of a fire to be smothered, rather than a flame to be stoked. Such is the extent of this negative connotation of risk that at a recent pilot meeting for a NeuGroup Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) peer group, the participants openly discussed the need to re-brand enterprise risk as something else in order to implement an ERM program successfully. Similar implications might pertain to treasury as it also seeks to manage its risk mandates and engage with business units to improve their financial and risk profiles. June 23, 2009 -
By Joseph Neu
As has been noted frequently in International Treasurer, the silver lining in the financial crisis for treasury is that it has put a spotlight on its importance in keeping firms viable—i.e., funded, liquid and on top of market volatility—during tough conditions. Unfortunately, being in the limelight only helps so much.
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By Joseph Neu
“I came back to the same house, but the neighbors are really different.” This is how Gary Bischoping described what it was like to return to Dell’s treasury to become treasurer after several years in a business-finance-related role. His comment largely underscores the key conclusion from the Eurofinance 13th Annual Conference on International Cash and Treasury Management in Miami last month. The financial and economic crisis may not have changed the job of treasury, but it has made treasury’s role more vital, since its key service providers—in particular for capital, liquidity and vital banking services—have been severely impaired, if not put out of business by the crisis. May 27, 2009 -
By Joseph Neu
More treasury functions are taking seriously the notion that treasury can be spelled with a capital or lowercase letter. There has long been a contingent within the treasury profession that likes to refer to the Treasury function and the Treasurer (with a capital T), to help indicate its importance. While this can lead some to confuse treasury functions with the US Treasury and its Treasury securities, thinking about treasury with a capital T can also help differentiate between distinct types of treasury activities. However, whether a certain treasury activity is thought to warrant a big T designation or a little one, it is likely to be no less important to the firm in today’s environment. March 17, 2009 -
The Coca-Cola Company, which earns some 80 percent of its revenues overseas, serves as a good example of how firms should explain their management of an adverse USD impact on earnings. February 18, 2009 -
By Joseph Neu Ask any treasurer their chief lessons from the current crisis and “cash is king” is certain to make the list. It is fortunate then, that this same lesson applies to high level strategic actions suggested by the February 18, 2009 -
The concept of enterprise risk management (ERM) had plenty of doubters when it first made its corporate (vs. financial institution) splash; since then, corporate ERM gained traction and became an operational reality at many MNCs.
POST-ADOLESCENCE ERM
However, ERM is entering a new phase, perhaps an indication of its maturity: With many companies having some program in place, finance execs are beginning to assess what clear benefits (if any) ERM has brought and whether they should continue to dedicate resources to the “function.”
“We are trying, as I am sure many other companies are, to figure out exactly what ERM is for us and companies like us, and whether it works and how to prove that it works,” noted the risk expert at one large consumer-goods MNC.
Corporates are also struggling to pin down whether ERM represents true “value-add” beyond already existing risk management practices. According to John Collins, CFO, Constellation Energy Group Inc., “risk is embedded in everything we do.” When the firm makes investments or divestitures they are always looking at the risk-adjusted returns. Mr. Collins spoke at an ERM education session held by S&P in New York in mid-December 2007. January 29, 2008 -
Treasury has made tremendous strides in gaining the respect of senior management as a value added contributor; however, never is treasury more of a lifesaver than when s
Whatever a treasurer’s outlook is for 2008, increasing challenges await most in the area of credit and liquidity management. And whether or not one’s firm is likely to face direct liquidity pressure, all treasurers must deal with the deteriorating situation in financial services, starting with banks recovering from mortgage-related bets and rating agencies that misjudged the credit risk dynamics of securitization. Seeing the situation from the perspective of banks and rating agencies, treasurers should recognize that while this is a bad time to be calling in chits, it is good time to earn them. And with future credit still uncertain, these newly-minted “IOUs” could come in handy should credit be needed not far down the road. January 29, 2008 -
It’s easy to get caught up in the macroeconomic debate about the future of the US economy and the impact that the bursting of the housing bubble will have on GDP going forward. Whether the US economy will brake gently or jerk into a hard stop is often a function of the economist’s view of the ripple effects of the credit meltdown in the sub-prime loan market. However, regardless of degree, the headline news will have a bottom-line effect on many of treasury’s core activities, including FX and interest-rate risk management, financing, liquidity and investments. “You cannot hedge GDP,” commented the financial risk manager at one global technology company.
However, there are things treasurers can do to prepare for the eventual slowdown. May 02, 2007 |