FX Swaps vs Libor and EURIBOR: Arbitrage opportunities?

| 05-07-2016 | Rob Söentken |

fxswaps

 

As we are getting closer to the end of the month, end of Q2 and end of H1 of 2016, it is interesting to see financial markets are maneuvering to get the right liquidity on board for the balance sheet. Or get rid of the unwanted liquidity. For firms with liquidity in various currencies the best means for liquidity management is FX swaps.

 

What is an FX swap?

In a very simple definition the FX swap is like an exchange of deposits. The big advantage is that the counterparty risk is reduced due to the exchange of notional. Operationally an FX swap is booked as two FX transactions: one to convert and another to revert. The conversion rate is against the prevailing exchange rate. The reversion rate is against the conversion rate plus or minus some ‘swap points’, which reflect the interest rate differential between the respective currencies. During the tenor the exchange rate could change, which creates counterparty risk on the mark-to-market value of the reversion. Mark-to-market risk for tenors up to 1 year is still a small when compared to full notional risk.

How would an FX swap work in theory?

In diagram 1 the Libor and Euribor fixings for USD and EUR are listed for the respective tenors. Now if we would consider exchanging a USD deposit versus a EUR deposit for 1 year the cash flows would be as follows:
For the conversion date we take value spot (ie 2 days, in this case that is per June 30th) and we agree to exchange EUR 1 Mio vs USD 1.1048 Mio (because EUR 1 Mio at current spot of 1.1048 is USD 1.1048 Mio)

For the reversion date we take the value date for 1 year from today’s spot date. We calculate the following amounts including interest:

EUR 1 Mio x (1 + -0.05% x 365 / 360) =                     EUR 999,493.06

USD 1.1048 Mio x (1 + 1.20% x 365 / 360) =         USD 1,118,241.73

Dividing the USD amount by the EUR amount gives the exchange rate for the reversion on the forward date, in this case that is 1.1188089. This is called the ‘forward rate’ The difference to the spot exchange rate is 0.0140089. For simplicity reasons this is multiplied by 10,000 to 140.089. This reflects the interest differential.

When executing an FX swap the EUR amounts are kept constant for both the spot and forward dates. But the USD amounts are calculated using the spot and forward exchange rates as calculated above. Therefor the interest differential is reflected in the USD amount being different between spot and forward date.

How does it work in reality?

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the current situation is special because we are getting close to a date special and important for balance sheet reporting. Supply and demand may push the market in a direction.

When looking at the actual FX swap rates and taking the EUR Euribor fixings as given, we can deduce the implied USD funding rates (see diagram 2). First observation is that the FX swaps appear to reflect either a substantial demand for USD from June 30th to July 1st, or a EUR supply. It is interesting to see that the 1 week fixing for EUR was not affected, while the 1 week FX swap was affected maybe 20 bppa. One reason could be the timing of the rates. Euribor is taken at one moment during the day, while FX swaps are affected by events during the day. Because wdiagram2e are looking at a single day FX swap, the annualized rate could swing a lot.

Another observation is that the interest rate differential between EUR and USD is actually bigger than implied by the fixings. For one month tenor the difference is 0.59% p.a.. It would seem possible that supply – demand forces can push FX swaps away from the deposit markets. Likely the counterparty limit constraints on pure deposits keep them from being arbitrages vs FX swaps, like they used to be many years ago.

How can a treasurer benefit from FX swaps?

Each individual and organization should determine for itself what he/she or it needs. And I do not want abstract from discussions around documentation requirements, collateral financing and administration, and the operational extra work. It seems obvious that there are opportunities to investigate.

One key area would be to look at the bid-offer spreads on cash liquidity in various currencies as provided by house-banks and compare those rates with and without using FX swaps. Also I could imagine non-house banks could be more competitive in providing FX swaps, while the counterparty risk is substantially smaller than when pure lending is concerned.

