Issue 21 | 20 November 2014 Content FASB to Simplify Hedge Accounting 2 New standard would bring US GAAP more in line with what IASB has done with IFRS 9 The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) prepares to revamp the standard for hedge accounting. According to the plans of the US accounting rule maker that were discussed at the FASB meeting on 5 November, corporate treasurers can hope that hedges under US GAAP will be dealt with more simply if certain requirements are met. According to FASB Chairman Russell Golden, the current GAAP on the topic were “overly restrictive”. 3 6 7 Gordon Hurst to Leave Capita Finance director retires after almost three decades with the company and will hand over his position to Nick Greatorex in February of 2015. E-Transfer for Bank Account Management A group of major transaction banks have recently defined a harmonised format for bank-agnostic electronic bank account management. China Extends Shanghai FTZ Cross-border RMB cash pooling is now possible nationwide as the People’s Bank of China expands the scope of cross-border settlements. Leader Cash Management 2 FASB to Simplify Hedge Accounting New standard would bring US GAAP more in line with what IASB has done with IFRS 9 Moody’s: Loan Market to Become More Fickle Investors cautious of eurozone weakness Software 3 Gordon Hurst to Leave Capita After almost three decades Hurst will hand over his position to Nick Greatorex 5 Latest Updates from Reval New version of TRM Bloomberg’s New TRM Job Openings 4 Top Transaction Finnvera has launched a government-backed €750 million bond Guest Contribution 6 Treasurers Reluctant to Adapt the Renminbi Results of the thirteenth Treasurer Panel China Extends Shanghai FTZ Cross-border RMB cash pooling now possible nationwide Financing Round-Up People Financing 7 Electronic Data Transfer for Bank Account Management A group of banks is trying to implement electronic banking account management Leader 2 NorthernStock/Thinkstock/Getty Images Issue 21 | 20 November 2014 The FASB hedge accounting project will narrow the differences between US GAAP and IFRS. FASB to Simplify Hedge Accounting New standard would bring US GAAP more in line with what IASB has done with IFRS 9 T he Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) prepares to revamp the standard for hedge accounting. According to the plans of the US accounting rule maker that were discussed at the FASB meeting on 5 November, corporate treasurers can hope that hedges under US GAAP will be dealt with more simply if certain requirements are met. According to FASB Chairman Russell Golden, the current GAAP on the topic were “overly restrictive”. The current situation is unsatisfactory for many businesses: Corporate treasurers frequently get into trouble because of the lack of hedge accounting opportunities and the corresponding volatility in earning statements. Some companies try to fix the problem with adjusted EBIT figures: a solution that investors do not necessarily appreciate because of its subjectivity. Others give up economically reasonable hedges completely. The issues that FASB plans to address – internally called “component hedging” – are those found in transactions involving financial as well as non-financial instruments. However, the Board plans to focus more on non-financial items, such as commodity hedges, a FASB staff accountant noted. A company’s ability to adopt hedge ac- counting in commodity hedges can have a major impact on its financial reporting. The FASB approach would bring US GAAP more in line with what the international standard setter IASB has done with IFRS 9. The international standard allows components hedging of non-financial assets, asset groups, liabilities and net positions. Corporate treasurers especially appreciate the fact that »»The hedge accounting project will narrow the differences between US GAAP and IFRS.« measuring effectiveness of hedges is now simpler. Under IFRS 9, only the ineffective portion of the hedge will appear on earning statements. ”The new rules will facilitate corporate risk management,” says Klaus Gerdes, Head of Corporate Finance and Treasury at German specialty chemicals group Altana. Less effective hedges may also be taken into account in the future. The proposed accounting standards update would furthermore eliminate two unpopular hedge accounting components: the so-called “shortcut” method of measuring the effectiveness of hedges and the ”critical terms match” that is used to qualify financial instruments for hedge accounting. The update also calls for lower threshold application in determining whether a hedge is effective. Until now, a derivative instrument has to offset a price change of an underlying