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Justin Jones

BankingCash & Working CapitalTalking Shop
March 18, 2021

Talking Shop: Do You Have One Banking Partner for AR and AP?

Member question: “In the US, do you have one banking partner for AR and AP, or do you split the business, with one bank for AR and a separate bank for AP? “For those that split the business, is this a share of wallet decision or an operational decision? Are there any operational pain points associated with having two banking partners?” Peer survey results: The majority of survey respondents use a single bank, with about one-third splitting the business. Peer…
Justin Jones
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BankingCapital MarketsSenior Executive
March 16, 2021

No Sale: Convertibles at Great Prices Fail to Impress IG Corporates

Companies rated investment grade expressed reluctance to issue convertible bonds, despite favorable conditions. It can be a nonstarter to raise the topic of convertible bonds with treasurers at investment-grade companies that can already issue debt with very low interest rates and don’t want their stock diluted when investors convert bonds to equity. But many NeuGroup members whose companies have high credit ratings, including some at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Capital Markets, say all their banks have pitched convertibles.…
Justin Jones
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Cash & Working CapitalTechnology
March 11, 2021

Future State: Data Lakes, Straight-Through Processing and APIs

Takeaways from NeuGroup’s TMS working group featuring discussion of automation, consolidation of ERPs and more.Straight-through processing (STP) that involves several systems, including payments and bank connectivity, sounds great. But members at a recent NeuGroup TMS Tuesday working group session agreed that efforts to accelerate STP first require a more detailed plan for the overall technology end state of treasury infrastructure. For example, one member said his company is still unsure if it would be best to further integrate all payment…
Justin Jones
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Capital AllocationCapital MarketsCash & Working Capital
March 11, 2021

Do Stock Buybacks Create Value or Just Return Capital to Investors?

Members at companies with excess cash discuss whether share repurchases generate economic value for shareholders.ConocoPhillips on Wednesday announced it is resuming its share repurchase program, citing its “long-standing priority to return greater than 30% of cash from operations to shareholders annually.” The company is not alone: A recent NeuGroup Peer Research Survey showed that 82% of respondents consider the return of excess capital the primary objective of their company’s share repurchase program. Only 9% said creating shareholder value was the…
Justin Jones
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Cash & Working CapitalInvestment Management
March 11, 2021

Counting Cash: Many Companies Will Maintain or Up Cash Levels in H1

An ICD survey also shows steady and growing use of money market funds and higher interest in ESG products.Cash on corporate balance sheets reached a record in 2020, topping $2 trillion, as companies responded to economic uncertainty created by the pandemic. New data from money market fund portal ICD suggests that a majority of corporates do not plan to cut cash levels in the first half of 2021. 61% of the 150 treasury clients surveyed by ICD plan to maintain or…
Justin Jones
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NeuGroup News
March 10, 2021

Virtual First-Half Meetings Kick Off With FX, Mega-Caps and Automation

NeuGroup’s first half meeting cycle kicks off this month with four peer group meetings in the next few weeks.  Today, NeuGroup kicks off its 2021 semiannual virtual meetings in full force with the Foreign Exchange Group 1 meeting. Through the next few weeks, a number of peer group meetings will follow, setting our first-half meeting cycle in motion.  Semiannual peer group meetings are the core offering of NeuGroup, and the primary venue through which members engage with one another. Peer groups have historically met twice a year in person in one-to-two-day sessions with the…
Justin Jones
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BankingESG
March 9, 2021

Green Discount: Treasury Wins With a Sustainability-Linked Revolver

After a corporate successfully launched a sustainability-linked revolver, the treasurer’s phone started ringing.When it came time for one NeuGroup member to renew an existing five-year revolver, he saw an opportunity to improve pricing and generate positive PR by leveraging the ESG goals that the company had recently put in place. The member’s company worked with BNP Paribas and Unicredit to structure a multibillion-dollar sustainability-linked revolver, the first one in its industry sector.“I’ve received a lot of calls from other treasurers…
Justin Jones
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Capital MarketsTalking ShopTechnology
March 9, 2021

Talking Shop: A Fintech Collects Capital Markets Pricing Data

Background: Members of NeuGroup for Capital Markets recently heard a presentation from InterPrice Technologies, a woman-owned fintech that collects pricing data for issuers. The company says its platform gives corporates access to their costs of capital “at any point in time and streamlines their communication with financing partners.” The technology “automatically aggregates bond, commercial paper and loan indications into intuitive dashboards across currencies and financing products,” InterPrice says.InterPrice on Monday announced it has raised $2.5 million in seed money led…
Justin Jones
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InsuranceRisk Management
March 9, 2021

Insurance and the Efficient Frontier: What Happens in a Soft Market?

NeuGroup members respond to Willis Towers Watson’s risk strategy of using modern portfolio theory for insurance. Willis Towers Watson recently presented to NeuGroup members an approach to modernizing how corporates buy insurance. As NeuGroup Insights explained last week, it involves modern portfolio theory and the efficient frontier. The presentation intrigued many members, including one who said WTW provided a great overview of the central idea. He wondered how treasury would effectively convey this new way of managing risk to the CFO…
Justin Jones
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InsuranceRisk Management
March 4, 2021

Solving the Insurance Problem With an Efficient Frontier for Risk

Willis Towers Watson advocates an approach that makes use of modern portfolio theory to assess the true value of insurance.For more than a year, buying and renewing insurance policies has been a severe pain point for many finance teams, all suffering through a hard market of rising premiums, higher retentions and lower capacity. And the pandemic. That makes now a good time to consider a modernized approach to insurance and risk finance strategy that takes what Willis Towers Watson (WTW) calls…
Justin Jones
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