Asset Financing - An overview

Asset financing in a nutshell.

Summary: Asset financing is simply raising capital (equity and debt) by an organisation to acquire an asset, leveraging it and reducing the need for full upfront cash outlay or impacting other credit lines. In the case of corporate banking, this typically involves debt arranged by lenders. Such assets include ships, data centers, real estate, and machinery.

Financing the purchase of assets can come in various ways:

1) Full cash outlay:

a) Company uses existing cash or equity to buy the asset and gains full ownership of the asset.

b) No debt incurred, hence no implication on gearing (debt-to-equity). 

c) Ties up liquidity which could be used for other purposes (opportunity cost).

2) Debt financing: 

a) Company borrows money from banks to finance the purchase of the asset. 

The asset serves as the collateral of the loan. However, due to loan limits (i.e. LTV), they will still need to inject cash/equity to finance a portion of it (e.g. 20% of the asset price). The company gains full ownership of the asset from the start.

b) The company makes regular payments (P+I) to the lenders.

c) Preserves cash but adds debt to the balance sheet.

3) Leasing:

a) In the case of corporate banking, the bank could purchase the asset and lease it to the company with regular payments for the right to use the asset over a period of time. The ownership thus sits with the bank.

b) At the end of the period, (1) the lease could be extended; (2) the company may choose to end the lease, and the bank will then dispose the asset; (3) the company may purchase the asset from the bank entirely.

c) Preserves cash and gives the company flexibility.

Which method of financing is right for the company? This depends on the company's financial health, cash flow / balance, business opportunities / needs for cash etc.

Our friends in Global Markets

To provide a more comprehensive suite of solutions for our clients in corporate banking, we also work with business lines within Global Markets. These include corporate sales (FX and rates), cross-asset sales and prime services and clearing. This post will be an overview of the three main business lines we work with:

1) Corporate sales: This team sells FX and rates solutions to corporate clients as suggested by its name.  The purpose of these solutions is to help corporates hedge currency and interest rate risks via key products, namely FX forwards and swaps, as well as interest rate swaps. These solutions are especially crucial for large companies with cross-border transactions (FX risk) or significant debt on their balance sheet (interest rate risk). 

2) Cross-asset sales: There may be different cross-asset sales teams in a particular bank. A key product that corporate clients may look at is secured hedging products like interest rate swaps. However unlike in (1) which is done on a corporate level, this swap is typically tailored for a specific project or asset financing transaction and hence aligned with the financing structure.

3) Prime services and clearing: The prime desks in an investment bank are the ones that can handle the trading of a wide range of products, including complexed ones, hence they typically cater to hedge funds. Clearing, on the other hand, refers to the execution of a transaction or trade on an exchange, ensuring the smooth and secure settlement of agreements.

(1) and (3) are typically flow-based businesses, with fluctuations in revenue dependent on client needs and market changes. On the other hand, (2) is contingent on the financing of an asset and hence revenue is tied to new deals in the pipeline.

Public vs Private Markets - An overview

An overview of the public and private markets for beginners.

Summary: Public and private markets are two sides of the same coin. They are both marketplaces that facilitate transactions between willing buyers and sellers. The key difference lies in the participants - public markets are open to the public, including individuals and corporations. In contrast, private markets are private and traditionally only open to selected entities. The roles of buyers and sellers differ between situations, but in general, one party looks to raise capital while the other looks to generate income from its capital.

Public Markets: Financial markets where securities like stocks and bonds are traded publicly on exchanges. This marketplace is accessible and open to the general public and institutional investors. Companies that look to raise capital from issuing shares and bonds can list them on exchanges, while investors invest their capital in these securities on the exchange to generate income. As this marketplace allows "public" access to individuals and corporations, securities are highly liquid, as any entity can buy or sell a security relatively quickly during market hours. 

Characteristics include: 

• High transparency due to listing regulations and continuous disclosure requirements
• Valuation driven by demand and supply in the market
• Moderate returns
• Diversification benefits from various public securities

Private Markets: Similar to the public markets, except this marketplace is traditionally open only to larger, institutional and professional investors like hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices. The reason is that investments in the private markets typically command a larger minimum ticket size, hence being out of reach for regular individuals. The private market (private equity and private credit) has been growing rapidly in the past few years, and with greater access for individuals through new fund structures and platforms, this will be an increasingly important topic.

Characteristics include: 

• Not as transparent as there are fewer disclosure requirements and information is typically shared directly with investors
• Valuation estimated using models
• Higher returns due to liquidity premium and higher risk
• Some diversification benefits
• Long investment horizon as these investments are typically locked for long periods
• Presence of active management investors

Equity Capital - An overview

Equity capital represents the ownership in a company and its residual claim to the company's assets and earnings.