between 80% and 125%. ”Eliminating the shortcut method and critical terms match would greatly simplify hedge accounting for many businesses,” says a consultant. Corporate treasurers will not have to measure precisely how well a derivative instrument matches an asset’s or liability’s specific cash flow or fair value features, calculate the difference or adjust earnings. However, their duties still remain unclear. Despite a growing importance of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for European businesses over the last few years, US GAAP are still important. This is especially the case for subsidiaries of US companies as well as European companies listed in the US that have decided to prepare US GAAP consolidated financial statements.ank People 3 Issue 21 | 20 November 2014 Mats Aström will take over as the new CFO of Swedish engineering consultancy Reijlers at the beginning of December, the company announced. He will be replacing Mikael Lingefelt, who will return to his previous role as Group Controller. Previously, Aström was the CFO of Danir, a Swedish holding of the Olofsson family. AA Martin Clarke has been appointed CFO of UK Automobile Association (AA) with immediate effect. He succeeds Andy Boland, who will leave the company in December after a handover period, AA announced. Clarke has been serving as Executive Director since June. According to AA, he also has considerable private equity experience. End of an Era: Gordon Hurst to Leave Capita FD leaves after 27 years with the company / Nick Greatorex to take over G ordon Hurst, Group Finance Direc- then, he will be employed as a contor of business process manage- sultant for the group. ment provider Capita, will leave the His successor has also been company at the end of February after named: Nick Greatorex is being pro27 years – 19 moted and will of which were join the group’s spent as Finance board. The curDirector. The FTSE rent Executive 100-listed enterDirector of Insurprise announced ance & Benefits the manageServices will start ment change last his new job at week. the beginning of According March. He will to Capita, Hurst Hurst leaves Capita after almost three decades. leave his current is leaving the position at the company to pursue a number of other end of the year to provide a smooth “non-executive opportunities”. This transition into his new role. includes his involvement with FeaGreatorex has been with the comturespace, a Cambridge-based tech- pany since 2006 and has held several nology company. executive positions. Previously, he was “[Hurst] has built a strong team CFO at British business process service of legal, commercial and financial ex- provider Liberata. Greatorex also held perts both centrally and across the di- several M&A roles at companies such visions,” says Capita CEO Andy Parker. as energy multinational Centrica. Hurst’s departure, however, won’t Greatorex will take over Capita’s happen until September 2015. Until finances under seemingly favourable Capita News market conditions. Capita will achieve at least 8% of organic growth in 2014, the company said last week. The London-based company sees the UK customer and business process management market as “highly active” and therefore expects further revenue and profit growth for next year.jae Job Openings BP: is looking for a Senior NIKE Finance Process Expert in Budapest, Hungary Lend Lease: is looking for a Treasury Analyst Europe in London, UK Pentland: is looking for a Treasury Analyst – Entry Appointment in London, UK PwC: is looking for a Treasury Senior Associate in London, UK Shell: is looking for an Officer Cash & Settlements in Rijswijk, Netherlands ADVERTISEMENT Because we manage your payment flows perfectly. Corporate Banking Making your cash management a success factor A lot of companies still have considerable potential to improve their competitiveness by optimising their national and international payment transactions. Enhanced efficiency, greater clarity, lower costs – we have now developed a 5-point programme for cash management optimisation to help you achieve all of this. For more information, visit www.commerzbank.com/cashmanagement 2014_05_12_FL_AZ_CashManagement_190x130_EuroTreasurer_Online_EN.indd 1 22.05.14 11:04 Financing 4 Issue 21 | 20 November 2014 News Top Transaction S&P: Investment-grade debt in demand Finnvera has launched a government-backed €750 million bond Verbund places €500m green bond Austrian Verbund has placed a green bond worth €500m. As the electricity company announced, the issuance is the first of its kind in a German-speaking country. The BBB+ (S&P) rated bond is set to mature in 2024 and carries a coupon of 1.5%. Rollercoaster ride for Abengoa Abengoa Spanish Abengoa’s