Rob Soentken

 

Rob Söentken

Ex-derivatives trader

How long should I fix an interest rate?

| 04-07-2016 | Lionel Pavey |

yieldcurves_lionelpaveyA normal yield curve is usually upward sloping with diminishing increases in yield– the longer the tenor, the higher the interest rate. Generally it is assumed that longer maturities contain larger risks for lenders and they require adequate compensation with a risk premium in the form of a liquidity spread.

Any long-term corporate investment (purchasing of plant and/or equipment) will need to be financed.

Normally if an asset has a service life of 15 years a loan would be arranged whereby the tenor was also 15 years. Assuming straight line depreciation of the asset then the annual principal repayment would equal the annual depreciation in the bookkeeping. So whilst we could then conclude that the ultimate tenor of a loan should equal the service life of an asset, it still does not answer how we should finance it.

Since January 1999, with the introduction of the Euro, it has become easier to collate data relating to interest rates on a daily basis. On the basis of working days (so days where rates will be traded and then published) there have been over 4,400 dates from which data could be collected. A daily array of interest rates both short and long term implies that it is not inconceivable that more than 75,000 individual data points could have been collated by now – perhaps a lot more depending on your appetite for data. It would be fair to say that this would represent a substantial array of data that could be analyzed.

Let us make the following assumptions:

  • We have access to this data
  • It contains all Euribor rates
  • It contains long term interest rate swap rates
  • We wish to compare long term fixed funding with short term funding
  • Short term funding is not only against Euribor but also shorter date long term swaps that have a maturity smaller than the long term fixed funding period
  • All trades can take place at the rates that we have captured and collated
  • The long term maturity is a fixed number of whole years
  • The short dated long term swaps are also a fixed number of whole years
  • We ignore the NPV of the cash flows
  • The short dated long term swaps are factors of the long term maturity
  • Interest payments on all interest rate swaps is annually

If we were to analyse 10 year fixed rates against shorter dated rollover funding we can compare it against periods of 1, 3 and 6 months as well as 1, 2 and 5 years.

The following is an analysis of data from the 4th of January 1999 up to and including the 31st May 2016.

Schermafbeelding 2016-06-30 om 10.12.18

Observations:

  • This overview is compiled as of the 31st May 2016.
  • If we look at 10Y (fixed) versus 1Y (fixed) rollover we see there are 1,925 data points.
  • If we look at 10Y (fixed) versus 5Y (fixed) rollover we see there are 3,183 data points.
  • The last date that we can calculate for 10Y against 1Y is 9 years before the 31st May 2016 – 31/05/2007
  • The last date that we can calculate for 10Y against 5Y is 5 years before the 31st May 2016 – 31/05/2011

Whilst interest rates have fallen since the crisis that started in the summer of 2008, rates were “normal” for the preceding 9 ½ years since the inception of the Euro in 1999.

Here is a graph of 1Y and 10Y IRS rates since 1999 –

Schermafbeelding 2016-06-30 om 10.14.38

As is to be expected the 10 year yield is normally higher than the 1 year yield – this follows the accepted theory for interest rates.

For further analysis here is a graph of 1Month Euribor and 5Y IRS rates since 1999 –

Schermafbeelding 2016-06-30 om 10.16.06

Yet again, as expected, the 5 year yield is normally higher than the 1 month yield.

So whilst the data produces normal curves whose general shape and distribution meet the expected theories of interest rates, regardless of the absolute value at any particular time, the analysis of the data shows that, in most cases fixing rates for a shorter term leads to lower interest charges than immediately fixing for a longer period.

Naturally, with the extremely low interest rates that are prevalent at the moment, it would be very naïve to conclude that interest rates should always be fixed for a shorter term than the desired tenor for the longer term. However, as mentioned in one of my previous articles about implied forwards,  it is necessary to look at all the implied values within a curve at the time that a loan needs to be arranged.

A quick and dirty inspection of the yield curve at the moment would show that, if we were looking at a constant 10 year yield curve priced off IRS, the implied curve would look like this at certain points –

Schermafbeelding 2016-06-30 om 10.22.19

Now we need to quantify the savings that, theoretically, could have been obtained by looking  at our original data.