Summary: Equity capital is money that investors pour into the company. It could also be the retained earnings from a company's net profits. This capital is used to fund the company's activities, including investments and operations. It can be categorised in various ways, including regulatory (Tier 1 and Tier 2 per the previous post), internal vs external (retained earnings vs injections), and form (ordinary vs preferred).

Continuing from the earlier post on Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital, I will explain more about this classification of capital below. 

The tiering of this capital is dependent on its quality and ability to absorb losses.

Tier 1: Core Capital

1) Common Equity Tier 1 ("CET1"): Highest quality and best able to absorb losses.  It is considered "going concern" capital, which means it absorbs losses while the bank continues its operations. Examples of such capital include ordinary shares, retained earnings and accumulated other comprehensive income.

2) Additional Tier 1 ("AT1"): Next highest quality and able to provide significant loss-absorbing capacity. This type of capital is typically perpetual, have discretionary and non-cumulative dividend payments, and have loss absorption triggers.

Tier 2: Supplementary Capital

1) Considered to be supplementary capital, lower quality than Tier 1 because it is not as permanent and has lower capacity for absorbing losses. Designed to absorb such losses after Tier 1 capital has been depleted. Examples of such capital include subordinated term loans, hybrid capital instruments (quasi-equity), and loss provisions.

To note, these types of capital are not reported as such on the balance sheet. While the balance sheet shows individual line items, CET1, AT1 and Tier 2 capital represent various line items adjusted for rules according to regulatory requirements.

Risk Weighted Assets - An overview

Risk-weighted assets ("RWA") is one of the most important concepts to learn in finance.

Overview:

The general idea is that when banks lend money to borrowers, there is a risk of default by the borrowers. These loans are labelled as an asset because when banks lend to borrowers, these appear on the bank's balance sheet as an asset (think receivables). RWA is thus basically the bank's asset whose nominal value is adjusted for its riskiness, converting it into a standardised measure of risk exposure. The higher the risk, the higher the potential loss and hence the higher its RWA. Itself, RWA is a function of exposure at default (EAD), probability of default (PD), and loss given default (LDG).

The reason RWA is crucial is that banks must hold a certain amount of capital against their RWAs to be able to absorb potential losses in the event of default and protect depositors and the financial system in general. This amount is dictated by the Capital Adequacy Ratio ("CAR") requirements.

CAR:

There are 3 key components to the CAR formula: 

1) CAR - the minimum ratio is regulated by the government / central bank.

2) RWA - calculated risk exposure by the bank in accordance with guidelines by the regulators.

3) Capital - the minimum capital that a bank must hold for its total RWA to meet regulatory requirements. This capital primarily comprises tier 1 (Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital and Additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital) and Tier 2 capital.

*I will go into the different forms of capital in a separate post. 

Putting these together, with higher RWA and a fixed CAR, the amount of capital a bank must have is higher. This presents several challenges for the bank, including:

1) Opportunity Cost - minimum capital that must be held by the bank, thus unable to be deployed for other income-generating purposes.

2) Profitability / Growth - lower Return on Equity (ROE) assuming profits stay the same, given the higher equity base. The bank would then be less attractive to investors and potentially impede overall balance sheet growth (e.g. through higher cost of equity, difficulty raising more capital etc.).

Three scenarios to note:

1) RWA for hedging: While derivatives like FX swaps, interest rate swaps (IRS), and secured swaps are used to hedge risk, they still generate RWA. This is because the RWA generated is from the counterparty's credit risk when the hedge is executed, not the risk of the underlying itself. However, this is typically very low, especially if the counterparty is investment grade.

2) Increasing RWA: In theory, RWA should decrease over time for a given amortising loan as the principal owed to the bank and correspondingly the risk reduces. However, there are instances when RWA increases over time (not exhaustive):

a) Decrease in credit quality of the borrower, e.g. during periods of financial distress, hence increasing their probability of default and RWA.

b)  Changes in regulations, such as increasing the risk weights of certain types of loans by the regulators, may also result in a higher RWA.

3) RWA higher than principal: This is possible when the risk weighting assigned to a particular asset/loan is >100% of the principal amount. Such high-risk assets include those with high volatility, speculative exposures, subordinated debt, and low credit standing. 

Quick check: why is it possible for RWA to be greater than the principal if the principal is the max exposure / possible loss of the bank? The reason goes back to the notion of RWA - it is not the maximum amount of loss, but rather the amount of capital a bank must hold to buffer against potential losses. In the case of risky assets, this buffer must be higher. This not only provides a greater safety margin for such unexpected losses, but also denotes a disincentive for banks to take excessive risk.