bonds have been on a rollercoaster ride this past week. The energy company’s bonds first plunged after investors became confused over the offered securities, Bloomberg reported. Intermittently, Abengoa’s €500m of 8.5% notes lost more than 35% Abengoa HQ Seville, Spain and fell to 76 cents. However, the numbers almost completely rebounded when Abengoa reassured its investors with an announced bond buyback. LMA’s new term sheet The Loan Market Association (LMA) has launched a term sheet created by an experienced working party for use in real estate finance transactions (REF term sheet). The sections set out the provisions of senior loans and mezzanine terms as well as deals with the intercreditor agreement. F innish company Finnvera has successfully placed a €750 million bond. The emission, priced at midswap plus 1 basis point, carries a maturity of seven years and a coupon set at 0.625%. Joint lead managers were Citi, Crédit Agricole and Deutsche Bank. The completely state-owned company specialises in export and SME financing. The Finnish government also “irrevocably guarantees” the company’s debt obligations. The bond issue is part of Finnvera’s Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme, which has been in operation since 2012. Moody’s and S&P rate the debt programme at Aaa and AA+, respectively. This bond marks Finnvera’s third emission in 2014 under its EMTN programme. The Finnish company issued a €500 million bond at a coupon of 0.875% in April and a $500 million bond at a coupon of 1.875% in Sep- tember. The April emission is currently priced at approximately 102.5. The most recent bond issue appears to be attractive to investors. The transaction was significantly over- Finnvera The market’s high demand for investment-grade corporate debt might support debtfunded M&A deals over the coming months, according to a report by S&P. This year’s deal volume has been strong as EU corporate deal flow totalled €237bn until September – up 14% during the same time-span in 2013. Finnvera office in Helsinki subscribed, reaching more than €1.6 billion within the first 30 minutes of official book building. The overall demand exceeded €1.9 billion at the end, according to Finnvera. “Due to the general decline of interest rates during the year, this represents the lowest coupon for the year,” says Mikael Nordgren, Head of Treasury at Finnvera. However, Nordgren continues, saying that the issue carries the lowest coupon on any of Finnvera’s currently outstanding fixed rate debts. The company benefits from a recent change in regulation. In June, the Finnish government increased Finnvera’s authority to provide financing to export credits from €3 billion to €7 billion. “Due to changing regulation for banks, we have noted an increase in the demand for funding of export credits,” says Nordgren. The company distributes almost 90% of its cash within Europe. Around 40% of the recipients are banks. Until the end of September, SMEs had outstanding commitments worth €2.6 billion while export financing accounted for €12.5 billion of indebtedness towards Finnvera.jae Moody’s: Loan Market to Become More Fickle Investors cautious of eurozone weakness / Interest rates to stay low H igh-yield (HY) bond and leveraged loan issuances will probably become more volatile in 2015. Investors have become more cautious due to recent signs of Europe’s weakening economic performance, rating agency Moody’s writes in its EMEA leveraged finance outlook for next year. The report also sees the escalation of geopolitical events as a potential risk. For the rest of the year, Moody’s expects a “continued flow of bond and loan issuances”, deeming a repetition of last year’s end-year rush unlikely. “Pockets of confidence allow issuance for established and known names in the market, some M&A-driven issuance, cross-border deals and smaller add-on transactions,” says Peter Firth, Associate Managing Director of Moody’s EU leveraged finance team. The overall debt issuance volume of 2014 so far is higher than the anticipated predictions from last year. Cumulative issuance in Europe through September amounted to $206 billion, whereas Moody’s originally predicted a number somewhere near the $188 billion volume of 2013. The rating agency names stronger liquidity and an uptick in cross-border financing involving US investors as reasons for the underestimate. Moody’s expects the prices of HY bonds and leveraged loans to be adjusted downward as investors switch to less risky assets. In September, the administration of phone retailer Phones 4u, among others, caused investors to refocus on greater returns and a better risk/reward analysis. Due to widening spreads, the HY market will need steady issuances driven