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Contractual Obligations and Commitments
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2022
Debt Disclosure [Abstract]  
CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS AND COMMITMENTS The debt maturity schedule for our long-term debt obligations is presented below:
(in millions, except interest rates)Issuance DateMaturity DateAs of
Coupon Rate(1)
March 31,
2022		December 31,
2021
October 2023 Senior Notes(4)
August 2013October 2023— 244 4.125%
March 2024 Senior Notes(4)
February 2019March 2024504 850 3.450%
March 2025 Senior Notes(3)
March 2022March 20251,108 — 0.750%
May 2025 Senior Notes(4)
May 2015May 2025— 523 3.850%
June 2025 Senior NotesMay 2020June 2025500 500 1.900%
March 2026 Senior Notes(4)
February 2019March 2026255 850 3.750%
December 2027 Senior Notes(3)
November 2019December 2027997 1,021 0.625%
March 2028 Senior Notes(3)
March 2022March 2028831 — 1.375%
March 2028 Senior Notes(4)
February 2018March 2028344 434 4.000%
March 2029 Senior Notes(4)
February 2019March 2029272 850 4.000%
June 2030 Senior NotesMay 2020June 20301,200 1,200 2.650%
March 2031 Senior Notes(3)
March 2022March 2031831 — 1.625%
March 2034 Senior Notes(3)
March 2022March 2034554 — 1.875%
November 2035 Senior Notes(2)
November 2005November 2035350 350 6.750%
March 2039 Senior Notes(4)
February 2019March 2039450 750 4.550%
January 2040 Senior NotesDecember 2009January 2040300 300 7.375%
March 2049 Senior Notes(4)
February 2019March 2049650 1,000 4.700%
Unamortized Debt Issuance Discount and Deferred Financing Costs2023 - 2049(85)(76)
Unamortized Gain on Fair Value Hedges2022— 3 
Finance Lease ObligationVarious6 6 
Long-term debt$9,067 $8,804 
Note: The table above does not include unamortized amounts related to interest rate contracts designated as cash flow hedges.
(1)    Coupon rates are semi-annual, except for the euro-denominated senior notes, which bear an annual coupon.
(2)    Corporate credit rating improvements may result in a decrease in the adjusted interest rate on our November 2035 Notes to the extent that our lowest credit rating is above BBB- or Baa3. The interest rates on our November 2035 Notes will be permanently reinstated to the issuance rate if the lowest credit ratings assigned to these senior notes is either A- or A3 or higher.
(3)    These notes are euro-denominated and presented in U.S. dollars based on the exchange rate in effect as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively.
(4)    Amounts repaid, or partially repaid as the case may be, in connection with the March 2022 tender offer and early redemption of certain of our outstanding senior notes are described below. In addition, we repaid $250 million of 3.375% May 2022 Senior Notes classified within Current Debt Obligations within our consolidated balance sheets as of December 31, 2021.

Revolving Credit Facility

On May 10, 2021, we entered into a new $2.750 billion revolving credit facility (2021 Revolving Credit Facility) with a global syndicate of commercial banks and terminated our previous facility (2018 Revolving Credit Facility). The 2021 Revolving Credit Facility will mature on May 10, 2026, with one-year extension options, subject to certain conditions. This facility provides backing for our commercial paper program, and outstanding commercial paper directly reduces borrowing capacity under the 2021 Revolving Credit Facility. There were no amounts outstanding under the 2021 Revolving Credit Facility as of March 31, 2022 or December 31, 2021.
Financial Covenant

As of March 31, 2022, we were in compliance with the financial covenant required by the 2021 Revolving Credit Facility.
Covenant RequirementActual
 as of March 31, 2022as of March 31, 2022
Maximum permitted leverage ratio(1)
3.75 times2.72 times
(1)Ratio of total debt to consolidated EBITDA, as defined by the credit agreements, as amended.

