Capital & Risk
Financing, risk transfer and security as one structure.
Three disciplines the market usually buys separately. We know each of them closely and assemble them across several risk carriers into one programme. In doing so, Quaestus is an independent broker and structurer — neither insurer nor bank.
Bonds & Guarantees
Provide security without tying up liquidity. Bonds and guarantees fulfil contractual and statutory security obligations. Where needed, we bring banks and surety insurers together into a coordinated guarantee structure across several carriers, instead of relying on a single security provider alone. This creates additional guarantee capacity, in the structure best suited to your goals.
Contract-related bonds
- Bid bond
- Secures the bindingness of the offer in the tender/award procedure.
- Performance
- Secures proper, on-time performance after award.
- Advance payment bond
- Secures repayment of advance payments made by the client.
- Warranty / retention
- Secures defect claims and retained security after acceptance.
- Execution / completion
- Secures full completion in project and construction contracts.
Statutory & commercial guarantees
- Customs & excise duty
- Security towards customs and tax authorities (incl. duty deferral, energy/excise duty).
- Environment / reclamation
- Dismantling, renaturation and aftercare obligations towards authorities.
- Rent / lease deposit
- Security from commercial rental and lease relationships.
- Litigation / court bond
- Security deposit in court proceedings.
- License & concession
- Authority-required security for permits and concessions.
- Payment / supplier guarantee
- Securing payment obligations towards suppliers.
International guarantee programs
- Local guarantees
- Guarantee wordings recognized in the recipient country via local correspondents.
- Counter-guarantees
- Counter-guarantees that secure local guarantee providers towards the main guarantor.
- Single framework
- Multi-country guarantees under one controllable line instead of fragmented individual solutions.
Syndicated guarantee lines
- Multi-provider line
- A guarantee line provided jointly by several banks and surety insurers, instead of a single provider.
- Tranching by collateral
- Illiquid security (real estate, machinery, receivables) into the bank tranche, cash-like security into the insurer tranche.
- Capacity leverage
- The coordinated split unlocks guarantee capacity that a single provider would not offer on its own.
The biggest lever comes from regulation. Under Basel III, banks can recognize a broad range of collateral, from real estate and machinery to receivables and inventory, each with haircuts. Under Solvency II, insurers are effectively pushed towards cash-like collateral. The same product on the surface, a completely different appetite for what stands behind it. Whoever syndicates a guarantee line and allocates the collateral accordingly, illiquid security into the bank tranche, cash equivalents into the insurer tranche, unlocks guarantee capacity that neither provider could offer alone. It is precisely in such gaps between two supervisory regimes that the real structuring work lies.
Trade Credit Solutions
Trade receivables are often the largest unsecured asset on the balance sheet. Transferring the risk to credit insurers protects against major losses, stabilises the balance sheet and makes receivables bankable, the basis for better financing terms.
Cover structures
- Whole turnover policy
- Insures the entire insurable receivables portfolio (whole turnover), broad spread, low anti-selection.
- Selective / named buyers
- Cover of selected buyers instead of the whole portfolio.
- Single Buyer
- Concentrated cover of a single, significant buyer.
- Single Risk
- Single transaction or project, often medium to long-term.
- Excess of Loss
- Catastrophe/deductible structure: own retention of frequency, the insurer carries peaks above a threshold.
- Top-up
- Increase of an insufficient base limit beyond the primary cover.
- Capital-relieving cover
- Reduced capital requirements and rating improvement for project sponsors or financial institutions.
Insured perils
- Insolvency
- Legally established default of the buyer.
- Non-payment
- Protracted default, payment default without formal insolvency.
- Pre-delivery risk
- Pre-credit / work-in-progress cover for costs before delivery in case of refusal to accept.
- Political risks
- Political events as a cause of default, such as state payment bans or sovereign interventions.
- Clawback cover
- Protection against insolvency clawback of payments already received, when the administrator reclaims amounts paid.
- Collection costs
- Assumption of agreed costs of legal action and collection when enforcing insured receivables.