by M&A deals as well as pri- mary LBOs and a new wave of SMEs tapping the debt markets in order to reach the same volumes in 2015 compared to this year. Meanwhile, yields will be pushed down by low overall default rates in the eurozone. Speculative-grade default rates will be set at just 2.3% at the end of this year, much lower than the historical average of 4.7% since 1983. However, more small-scale issuers with weak business models have recently entered capital debt markets, possibly making defaults more common next year.jae Financing Round-Up Spanish Gas Natural Fenosa has priced a €1bn hybrid bond with a coupon of 4.125% +++ Swiss Glencore has launched a CHF 500 bond with a coupon of 1.25% set to mature in 2021 rated BBB by S&P +++ German BMW has placed a £300m five-year bond with a coupon of 2% rated A2 (Moody’s) +++ Swiss Roche has issued a $350m bond with a maturity of ten years and a coupon of 3.35% rated AA (S&P) +++ PTL Holdings has announced the issue of €36m in unsecured bonds with a coupon of 5.1% redeemable in 2024 +++ Moody’s has downgraded ABS of British Aerco worth approximately $106m Software 5 Issue 21 | 20 November 2014 News Latest Updates from Reval Bloomberg’s TRM US Dataworks launches new solution New version of TRM / New bank fee analysis from Fiserv B Bad data management About 80% of polled financial professionals see fragmented data management processes and a reliance on manual onboarding processes as the greatest data management challenges. This is a key finding of a study by Aite Group. More than 88% of respondents are considering implementing a utility model to simplify and standardise the client onboarding and management process. R eval clients received a Mon- new entities and define their own day morning surprise when they controls,” says Reval Chief Technology logged into the treasury and risk Officer Philip Pettinato. Treasurers only management (TRM) platform earlier need to subscribe to the modules that this month. That previous Friday, Reval are relevant to their work functions, had just released and as their comthe latest version panies grow, they of its TRM solucan add more cation: Reval 14.1. pabilities to meet Since the solutheir needs. tion is delivered Furthermore, as Software-asReval and finana-Service (SaaS), cial tech services the following provider Fiserv workweek saw have recently all of Reval’s cli- SaaS Reval 14.1 can be accessed from anywhere. announced a ents trying out partnership. They the new capabilities that the updated want to deliver bank fee analysis to TRM solution has to offer. Reval’s corporate treasury clients. An important component of Reval Through the partnership, treasurers 14.1 is configurability. Reval’s clients will have access to Fiserv’s bank fee amount to more than 600 compa- analysis solution Weiland BRMedge. nies, ranging from smaller businesses The system scans statements for errors to corporates with turnovers of more and notifies banks if any are identithan €1 billion. “Our SaaS TRM so- fied. Charges are then forwarded to lution enables growing treasuries business units, and fees are posted to to assimilate the operations of their corporates’ general ledgers.jko iStock/Thinkstock/Getty Images Payment processing solutions provider US Dataworks has introduced Clearingworks – Integrated Receivables. The solution promises to display the entire receivables function by integrating accounting information and payment transactions. Clearingworks claims to speed up accurate bill payment postings. loomberg will be launching its own self-developed treasury management system: Bloomberg Treasury and Risk Management (BTRM). BTRM is reportedly fully integrated, covering all aspects of treasury management: risk, cash and lifecycle management; trade execution; and hedge and treasury accounting. With this sort of consolidation, complete cash and risk visibility can be called up instantly, Bloomberg states. BTRM wants to provide access to financial exposures and related hedging as well as better forecasting and decision-making. The solution also offers enterprise resource planning systems and SWIFT integration. Along with treasury and risk, BTRM manages time as well. BTRM provides process automation and claims to get rid of time-consuming processes. It also trims down on operational risks and manual errors by streamlining workflow. Currently, there are no clients using the solution, but Bloomberg is arranging demos for financial professionals on request. BTRM will be in general availability before the end of this year.jko ADVERTISEMENT Issue 12 | 26 Jun e 2014 mare: Leader st Night cy Deal rer’s Wor rren A Treasu ace Bungles Cu llion, fires Greenpe d charity loses €3.8mimings. owne ortco world’s World-ren