Category

Banking

BankingCash & Working CapitalTalking Shop
November 10, 2022

Talking Shop: How Much Liquidity Does Your Holding Company Maintain?

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] Member question: “We are a multibillion-dollar bank and have traditionally held cash and liquid securities to cover four quarters of holding company expenses, including opex, debt, preferred and common dividends. We set the upstream dividend from the bank to the holdco to maintain that level every quarter. “After many years of this practice,…
Justin Jones
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BankingCash & Working CapitalRegional
November 3, 2022

Sending More Cash Out of China Using Pools in Free Trade Zones

Unpacking a member’s cash pool in China in a free trade zone where window guidance put no limit on cash outflows. Many NeuGroup member companies face a challenge getting cash out of China—in part because of rules limiting outflows from cash pools set up under a so-called nationwide scheme to 50% of the net equity held by a company’s entities in the country. But not all multinationals have this problem. At a recent session of NeuGroup for Global Cash and Banking, one member…
Justin Jones
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BankingTechnology
November 3, 2022

Sizing Up APIs: the Right Piece to Solve a Treasury Data Puzzle?

APIs offer flexible connectivity between systems, but widespread adoption by treasury faces several obstacles. Treasury organizations are hungry for data, but visibility into it is hampered by a fractured system environment and lack of standardization, both within finance and with external partners. Short of implementing a single ERP with built-in modules, finding a way to access enterprise information on a real-time basis has been difficult for often resource-starved treasury organizations. A new bridge for data. While complete system consolidation is not…
Justin Jones
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BankingTalking Shop
November 3, 2022

Talking Shop: Verifying Payment Instructions for Vendors

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] Member question: “What does your company do to verify payment instructions for new vendors and changes in instructions for an existing vendor?” Peer answer 1: “Our organization spends a significant amount of time validating changing or new banking information via phone calls. We are in the process of rolling out a service offered through…
Justin Jones
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BankingInvestment Management
October 13, 2022

Insist and You May Receive: Higher Rates on Bank Deposits

A low overnight deposit rate prompted one company’s treasury to push back and ask for a higher rate. The bank doubled it. Corporates that want to keep some cash in bank deposits as the Fed hikes interest rates but don’t like the rates they’re being offered should consider an inspirational example described by one assistant treasurer who said her treasury team told some of its banks, in essence, “Your rates aren’t good enough.” The AT discussed the approach during a…
Justin Jones
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BankingTechnology
September 15, 2022

The Need for Speed: How APIs Simplify Bank Connectivity

Real-time bank connectivity is the future—but NeuGroup members have yet to embrace APIs. In a recent NeuGroup member survey, 64% of respondents said they currently do or plan to have real-time connectivity to bank data, but only 16% said they’re currently using bank APIs—one critical key to real-time data. This is likely due to the overwhelming number of APIs that different banks use, and a lack of standardization. As you can see in the chart below, 29% of members that…
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BankingCapital Markets
May 19, 2022

A Tale of Two Bank Revolvers 

One company has fewer than 10 banks in its revolving credit facility while the other has more than two dozen. How many banks does a corporation need or want in its revolving credit facility? The answer, no surprise, is that it depends on the company, a point driven home at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Mega-Cap Assistant Treasurers. During the session, two members discussed how they arrived at very different answers based on the particulars of their companies. Less…
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BankingCapital Markets
May 12, 2022

Why Morgan Stanley Sees US Economy Avoiding Recession

Economist Robert Rosener tells bank treasurers that rising wages supporting consumption and continued capex by corporates should keep GDP growth above trend. Not everyone thinks the Fed will push the US economy into recession as it raises rates to fight inflation. Robert Rosener, senior US economist at Morgan Stanley, recently told members of NeuGroup for Regional Bank Treasurers that the firm sees just a 25% chance of recession over the next year. “Avoiding recession is our base case, but markets…
Justin Jones
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BankingRegional
May 12, 2022

Russia Reality: Paying Taxes to Shield Staff From Criminal Liability

Fear of criminal liability motivates corporates to pay taxes in Russia—but banks are rejecting some tax payments. The threat of criminal prosecution of their employees in Russia is one reason some US-based companies continue to make tax payments in Russia. Meanwhile, several US companies report that Russian tax payments made by entities outside the US have been rejected by a US-based bank. These takeaways emerged at the most recent NeuGroup session where members discuss the challenges facing finance teams at…
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BankingCash & Working CapitalRegional
April 28, 2022

Slim Down: A Bank Tells Corporates to Cut Account Balances in Russia

Settling intercompany invoices emerges as the best option for some members to quickly reduce deposit balances in Russia. A major US bank used by scores of NeuGroup member corporations in Russia has recently been making strong recommendations to some of them—in conversations, not in writing—that they find alternatives to the bank as the war with Ukraine enters its third month and the bank further reduces its exposure to Russia. This development sparked discussion among members about contingency plans and how…
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