Cash & Working CapitalCrypto
April 20, 2023

Speed, Stablecoins and the Future of Payments with Caitlin Long

A Wall Street veteran and crypto proponent sees stablecoins as an opportunity with real-world uses for corporates.Stablecoins—along with the entire world of cryptocurrency—have taken some lumps lately. That includes: faltering demand for two prominent players, BUSD and USDC; risk warnings about the digital coins from Fed vice Chair Michael Barr; and growing scrutiny and concern from the SEC, Congress and the Bank of England. Does all that mean finance teams at multinational corporations that need to keep up with developments in the payment space should turn their backs…
RegionalRisk Management
April 20, 2023

Russia Pain: OFAC Answers NeuGroup Members’ Sanctions Questions

Compliance officers at the Office of Foreign Assets Control offer insights on bank sanctions and licensing issues.At a meeting this week of NeuGroup’s Russia-Ukraine Crisis working group, a compliance officer from the Office of Foreign Assets Control acknowledged that the significant reduction in unsanctioned banks available to work with multinational corporations in Russia presents obstacles to companies authorized to do business in the country under US and other sanctions regimes, including firms supplying medicines. The session, moderated by NeuGroup senior executive advisor Paul…
Treasury Management
April 13, 2023

Back to Office Catalyst: Face Time To Boost Odds of Promotion

Leaders are trying subtle, mostly unspoken, ways of conveying that more time in the office is a path to advancement. Treasury and finance leaders at some companies with hybrid work policies are seeing progress enticing more team members to show up at the office by making it clear, if not saying it explicitly, that coming in and spending time with senior staff improves their chances for career advancement and promotions. A related talent takeaway from conversations at the fall meeting…
FP&ANeuGroup ViewpointTechnology
April 13, 2023

The Challenge of Building Agility Into Finance

How finance organizations can become more resilient amid disruption and demands to accommodate rapid changes in the business landscape.By Nilly Essaides Change, of course, is not new. But its speed and velocity have grown exponentially since the start of the pandemic. And its relentlessness is pressuring finance departments to speed up the delivery of data-driven decision-making support to the C-Suite and business leaders. An uncertain economic environment, a cloudy outlook for interest rates and inexorable technological innovation present CFOs and…
BankingCash InvestmentsTalking Shop
April 13, 2023

Talking Shop: Investment Policies and Counterparty Risk on Cash

Editor’s note: NeuGroup’s online communities provide members a forum to pose questions and give answers. Talking Shop shares valuable insights from these exchanges, anonymously. Send us your responses: [email protected]. Context: The failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Credit Suisse dramatically drove home the critical need of corporations to keep close tabs on the credit worthiness of their banking partners. In response to the crisis of confidence, some companies moved money out of smaller, regional institutions into large, global systemically important…
Capital MarketsRisk Management
April 6, 2023

Volatile Rates Spark Corporate Interest in Pre-Issuance Hedging

Multiple members have executed pre-issuance hedges in recent weeks, with many more strongly considering them. Extreme volatility in interest rates is fueling strong interest in pre-issuance hedging among NeuGroup members who want to mitigate risk—especially those who plan to issue fixed-rate debt in 2023. At the first-half meeting of NeuGroup for Capital Markets sponsored by Chatham Financial and Loop Capital Markets, members and representatives from Chatham agreed that this is an opportune time for companies to consider pre-issuance hedging, particularly using forward-starting swaps.…
D&IInvestment Management
April 6, 2023

Driving Diversity: A Company’s DEI Scorecard for Asset Managers

One corporate uses data on firms’ racial and gender representation relative to the US Census and their peers. A dearth of minority-owned firms that manage fixed-income assets—and a desire to hold all its asset managers accountable on diversity initiatives and metrics—led the treasury team at one NeuGroup member company with a large cash balance to develop a scorecard for diversity, equity and inclusion. The company’s treasurer shared it with peers at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Mega-Cap Treasurers. The treasury team’s asset…
BankingCrypto
April 6, 2023

Navigating Crypto’s Liquidity Crisis: Diversification is Key

A tumultuous March has shaken confidence in crypto markets’ liquidity; major players like BNY Mellon are rebuilding trust.As the Fed addresses the ongoing crisis of confidence in the banking sector, the mostly unregulated cryptocurrency market is still reeling from the spillover effects of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank: both were active supporters of crypto market transactions. The closure of Signature and Silvergate Bank meant the elimination of Signet and Silvergate Exchange Network—two 24/7 digital payment networks used by most in…
Risk ManagementTechnology
March 30, 2023

DIY with RPA: A Tool Removes the Pain of CSA Collateral Exchange

UPS and Coca-Cola describe automation solutions they made using UiPath to cut time exchanging cash, reconciling. Artificial intelligence and machine learning may ultimately be major forces in the digital transformation of finance orgs. Right now, though, more NeuGroup members are bringing the future forward and scoring wins with robotic process automation (RPA) solutions that can relieve the pain and drudgery of manual processes that take way too much time. To wit: two members of NeuGroup for Mega-Cap Assistant Treasurers—UPS and Coca-Cola—recently explained how they used RPA…
FXTechnology
March 30, 2023

Fed Up With Fees but Finding Few Options to Bloomberg Terminal

Members express frustration with Bloomberg’s data licensing fees and some explore alternatives. The cost of paying Bloomberg’s data fees on top of what the company charges for a Terminal subscription sparked complaints and conversation at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Foreign Exchange 2. The prices present a dilemma for treasury teams that don’t use the high-end tool on a daily basis but haven’t found alternatives they really like. One member said her treasury team only logs on to Bloomberg Anywhere three times…