mits treasury sh e of the s cost on e, ad employe ne bad ha n. y deal go A currenc arities €3.8 millio t ch foremos People Leader tmare ury orst Nigh ns, admits treas rer’s W llio A Treasu npeace loses mi ee le Charity Gr s in futures bung ng shortcomi t agemen Fees Cash Man ent Bank Transpar electronic Call for for initiative German e s in Franc ter or supp g Financin Earn ’ Bosses ases easurers rs face pay decre What Tr ge top mana Europe’s finds ce billing bank servi Like reading EuroTreasurer on your iPad? There’s an app for that! Events Soft ware t B rate cu e Rate? Negativ are can handle EC ady for TMS Re their softw confident d e ve bl Vendors impro relia g Too Un ecast data, need recastin o for Cash Fo ibility int rs lack vis ure as Tre ion collaborat , ro Bond with debut bond with Eu million Debuts s €850 Ryanair line raise air et dg Irish bu cing costs cuts finan ldschein lopments oy Schu deve ing to Bu non-domestic Borrow ive cts posit LMA expe nds Up dun ce new bo g Ro Financin Cream pla d R& R Ice Tesco an ss Risk & A et Manag ement lt of defau light in Spot prospect e Back na faces CDS Ar s Argenti ing mean Court rul e-magazine | App version Apple, the Apple logo, and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Guest Contribution 6 Issue 21 | 20 November 2014 Electronic Data Transfer for Bank Account Management Clients and banks still rely on old-fashioned methods when it comes to bank account management processes. A group of major transaction banks, vendors and corporates recently defined a harmonised format for electronic bank account management (EBAM) and submitted the proposal to the SWIFT Common Global Implementation – Market Practice (CGI-MP) for approval. The harmonised format is expected to be approved and become publicly available in Q4 of 2014. The group’s activities form part of SWIFT’s CGI-MP. CGI-MP aims to define harmonised field usage, so that information can be easily and consistently exchanged among all participants. The publication will form the basis for the implementation of CGI-MP compliant EBAM messages. What is the background of the initiative? A significant increase in transaction banking efficiency has been achieved by the introduction of SEPA and the move towards ISO 20022 XML message standardisation. The aforementioned developments have revealed the potential for standardising and digitising data exchange. The group, which was established in 2013, now wants to take advantage of the situation as it aims to define a harmonised set of rules on how to fill and interpret ISO 20022 account management (acmt) messages. Thereby, the members intend to avoid diverse and inconsistent interpretation of the message content. This initiative is long overdue. When taking a closer look at the processes around bank account management, clients and banks still often rely on tried and trusted workflow methods. There is a preference for paper-based processes, and although the exchange of information has gravitated towards email, there is still a large percentage of postal mail communication. As a consequence, these tasks are often time consuming, difficult to trace and result in multiple feedback loops and inaccuracies. More importantly for an organisation, they promote a lack of clarity around critical questions such as: Who has access to bank accounts? Have the account mandates of former employees really been suspended? What type of accounts do we actually have? Which banks do we work with? Corporates are justifiably concerned about these risks and are looking for solutions to help them meet regulatory requirements, minimise the potential of internal account fraud and optimise account management within the group. Another requirement is the faster processing of administrative tasks such as the opening of accounts. Moreover, the maintenance of accurate records of authorised personnel as well as other »»EBAM has the the potential to deliver significant efficiency gains.« basic customer information, with each step traceable and visible, are also important. To address these concerns, there has been an increase in the use of treasury management systems (TMS) that combine bank account management (BAM) features. These TMSs facilitate better control of BAM within the group and provide a framework for decision-making by the treasury, an important first step towards introducing EBAM – the “E” being key for the integration of group internal data exchange with banking p artners. But how does information flow from and to banks? There are, in essence, two options: The first is the use of proprietary online tools provided by the individual bank; the second is the exchange of standardised messages. Similar to the exchange of electronic payment