finance Archives - Page 2 of 6 - treasuryXL

Enhanced Global Liquidity through Notional Pooling and Payment Netting

| 21-12-2020 | Vincenzo Masile | treasuryXL |

Liquidity management is one of the core roles of treasury and maintaining the right level of liquidity to guard against risks is of key importance. Liquidity needs are affected by many factors both internal and external, some of which lie outside the treasurer control and some of which are extremely subjective and difficult to forecast. Liquidity, after all, is not an exact science

The level of liquidity held varies hugely, even between companies in similar industries and similar market positions, while due to complex account structures a “safety net” of cash holdings may be inaccessible when most needed. Effective liquidity management requires an account structure that facilitates fast decisions and simplifies transfers between the company accounts.

A global cash pool is a balance netting cash concentration solution providing with access to group liquidity through a real-time, cross-border, multi-currency cash pooling structure. The cash pool is topped by an off-balance multi-currency master account, holding the cash pool net balance in the currency of the treasurer choice. One on-balance top account per currency holds the pooled net balance in the respective currency. A global cash pool replaces multiple local cash pools and offers significant advantages to the group liquidity management.

What is Netting?

A process which reduces transfers of funds between subsidiaries or separate companies to one net amount.

What are the benefits of Netting?

Consolidates and off-sets payables against receivables between multiple group companies on a global and multicurrency basis
Reduces the number of inter-company funds transfers
Minimizes costs of associated foreign exchange
Avoids the need for group companies to make multiple transfers and execute opposite foreign exchange transactions

The Netting Cycle

Customer: Netting provider:

day X-4 Company “A” participants Invoices to be paid > processing & checking

day X-2 Company “A” participants < Preliminary/Final Results calculations

day X Company “A” participants < Payments from participants settlements

Payments to participants >

Why Implement Netting?

Less administrative workload
– Netting center can be viewed as corporate treasury back-office

Continuity of operational tasks
– Funds will be paid/collected with proper/same value date
– Settlement over existing local bank accounts; no accounts at netting bank are required

Increased visibility and control
– All netting input and output stored in one database

Centralization of FX
– Consolidates FX positions
– Improves FX spread
– Ability to include FX hedge transactions
Flexibility
– Settlement can be in any currency required by affiliate
– Additional run on an ad-hoc basis; quarter end, year end

Global Multi-Currency Notional Cash Pool

Notional Cash Pooling

Group companies open bank accounts in their own name in local currency at the pooling center
No inter-company loans are created
Group companies with credit balances at BMG are deemed bank deposits and group companies with debit balances at BMG are deemed bank overdrafts
All account balances – both credit and debit – are treated on a net basis
Interest is bank interest
Interest rates applied are based on the net position per currency in the cash pool (not traditional bank BID/ASK spreads)
Treasury can choose interest margins to create revenues for Finance company/Treasury

Zero Balance Cash Pooling

The Finance company (or other group company) opens accounts in their name at pooling center
Group companies can put cash on deposit with the finance company or borrow from the finance company
Inter-company loans are created
Inter-company loans need to be administered
Interest is inter-company interest

True Multi-Currency Multi-Entity Notional Pool

Enables multiple group companies in numerous geographical regions to retain local accounts at local banks; “overlay”
Consolidation is achieved by transferring local balances (both debit and credit) to accounts held by the individual group companies at the pooling center. There is no change of ownership of funds, and no question of intercompany loans
Offset is accomplished without physical concentration/conversion (FX)

Also:

One interest rate per currency (no spread between overdrafts and deposits)
Permits not only concentration of excess cash, but allows overdrafts within the pool
Full offset capabilities (risk and accounting) for both client and bank
Operational in multiple time-zones

Notional Cash Pool & Key Tax Points

Bank Pledge versus Cross Guarantee

Notional Cash Pool is based on Pledging of Balances to the bank. Normally cash pools are based on Cross Guarantees which is an unlimited joint resulting in liabilities between related group companies

Interest

Interest is classified as bank interest (credit and debit). All Cash Pool balances are cash on deposit or a current account overdraft

Transfer pricing

The bank executes the daily investments and borrowings of the group companies and applies arm’s length interest rates. Tax can insert interest margins as needed

Interest withholding tax

BMG is domiciled in the Netherlands resulting in no WHT on credit interest paid. In some cases WHT is applicable on interest charged

Thin cap rules

The Cash Pool borrowings are deemed loans/overdrafts from the bank. Thin cap rules are sometimes more flexible regarding bank overdrafts

Conclusion

Companies who implement netting or cash pooling significantly boost the efficiency of their cash and FX management. Companies who implement both, effectively create an in-house bank. The final stage in the process of designing a new cash mobilization structure (or reviewing an existing one) is to assess all possible solutions against the group’s original objectives. Treasurers should bear in mind this to ensure an appropriate and cost-effective solution is chosen.

