Category

Risk Management

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…
Justin Jones
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Risk Management
March 16, 2023

Striking a Balance: Simplicity and Complexity in Audit Reports

How internal auditors manage audit ratings and opinions is key to clear communication with the audit committee and management.There is no one way to present an update to the audit committee (AC) of a board of directors. But there is a general consensus that internal auditors must be succinct and not drag AC members into the weeds with too many details. That takeaway emerged at a recent monthly meeting of NeuGroup for Internal Audit Executives designed to help one group member create…
Justin Jones
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Cyber riskInsuranceRisk Management
February 9, 2023

Ray of Hope: Cyber Catastrophe Bonds May Boost Insurer Capacity

The first cyber cat bond could spell some relief for corporates navigating a hard market for cyber insurance. Corporate treasurers and risk managers whose companies face ever-increasing cyber risk may soon have a new tool to discuss with brokers and insurers as they build insurance towers and navigate the hard, capacity-strained market for cyber coverage: catastrophe bonds. Last month, U.K. insurer Beazley sold $45 million in cyber cat bonds, the first deal of its kind—following more than a decade of discussion about…
Justin Jones
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Risk Management
December 21, 2022

Recession is Treasurers’ #1 Risk in 2023

A year of difference. At the start of 2022, treasurers ranked tightening labor markets as their companies’ top risk for the new year. Twelve months later, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation and a hawkish Fed changed the outlook dramatically. The preliminary results of NeuGroup’s 2023 Finance & Treasury Agenda Survey point to the challenges ahead: ​Going into 2023, treasurers cited a prolonged economic slowdown as their biggest concern. For treasurers, lower sales put higher pressure on working capital. Not surprisingly, treasurers…
Justin Jones
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Pension and BenefitsRisk Management
December 8, 2022

Handoff: Tips for Playing the Pension Risk Transfer Game

The improved funded status of pensions, thanks partly to higher interest rates, make PRTs a play worth considering. The need for pension teams to foster strong partnerships with other groups, hire an experienced external advisor and, for some, find a separate, independent fiduciary to select insurance companies emerged as key takeaways from a presentation about pension risk transfer (PRT) transactions at a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Pensions and Benefits. The complexity of PRTs makes it essential that the finance team…
Justin Jones
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RegionalRisk ManagementTreasury Management
December 1, 2022

People, Prices, Places: Internal Auditors Question Hiring Trends

Internal audit hiring insights: India may be growing less attractive; recruiting talent from the Big Four has downsides. Top companies in North America have looked to India as a leading location for shared services centers and to potentially place at least some internal audit (IA) staff. They have also used the Big Four accounting firms essentially as a default source of new team members. Both of those trends may be wearing thin. One member of NeuGroup for Internal Audit Executives discussing his company’s rapid…
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RegionalRisk ManagementThe NeuGroup Insights Interview
October 20, 2022

The Importance of Timing When Buying Political Risk Insurance

Laura Burns of WTW explains the benefits of policies that insure losses caused by geopolitical crises in episode nine of NeuGroup’s Strategic Finance Lab podcast. Russia’s escalating war with Ukraine and rising tensions between the US and China are two big reasons why multinational corporations might want to consider buying political risk insurance—in other regions of the world, where it’s not too late to find coverage. To learn what corporates need to know about political risk insurance, hit the play…
Justin Jones
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Capital MarketsRisk Management
October 13, 2022

Debt Issuers, Don’t Doubt the Fed’s Resolve to Fight Inflation

Insights from Chatham Financial about pre-issuance hedging and tail risk. Companies that anticipate issuing debt should not underestimate the Federal Reserve’s resolve to fight inflation, Chatham Financial executives told members of NeuGroup for Mega-Cap Assistant Treasurers at a recent meeting sponsored by the risk management advisory and technology firm. In light of the Fed’s determination to get inflation back to 2%, Amol Dhargalkar, Chatham’s managing partner and chairman, raised several issues for treasuries to consider as they lay the groundwork for debt…
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Risk Management
October 6, 2022

A Treasury Twist on Commodity Hedging: Overseeing Price Locks

Having a physical price lock team report to treasury instead of procurement made perfect sense for one company. Breaking down boundaries and extending the reach and influence of treasury teams can help businesses succeed and may enhance the strategic value of finance in the eyes of a corporation’s senior executives. That takeaway and others emerged during a presentation by the director of risk management at a mega-cap company who now oversees a team dedicated to setting physical price locks for…
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Risk ManagementSenior Executive
October 6, 2022

Internal Audit Debate: Keep Reporting to CFO or Switch to CEO?

An IA expert says reporting to the CFO may divert IA resources disproportionally to finance vs other areas. More than three-quarters of US publicly traded companies’ internal audit (IA) functions report administratively to the CFO, although a similar percentage of IA professionals see reporting to the CEO as ideal. Presenting to a meeting of NeuGroup for Internal Audit Executives, Richard Chambers, a former head of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and a longtime IA practitioner, noted that seeming disconnect as one of several…
Justin Jones
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