data, standardised and integrated solutions, which work with multiple banks, offer certain ad- vantages over individual bank proprietary solutions. With the definition of the ISO 20022 acmt message set, SWIFT has characterised a message standard that caters to the bank-agnostic exchange of information for bank account management instructions. In order to protect the investments made by clients and banks already using ISO 20022 acmt messages, the group is focussed on maintaining all technical XML rules on mandatory and optional fields as well as field lengths to avoid any modification of the XMLscheme itself. This will pave the way for the implementation of a truly bank-agnostic EBAM. The structured exchange of data has the potential to deliver significant efficiency gains by creating standardised requests. These can then be processed electronically across banks and clients. Bank responses can also be converted and reconciled by TMSs to ensure an up-to-date and accurate view of bank accounts managed by the group. Within this scheme, each bank has the ability to define its own service level with respect to turnaround times and automated data processing. This can be complemented by the exchange of scanned documents supporting bank account management instructioms or by integrating the acmt messages into an online interactive tool to complement and enhance the process. The use of the SWIFT PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) guarantees a secure data and document transfer and safely identifies the partners. As of now, there are only few clients currently using ISO 20022 acmt messages. However, there is growing interest, particularly among clients in Europe and the US, who need to manage a large number of accounts internationally across multiple banks. Through format harmonisation, service levels can now be defined to improve today’s rather cumbersome process for managing accounts. Going forward, the EBAM concept could potentially support the utilisation of digital personalised signatures, an example being SWIFT’s 3SKey. Depending on local legal and regulatory requirements, this also provides the opportunity to authorise changes on bank account set-up without the exchange of paper-based documents and to replace handwritten signatures with digital ones. This will eventually evolve into a complete and efficient straight-through processing of bank account management, which already exists in the payments area. Deutsche Bank Thinkstock / Getty Images A group of banks is trying to implement bank-agnostic, electronic banking account management. Challenges lie ahead, but first steps are being made. Alexander Reinecke, Senior Vice President, Business Product Management, Client Access & Transaction Products, Global Transaction Banking Deutsche Bank Cash Management 7 Issue 21 | 20 November 2014 News New regulatory framework for UK payments The UK’s new payments watchdog PSR has outlined how it plans to regulate the £75tn payment industry. Amongst others, the PSR aims at improving access to payment and interbank systems like BACS, CHAPS, Faster Payments by forcing their operators to implement objective, risk-based access requirements that need to be publicly disclosed. The industry will need to develop a PSR-approved code of conduct. The full package of measures is open for consultation until 12 January 2015. The new regulator will be fully operational next April. QQ7/Thinkstock/GettyImages SWIFT extents KnowYour-Customer offering Banks support KYC Register. SWIFT has announced it will launch a new service that provides a global overview of correspondent banking activities in January 2015. The so-called SWIFT Profile will enable banks to better assess their counterparties’ own declared behaviours and gain insights into potential risks posed by the activities of their counterparties and those institutions’ customers. It will be part of the Know-Your-Customer-(KYC)offering. Renminbi clearing in Frankfurt launched This week, the Bank of China has officially opened its renminbi clearing center in Frankfurt. More than ten German banks including Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank and Helaba have opened accounts at Bank of China in Frankfurt in order to offer their customers same-day renminbi transfers to mainland China. Treasurers Reluctant to Adapt the Renminbi Results of the thirteenth Treasurer Panel T he internationalisation of the renminbi is speeding up, but German firms are still reluctant to adapt the Chinese currency. This is one key result of the thirteenth Treasurer Panel of our German sister publication DerTreasurer. 