Krimi “Die Katze”

Andreas Löhrer ist seit vielen Jahre ein guter Freund und Berater von Tomato. Er ist Professor am IFU Institut für Unternehmensführung Kompetenzzentrum Finanzmanagement und Controlling.

Wie überraschend und vielfältig die versteckten Talente doch sind: Wer hätte gedacht, dass er sich sich als heimlicher Krimiautor entpuppte.

Acht Jahre hat er an seinem Erstlingswerk “Wie die Katze” gearbeitet und ist Autor und Verleger gleichzeitig. Der Krimi erscheint sowohl als Taschenbuch wie auch als eBook Mitte November. Krimibegeisterte sind herzlich eingeladen auf www.wiediekatze.ch mehr über die Geschichte, den Autor, die Entstehung des Krimis und die Meinungen der Leser/innen der ersten Stunde zu erfahren. Schaut doch einfach mal rein. – Viel Erfolg, Andi!

Bank Relations Worldwide

The German trade publication Der Treasurer and HSBC asked 223 CFOs and/or treasurers about TMS, Payment Systems, Gateways and Formats.

  • 48% of those surveyed are satisfied with their TMS. 
  • More than half of the respondents’ companies already use a system from a TMS provider. 
  • For two thirds the decision as to which treasury infrastructure to use is made by the Head of Treasury. 
  • Two-thirds decided in favor of the bank’s own systems, while a further 25% uses ERP-related systems. 
  • More than a quarter also use Excel sheets.
  • The TMS infrastructure used depends heavily on the turnover of the companies.
  • In companies with sales of more than EUR 1 billion, 72% of those surveyed use the system of a TMS provider.
  • ERP-related systems are also more likely to be found at large companies. 
  • At smaller companies, only 44% of them have used TMS to date. In contrast, companies of this size use a bank’s own system more often than average. 

Martin Schneider comments: These findings confirms our experience over 25 years.

Bankbeziehungen weltweit

EU-Treasury-Infrastruktur: Gateways, Formate Systeme aus Sicht der Treasurer

Aus einem Bericht von ‚Der Treasurer‘: Unter Mitarbeit der HCBC befragten die beiden Institute 223 Corporates. Die Hälfte der Antwortenden im Bericht sind CFOs, die andere Hälfte sind Treasurers. Mehr als die Hälfte der befragten Unternehmen nutzen demnach ein System eines TMS-Anbieters:

  • 1/4 haben 1 bis 2 Mitarbeiter Treasury, 1/3 sind ein Team von 3 bis 5 Mitarbeitern
  • 1/2 der Befragten sind mit ihrem TMS zufrieden
  • 2/3 Dritteln wird die Entscheidung, welche Treasury-Infrastruktur genutzt wird, vom Leiter Treasury getroffen
  • 2/3 Drittel der Befragten entscheiden sich für bankeigene Systeme
  • 1/4 nutzt ERP-bezogene Systeme
  • 1/4 nutzen Excel-Sheets, dies in grossen wie auch kleineren Corporates
  • 1/5 in grossen, 1/4 in kleineren Corporates möchten ein anderes TMS oder wollen von Excel auf ein TMS wechseln.

Die verwendete TMS-Infrastruktur hängt stark vom Umsatz der Unternehmen ab. In Unternehmen mit einem Umsatz von mehr als 1 Milliarde Euro nutzen 72% der Befragten das System eines TMS-Anbieters. 
ERP-bezogene Systeme sind eher in grossen Unternehmen zu finden. Nach Tomatos Erfahrung hat dies mit der Expertise im Unternehmen zu tun. Grosse und Grösste Unternehmen leisten sich die Expertise Inhouse. Kleinere Firmen, also unter 1 Mrd. Umsatz nutzen die jahrelange ausgereifte Kompetenz zum Beispiel von Tomato AG Finance+IT.
Bei kleineren Unternehmen setzen 44% ein TMS ein. Unternehmen dieser Grössen wählen überdurchschnittlich oft ein bankeigenes System. Dies bestätigt auch unsere langjährigen Tomato Erfahrungen bei Segmenten bis ca. 300 Mio. Umsatz. Für dieses Kundensegment erstellten wir dieses pdf

Translation Tools: Deepl/Ludwig

By Martin Schneider

Did you ever use the translation tool Deepl? We suggested this online tool in a newsletter years ago. Today, I often use Deepl to translate short articles in a foreign language into German to better understand them or to make them clearer. Deepl comes in 12 languages.

A tool for writing better English is Ludwig, a linguistic search engine and smart translator that helps finding the perfect word or sentence to express your ideas in English. Interesting about it is that it gives contextualized examples taken from reliable sources. This way, you can be sure that your text in English is flawless in terms of idioms, phrases, and other details that are not always perceived by non-native speakers. 
DeepL: https://www.deepl.com/en/translator 
Ludwig: https://ludwig.guru/

Ferien in Albanien

In Der Rubrik “From the Desk of Tomato” hat Martin im letzten newsletter seine Ferien in Albanien geschildert. Details…

Mehrere Leser Interessierten sich für die Reisefirma albanienreisen.ch.

Deren Geschichte:
Saimir Shala, vormals  Sulzer SAP-Finance-HR-Projektleiter in vielen Ländern für Training und Rollout unterwegs. Vor drei Jahren setzten er und Partnerin Aylin Bakir früher EY-Tax-Consultant  ihren Traum mit albanienreisen.ch um. Eine Chance für uns Mitteleuropäer die Kultur, Leute und Berge von rund um Albanien kennen zu lernen.