Schermafbeelding 2016-06-30 om 10.18.29

As can be seen, a 5 year rollover fixed at inception and then refixed after 5 years as opposed to a 10 year fixed at inception led to an average reduction in interest costs of 122 basis points per annum and would have been the better option in 98.7% of the time.

There are no guarantees about prices in the future, but a lot more implied data is available in the current yield curve than just that one single curve that is shown as a graph in the newspapers.

 

Lionel Pavey

 

Lionel Pavey

Cash Management and Treasury Specialist – Flex Treasurer

 

 

 

 

AFM hat es gewusst! AFM krijgt er van langs in het A&M rapport

| 01-07-2016 | Frank Wijn |

2016-04-Life-of-Pix-free-stock-desk-newspaper-light-LEEROY

 

AFM krijgt er van langs in het A&M rapport over toezicht op derivatendossier. De kranten meldden woensdag jl. dat de AFM de derivatenellende onderschat had. Ook de Wet van Murphy zou van toepassing zijn, aldus het AFM bestuur. Lariekoek. AFM wist hoe groot de derivatenellende was.

 

 

Kenniscentrum Rentederivaten heeft 2 jaar (!) lang, individueel en gezamenlijk, vele MKB-derivaten klantdossiers (met toestemming van deze klanten uiteraard) met AFM besproken. Al snel werd duidelijk dat de benodigde technische en praktische kennis niet direct voor handen was bij AFM. Organiseer dat dan, denk ik dan. De bank- en klantbelangen zijn immers groot genoeg. Net als de ellende.

Typisch ook dat een van de AFM medewerksters de verhouding ‘toezichthouder-banken’ typeerde als David tegen Goliath. Ja, en? Als je Goliath tussen de ogen raakt, kun je als David gewoon winnen, heb ik ooit eens gelezen. Daarnaast heb ik vriend Murphy nooit aan tafel gehad bij al die KCR-AFM gesprekken en discussies.

Vaak spraken wij (erg) jonge personen in wisselende samenstellingen. En de twee gedreven AFM medewerkers die hun tanden er goed in hadden staan, gingen tijdens dit project bij ABN Amro Bank werken. Allemaal louter toeval natuurlijk.

Zo stuurde ik op 30 juli 2013 AFM dit mailbericht: 

mailberichtfrankwijn“Bijgaand de standaardteksten bij de advisering/verkoop van een renteswap door de Rabobank. Let op het verschil van 2008 en 2010! In 2008 is het structureel verkocht door te stellen dat de klant ‘een vaste rente gaat betalen’.

In 2010 zijn ze wél duidelijker, maar beginnen hun verkooptekst nog stééds met ‘u bent niet meer onderhevig aan rentefluctuaties’. Ik, jullie en bankklanten weten inmiddels dat dat lariekoek is……. Zie het Follow The Money-artikel. ” 

Op 3 november 2013, in het programma Brandpunt, ontkent AFM glashard dat zij de brochure kent:

 

Ook het feit dat AFM accepteerde dat de banken hun oud-verkopers van rentederivaten verantwoordelijk maakten voor de landelijke herbeoordelingen, zei en zegt mij genoeg. De Britse toezichthouder ging daar al direct voor liggen. Hier in Nederland niet. Hier mag de ‘draaideurcrimineel’ zijn eigen handelen beoordelen en zelfs mede de strafmaat bepalen door mee te praten en onderhandelen over het Algehele Herstelkader. Bizar. Minister Dijsselbloem had 2 jaar nodig om tot de conclusie te komen dat een slager beter zijn eigen (rottend) vlees niet kan en mag keuren. Twee jaar!

 

onafhankelijkereviewers

Dit Algehele Herstelkader komt een dezer dagen naar buiten en ook met de door Dijsselbloem aangestelde Commissie Rentederivaten heb ik hierover gesproken. Slimme mensen met duidelijke inhoud en visie. Of zij bestand zijn tegen de enorme bankenlobby? We’ll see.