31% of the survey respondents reported that their company paid suppliers using the Chinese currency and accepted renminbi payments from customers. Yet, the results of the Panel also show that more than half of respondents are not using the renminbi. While 17% said they want to accept the currency in the future, more than onethird of respondents will not do so in the near future. This is probably due to the fact that China is not an important market for all German corporates, but this only partially explains the reserve. More than half of the survey participants who did not want to implement the renminbi said that their Chinese business partners prefer normal market transactions in euros or US dollars. What role does the renminbi play as your company’s trading currency? (Figures in percent, multiple responses allowed) We accept renminbi payments from our clients 31 We use the renminbi for internal affairs 20 We do not use the renminbi at the moment, but we plan to do so in the near future 17 We do not use the renminbi and do not plan to do so N=59 Lothar Meenen, Head of Cash Management and Trade Finance Germany at Deutsche Bank, mainly attributes this to the exchange rate risk for Chinese corporates: “If they buy primary products in euros or US dollars, then they want to sell their products in euros or US dollars as well. Therefore, the currency risk is eliminated.” The Chinese firms’ preference for the euro and the US dollar could be eliminated if China liberalises its financial markets further – particularly in regards to interest rates and exchange rates – and if the renminbi China Extends Shanghai FTZ Cross-border RMB cash pooling now possible nationwide C 31 We pay suppliers in renminbi orporate treasurers, whose com- China has to exceed RMB 5 billion panies are doing business in (€650 million) while the income of China, have a reason to be pleased: all offshore entities participating in Intragroup cross-border renminbi the cash pool should be no less than cash concentration is now possible in RMB 1 billion. The second requirement will hardly all of China, the be a problem for People’s Bank most companies, of China (PBoC) but the first one has announced will most likely in a circular. Until keep mid-market now, only firms corporates from with a subsidiary benefitting from in the Shanghai the liberalisation. Free-Trade Zone The threshold (FTZ) were able The Shanghai FTZ is getting competition. could be lowered to make use of or even abolished once the pilot prothe cash management pilot projects. Companies are now allowed to ject is successful classified, says Gaimplement payment on behalf and re- briele Schnell of HSBC Germany. Furceivables on behalf structures as well thermore, both onshore and offshore as intracompany netting for their Chi- participating entities must have been nese operations. Even more important in operation for at least three years. The new rules published by the for corporate treasurers: Cross-border renminbi cash pooling is now possible PBoC follow its announcement in June nationwide. There are some important to expand the scope of renminbi crossrestrictions however: A company’s ag- border settlements. Until now, implegregated annual operating income in mentation details were missing.deb 36 Source: Treasurer-Panel assumed a more significant role in the world market. Another result of the panel is that German firms hardly want to use Chinese liberalisation projects at the moment. Cross-border cash pooling and netting of receivables and liabilities in China are “important” or “very important” for 53% and 48% of respondents, respectively. Nevertheless, just 5% so far have utilised the facilitations in the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. This could now change as the Chinese central bank has expanded the facilitations nationwide (see below).deb EuroTreasurer Publishing House FRANKFURT BUSINESS MEDIA GmbH – A member of the F.A.Z. publishing group Frankenallee 95, 60327 Frankfurt/Main, Germany HRB Nr. 53454 Registered in: Frankfurt/Main Ust.-ID: DE218022242 Managing Directors Bastian Frien, Dr. André Hülsbömer, Jürgen Kiehl Publisher: Boris Karkowski Editorial staff: Markus Dentz (editor, mad), Desirée Backhaus (deb), Jakob Eich (jae), Andreas Knoch (ank), Antonia Kögler (ako), Josh Kongmany (jko) Phone: +49 69 75 91-32 52 Fax: +49 69 75 91-32 24 E-Mail:[email protected] Advertisement responsibility: Dominik Heyer, Deputy Head of Business Development & Sales Phone: +49 6031 73 86-17 15 Fax: +49 6031 73 86-20 E-Mail:[email protected] Senior Partners: Deutsche Bank AG, treasury executives 53° GmbH Subscription rates: free of charge Frequency of publication: bi-weekly (22 issues a year) Layout Daniela Seidel, FRANKFURT BUSNESS MEDIA GmbH © by FRANKFURT BUSINESS MEDIA GmbH, 2014. 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