Keeping all the Plates Spinning
15 Critical Regulatory Changes for European Treasurers Much like the sound of thunder follows a fork of lightning, financial regulation tends to follow a crisis. With European treasurers still adjusting to the post-Covid reality coupled with war in Ukraine, the volume of regulatory updates to understand and implement could be daunting. Fortunately, a new project […]
The 1920s Roared After a Pandemic – Will the 2020s Do the Same?
The Roaring Twenties were driven by technological progress, developments in economic infrastructure, and defined by a flowering of post-pandemic parties and an explosion of economic activity. Sound familiar? Christoph Gugelmann, Co-Founder and CEO, Tradeteq, explores the likelihood of history repeating itself. Today’s parallel economic conditions have led economists and historians to declare that the Covid-19 […]
Regulatory Round-up with the EACT
The European financial regulatory environment is one of the most homogenised in the world and yet it still forces corporate treasurers to stay constantly alert for local nuances, revisions and wholesale changes. With the current European Parliament’s term running from 2019 to 2024, now is a good time to cast an eye over what is […]
From Ancient Rome to the Digital World
The second instalment of Standard Chartered’s Regulatory Readiness Series for Corporates explores the impact on treasury of the regulatory necessity to respond to immediate threat while delivering on long-term planning needs. Rome was not built in a day. As with every embryonic settlement, the immediate concerns of protection and security were tackled first; only then […]
Cash Pooling: Well Worth the Cost of Compliance
Independent treasury consultant Bas Rebel picks his way through the ‘minefield’ of fiscal and regulatory reforms surrounding cash pooling and examines the advantages and challenges to prove the overall benefit case of this method of liquidity management is still strong. Cash pooling is in the crosshairs of regulators and tax authorities. This scrutiny increases the […]
Are Banks Safer Now than During the Global Financial Crisis?
The outcome of the global financial crisis of 2008 – 2010 led regulators and central banks the world over to re-look at the way banks are regulated and governed. So what exactly has changed in the South African context? Basel III requirements The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision now imposes the following requirements: The Liquidity […]
Corporate Treasurers’ Investment Strategy: The Collateral Frontier and Search for Yield Pick-Up
The Holy Grail of a corporate treasurer is to unlock yield pick-up, be adequately diversified and make sure that deposits are protected and secure. This quest has been difficult as cash-long corporates have traditionally had only two investment options in the South African market: invest in short- or medium-term bank deposits or in money market […]
Risk Homeostasis and the Hamster
“My hamster died last night … it fell asleep at the wheel.” – Anonymous Homeostasis refers to some regulating process that keeps an outcome close to a target by compensating for external disturbances; core bodily temperature is an example of being homeostatically maintained within narrow limits despite major variations in the external temperature. In essence, […]
The Challenges and Opportunities of FRTB
Major South African banks have rather timidly started their journey towards implementing the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB), the most significant transformation of the trading market risk framework for the last 20 years. This new capital requirement standard will have significant impacts on the cost of derivative transactions for corporate treasuries, as the […]
The Added Value of Centralised Cash Management under BEPS
What would be the correct price (i.e., the arm’s length transaction) of a cash transaction under BEPS (Base Erosion Profit Shifting) Actions 8-10? That’s a key question which every treasurer of an international group needs to address. The right answer is far from easy to apply, but the guide currently being finalised for issue by […]
EU Money Market Fund Regulation and Share Cancellation: A Last-Minute Threat to Stable-Price MMFs?
Just as European corporate treasurers were starting to prepare for the entry into force of the EU Money Market Fund (MMF) Regulation and to understand the implications of the changes brought by it, a new obstacle has emerged that might put into question some of the fundamental aspects of the Regulation. The European Commission is […]