Category

Risk Management

COVID-19FunctionalRisk ManagementSenior Executive
April 2, 2020

Closing a Quarter for SOX Can be Difficult in New, Remote World

An internal auditor describes what his company has done to successfully close a quarter when some physical tasks can’t be done. Part of Sarbanes-Oxley, the internal controls act released in 2002, requires a corporate’s chief executive and financial officers to certify financial and other information contained in the issuer’s quarterly and annual reports. But what happens in a crisis? What if some of that info requires someone in place to record inventory or in-person meetings when employee movement is heavily…
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Capital MarketsRisk Management
March 31, 2020

Lock It Up: What You Need to Know About Pre-Issuance Hedging

The pros and cons of treasury locks and forward-starting swaps as bond issuance jumps. The crush of investment-grade issuers rushing to sell bonds as COVID-19 wreaks economic havoc has made pre-issuance hedging a relatively hot topic for many treasury teams. Chatham Financial, sponsor of NeuGroup’s Virtual FX Summit, helped members get a firmer grip on the various ways to manage interest rate risk—and the associated accounting implications—during the summit and a subsequent Zoom meeting. Here are some of the key…
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COVID-19FXRisk Management
March 12, 2020

FX Hedging Opportunities Amid Virus Volatility

Opportunistic FX managers are locking in favorable exchange rates to hedge exposures as markets gyrate. NeuGroup members have locked in favorable foreign exchange rates in the wake of volatility sparked by the coronavirus outbreak, plunging oil prices and speculation about more US interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. “We’re taking advantage; this is something of an opportunity to layer in hedges,” said one risk manager during a NeuGroup’s Virtual FX Summit sponsored by Chatham Financial. Amol Dhargalkar, a managing…
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COVID-19Risk Management
March 6, 2020

Internal Auditors Snapping into Action to Help Companies Cope with Coronavirus Crisis

The outbreak points up the need to create or improve pandemic policies and formalize rules. The coronavirus outbreak is revealing how prepared multinational corporations are for threats posed by crises that can affect almost every area of a business. And that’s made the virus a top concern and focus of many members of NeuGroup’s Internal Auditors’ Peer Group (IAPG) who are playing a key role in the response. Proactive approach. “I am now devoting more than 50% of my time…
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Risk Management
March 3, 2020

How to Convince Business Units That ERM Has Real Value

Integrating it with strategic planning shifts perceptions that ERM is a bureaucratic exercise. Enterprise risk management (ERM) is often viewed by business leaders as a check-the-box exercise that interferes with the profit engines they’re seeking to run. A treasurer at a recent NeuGroup meeting who also chairs his company’s risk committee sought advice on how to convince the leaders of business units and other corporate entities that the ERM process adds value. Ed Scott, senior executive advisor at NeuGroup and…
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Capital MarketsPension and BenefitsRisk Management
February 25, 2020

No Slam Dunk for Pension Fund Managers: Selling Leverage-Averse Boards on Overlays

The popularity of overlays is increasing in the US despite concerns of executive committees. Leverage is something of a dirty word in the world of pension funds and that, perhaps, presents the biggest challenge that pension fund managers face when seeking to persuade their companies’ executive committees to use overlays that use derivatives as a fund-management tool.At a roundtable of pension fund managers arranged by the NeuGroup, one participant said his team had begun to explore how to “de-risk” the…
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Risk ManagementTechnology
February 6, 2020

Tales from the Cyber Crypt

Assistant treasurers exchange recent scary cyber tales of success and failure. In a breakout session at NeuGroup’s Assistant Treasurers’ Leadership Group focusing on securing companies from cyberattacks, members recounted recent experiences and the conundrums they face combating them. Digital protection, à la carte. NeuGroup’s own Scott Flieger, director of peer groups, said a fellow member of a college board who runs a cybersecurity advisory firm recommends companies make a menu of their digital assets, from bank accounts onward, and seek…
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Risk ManagementTreasury Management
February 6, 2020

Crisis Management Brings Executives Together

Having a crisis response plan can help make the company more resilient now and later. Following a framework for crisis response planning that engages management as well as the board can create significant political capital for internal audit, not to mention better prepare the company for crises that may arise. Multipurpose framework. The head of internal audit at a major government contractor said in a recent NeuGroup meeting that his company uses the National Fire Protection Association 1600 Standard on…
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Risk ManagementTreasury Management
January 30, 2020

Managing FX in Currency Tiers to Control Cost, Workload

Why one company’s treasury spreads currency management among teams for large exposures, currency clusters and “tier two” currencies. At a recent NeuGroup meeting of treasurers in Europe, one member shared how his company manages FX risk management-related costs and workload by considering currencies in tiers. Global policy, local execution. Generally speaking, at this company, corporate treasury at HQ is responsible for the framework and policies and the global hedging approach, but local (in-country) treasury staff implement the hedging strategy with…
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Capital MarketsESGRisk ManagementSenior ExecutiveUncategorized
January 28, 2020

Activist Investors Who Care About More Than One Kind of Green

Founder’s Edition, by Joseph Neu Takeaways from a fireside chat with ValueAct founder Jeffrey Ubben. Based on a head’s up from a top Wall Street activist defense adviser, I went to an event earlier this month hosted by Refinitiv and Reuters Breakingviews that featured a fireside chat with ValueAct co-founder Jeffrey Ubben. Mr. Ubben has stopped trying to increase his net worth and is now focused on making the world a better place (at least according to his worldview). One…
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