The questions
1. World economic growth remains slow. Has your company taken particular financial measures as a precaution against a prolonged downturn? What are they?
2. Most corporates finance themselves with a combination of loans, bonds and commercial paper. How do you decide on the mix that’s right for your company?
3. Many banks use credit derivatives to transfer their lending risk. How do you feel about banks doing this with your loans?
4. Corporate treasurers are being encouraged to place spare cash in money market funds rather than bank deposits. What is your view of this trend?
5. Has the overall service you get from banks improved, got worse or stayed the same over the past 12 months? What kind of further service improvements would you like to see?
1. We are focusing on cashflow, gross liquidity and reduced capital expenditure.
2. Cost, refunding risk and asset structure are the deciding factors.
3. We view this negatively because the real economy is affected – by the lack of transparency generally and short positions particularly (in the underlying).
4. This is not applicable to us.
5. Overall service has been flat to negative. Improvements needed include “knowledge-based” banking in emerging areas, for example pensions.