BankingRisk Management
March 16, 2023

Finance Fallout: SVB’s Head-Scratching Risk Management Failure

SVB insights from NeuGroup founder Joseph Neu and senior executive advisors Paul Dalle Molle and Jerry Olivo. Financial crises like the failure of Silicon Valley Bank reveal the grit, dedication and skill of first-rate treasury and finance teams—and their ability to manage risk when battling forces they can’t control. Upheaval, volatility and uncertainty also test the mettle of NeuGroup, whose mission is to help members, sponsors and partners withstand the blows. Hours after regulators shut down SVB last Friday, the…
BankingCash & Working CapitalRegional
February 23, 2023

A Year of War, Sadness and Confronting Challenges Together

Finance teams come together to overcome obstacles amid sanctions, countersanctions and the exodus of banks from Russia. By Paul Dalle Molle, NeuGroup Senior Executive Advisor This week’s one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a sad moment, knowing as we do that the war is raging on with no signs of ending. It also reminds us that the conflict really began in 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas. It has been almost a decade of…
BankingTalking Shop
February 9, 2023

Talking Shop: Do You Pay All Joint Lead Arrangers of Revolvers?

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 have three joint leader arrangers (JLAs) for our revolving credit facility and the JLA that drives the revolver renewal gets paid more than the others. “There are some companies with a lot more than three JLAs. If we were to grow the top tier/JLA group, would the market standard be…
BankingTalking Shop
December 8, 2022

Talking Shop: Interest Rates for In-House Banks

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: “For those that use an in-house bank/cash center, can you share the interest rates you use on the excess funds loaned to the in-house bank? “Does the in-house bank/cash center pay the lending entity: “An overnight rate “A monthly interest rate “A rate that matches the rate on the investment made…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…