Vincenzo Masile

Treasury Expert/Credit Risk Manager

Nomentia Webinar: Building the Bridge Between Treasury & Finance: Communication, Collaboration, Technology

| 18-11-2020 | treasuryXL | OpusCapita |

Finance & Treasury leaders are being challenged to become more engaged in driving results across the enterprise. This requires alignment across the Office of the CFO before these leaders can have success in impacting performance in HR, Operations, Marketing and Sales. How can treasury & finance leaders identify and mitigate barriers to effective communication and collaboration to maximize the value delivered by the Office of the CFO?

Join us to discover how to earn trust within and across departmental lines, and up and down the org chart at your company.

We will empower you to:

Identify the skills you possess and/or need to develop to build deeper mutually beneficial relationships within and across departmental lines.

Leverage technology to communicate with impact in any business environment.

Raise your IQ relative to how and why treasury & finance work at your company.

Define opportunities to impact the performance of your colleagues in treasury & finance at your company.

REGISTER NOW

About Nomentia

Nomentia is a Nordic powerhouse for global cash management. We believe in a world in which businesses can make the right decisions no matter how unpredictable the times are. Our SaaS-based platform offers solutions for cash forecasting and visibility, global payments with bank connectivity, reconciliation, in-house banking, guarantees, and FX dealing. We serve 2,300+ clients in over 100 countries processing more than 200 billion euros annually. Cash is king!

The global FX market, do you want to be a part of it?

02-09-2020 | Niki van Zanten

The straightforward answer is ‘No’. Unfortunately, saying ‘No’ does not imply that you don’t play a part in the global casino named: The FX market. It could be a sane procurement, sales or investment decision that brings you a seat at the table. Unless you are a in this market to make commissions or in some rare instances a (successful) prop trader, you will most likely lose more then you gain when willfully playing the game.

The FX market is by far the largest market in the world easily exceeding equity, bonds markets or any other asset class. Estimates in daily turnover are north of 6 Trillion USD. The vast majority of trades have a USD leg and EUR is coming at a good second place making EURUSD the most traded pair. Comparing this to the Global Domestic Product (GDP) of let’s say 140 Trillion USD as a ballpark figure, the FX market monthly turnover exceeds the world’s annual GDP. Taking into account that not all global GDP related transactions in the world have a FX component, this tells us that a large percentage of the FX are not real money flows.

So what are they? For a part these are institutional investors like pension funds. Pension funds can choose to allocate in different currencies, but the more likely explanation is that a large part of the FX transactions are of a more speculative nature. Hedge funds for instance do not have a functional or group currency and therefore can freely take currency decisions when allocating assets.
So in summary, the largest market place in the world is driven by forces which are extremely difficult to predict by any form of scientific research or even looking into economic data like monetary flows. Not to imply that economic indicators and central bank policy don’t have its influence, but in the end, a market is primarily driven by supply and demand and there is vast speculation in buying and selling of currencies.

Switching to the corporate point of view, companies usually don’t want to be a part of the FX market. It’s the same story as you might wish to procure and/or sell in different currencies than your own for a variety of reason. It’s an open door to mention that this can be very beneficial but all cost need to be factored correctly before taking a decision. With Foreign Exchange this can be a difficult task and considering what is mentioned above, the FX market does not actually make things look better.
A basic example of why it’s hard to get a grip on the currency markets is available when looking at CNH (offshore RMB) forward markets in 2015 and 2016. Although there are structural differences between CNH and CNY in both spot and outright forwards, typically the pricing is at comparable levels (for the majority of us, at least the large China interest does not apply this). Yearend brought a liquidity squeeze and the forward markets showed huge spikes in volatility as well as extreme differences between the CNH and CNY yield curves. There are many more stories like this to share and recently even G10 doesn’t seem excluded from Emerging Market (EM) like volatility, particularly when looking at Brexit and the Swiss Franc peg release of January 2015.

So a few basic assumptions can be helpful when participating in the FX market for real money requirements

• Don’t think you can predict or beat the market
• Price in risk
• Risk can go both ways but spreads are by definition a cost
• If you choose to hedge make sure you get your exposure right and hedge to mitigate this exposure (in other words don’t use derivatives which don’t offset the hedged item)
• Be aware there is a difference between advise on a financial product and actually risk mitigation on a more holistic basis
• It’s hard to beat years of market experience, don’t hesitate to reach out to seasoned professionals who will prevent you from making expensive mistakes

Hope this was a good read and for any questions or feedback please share and keep things interactive.