- Transfer risk
- Risk that due payments cannot be transferred or converted in the agreed currency because of state restrictions.
Export & political risks
- Buyer / country risk
- Default of public/state buyers and country-related payment disruptions.
- Conversion & transfer
- Official bans on exchanging or transferring payments in foreign currency.
- Confiscation / expropriation
- Political interventions (confiscation, expropriation, nationalization, deprivation).
- Contract Frustration
- Breach of contract through sovereign action; unfair calling of issued bonds.
Structurally, credit insurance is more than loss protection. An unconditional cover can act as recognized credit risk mitigation at the financing institution and replace the buyer's risk weight with that of the insurer, a capital effect that makes the receivable cheaper to finance. Where private capacity ends, with country limits, long tenors or concentrations, co-insurance, reinsurance and state export credit guarantees step in. For capital goods and project business, medium to long-term structured solutions are added, as buyer or supplier credit, tailored to tenor, country and buyer type. We know which structures fit your needs.
Receivable Finance Programs
Receivable finance turns open receivables into immediate liquidity. The driver is financing, not protection. It is about freeing up tied working capital and co-financing growth. Credit insurance can improve the terms, it is the lever in this, not the purpose.
Factoring types
- Recourse / non-recourse
- The default risk passes to the factor (true, non-recourse) or remains with the seller (recourse).
- Disclosed / undisclosed
- The buyer is informed of the assignment, or not.
- Full service / financing
- Including receivables management and collection, or a pure financing function (in-house).
- Selective / Single Buyer
- Purchase of individual buyers or receivables instead of total turnover.
- Invoice Discounting
- Confidential financing of the receivables portfolio without taking over receivables management.
Structured receivables finance
- Revolving programs
- Ongoing, renewing purchase of a receivables pool with dynamic availability.
- Securitisation / ABS
- Bundling of receivables into tradable structures for large volumes.
- Supply-Chain-Finance
- Reverse factoring / payables finance, anchored in the buyer's credit standing.
- Asset Backed Lending
- Asset-based lending against a continuously valued borrowing base (mostly receivables and inventory).
Structurally, the balance-sheet and regulatory treatment is decisive. A true sale leads to derecognition of the receivable and shortens the balance sheet, provided the risk genuinely transfers; a secured financing, by contrast, remains on the balance sheet. At the financing institution, capital relief depends on whether a significant risk transfer exists. This distinction, to be agreed with the auditors, determines whether the structure serves its purpose. Where credit insurance is in place, the receivable can be financed more cheaply and at higher advance rates as a more valuable asset. The cover then serves the better financing.
Program architecture
How individual products become a controllable program.
It is not the individual building block that matters, but how processes and people act. We layer covers, interlock the disciplines and use the competition of several providers.
THOUGHT IN LAYERS
Primary cover
The foundation: base limits per buyer via a whole-turnover or selective policy.
Top-up layer
Targeted increase where the base limit does not cover the actual business.
Excess of Loss
A catastrophe layer on top for mature risk processes with own retention of frequency.
Interlocked, not side by side
Credit + Surety
Credit insurance and guarantees thought of from one hand, balance-sheet protection and free bank lines at once.
+ Political risk
Private PRI and state export credit guarantees complement private cover where it ends.
+ Financing
The insured receivable becomes a financeable asset, risk transfer cheapens liquidity.
How we approach the market
- 01
Analysis
Exposure mapping: concentrations, countries, sectors, existing bank, insurer and guarantee relationships/structures.
- 02
Structuring and tech
Layering of primary, top-up and XoL cover; where needed, interlocking of credit, surety, PRI and financing. Defining the process and tech landscape.
- 03
Market & tender
Structured selection and tendering to a global provider network. Planning of technical integrations.
- 04
Negotiation
Limits, contracts, wordings, prices; negotiated and optimized centrally. Integration of processes and supporting tech solutions.
- 05
Steering
Ongoing automated limit, claims and renewal management; reporting; adjustment to growth and market conditions.