All Posts By

Antony Michels

COVID-19TechnologyTreasury Management
July 16, 2020

Pandemic Pushes Companies to Digitize Processes, Prioritize People

Treasurers at tech firms push to abandon legacy processes while focusing on keeping teams connected. Many tech companies during the pandemic have been able to announce that they will not lay anyone off during the crisis—and have been able to keep their promise. Unfortunately, that’s not universally true—some businesses have been particularly hard hit and have had to furlough or cut staff, and consequently do more with less. This prompted a hard look at projects and their prioritization for many members of…
Antony Michels
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BankingCash & Working CapitalTechnology
July 14, 2020

Under the Hood of the Global Payments System: Complexity

How TIS helped The Adecco Group harmonize payment, reporting and bank account management processes.So, you need to make payments? Sounds simple, but once you look under the hood of the global payments apparatus—which has developed differently in different places for different currencies—you will discover separate layers of complexity. That’s according to Joerg Wiemer, co-founder and CEO of Treasury Intelligence Solutions, or TIS. Put simply, there are three different sources of complexity. The connection and integration of the ERP and the bank…
Antony Michels
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Cash & Working CapitalRegional
July 14, 2020

Obstacle Course: Cash Forecasting Challenges in Latin America 

Treasurers in Latin America are coping with the pandemic, M&A activity and working capital needs. Many of the cash management challenges currently facing treasurers in Latin America are being complicated by a variety of factors, including the omnipresent COVID-19 crisis. But also in the mix is recent M&A activity in the region (think integration and its opposite, divestiture), along with difficult financing conditions affecting working capital management. COVID chaos. Latin America is no exception in regions contending with the difficulties brought on…
Antony Michels
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Capital MarketsRisk Management
July 9, 2020

Why Swapping Fixed-Rate Debt to Floating Is Still Worth Considering

Wells Fargo shared insights on liability management at the pilot meeting of NeuGroup for Capital Markets.At a spring meeting of NeuGroup for Capital Markets, sponsored by Wells Fargo, several members said they had used interest-rate swaps to shift more of their debt to floating rates, a move that paid off as rates fell in the second quarter amid the pandemic. A few participants had regrets about having swapped from floating to fixed rates.One member said his team is “spending a lot…
Antony Michels
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Cash & Working CapitalTechnology
July 9, 2020

Brain Game: Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Cash Forecasting

ION’s plans to tap machine learning, deep learning and neural networks to help treasurers.   Making better use of technology to improve cash flow forecasting (and cash visibility) has taken on greater importance during the pandemic for many companies where it was already a high priority. That was among the key takeaways at the spring virtual meeting of the Global Cash and Banking Group, sponsored by ION Treasury. ION sells seven different treasury management systems (TMSs), including Reval and Wallstreet Suite.Among…
Antony Michels
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Capital MarketsRisk Management
July 2, 2020

Preparation Pays Off for Microsoft in Debt Exchange Offer

Liability management success: Microsoft received exchange interest of $12.5B, 56% of the targeted notional amount. Treasury teams managing their debt portfolios have a menu of liability management transactions to choose from, including bond tenders, open-market repurchases, consent solicitations and debt exchanges. To use most of these tools, corporates need to offer investors a reasonable amount of time to decide, ranging from five to 20 business days. So a successful liability transaction such as a debt exchange depends, in part, on a…
Antony Michels
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Cash & Working CapitalCOVID-19
July 2, 2020

Cash and COVID-19: A Tale of Two Companies

One company asks, “Where is the cash?” while another reevaluates operational processes. The economic upheaval unleashed by the pandemic divided the universe of companies at a recent virtual meeting of the Global Cash and Banking Group into two camps: Those with ample liquidity that were able to manage cash and conduct business as usual; and those forced to play defense and go “back to basics,” as one member in the latter camp put it. Two member companies sharing very different perspectives…
Antony Michels
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Cash & Working CapitalCOVID-19
June 30, 2020

US Coin Shortage: Retail Treasury Teams Call for Action, Urgency

Call it a disruption or call it a shortage—not enough coins means pain for retailers and banks.Treasurers of major retailers and restaurant chains sounded loud notes of alarm at a NeuGroup virtual meeting Friday about what many observers are calling a coin shortage. U.S. Bank, the meeting sponsor, described it as a “severe disruption” in the nation’s coin circulation sparked by COVID-19. (People have spent less cash during the pandemic and have exchanged far fewer coins for bills or credit…
Antony Michels
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Pension and Benefits
June 30, 2020

European Pensions Ride the ESG Bandwagon. Will US Plans Catch Up?

In Europe, ESG is gaining traction in pension funds while it still lags a bit in US; raters also need to standardize. While many observers thought environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues would take a back seat amid the pandemic, the opposite has happened, with treasury practitioners—at least in NeuGroup’s universe— seeking more information. Still, as members of the NeuGroup for Pensions and Benefits (NGPG) were told in a virtual meeting in May, it depends on where you are.  How important?…
Antony Michels
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Senior ExecutiveTreasury Management
June 23, 2020

Juneteenth and Beyond: NeuGroup Member Companies Take Action on Racial Justice

Treasurers at major retailers discuss what’s been done so far and what lies ahead. Calls for major societal change in the wake of the killing of George Floyd have sparked many corporations, including NeuGroup member companies, to take a range of actions in support of change and racial justice. For some, those actions included the observation of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the US. At a NeuGroup virtual meeting for retailers last Friday on changing regulation and business norms…
Antony Michels
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