De timing van de release van dit A&M rapport heeft ook niets met Murphy te maken. Dit ‘toeval’ stelt de banken zo direct toevallig in staat om bij het uitkomen van het Algehele Herstelkader (dat zij al lang hebben ingezien) met hun vinger te gaan wijzen naar de gebrekkige toezichthouder. “Ik reed weliswaar door het rood, maar ik ben nooit adequaat terecht gewezen door de agent. Dus, tsja wat wil je dan”?

Wel zo lekker……een bliksemafleider voor jouw eigen verantwoordelijkheden.

Kortom, zowel de banken, de AFM (waar is DNB in deze?), het KiFiD en de politiek kunnen niet zeggen dat ze niet wisten hoe groot de zak ellende was en is. Laat de banken hun verantwoordelijkheid nemen. De winst op deze fout verkochte producten hebben ze al.

frankwijnfoto1

 

Frank Wijn

Expert in financiële duidelijkheid 

 

Funding Stories with a strong Business Connection

| 30-06-2016 | Pieter de Kiewit |

towerAlready over a decade the treasury community agrees that the modern treasurer does not act out of an ivory tower. Still, a lot of the treasury stories about funding, I hear in treasury recruitment, are about technical details. I learn in detail about USPP’s, interest hedging strategies and convertible bonds. Between these technical stories I notice other ones. I think they are inspiring and would like to share two of them.

The Dutch market for retailers is extremely tough. Last February I learned what sets one of the more successful ones apart from the rest. In a tight cooperation between procurement, merchandising, supply chain management and finance a business concept was designed in which each store is able to renew its full collection every two weeks. This attracts customers constantly and increases revenues. Suppliers are paid after the customer in the store bought! Can you imagine what impact this has on the working capital situation! This of course only works when all functions are delivering. And they are. Treasury now has to think about what to do with excess cash….

At the Corporate Finance Summit one of the keynote speakers described the success story of AB Inbev, a company that dominates the global beer market. What strikes me in this story is the aspect the long term vision of the family that owns the company. They are not afraid to go all in, because they know their choice is the proper one. After acquisitions focus is on reducing debt, bringing the balance sheet back to a conservative state. We have recently seen companies with a different focus, as well as the consequences. I enjoyed his presentation.
Read his story under this link (in Dutch).

Pieter de Kiewit

 

 

Pieter de Kiewit
Owner Treasurer Search

 

 

Lage rente in historisch perspectief

| 29-06-2016 | Roger Boxman |

germanyield-150x150De historisch lage rente, op 15-06-2016 publiceerden we al een artikel waarin experts Rob Söentken, Lionel Pavey, Udo Rademakers en Douwe Dijkstra een reactie op dit nieuws gaven. Vandaag zet expert Roger Boxman deze lage rente in historisch perspectief: van 1980 naar 2016.

Terug naar 1980. De westerse wereld kampt met lage economische groei, hoge inflatie, hoge rente (12,75%) en hoge werkloosheid. De rentelasten drukken zwaar op de begroting. Het aanjagen van de economie wil niet lukken door ophoging van de de overheidsbestedingen. Het Keynesiaanisme is in de ijskast gezet. De leidende ideologie is het Liberalisme. Ronald Reagan en Thatcher zetten in op meer marktwerking: privatisering en deregulering.

Het is 2016 en ruim een generatie later. De rente staat al 8 jaar op een historisch laag niveau en ook 0% blijkt niet de bodem. Na de Brexit is er de vlucht naar zekerheid: Duits staatspapier. Met renteniveaus van nagenoeg nihil wil de economische zomer nog steeds niet aanbreken. Het ruim monetaire beleid werkt niet meer. Er is lage groei en lage inflatie. Zelfs de Zuid Europese landen lenen tegen lage tarieven. Alles met dank aan het opkoopbeleid van de ECB. De markt heeft het gedaan volgens velen. Er is een roep om meer regelgeving voor banken en meer handhaving door toezichthouders. En de rente? Die blijft laag. Voorlopig.

