Getting the books audited by a CPA can not only help small and medium-sized businesses gain easier access to bank loans, but can also reduce interest rates charged by banks on those loans, according to a new study out from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

The survey found that companies with audited financial statements paid 500 basis points—or half a percentage point—less in interest on loans than those companies whose books were unaudited. As a result, companies saved almost $7000 a year per $1 million in outstanding bank debt.

SWIFT, the global interbank messaging system, has launched a new bank readiness certification program for companies to easily-indentify the preparedness and depth of functionality of their banking partners on SWIFT for Corporates (S4C)–corporate access to SWIFT.

The new certification program was created on the back of corporate requests for such a service, and was designed jointly by SWIFT and its Corporate Advisory Group (CAG), with a two-fold goal of “increasing the operational and commercial readiness level of banks for SWIFT for Corporates (S4C)”; and “increasing corporate awareness about the readiness status of the banks on their S4C offering,” according to the SWIFT website.

It is getting cheaper for companies in the US and Europe to access the public equity markets, according to data from Bloomberg.

Although investment banking fees are rising globally, this is mostly being driven by big fee increases in the emerging markets—especially China. In the US equity underwriting fees have been dropping relatively steadily for a decade. However, they are still much higher than elsewhere.

The treasury and cash management solution space just got a little bit tighter, as workstation vendor Wall Street Systems announced it is buying ASP-delivered treasury system Treasura from Thomson Reuters.

For companies, this could have both positive and negative outcomes. From a negative perspective, it means that there are fewer vendors out there and one of the few vendors focusing just on the mid-tier market and offering their solutions as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS--meaning that buyers can select just what they want to use and pay only for that) is now being swallowed up by a much-larger rival.

Corporate applications of mobile payments technology is just in early stages of development, but the opportunities are endless for how mobile technology can further enable and connect corporates both internally and with all of their external trading, business, and finance partners.

One of the areas that could see the greatest potential benefit from advancing mobile solutions and penetration is the supply chain.

As companies roll into 2011 one thing on the mind of many is what to do with the excess cash that they have tucked away on the balance sheet as cash and cash equivalents. In fact, according to data from Thomson Reuters, global companies are holding as much as $4.3 trillion in cash.

Many companies are looking at ways to use that cash most effectively - many through beefed up share repurchase plans or dividends, as we discussed recently. 

One of the big lessons to come out of the crisis is that companies should discuss with their banking partners how they are managing risk on a broad scale, how that is changing, and how it will affect their business.

This is a lesson which was highlighted again in a new report on bank risk management by an association representing regulators from around the world.

Companies that look to banks for loan facilities are the ones that ultimately will pay for rising bank regulatory costs under Dodd-Frank, and a group of lenders are in the process of changing loan document standards to ensure that is the case.

New corporate loan documents are already seeing clauses added to shift the cost of Dodd-Frank compliance from the bank to the borrower, according to a report on Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal.

Although it published a timeline in September for implementing changes under the Dodd-Frank Act, the SEC was not wholly successful in meeting it.

In fact, the regulatory body missed on a broad range of changes that it expected to have done by year-end. For example, the creation of a number of new offices and units under the SEC was put off due to budgetary uncertainty, according to an update by lawyers at law firm Leonard, Street and Deinard.

Further consolidation in the mid-tier banking markets is inevitable, particularly as new regulatory requirements under Basel III, published recently by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision-forces more small players out of the payments services business. This will have far-reaching effects on US banking and will likely mean less liquidity available for corporates in the US.

The new rules are likely to increase the cost to institutions of providing low-value, high-volume payments--the bread and butter of the payments business-and are yet another issue that will force further consolidation in the mid-tier-and-smaller banking market in the US.