It's been over 20 years since the launch in Poland first Cash pooling solutions, but still today the tax environment and the operating schedules of this service, which is part of the core of capital group management techniques, give rise to many discussions. We'll take care of it today. second area, which means the operational side.
Due to the wide scope of the topic, we have decided to focus on solutions in the domestic market. We will not refer to cross-border models, although it should be noted that many Polish companies have learned pooling solutions due to belonging to international companies and the need to integrate into their liquidity management structures.
However, their decision-making in this area was usually small, hence still one reason to limit themselves to the perspective of the domestic market - Polish capital groups have much more comfort in choosing the solutions available.
TERMINOLOGICALITY AND COORDINATION
Let's start with terminology. Cash pooling does not have an explicit definition, but regardless of the many market terms at its source, it is the treatment of financial resources in the group as a certain common pool that can be used effectively.
This means, for example, that shortages in the accounts of certain companies are covered by surpluses created by other entities in the group. This result is most often the optimisation of the global interest rate result and the improvement of liquidity. Cash pooling may be a response to the dilemma of the head of the financial group: why Company X is to pay debt interest 2,000,000 PLN, which occurred on her account, since there is a surplus on Y's account belonging to the same group 2,500,000 PLN?
The implementation of cash pooling usually significantly reduces external debt, increases the ability of the group to conduct a common financial policy, improves the efficiency of flows and forecasts of flows.
Many marketable definitions of cash pooling state that it is a banking service. This is not entirely true, because there are capital groups that can handle transfers of funds without the bank's participation (I will go back to this later in the text), but it is, in fact, to a large extent, the bank is an operator and provider of consolidation solutions.
The following list contains examples of partitioning categories. one of the basic breakdowns concerns the method of consolidating measures. In cash pooling, real transfers occur between its participants (they are recorded in accounts and reflected in bank extracts) and in the case of virtual pooling, the group receives financial benefits without the physical transfer of funds between accounts. There is a virtual calculation of the result of the interest group and a physical distribution of its effects.
Figure. 1. Selected cash pooling criteria (own design)
The most common scheme of a pooling solution assumes the operation of a master account and source accounts. The latter, belonging to the group companies, are zero at the end of the day. zero the balance and the accumulated positive or negative balance is recorded on the main account and interest is charged on that balance.
Debits are transferred from the main account pool. The next day the balances return to the source accounts. This is a classic model, but not the only model (e.g. not always in the offered solutions we deal with consolidation of balances).
It should also be noted that bank cash pooling systems are often the same as those that support the consolidation of balances in companies with a multi-branch organisational structure.
Lack of regulation and concerns stemming, among others, from the possibility of charging transfers carried out as part of a pooling tax on civil law activities, which accompanied discussions on the occasion first implementations in Poland second mid-years ninety, affected the appearance of virtual pooling, as historically first solutions on the market.
They were also an important impetus for banks and advisory companies to develop structures that would reduce tax and legal risks to a minimum. In addition to virtual pooling, real transfers were launched between company accounts in the group based on legal subrogation and debt trading mechanisms.
To this day, all these solutions can still be found on the market.
Please read the next part of the article.