Roger Boxman

Roger Boxman

Interim Riskmanagement Consultant

How can Cash Management influence the Cash Conversion Cycle?

| 27-06-2016 | Olivier Werlingshoff |

credit-card-851502_960_720

How can the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) be optimized? The CCC measures the time the money is tied up in the sales and the production process before it’s converted into a cash in from customers. When translated in a formula this will be the DSO + DIO – DPO (Day’s Sales Outstanding + Day’s Inventory Outstanding – Day’s Payables Outstanding).

In this article I will focus on the DSO. Strictly, the DSO is the time it takes for invoices to be paid. I prefer to enlarge this, to the moment you received the order from the customer till the moment the money is on your main bank account.

How can the “enlarged” DSO be shortened with cash management products?

Let’s look at the customer first, how would he prefer to pay?

Card payments:

In the retail sector 50% of the transactions are made by card (credit & debit cards). The other 50% of the transactions are still done by cash. Card transactions are a fast and easy way to receive the money on your bank account. With contactless cards you can even minimize the transaction time, if there is a bottle neck, you can increase your sales by accepting those cards!

The process with cash transactions is more extensive and expensive. You have to save and collect the cash before dropping it at your bank. After a few days the money will appear on your bank account.

Be aware that there are reasons why customers still prefer to make cash payments. Last year I set up a test of 6 weeks of not accepting cash in one retail shop. The total sales dropped with 15%!

Mail with payment link:

When you have the mail addresses from you customers you could consider to send the invoice the same day by mail with a link to the Ideal website. This will encourage your client to choose the payment method you prefer. Furthermore you will save postal costs and paper costs by not sending paper invoices.

Foreign countries:

If you have customers in foreign countries, be aware of the local habits. For example in the US, most of the payments are done by cheques. In the UK and in France cheques are still used as payment instrument. The problem with cheques is that when receiving them, they have to be send back to the original bank before the money will be transferred to your account.

To fasten this process you could consider the possibilities of a local cheque lockbox. With a lockbox your client can send his cheque directly to a local address at a bank and the transactions can be processed immediately. The time that will be saved is the “post time” and the “process time” of the cheque.

International transfer:

If you prefer your customer to make an international transfer, it can be an option to open a local bank account. Depending on the number and the amount of transactions this could save you a lot of transfer costs. To get the money from your local bank account on your main account in The Netherlands there are a lot of cash pool instruments you can use. Jan Meulendijks has written an article last week about how to include foreign bank accounts into your cash pool.

SEPA:

In de SEPA region there are no differences in transfer costs between a national transfer and a transfer between SEPA countries. It is seen as one SEPA region without borders. You can mention your main IBAN number on your invoices and ask your customers to transfer the money direct to your main account.

But even with SEPA it could be an idea to hold a local bank account. In some countries customers still prefer to make transfers to a “national” bank account instead of an IBAN in another country. Some local governments even still oblige you to hold a local bank account for tax payment purposes!

As you can read,besides a good credit management system, there are a lot of cash management instruments that can be used to fasten the payments of your customers.

Olivier Werlingshoff - editor treasuryXL

 

Olivier Werlingshoff

Owner of WERFIAD

 

Boek release : Mijn bedrijf verkopen?

| 24-06-2016 | Peter Schuitmaker |

boekpeterschuitmaker

Ik wil mijn bedrijf verkopen, wat komt daar allemaal bij kijken? Waar moet je rekening mee houden? Dat en meer beschrijft Peter Schuitmaker in zijn boek: Mijn bedrijf verkopen? Het doel van zijn boek is om mensen die hun bedrijf willen verkopen te helpen om de juiste stappen te nemen en niet te verdrinken in de vele aspecten die komen kijken bij het verkopen van een bedrijf.

Als u uw bedrijf gaat verkopen, komt er van alles op uw pad. U krijgt te maken met verschillende bedrijfseconomische, juridische en fiscale aspecten. Maar ook emotioneel gaat dit u raken.

 

Mijn bedrijf verkopen? Vragen komen er dan genoeg. Wat is mijn bedrijf waard? Op welke verkoopprijs kan ik rekenen? Hoe organiseer ik het verkoopproces? Hoe regel ik geheimhouding? Wat leg ik vast in de verkoopovereenkomst? Wat is mijn financiële betrokkenheid na de verkoop? Hoe is de risico-overgang geregeld? Hoe voorkom ik acute belastingheffing?

