Finance departments regularly ask themselves which format is best suited to bank credit: a revolving credit facility (RCF) or a term loan? Syndicated credit or bilateral lines? Matthieu Guillot, Managing Director, Debt Advisory at Redbridge, answers some questions about these issues.
L’Espresso, Redbridge’s coffee-break program, welcomed Pascal Ichard, Director of Funding at Mirakl, on May 29 to celebrate the signing of the first syndicated loan for this French tech company. The discussion centered on banking relationships before, during and after initial financing for growth companies. Alongside Pascal were our moderator, Emmanuel Léchère, and Pierre Bonnet, Associate Director and Financing Consultant at Redbridge, who was part of the team that collaborated with Mirakl’s finance department on the firm’s €100 million bank syndication.
It’s that time of the year again for the European Merchant Payments Ecosystems conference in Berlin, and Redbridge is delighted to announce that our payments expert, Gabriel Lucas, will be actively participating in two compelling sessions. We are excited to showcase his expertise and contribute to this significant event.
Banks and credit card companies sparred with consumer advocates and merchant representatives at a Senate hearing on interchange fees, the fees charged to merchants – and ultimately customers – for using credit cards. The hearing was led by Sen. Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, with a panel of witnesses comprised of consumer advocates and executives from banks and credit card companies.
Watch the live demo of our expert, Dan Gill, presenting our bank fee monitoring software, HawkeyeBSB, to the four Treasury Dragons.
On May 20, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a six-month extension to the deadline for implementing Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for online purchases.
All SEPA countries introduced the SEPA Request-to-Pay (SRTP) scheme on 15 June 2021. This scheme covers the set of operating rules and technical elements (including messages) that enable a payee to request the initiation of a payment from a payer in a wide range of physical or online use cases. Mélina Le Sauze, Director at Redbridge, explains the scheme.
In January, French Treasury and the French banks agreed to offer companies that raised a PGE (prêt garanti par l’Etat — French State Guaranteed Loan) an additional one-year deferred amortization. Muriel Nahmias, Senior Director Debt Advisory at Redbridge, provides an update on this grace period and the options for extending PGEs.
Since 2007 the EU has had a single payments market, with common rules and limits on card fees. As a result of Brexit, the UK no longer comes under EU regulations, and both card schemes and card issuers are free to increase the fees they charge on card transactions between the European Economic Area (EEA) and the UK, and on domestic transactions in the UK. Higher charges could represent a significant burden for merchants at a time when the retail sector is facing unprecedented pressure.
On 4 March, Redbridge chatted to Arnaud Winkelmann, Director of Finance and Treasury at Compagnie des Alpes, about financing and cash management in times of crisis. On the agenda were financing strategy, state-backed loans, waivers, savings, electronic payments and cash management.
Simon Berta details the different impacts of the LIBOR’s replacement in credit facilities, whether they are existing credit facilities with maturities spanning over 2021 and beyond, or new facilities to be implemented this year.
Bank fee analysis continues to be an obstacle for treasurers. How can global companies leverage technological innovations to improve visibility of bank charges?
While the massive roll-out of vaccines against Covid is raising hopes that the ongoing global health crisis will soon be resolved, there’s still considerable uncertainty about the long-term consequences of the pandemic on the economy. CFOs and treasurers will need to be resilient and act with rigour, innovation and boldness to seize the opportunities to be found in 2021.
As we bid farewell to what was a year like no other, we look back at some of our articles from last year that provided our innovative points of view on matters related to finance and treasury.
The world often appears large and disconnected, with differences of religion, culture, language and currency that reinforce our independence. Despite these perceived differences, we are, in reality, linked closely together. Our points of connectivity expand with each technological advancement –write Justin DiCioccio, Redbridge Senior Analyst, and Constance Veron, Redbridge Associate Director.
