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Buy now, pay sooner – dynamic discounting
| 12-04-2018 | Lionel Pavey |
We live in a time of very low interest rates which translates to lower funding costs. However, at the same time, obtaining credit is becoming more difficult as banks are reluctant to lend in the ways that they did years ago. This is caused by the need for additional financial buffers to comply with all the regulatory issues that surround modern day banking. Credit is still available via other avenues – look at P2P lending for example. When all else fails, it is necessary to look at one’s own internal supply chain to see how financing can be facilitated. Here is a report on the practice of dynamic discounting.
Dynamic discounting
As a corporate is common to purchase goods and services on the basis of receiving an invoice and paying at a later date. It is normal to see invoices stating that payment must be made within 30 days of the invoice date – not the acceptance date. As an incentive to pay the invoice early many companies offer a discount – the classic example is called 2/10 net 30. Breaking down this code shows that a 2 per cent discount is offered on the face amount of the invoice if it is paid within 10 days of the invoice date, otherwise payment is expected within 30 days.
Whilst 2 per cent might not sound very tempting, we need to look at the mathematics that lie behind this:
On an invoice for EUR 1,000 this means a discount of EUR 20. If we decided not to use the discount and only pay after 30 days we would have held onto our EUR 1,000 for an extra 20 days – this being the difference between the early payment date and the standard payment date. At present, we might make 1 per cent interest per annum on our bank account. The interest earned on EUR 1,000 for 20 days at 1 per cent, would reward us with EUR 1.11 – or, put in other words – EUR 18.89 less than if we paid early.
Why offer a discount?
• The supplier wants to lower their banking costs and improve their ratings
• The supplier needs the money
• Banks are not willing to lend money to the supplier
• The supplier is worried about their level of exposure to credit risk and counterparty risk
• It gives a supplier a useful insight into the business practices of their clients – if they calculated the advantage of taking the discount and declined, could there be inherent problems with the financial health of the client
Also, generating your own internal supply chain finance operation lessens the reliance you have on external funding from banks or factoring agencies.
A more modern adaptation of this practice is the development of discounts that are truly dynamic and work on a sliding scale. The highest discount is given for the fastest payment, and then progressing down in stages till the original invoice settlement date. This gives buyers an opportunity to still receive a discount, but not being tied down to the original 10 day period.
Irrespective of the financial gains offered by discounting, a more important aspect is positive growth in the working relationship between supplier and client. By supporting each other the bonds of trust increase and can lead to new and better opportunities together.
If you are interested to know what the effect of these changes can be on a coupon payment and calculation, please contact us for more detailed information.
Lionel Pavey
Cash Management and Treasury Specialist
Basis Swap – how to convert your exposure
| 10-04-2018 | treasuryXL |
At the moment, there is a growing movement within interbank markets to replace all the existing interbank offer rates that are used to price a myriad of financial instruments. The motivation for this movement has been the revelation that these indices have been fraudulently priced by banks delivering inaccurate prices for the daily fixing. At the moment the markets are first looking at secured overnight lending indices – but these are not complimentary to all the existing instruments that regularly reference a longer tenor on an unsecured basis. These can lead to problems with the asset and liability management of a portfolio – not just for banks, but also for corporate clients.
So, what is a basis swap and how does it work?
A basis swap is an interest rate swap where both legs reference a floating rate – either in the same currency or on a cross currency. Examples would be a 3 month Euribor exposure against a 6 month Euribor exposure, or 3 month USD Libor versus 3 month GBP Libor. In a normal positive yield curve the interest rate for a longer tenor is higher than for the shorter period – 3 month USD Libor is 2.33746% and 6 month USD Libor is 2.47219%. There are 2 main reasons for the difference in price – the tenor is longer, therefore the risk of repayment is lengthened and the individual credit rating of the counterparty is also affected.
Before the financial crisis of 2008, basis swaps were traded, but not given much attention. Their primary function was for transforming the asset and liability management in the same currency. It was actively used in the cross currency market where a bank might raise long term funds in Japanese Yen, but needed to convert the proceeds into USD. Furthermore, the consensus at the time was that 1 master curve could be built to price all products – this used short dated deposits, 3 month interest rate futures and long date interest rate swaps to build the single curve.
This meant that a 6 month deposit was built on the basis of a 3 month deposit and a 3m v 6m FRA (Forward Rate Agreement) . In such an instance there would be no arbitrage possible and the market did not really look at the basis risk. But the basis risk was inherent and certain market players exploited this misconception – particularly banks that received fiduciary funding via Switzerland.
Today, there is far more awareness of the basis risk. 3 month Euribor is -0.329% and a 3v6m EUR FRA is -0.33/-0.31%. However the 6 month Euribor is 0.270% (we will leave you to do the calculation)
As a longer tenor has a higher interest rate (in normal market conditions) a basis swap referencing a 3 month versus 6 month payment would see the 3 month period being quoted as flat rate plus a premium, and the 6 month period being shown as a flat rate. A typical quotation for a 1 year EUR basis swap referencing a 3 month against 6 month Euribor would be priced around at about 5 -6 basis points premium. This means if you were to pay the shorter period of 3 months you would pay the base of 3 month Euribor plus 5-6 basis points every 3 months for 1 year, against receiving the 6 month Euribor flat every 6 months.
This product allows you to transform your position, but also gives insight into how the market sees the continuous 3 month and 6 month curves, together with their inherent basis risk.
An interest rate swap curve that references a 6 month floating leg, will normally be built from an interest rate swap curve built off a 3 month floating leg, with an adjustment for the 3m v 6m basis swap to reflect the higher price on a 6 month curve.
1 year to Brexit – the banking exodus?
| 09-04-2018 | treasuryXL |
What is at stake?
The scenarios of job losses are varied – 10,000 job in banking, 20,000 in further financial services. Others speak of job losses totaling more than 200,000. The large US investment banks retain more than 80 per cent of their European staff in London. The main target appears to be the Euro clearing role – a settlement service mainly in financial derivatives denominated in Euro’s that is now performed in London.
The Netherlands has certainly tried to attract interest from foreign banks and has many good qualities. Most of the population speak English, and there is a good infrastructure. Tax incentives are offered to qualified foreign workers, together with a global port in Rotterdam. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency is actively engaging with foreign companies, extoling the virtues of the country. Recently, Unilever took the decision to place its headquarters in Rotterdam – even though they have had a head office there for close on 100 years. Whilst there is already an appreciable physical presence of foreign banks on Dutch soil, there have yet to be any big announcements about a bank moving from London to Amsterdam or Rotterdam.
Germany, and specifically Frankfurt, have also been hard at work. The economy minister for the state of Hesse, claims that more than 20 financial institutions have chosen for Frankfurt. As of today, their names have not all been revealed. Frankfurt is an established financial centre, though discernably smaller than London. As well as banks, there are also regional corporate treasury centres, prime brokers, legal services and other ancillary groups.
Paris – that has been chosen for the European Banking Authority – is also in the picture but does not appear to be attracting the financial institutions. If banks follow the London model, then they would rather be closer to the central bank – the ECB – and that is headquartered in Frankfurt.
Relocation of the financial industry from London to Europe will be good for local employment. It is not just the direct banking industry that will be of benefit to the local communities. The support services are very significant and must also be factored into any equation.
With now less than 12 months to go till Brexit, the race will be heating up to woo the banks as the prize is very enticing and the gains to local economies very large!!
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