Diving further, let's break down RWA. Total RWA comprises RWA from credit risk, market risk and operational risk.

1) Credit risk: the risk that a borrower will not repay the loan. Certain banks use the internal risk-based approach ("IRB"), where instead of using fixed risk weights, it uses its own models to determine the riskiness based on probability of default (PD), loss given default (LGD), exposure at default (EAD) and maturity. 

2) Market risk: risk of losses from changes in market prices (interest rate, exchange rate, stock prices) for a bank's trading book.

3) Operational risk: risk of losses from internal errors or external events (e.g. fraud).

From the bank's perspective, we focus on credit risk RWA which is given by the formulas:

• RWACredit Risk (IRB)​=EAD×RWcalculated from PD, LGD, M​
• RW ≈(Unexpected Loss Probability×LGD)×Scaling Factor
• Where Scaling Factor = ~9.5 based on the 10.5% minimum capital adequacy ratio under Basel III.

In the event of high EAD, PD, and LGD, in conjunction with the scaling factor, RW may increase > 100% and hence if EAD = 1, RWA will be greater than the total loan amount.

Corporate Banking - An Overview

A brief, generic guide to corporate banking for beginners.

Overview: 

Corporate banking is a broad category within finance that primarily involves sell-side services to corporate clients, typically large corporations. As mentioned in the previous post, corporate banking revolves around traditional banking services like loans, cash management, and trade finance. Its core purpose is to satisfy a company's financial needs, e.g. raising capital for working capital, expansion activities etc, while cultivating strong client relationships.

Key Services:

1) Relationship Management (Coverage): Focused on business development through enhancing and establishing client relationships - the relationship managers. The modus operandi of this team is to develop relationships to facilitate cross-selling of multiple products to any one client to maximise banking revenue while optimising costs (e.g. KYC, opportunity cost, and client acquisition).

Note: Not all banks have the same structure/setup. For example, some banks may have a dedicated, sector-agnostic coverage team to focus on relationship management, while other banks have sector-specific coverage bankers who focus on that particular sector. Both have their pros and cons, but it is important to note that both roles entail different skill sets and strategies.

2) Corporate Finance: Relates to debt financing to corporations, including (a) general corporate lending like vanilla term loans and revolvers; (b) acquisition financing; and (c) dividend recaps.

3) Project Finance: Relates to raising capital via long-term debt for large-scale infrastructure or industrial projects, ringfenced to a specific project. A special purpose vehicle ("SPV") is created through which cash flows are channelled. Risk is primarily predicated on the project's own cash flows and assets, and is generally non-recourse to the sponsors.

4) Asset Finance: Relates to raising capital secured against a tangible asset, such as a ship, equipment or machinery. It is a corporate-level financing and typically has recourse to the sponsor.

5) Transaction Banking (Cash Management & Trade Finance): Primarily provides solutions to help clients optimise their liquidity and facilitate business transactions. These include bank guarantees and cash accounts for payments.

6) Corporate Sales (FX/Rates): Supports the clients' FX and hedging needs.

7) Capital Markets: While the ECM and DCM businesses typically sit separate from corporate banking, they may work hand-in-hand when a large corporate requires more capital and intends to do so via issuing debt or equity. 

Corporate and Investment Banks - An Overview

A brief, generic guide to the corporate and investment bank for beginners.

Overview: 

Corporate and investment banking is a highly coveted, dynamic, and rewarding area of finance. It is a division within the bank that provides a comprehensive suite of financial services to large clients, including corporations, governments, and other institutional clients. These services have one primary purpose: to help clients raise capital while effectively managing risks. This section of the bank is constantly at the forefront of global events and market movements to stay ahead of the competition.

Key business lines:

1) Capital Markets: Namely Debt and Equity Capital Markets (DCM/ECM), which helps clients raise funds via the issuance of bonds and shares respectively.

2) Corporate Banking: Traditional banking services including loans, cash management, and trade finance to corporate clients. As someone in corporate banking, I will elaborate on this in another post.

3) Sales & Trading: This refers to the global markets division, which involves buying and selling financial instruments, including FX and rates, commodities, and fixed income products.

4) Investment Banking: Advisory side, including M&A and other strategic actions.

The Three Offices:

1) Front Office: The client-facing division of the bank that is primarily responsible for generating banking revenue.

2) Middle Office: Bridge between the front and back offices, focusing on essential business operations such as risk, controls, compliance, and legal support.

3)  Back Office: Provides general operational and administrative services such as IT, human resources and accounting.