Und Martin’s Beschreibung:
Unsere Reisegruppe war klein, für eine Woche wanderten wir in Nordalbanien fünf Berge um 2.500 Meter über Meer meist im Grenzland Albanien, Montenegro, Kosovo. Im Bild Kosovo höchster Berg der Gjeravica  2.656 MüM. Unser aller Glück war, dass Albanien diesen Sommer nicht unter den Covid Risikoländern aufgeführt wurde. 

Kontaktieren Sie Martin via email or call +41 44 814 2001 für Erläuterungen.

Knowledge Toolkit: Why ESTR is going in effect?

The Euro Short-Term Rate (ESTR) is an interest rate benchmark that reflects the overnight borrowing costs of banks within the Eurozone. The rate is calculated and published by the ECB and is published on each TARGET2 business day based on transactions conducted and settled on the previous TARGET2 business day.

The ESTR is replacing the previous Euro Overnight Index Average (EONIA) and Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR) to become the benchmark for the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

The reason for this is that EURIBOR and EONIA failed to meet the requirements set out in the EU’s new benchmark regulations, which states that all interbank rates must be based on data rather than estimates and surveys.

  • How it works: 
    The ESTR uses the transaction data from the 52 largest eurozone banks, representing the average interest rate attached to loans throughout a business day.
  • ESTR vs. LIBOR: 
    LIBOR is the average of 35 different benchmark interest rates that cover USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, and CHF, and is taken from a survey asking banks at what rate they would borrow money. The rate started to decline in use following the scandal of manipulation in 2012, increasing the necessity for a transaction-based system.
  • Good or bad gearing ratio? 
    There are basic guidelines to identify desirable and undesirable ratios: high gearing ratio (anything above 50%), low gearing ratio (anything below 25%), optimal gearing ratio (anything between 25% and 50%).
  • Pros and cons of ESTR: 
    ESTR is more transparent, based on regulated and secured data. ESTR will include a larger number of parties, leading to more accuracy in the interbank rate. Cons of ESTR: valuation risk. 
    EONIA rates were higher than ESTR, so some contracts might see a difference in the rates they are given.

See Bloomberg’s Guide to the World’s New Benchmarks After Libor

Deutsch:
IG Bank, UK: A guide to LIBOR  IG Academy an UK  
Tomato Catch-Up News Sep-2019
Site der ECB: warum Referenzzinsätze für die Wirtschaft wichtig sind

OECD’s Guidelines for Transfer Pricing and Cash Pools

PwC Switzerland’s David McDonald and Michalis Louca discussed on July 7 how inter-company financing transactions should be priced in the light of OECD’s new guidelines for financial transactions.

Key changes and principles

  • A new description of a transaction: an assessment of options realistically available to borrower and lender including an assessment of market/economic conditions.
  • The volume of loan must not exceed the amount that the borrower could/would have borrowed.
  • Only a small return can be justified to a lender/guarantor/treasury center.

Challenges and Actions
Groups will need a process for new transactions (assessing the key terms, the quantum of the loan, the lender, and the borrower perspective) and to perform a one-off review of existing transactions for compliance with the new requirements.

Treasury Functions – intra-group loans and cash pooling (CP)

  • Pricing loans between group companies will require credit rating analyses.
  • Interest rates should be benchmarked; bank quotes should not be used as benchmarks.
  • Most cash pools will need to amend the rationale for economic returns.
  • The rates that participants get from the pool versus local market rates should be tested.
  • Cash pool positions should be only short term.

Financial guarantees:

  • No guarantee fees payable unless there is an explicit guarantee.
  • Perform benefit assessment.
  • MNEs need to assess when a guarantee fee is/is not charged accordingly.
  • Groups may choose to change the agreements covering the guarantee, rather than changing the pricing.

PwC Slides of this Webinar July 7th 2020 
Ziehen Sie Deutsch vor?

Das HSLU in Zug offeriert am 21. und 28.10.2020, 4.11.2020 den Kurse Fachkurs Swiss Treasury Practice: Aktuelle Herausforderungen im Corporate Treasury durch.

“Der Fachkurs thematisiert aktuelle steuerliche und rechtliche Problemstellungen u.a. in den Bereichen Transfer Pricing, Cash Pooling und Accounting”

Veranstaltung und Anmeldung

Event: How do companies respond to ESG?

By Swiss-Risk

21. September 2020
18:00 – 19:30 – Zoom Meeting
This event is free

‘In a roundtable on 21.9.2020 we will share practical examples on how companies are addressing ESG and sustainability projects. We will further dive into the role and impact of risk management – featuring 4 distinct speakers from UBS, Credit Suisse, Novartis and Refinitiv.”

New Team Member

Ana Păstrăvanu has taken over for the English part of Tomato Catch-up, our monthly newsletter, our website tomato.ch and client communication.

 Ana works from Iași, Romania, the city known to be the second-fastest-growing tech hub in Europe. She has over 3 years of experience in producing content for companies involved in the financial sector.

Check her remarkable background and experience on our team page.

Tools to Identify and Mitigate Risks

Risk management in corporate treasury is more important than ever in the Covid-19 crisis context. Even though the first wave of recovery is in sight, the development of the economy is highly uncertain. Along with the risk of a new infection wave, companies are impacted on more levels than before.

That’s why it is important to define risk areas and use scenarios to check what effects the current situation could have on the company. Depending on the intensity of the effects, the list of measures must be adjusted from scenario to scenario.

On behalf of the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), The Verband Deutscher Treasurer e.V. Risk Management-group prepared a report that specifies a risk matrix centered around potential sources of risk: Operational Risk, Liquidity Risk, Credit Risk, FX Exposure Risk, and Interest Rate Risk.

The matrix lists the risks listed above, explains what each involves and offers a checklist for each. Details…