Mijn bedrijf verkopen? Hierover schreef ik een boek. Dit boek is primair geschreven voor de MKB ondernemer. Hij heeft met veel inspiratie en transpiratie een bedrijf opgebouwd. Maar eens komt het moment dat hij zijn onderneming wil overdragen. Dan volgt een spannend en uitdagend proces: de bedrijfsoverdracht.
Mijn bedrijf verkopen? Dit boek maakt van u geen vakspecialist. Dat is ook niet nodig. Daar hebt u uw overname-adviseur voor. Die moet u helpen om de juiste stappen te nemen. Om de juiste keuzes te maken, om voor u het pad naar een succesvolle bedrijfsoverdracht te effenen.

Mijn bedrijf verkopen? Dit boek draagt hopelijk wél bij aan het juiste begrip van de lastige en complexe materie. Zodat u op een goede manier sturing kunt geven aan het proces. En zodat u zo de juiste keuzes kunt maken. Met als eindresultaat: een succesvolle afronding van de overdracht van uw onderneming.

peterschuitmaker

 

Peter Schuitmaker

Auteur “Mijn bedrijf verkopen?”

 

 

 

Nieuwsgierig geworden? “Mijn bedrijf verkopen?” is binnenkort verkrijgbaar bij bol.com. Wij houden je op de hoogte!

Uitgelicht: Fintech – Investeringen in financiële innovatie fors toegenomen.

| 23-06-2016 | Rob Bekker, Simon Knappstein |


fintechnology

Vorige week lazen we dat de investeringen in financiële innovatie fors zijn toegenomen. In de eerste drie maanden van dit jaar werd er $4,9 miljard geïnvesteerd in Fintech’s.(bron: fd.nl) Ook de Autoriteit Consument en Markt (ACM) maakte bekend Fintech bedrijven zo goed mogelijk te willen ondersteunen om te innoveren. (bron: fd.nl).  Wat betekent dit voor de toekomst? Wij vroegen experts Rob Bekker en Simon Knappstein om een reactie:



 

robbekkerrond

Rob Bekker – Owner of Bekker Consultancy Nigtevecht

De versnellende technologische veranderingen en nieuwe mogelijkheden/platforms dwingen financiële partijen hun business modellen drastisch te herzien en stellen nieuwe partijen in staat te profiteren van de wet van de remmende voorsprong. Tegelijkertijd dient het hoofd te worden geboden aan de strengere regelgeving, wat aardig wat kruim kost voor de traditionele financiële partijen. Oplossingen worden gezocht en gevonden aan de FinTech kant.



 

simonknappsteinrondSimon Knappstein – Owner of FX Prospect

Fintech mag zich in een toenemende populariteit onder beleggers verheugen. Het is nog niet zoals in de Dotcom hype, maar het aantal investeringen neemt mondiaal aanzienlijk toe. En net zoals in de Dotcom tijd zullen een aantal van de start-ups het tot spelers van formaat schoppen. De grote vraag voor mij is of de banken in staat zullen zijn hun bedrijfsmodellen snel genoeg aan te passen om deze concurrentie het hoofd te bieden en te overleven. Waarschijnlijk wel, maar ik vermoed dat er nog wel wat bloed zal gaan vloeien.

Constructing a yield curve for local authority loans

| 22-06-2016 | Lionel Pavey |

yieldcurves_lionelpaveySo far in this series we have constructed yield curves based on Interest Rate Swaps. This route was chosen as Swaps provide the benchmark for pricing many loan products. Let us look at constructing a yield curve for local authority loans. Yet again, the choice has been made for a product where prices are published on a daily basis.

The data that is published is not as comprehensive as that for Swaps but, using the procedures shown before, we are still able to build a curve. Only 3 data points were published – 1 year, 5 year and 10 year. It is thus possible to build a 10 year curve – the data is as follows:

 

Going back to the principles employed when building the IRS curve we shall make a first attempt by using linear interpolation of the spreads – a reasonably obvious approach. I shall save you all the calculations and simply say that this approach leads to an implied 1 year constant maturity curve that is not completely smooth – there is a peak in the period starting in 4 years.

