In 1996, Michael Bontrager watched an investment banker offer his client the pleasures of golf and hunting. Bontrager had no comparable invitation ready. Then the banker left, and the client told Bontrager he did not trust the man. Recounted years later to a group of aspiring developers, the encounter supplied a useful business lesson: the entertainment budget was not the deciding factor.
- Chatham helps businesses negotiate and manage debt and hedges.
- Its advisors and software handle the work from pricing through reporting.
- Recent acquisitions extend that work into data and equity capital.
Bontrager had founded Chatham Financial in 1991 after working at Chemical Bank. His opportunity lay in an uneven conversation. A company might negotiate a derivative occasionally. Its bank negotiated them constantly. Someone who understood both the instrument and the sales process could give the borrower a better footing.
That remains a useful way to understand Chatham, even as its business expands. Its customers include corporate treasury departments, property investors, private capital managers, and financial institutions. These organizations need financing and protection against movements in interest rates, currencies, or commodity prices. They also need someone to explain what they have bought.
01 / A second set of eyes on the trade
Consider a property owner with a floating-rate loan. Rising rates can increase interest expense without improving the building’s rent. An interest rate cap can limit exposure above an agreed benchmark level. A swap can exchange floating interest payments for fixed payments. Neither choice can be judged sensibly without the loan, the ownership plan, and the exit date beside it.
Chatham helps clients structure those choices, check pricing, review documentation, and execute transactions. Its technology terms make the relationship explicit: third-party financial institutions provide the financial products; Chatham itself is not a party to clients’ trades. Its role is to advise and help manage the position.
Extra annual interest on an illustrative $10 million floating-rate balance.
That distinction places Chatham between several markets. Bank desks supply execution. Specialist advisors such as Validus and Pensford offer overlapping hedging services. Treasury software handles records and workflows. Chatham combines advice with technology and continuing operational work. The practical appeal is fewer handoffs between the person discussing the hedge and the system reporting it.
A published private equity case shows how specific the assignment can get. A euro-denominated fund buying a British business faced a sterling purchase price between signing and closing. Chatham reviewed the purchase agreement, coordinated banks and lawyers, and benchmarked execution within three business days. The deal-contingent hedge addressed the possibility that the acquisition would not complete. That is a different problem from hedging an ordinary, recurring currency payment. Matching the contract to the event was the point.
02 / The bill has more than one line
In one published example, an unnamed company had extended its term loans and wanted protection against rising rates. Banks proposed strategies, but some did not fully satisfy hedge accounting requirements. Chatham says it brought pricing, legal documentation, regulation, and accounting into one process, negotiated ISDA agreements in under a week, and reduced trade markups by more than 60%.
Reported reduction in one client’s trade markups.
Not a reduction in the total cost of hedging.
The distinction matters. A hedge’s economics can include an upfront premium, bank charges, advisory fees, and possible termination costs. Chatham sells professional services alongside software subscriptions. Its public ONYX Pro signup is advertised as free, giving users access to expanded market data and calculators; the wider enterprise relationship is arranged by contract.
What goes wrong first is often the assumption that signing finishes the job. Chatham’s swap guidance describes borrowers facing liabilities when they refinance or sell after rates fall. A derivative can still have years to run when the underlying loan disappears. An attractive initial quote tells only part of that story.
03 / After the handshake, the software
ChathamDirect carries the continuing work: debt and derivatives records, valuations, accounting, and reporting. Hedge accounting addresses another awkward mismatch. A derivative’s changing value and the business activity it protects may reach reported earnings at different times. Meeting the relevant requirements can align those effects more closely. It requires documentation and continuing assessment, not merely a box checked on trade day.
The data behind these decisions is another business. Chatham acquired Verumex in 2024, adding technology and services that aggregate, standardize, and clean commercial real estate information. A portfolio view is only as convincing as the loan balances, property records, and assumptions feeding it. Cleaning those inputs is less glamorous than forecasting rates, but considerably more useful when the inputs are wrong.
04 / From the hedge to the whole balance sheet
The acquisition sequence reveals the direction. EA Markets brought corporate capital raising capabilities in 2023. Hodes Weill added real assets capital advisory in 2026, extending Chatham into equity fundraising and strategic transactions. The firm that helped clients manage liabilities was moving further into how they assemble capital in the first place.
In August 2026, Chatham announced an investment agreement with GIC, Atairos, and Vikram Pandit. The announcement says employees will retain majority ownership, with closing expected in late 2026 or early 2027. Chatham reported more than 4,500 clients and $2 trillion in annual transaction volume. That last number measures activity, not company revenue.
Its next-generation platform, ONYX, launched in June. The public site offers rates and calculators, while Portfolio and Originations are separately marked as in development. That distinction deserves attention from buyers: a roadmap describes an ambition; an available tool describes something a team can use now.
05 / Borrow the discipline
Chatham’s recent Process Zero method applies a related idea inside the organization: define the required output, remove unnecessary steps, and then select technology. Subject experts still have to validate the result.
“If you apply AI to a broken process, you will run a broken process faster.”
Matt Henry, CEO · September 2026
The warning is useful precisely because it puts judgment ahead of the tool.
The lesson travels beyond derivatives. Check the price against alternatives. Test an early exit. Assign responsibility for the recurring work. The approach needs reliable data and people able to challenge the assumptions. A hedge cannot rescue a weak property or replace missing cash flow; an elaborate advisory engagement may also be hard to justify for a simple need. Chatham’s useful proposition is giving financial decisions the scrutiny their consequences deserve.