A quick look at what’s on International Treasurer’s radar screen this week.

This week’s International Treasurer editorial meeting brought up a host of topics, including the disconnect between what banks say about Basel III impact and what treasurers are hearing; ratings and CFOs; issuing debt.

What Basel III impact?
At recent NeuGroup peer group meetings, many banks have suggested that there will be a big impact on how they operate when Basel III is implemented. However, many treasurers say that’s not what they are hearing from their own banks. Some of the chatter around bank services indicates that pricing for various services will rise, banks will be less willing to lend or their ability to lend will be curtailed, and finally, only the best corporate clients will get the all the services they need. However, at several meetings so far this fall, treasurers have said this is not the same thing they’re hearing; and have indicated banks are meeting their needs. So what is going on? What’s true and what’s conjecture?

CFOs and ratings agencies
Many treasurers consider ratings agencies a necessary evil. And one thing that several members at a recent NeuGroup treasurer’s mentioned was keeping the CFO away when it came time to meeting with the agencies. This might be for a variety of reasons, the main one being that CFOs might not be as used to the give and take of the corporate-rater relationship. There is a certain amount of diplomacy needed and some treasurers report their CFOs would rather tell raters to jump in a lake; not good when the company might need a little love from raters later on for debt issuance or some other situation. So what is the right way to talk to a rating agency? How do you keep things on an even keel (even when you’d rather not)?

Issuing debt guidelines
Speaking of raters and issuing debt, what are some of the strategies for a successful campaign? Recent NeuGroup discussions offer up a few suggestions on what to do. One approach is to create a war room where the specifics are hammered out and plans created. Other suggestions include rigidly sticking to the stated plan, selecting the right banks, both primary and secondary, have well defined work-streams and as noted above, foster the good will of rating agencies.

Another related item to keep in mind: in the current just because there is a super-sized and attractive issuance crowding the market doesn’t mean investors aren’t interested in more corporate debt. Highly rated corporate debt is still very sought after.