Obviously you could manually alter the prices to achieve a better curve or make use of a curve building model like Nelson & Siegel. Personal experience has resulted in my preference being to calculate the ratio between the local authority rates and the swap rates and allowing the model to find a best fit. Ratios are generally less volatile than the input rates allowing for a better fit. Eventually an implied local authority curve can be built as shown below:

Schermafbeelding 2016-06-20 om 12.37.42

As previously shown the spread is also monotonic – constantly rising. Consider the implications if we know that a 10 year loan has a spread of 70 basis points over swaps whilst the 1 year loan has a spread of only 2 basis points over swaps.

A 10 year spread can also be defined as the weighted average of all the underlying 1 year constant maturities, so let us investigate how this works in this model:

Schermafbeelding 2016-06-20 om 12.37.51

A 10 year spread of 70 basis points starts with a spread of 2 basis points in the 1st year rising in the 10th year to 131 basis points when compared to the underlying implied 1 year constant swap curve. As a treasurer it is important to know how rates are constructed and determine for yourself what the best approach is to your funding needs. Where do you think rates will be in the future, what will the spreads be, borrow for 10 years or borrow for 5 years and renegotiate? A fixed spread is therefore very advantageous for the lender.

No one knows the future but the ability to calculate the implied future price can assist in making decisions now regarding the future. Long dated fixed loans are difficult to break open leading to potential opportunity losses. Bullet loans are the easiest to price, but by focusing only on the cash flows and not their individual time buckets it is possible that the best decisions are not always made. Linear loans are less transparent when pricing but, yet again, a different time approach can be used to make the process simpler. Rollercoaster loans used in construction and infrastructure projects are the most opaque but can also be viewed in a different light if approached in another manner.

Next – Opportunity loss/profit. If I could turn back time or see into the future

 

Lionel Pavey

 

Lionel Pavey

Cash Management and Treasury Specialist – Flex Treasurer

 

Foreign bank accounts, how to include them in your cash pool

| 21-06-2016 | Jan Meulendijks |

janmeulendijksSignificant balances on your foreign bank accounts which are really of better use in the country where your operation is? Include them in an automated cash pooling scheme so that all your funds are available in The Netherlands and no more unnecessary interest is paid!

There are a number of reasons why you maintain bank accounts in other countries (I will explain the advantages of that in my next paper), but once this is the case, you need to control them in the most efficient way and at minimum costs.

Dutch banks who offer international cash management solutions have several tools to achieve this:

1. International Balance Reporting

The banks where you hold your accounts report them daily automatically into your multi-bank internet banking tool (e.g. Access Online from ABN AMRO); balances as well as transactions. With this tool you can also initiate local or cross border payments from this account.

Most ERP-systems can reconcile this account information automatically into your general ledger.

2. Cross Border Zero Balancing (CBZB)

In case your foreign accounts are held with subsidiaries of your Dutch bank, the balances can be automatically swept (daily) to your central cash pooling account in The Netherlands or be supplied with funds in case of shortage.

3. Multi-Bank Cash Concentration (MBCC)

In case your accounts are held with foreign partner-banks of your Dutch bank the alternate MBCC system can be used to achieve the same effect.

Now, once you have the Balance Reporting part in place plus one or both options CBZB and MBCC, not only all account information is made available to you on a daily basis, but also the balances are swept automatically daily into your central cash pooling account in the Netherlands!

Results:

  • Automated reconciliation of account-information in your General ledger; no more loss of time/personnel processing data
  • Interest optimisation (your use of bank credit is reduced with the balances that otherwise are in your foreign accounts)
  • No manual handling

Setting up such an international cash management scheme involves some paper work and time (most of that at your bank’s side) but once it has been set up it is a major cost and trouble saver which you wish you had had 10 years sooner!

 

Jan Meulendijks

 

Jan Meulendijks

Cash management, transaction banking and trade professional