8 reasons why you need to invest on the Dutch NPEX stock exchange

03-08-2020 | NPEX |

The NPEX stock exchange brings entrepreneurs and (institutional) investors together for financing and returns.
We share 8 reasons why you need to invest on the Dutch NPEX stock exchange.

Blog and whitepaper continues in Dutch language

U heeft vermogen opgebouwd, of u bent vermogen aan het opbouwen.
U wilt graag dat uw vermogen rendeert.
Een spaarrekening levert nagenoeg niets op en ook de effectieve rentes op staats- en bedrijfsobligaties zijn historisch laag. Daarnaast dient u nog rekening te houden met de vermogensbelasting en inflatie.
Wat kunt u nog meer doen om rendement te behalen?

In 8 redenen vatten we samen waarom beleggen via NPEX voor u als belegger interessant is.

Download de gratis whitepaper en lees over alle voordelen.

DOWNLOAD

The Impact of COVID19 on the Dutch economy

| 29-05-2020 | Vincenzo Masile | treasuryXL |

Recently, it was determined that the Dutch GDP fell by -1.7% in the first quarter of 2020, suggesting that the economic impact of the corona-virus was mild, at least in international comparison. Although the second quarter is likely to be much worse, the ‘intelligent lock-down’ as dubbed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has economically paid off so far.

Given the Dutch economy’s high degree of openness and the fact that Dutch expenditure data for January and February was disappointing, the small GDP decline might be a bit surprising. What stands out as more important, however, is the relative mildness of the Dutch lock-down compared to many Europe. That said, the Dutch government has decided to extend economic support measures by three months until September. The emergency package 2.0 means 13 billion euros of additional fiscal support.

Economic and Financial support

The existing support measures were about to expire by June 1, 2020, but have now been extended until September 1, 2020. Some conditions for public support have been made stricter. For example, firms using the wage subsidy – the main instruments of the support package, will be temporarily (in 2020) forbidden to pay out any dividends or executive bonuses or execute share buy-backs.
The firm will also be obliged to encourage employees to train or retrain and prepare the workforce for future proof jobs. Income support for self-employed people will start to be conditional on the financial position of the partner. Some major restriction to the wage subsidy scheme will be lifted and conditions of the “emergency packages 2.0” are more tailor-made for specific industries. Firms will no longer have to pay a fine for firing workers due to economic reasons, although they will still have to pay back the subsidy. Furthermore, season-sensitive industries will be able to benefit from tweaks to the reference period of their wage bill. The scheme has also been made more generous with respect to the size of the subsidy – 140% of wages instead of 130% (of which they get 90% proportional to turnover losses), in light of the fact that some firms not only have social security to pay on top of wages but also have high non-wage fixed cost.

Apart from the effect of a falling tax base (i.e. automatic stabilization), the direct costs of the extension of the emergency packages have been estimated by the government at 13 billion euro (1.6% of GDP in 2019) for 2020, excluding support for air carrier Air-France – KLM. This comes on top of an existing package of about 14% of GDP (estimates based on government figures), of which 2.2% GDP involved direct net additional expenditures such as gifts, 4.2% GDP in loans and tax deferrals, 1.8% GDP in guarantee and insurance budgets and 5.6% GDP in automatic stabilization for 2020. The bulk of the cost of the extension comes from the direct cost of the wage subsidy scheme and benefits assistance scheme for the self-employed, which mostly qualify as gifts, bringing the total direct net additional expenditures for 2020 to 3.9% of 2019 GDP.

Forward

In line with the earlier announcement, the lock-down will be lifted gradually, allowing for the start of partial economic recovery from the low production levels of April and May. Bars, restaurants, cinemas and theaters will be allowed to reopen on 1 June, generally starting with a maximum of 30 guests at 1.5 meters distance. In the first week of June, all schools including secondary and tertiary will reopen too.

The Dutch government is following other European governments in choosing a path of gradual resumption of economic activity combined with continued economic support. This should mitigate the economic consequences of the corona-virus at least to some extent. However, this won’t prevent the large decline in GDP in the second quarter, after the relatively “mild” decline in the first quarter. It is important to outline the on- going negotiations between EU countries regarding the so-called recovery fund (estimated amount Euro 500 bn.) and the impact on the EU economies.

If a reasonable compromise is reached this can boost the Q3 and Q4 outlook across all EU and the impact on the Dutch economy will be beneficial too.

Vincenzo Masile

Treasury Expert/Credit Risk Manager

Become the next Cash Manager with City Financials Expertise (m/f)

27-05-2020 | Treasurer Search | treasuryXL

Our partner Treasurer Search is looking for a Cash Manager with City Financials Expertise (m/f)

Tasks Cash Manager

The cash manager is responsible for operational tasks like forecasting, payments, liquidy management and bank relationship management. Specifically the use and improvement of the TMS, City Financials, will take substantial time.

