Capital MarketsCryptoTreasury Management
December 15, 2022

Posts, Podcasts and Video: The Best NeuGroup Content of 2022

A curated collection of favorite NeuGroup Insights posts, videos and Strategic Finance Lab podcasts. The NeuGroup Insights newsletter this week flashes back on some of our best content of 2022. That includes popular and topical articles—some based on proprietary NeuGroup Peer Research survey data—as well as videos and—new this year—podcasts (the Strategic Finance Lab, available on Apple and Spotify). To read the full email, please click here. The selections reflect the range of immediate challenges finance organizations faced in 2022—including tight labor markets, rising…
Accounting & DisclosureCrypto
October 20, 2022

Valuing Crypto with Fair Value Accounting: Game Changer?

How will FASB’s decision to require companies to report gains and losses in value influence corporate crypto plans? The FASB’s decision in mid-October to require companies to use fair-value accounting for certain crypto assets (i.e., not NFTs) produced a generally favorable response from corporates that follow developments affecting crypto accounting and regulation. Whether it changes how other corporates consider crypto use cases is another question. Until the FASB’s tentative board decision, companies treated crypto held on balance sheets as indefinite-lived intangible assets that…
CryptoTechnology
September 22, 2022

How to Climb the Crypto Learning Curve

Just-released NeuGroup Peer Research reveals that despite the turmoil in the cryptocurrency market, treasury’s efforts to become crypto-ready remain on track. The summer of 2022 wrought havoc on the cryptocurrency market; however, the extreme volatility did not undermine corporate treasuries’ resolve to become more crypto-fluent. While the headlines were disturbing, crypto payments have now become an inevitability for companies, and to ignore crypto can mean missing important strategic growth opportunities. In our most recent NeuGroup Peer Research report, A Treasurer’s Guide to Becoming…
CryptoPension and Benefits
August 25, 2022

Window Pain? Looking at the Risks of 401(k) Brokerage Windows

New DOL guidance on cryptocurrency investment options raises broader fiduciary questions for some plan sponsors. Guidance from the Department of Labor about offering cryptocurrency investment options in 401(k) plans, including through self-directed brokerage windows, sparked discussion about the pros and cons of the windows and the fiduciary duty of corporates at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Pensions and Benefits. The DOL guidance issued March 10 warned plan fiduciaries to “exercise extreme care before they consider adding a cryptocurrency option” to a 401(k).…
ComplianceCryptoTechnology
July 28, 2022

KYC: Know Your Crypto

Conversations with members reflect a need to screen for sanctioned accounts and illicit activity. Here are some options. With no end in sight to the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, corporates eyeing cryptocurrency opportunities are asking pressing questions about screening and investigating counterparties in transactions involving crypto. At a recent meeting of NeuGroup’s digital assets working group, one member expressed concerns that an NFT his company had sold could be resold to someone in Russia, with a portion of…
CryptoInvestment Management
June 30, 2022

The Inevitability of Crypto for Corporates

While the cryptocurrency market has imploded recently, treasury’s need to become crypto-fluent remains strong. Sharp drops in cryptocurrency value have grabbed headlines and rattled investors. However, the reality for most corporates is that they must continue, and even accelerate, their efforts to understand the market’s mechanisms and dynamics. Companies’ strategic initiatives, such as issuing nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and rising demand for payment in crypto from a younger customer base, are forcing treasuries to come up the crypto learning curve. According…
CryptoTalking Shop
June 16, 2022

Talking Shop: Managing Credit Risk for Crypto Custodians

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: “How should corporates manage credit risk for cryptocurrency custodians?” Peer answer 1: “We’ve thought a lot about this. One point to make: Anchorage Digital Bank is federally chartered by the OCC; most others are state chartered. We look at things like that. Most of these licenses have pretty high standards for capitalization, so it might…
CryptoESGTreasury Management
December 29, 2021

Best of NeuGroup Insights, Second Half of 2021

Stories that stood out included posts on cryptocurrency, the effect of ESG on credit ratings, Google’s innovation with SAP, an in-house fintech and a pair of video interviews. Review and reflect. Our final email of 2021 is a baker’s dozen of best posts from the last few months—selected for their topicality (ESG, cryptocurrency, NFTs), detailed descriptions of finance teams meeting challenges (complex spin-offs, post-merger integration, recruiting talent) and focus on key trends in treasury and beyond (right-time finance for FP&A,…
CryptoRisk Management
October 7, 2021

Cryptocurrency Challenges: A Risk Manager Prepares with Peers

Insights and observations on the intersection of treasury and crypto in a video interview with Medtronic’s Tim Husnik.Medtronic senior treasury director Tim Husnik loves a challenge. So it’s no surprise that he’s giving lots of thought to what his FX risk management team and other treasury groups will need to do, and how to do it, if Medtronic customers start asking to pay for products with cryptocurrency. “There will be an intersection with treasury at some point in the future,”…
CryptoCyber risk
September 30, 2021

The Treasury Cryptocurrency Handbook, Chapter 1: Ransomware

Finance teams prepare for questions on crypto as corporates plan for ransomware attacks.Cryptocurrency and ransomware proved popular topics at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Global Cash and Banking, during both the Projects and Priorities session and in a smaller breakout group. Some members are being asked how treasury plans to respond if cryptocurrency is needed in the event of a ransomware attack.Most members said their companies have no current interest in investing in or holding cryptocurrency.  A few members…