In 2008, companies spent about $12.5 billion on cash management services with their banking partners, according to the 2008 Cash Management Monitor by Phoenix Hecht.

Treasurers and CFOs searching for opportunities to shave expenses will want to consider the banking fees they pay. Too often, they review just total costs, without digging into the numbers, says Stacey Gilmore, treasury management consultant with Chesapeake System Solutions, Inc. By analyzing just what services their firms are using and the fees they’re paying, they can cut costs and streamline the services they receive. Bank “account analysis statements are a gold mine for the economy today,” Gilmore adds. more

In an all-day, closed-door meeting today, lawmakers are discussing policy options for financing health-care reform. A Senate Finance Committee document circulated before the meeting makes for some odd reading; it’s a hodge-podge of proposals for savings within the current health-care system cobbled together with a bunch of health-care-related and “lifestyle-related” revenue raisers.

If your organization offers a health plan or makes contributions to employees’ health savings accounts — or if you happen to like sodas — you might want to take a look at what the senators have in mind. more

In case the big story in today’s Wall Street Journal interests you, I’ve dug up background information on so-called Janitor’s Insurance. The practice is not new, as half of you (at large companies) may know.

Widespread controversy surrounding corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) last flared up about six years ago. Here are several links:

• The CliffsNotes

• Perspective from a law firm that helps families recover corporate-owned life insurance claims

• 2003 GAO report on business-owned life insurance

• A syndicated tax columnist weighs in, with a moral

• “Does Your Boss Want You Dead?” ###

He passed.

The U.S. Senate voted 88-6 to confirm Gary Gensler as the new chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), according to the Associated Press. The CFTC regulates futures and options trading in commodities as well as credit default swaps and financial derivatives.

The timing is good (or at least “better late than never”). Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a new plan for the CFTC to take a more prominent role in enforcing (new) rules related to credit default swaps and derivatives. ###

During the first quarter of 2009, 367 companies, out of the 7,000-some that report dividend information to Standard & Poor’s, decreased their payments. Conversely, just 283 companies announced dividend increases, the company reported. The cuts amounted to a $77 billion drop in payments to shareholders.

In the more than half a century that S&P has recorded these statistics, this is the first time that dividend cuts have outnumbered increases, according to the firm. “Since 1955, the average has been 15 increases for every decrease. Now it’s three increases for every four decreases,” said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst with S&P, in a release. more