Ideal Cash Manager

The ideal candidate for this position has corporate cash management expertise. Only candidates with City Financial experience will be considered.

Our Client

Our client is a multi-billion, international company with a large presence in The Netherlands.

Remuneration and Process

We are in dialogue with our client about the set of tasks and the ideal candidate for this position. Our first feasibilty study shows a limited number of candidates in the Dutch labour market with City Financials experience. As this is a dealbreaker, we already started communicating with the market mentioning this constraint. We invite candidates with this expertise to contact us and find out if this position might be for them. The Treasurer Test might be part of the recruitment process.

Location

Utrecht Region

Contact person

Kim Vercoulen

T: (0850) 866 798

M: (06) 2467 9339

E: [email protected]

APPLY HERE

Corona Bridging Loans (COL) for start-ups and scale-ups

04-05-2020 | by Rowan Hermes | Symbid

Since Wednesday, April 29, startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs can apply for a special bridging loan, the Corona Bridging Loan (COL). In this blog we briefly explain what the COL is and what criteria a company must meet in order to claim the COL.

Blog is in Dutch language:

Op verzoek van het kabinet zullen de Regionale Ontwikkelingsmaatschappijen (ROM’s) de COL-regeling uitvoeren. De regeling is opgezet omdat veel startups niet in aanmerking komen voor de Noodmaatregel Overbrugging Werkgelegenheid (NOW), bij banken nauwelijks terecht kunnen en weinig voordeel hebben van de verschillende fiscale maatregelen van het kabinet.

De specifieke doelgroep voor de COL zijn startups, scale-ups en innovatieve mkb’ers die overwegend met extern eigen vermogen gefinancierd zijn. De COL is ook beschikbaar voor ondernemers die de afgelopen jaren groei gefinancierd hebben met intern eigen vermogen, maar zij mogen geen bancaire financieringsrelatie hebben (met uitzondering van een beperkte bancaire rekening-courantverhouding).

De verstrekte leningen zijn een noodinstrument, bedoelt om een tijdelijke overbrugging naar ‘break-even’ of een vervolgronde te verzorgen. Het geld mag niet gebruikt worden om andere leningen af te lossen. De bedragen zullen variëren tussen de € 50.000,- en 2 miljoen euro. Bij bedragen groter dan Є 250.000,- wordt er een cofinanciering van 25 % verwacht van aandeelhouders of andere investeerders. Het rentetarief is uniform 3 %. Aangezien er vaak snelheid gepaard is bij overbruggingskrediet streven de ROM’s ernaar om aanvragen onder de € 500.000,- binnen vier tot negen werkdagen af te handelen. Het streven voor grotere aanvragen is drie werkweken.

De criteria

Je komt met je bedrijf naar alle waarschijnlijkheid in aanmerking voor de COL als je voldoet aan de volgende voorwaarden:

Je bedrijf is niet actief in retail, horeca, kleine zakelijke dienstverlening en je bent geen zelfstandig ondernemer.
Je kunt een twaalfmaands-liquiditeitsoverzicht voorleggen waaruit de financieringsbehoefte als gevolg van de coronacrisis blijkt en aangeven hoe je de overbruggingslening voor de komende negen maanden aanwendt.
Je bedrijf viel op peildatum 31/12/2019 niet in de categorie ‘bedrijven in moeilijkheden’.
De lening wordt ingezet voor investeringskosten of werkkapitaal en de financiering voldoet aan de vereisten van het Fresh Money-beginsel.
De jaarrekeningen van 2018 en 2019 moeten beschikbaar zijn, net als het budget voor 2020 voor zover mogelijk.
Je kunt onderbouwen hoe je geprognosticeerde omzet terugvalt door de coronacrisis. De ROM’s kunnen hier een due diligence onderzoek naar doen.
Je moet aangeven welke maatregelen getroffen zijn om kosten te reduceren, waarbij ook het gebruik van andere overheidsmaatregelen meegenomen moeten worden.
Er moet redelijke comfort verschaft worden dat na het eerste jaar aflossing plaats kan vinden en de lening binnen drie jaar afgelost kan worden.

Kijk voor meer informatie, een uitgebreide Q&A en specifieke aanleverspecificaties op de website van ROM Nederland.

Source

Wanted: Cash Manager with City Financials Expertise (m/f)

22-04-2020 | Treasurer Search | treasuryXL

Our partner Treasurer Search is looking for a Cash Manager with City Financials Expertise (m/f)

Tasks Credit Analyst

The cash manager is responsible for operational tasks like forecasting, payments, liquidy management and bank relationship management. Specifically the use and improvement of the TMS, City Financials, will take substantial time.