About Acoss

The central agency of social security bodies (L'Agence centrale des organismes de sécurité sociale , or Acoss) is the national fund of the Urssaf network. Acoss steers and runs the Urssaf network, is in charge of providing joint management for the cash flow of the various branches of the general plan and produces statistics and studies on a regular basis on the cyclical movements linked to jobs and payroll. Within the framework of financing the general plan, the Urssaf network must constantly orchestrate the attaining of a high level

of collections and providing support to companies that are experiencing financial difficulties.

Its strategy is based on the development quality of the relations and service with the 9.5 million small, medium and large-size companies, associations, territorial governments, private employers, the self-employed and more than 600 partners for which it collects contributions.

It ensures fair treatment for all of the contributors, in particular through its participation in the fight against fraud and social evasion. In 2011, Acoss collected 419 billion euros including 82.7 on behalf of partners outside the general plan.

The Central Social Security Associations Agency (Acoss) has for several years been implementing a diversification policy with regard to its funding sources, not only through a Commercial Paper programme initiated in 2006, but also more recently by means of a Euro Commercial Paper programme that was launched in July 2010.

Acoss manages its Commercial Paper issues itself. It has commissioned the AFT to arrange the Euro Commercial Paper programme.

The Commercial Paper and Euro Commercial Paper programmes’ ceilings are €25 billion and €20 billion respectively These two programmes rely on investment banks and have been seen to be awarded the maximum short-term score, that is to say F1+, P-1 and A-1+, by the three credit rating agencies.  The scores are subject to review at any time by the credit rating agencies.

Investors are invited to refer to the websites of the agencies concerned in order to consult the score in force. 

2011 Financing Breakdown 

In 2011, the breakdown of the ACOSS financings, averaging €15.8B, was thus based mainly on:

- A financing by optimisation of the public and social security cash flows of an amount of €4.0B on average, in particular with public partners such as the AFT, the CADES, the CNSA, and the CNRSI, in deposit or Commercial Paper  form,

- A financing by issue of Euro Commercial Paper of an average value of €3.0B,

- A financing by Commercial Paper on the financial market (excluding public partners) of an average value of €2.1B,

- A financing ensured by the CDC by means of advances of a few days and by loans of an average value of €6.7B, coming mainly from a prolongation the 2010 loans over the first half of 2011.

In the end, whereas the CDC share of the financing was 87% in 2008, 70% in 2009 and 60% in 2010, it represented no more than 43% of the total financing in 2011: 50% in first half of 2011 and only 13% in the second half.

This trend was the consequence of several concomitant phenomena :

- The fall of ACOSS’s financing requirements,
- The growing recourse to market financing, less costly than traditional bank financing,
- The mutualisation of the social security cashflows
- The optimisation of the public cashflows, in particular with the AFT and the CADES.

Growing Recourse to Market Instruments

At 31 December 2011, the total outstandings of the ACOSS market issues amounted to €4.2B for the Commercial Paper and €1.4B for the Euro Commercial Paper, placing ACOSS among the first rank of the market’s short-term debt borrowers in France.

This financing was obtained thanks to the issue of a Commercial Paper programme, subscribed, on the one hand, by the public partners and on the other, by that market’s usual investors. In parallel, a Euro Commercial Paper programme has enabled the funding sources to be extended by recourse to the international market.
Both issue programmes enjoy the highest scores (A-1+, P-1, and F1+) granted by the three rating agencies, S&P, Moody's and Fitch Ratings.

A Commercial Paper programme covering more than a third of the financing requirements

The financing by Commercial Paper issues has continued during 2011, and accounted for 36% of the total financing of ACOSS in 2011, versus 33% in 2010. This moderate progression is explained both by the fall of the financing requirement noted in 2011 and by the build-up of the Euro Commercial Paper programme. After being raised in 2010, the Commercial Paper programme’s ceiling remained unchanged in 2011 at €25B.

The average Commercial Paper outstandings over 2011 amounted to €5.7B, with a zenith of €24B from 01 to 02 January, and a nadir of €0.2B between 08 and 12 December.

Over the year 2011, more than half of the Commercial Paper was issued to public partners, especially in the context of the mutualisation of the social security cashflows (CNSA, CNRSI), and through transactions with the AFT and the CADES. Also, over 2011, the average Commercial Paper outstandings of €5.7B included €3.6B (63%) placed with those institutions.

The average Commercial Paper issue period in 2011 was 13.9 days (35 days in 2010).

In 2011, the fixed-rate Commercial Paper was issued on average at 0.67 %, whereas the variable-rate issues were at 0.86 %, to be compared with the EONIA 2011 average of 0.87%.
In 2011, the fixed-rate/variable-rate breakdown was reversed in relation to 2010. Indeed, the variable-rate issues in 2011 represented 79% of the total issues (versus 40% in 2010).

A Reinforced Euro Commercial Paper Programme

In order to cope with a year 2010 that was notable for its particularly high financing requirement, ACOSS had supplemented its commercial paper issues by a Euro Commercial Paper programme managed by the AFT. This programme has been maintained in 2011; it forms an integral part of ACOSS’s array of financing instruments.

The Euro Commercial Paper is issued by mutual agreement (without quotation on a market) with short maturities and generally at a fixed discount rate. ACOSS establishes its cashflow profile on a daily basis in order to determine the overall issue requirements. These are then transmitted to the AFT, which then proceeds with the issues not only according to ACOSS’s requirements but also in the light of investor demand for ACOSS debentures.

Despite the overall fall of the financing requirements, the share of the financing by Euro Commercial Paper issues thus rose to 19% in 2011, versus 6% in 2010. The Euro Commercial Paper programme’s ceiling was maintained at €20B.

In 2011, the average Euro Commercial Paper outstandings amounted to €3.0B. The zenith of the programme was € 5.7B from 14 to 17 January, and the nadir was €0.5B between 21 July and 17 August.

The average Euro Commercial Paper issue period in 2011 was 63.8 days (94.3 days in 2010).

Nearly 80% of the Euro Commercial Paper issues in 2010 were processed with three banking institutions: Union de Banques Suisses (35.1 %), Barclays (26.7 %) and Credit Suisse First Boston (16.6 %).  Deutsche Bank (DB) and Credit Agricole Indosuez (CAI) were two additional partners. 

The Euro Commercial Paper issues were at a fixed rate. This programme’s average financing rate in 2011 was 0.68%, versus 0.58% in 2010.

The ACOSS issues were categorised as sovereign issues. 31% of the issues were in American Dollars (53% in 2010), 31% in Pounds Sterling (25% in 2010) and 28% in Euros (12% in 2010). The exchange rate risk on the Euro Commercial Paper was neutralised by means of swap transactions, in which the issue currency is exchanged against the Euro. The transaction is performed at the moment of the issue and enables all of the flows to be transformed into Euros. 

 Key Figures

419B of imbursements (excluding the debt take-over by the CADES) in 2011, i.e. 20.9% of the IBI.

€440B of drawdowns in 2011

-€20.5B : the cashflow variation (excluding the debt take-over by the CADES) between 01 January and 31 December 2011

288,000 financial movements on the single ACOSS account in 2011

€3.9B : the average value of the movements per day in 2011 (in debit or in credit)

€15.8B : the average financing value in 2011

0.98% : the average annual financing rate in 2011

Reference institutional documents 

Acoss's 2011 activity report The State-Acoss Management and Objectives Agreement for 2010-2013 The Essential (in French) Thematic report and financial conditions in 2011 (in French)