The 2021 Revolving Credit Facility includes the financial covenant requirement for all of our credit arrangements that we maintain the maximum permitted leverage ratio of 3.75 times through the remaining term. The agreement provides for higher leverage ratios for the period following a qualified acquisition, at our election, for which consideration exceeds $1.000 billion. In the event of such an acquisition, for the four succeeding quarters immediately following, including the quarter in which the acquisition occurs, the maximum permitted leverage ratio is 4.75 times. The maximum permitted ratio steps down for the fifth, sixth and seventh succeeding quarters to 4.50 times, 4.25 times and 4.00 times, respectively. Thereafter, a maximum leverage ratio of 3.75 times is required through the remaining term of the 2021 Revolving Credit Facility. We have not elected to increase the maximum permitted leverage ratio for the recently completed qualified acquisitions due to the funding using cash on hand.

The financial covenant requirement provides for an exclusion from the calculation of consolidated EBITDA, as defined by the agreement, through maturity, of any non-cash charges and up to $500 million in restructuring charges and restructuring-related expenses related to our current or future restructuring plans. As of March 31, 2022, we had $347 million of the restructuring charge exclusion remaining. In addition, any cash litigation payments (net of any cash litigation receipts), as defined by the agreements, are excluded from the calculation of consolidated EBITDA, as defined by the agreements, provided that the sum of any excluded net cash litigation payments do not exceed $1.455 billion in the aggregate. As of March 31, 2022, we had $1.108 billion of the litigation exclusion remaining.

Any inability to maintain compliance with this covenant could require us to seek to renegotiate the terms of our credit arrangements or seek waivers from compliance with this covenant, both of which could result in additional borrowing costs. Further, there can be no assurance that our lenders would agree to such new terms or grant such waivers on terms acceptable to us. In this case, all 2021 Revolving Credit Facility commitments would terminate, and any amounts borrowed under the facility would become immediately due and payable. Furthermore, any termination of our 2021 Revolving Credit Facility may negatively impact the credit ratings assigned to our commercial paper program, which may impact our ability to refinance any then outstanding commercial paper as it becomes due and payable.

Commercial Paper

Our commercial paper program is backed by the 2021 Revolving Credit Facility, as discussed above, and outstanding commercial paper directly reduces borrowing capacity under the 2021 Revolving Credit Facility. We had $223 million of commercial paper outstanding as of March 31, 2022 and none as of December 31, 2021.
As of
(in millions, except maturity and yield)March 31, 2022December 31, 2021
Commercial paper outstanding (at par)$223 $— 
Maximum borrowing capacity2,750 2,750 
Borrowing capacity available 2,527 2,750 
Weighted average maturity7 days0 days
Weighted average yield0.76 %— %
Senior Notes

We had senior notes outstanding of $9.146 billion as of March 31, 2022 and $9.121 billion as of December 31, 2021. Our senior notes were issued in public offerings, are redeemable prior to maturity and are not subject to sinking fund requirements. Our senior notes are unsecured, unsubordinated obligations and rank on parity with each other. These notes are effectively junior to liabilities of our subsidiaries (refer to Other Arrangements below).

In March 2022, American Medical Systems Europe B.V. (AMS Europe), an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Boston Scientific, completed a registered public offering (the Offering) of €3.000 billion in aggregate principal amount of euro-dominated senior notes comprised of €1.000 billion of 0.750% Senior Notes due 2025, €750 million of 1.375% Senior Notes due 2028, €750 million of 1.625% Senior Notes due 2031 and €500 million of 1.875% Senior Notes due 2034 (collectively, the Eurobonds). Boston Scientific has fully and unconditionally guaranteed all of AMS Europe's obligations under the Eurobonds, and no other subsidiary of Boston Scientific will guarantee these obligations. AMS Europe is a “finance subsidiary” as defined in Rule 13-01(a)(4)(vi) of Regulation S-X. The financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of AMS Europe are consolidated in the financial statements of Boston Scientific. The Offering resulted in cash proceeds of $3.271 billion, net of investor discounts and issuance costs.

We used the net proceeds from the Offering to fund the tender offer and early redemption of combined aggregate principal amount of $3.275 billion of certain of our outstanding senior notes, as well as to pay accrued interest, tender premiums, fees and expenses. We recorded associated debt extinguishment charges of $194 million presented in Interest expense within our accompanying unaudited consolidated statements of operations.

Other Arrangements

We have accounts receivable factoring programs in certain European countries and with commercial banks in China and Japan which include promissory notes discounting programs. We account for our factoring programs as sales under FASB ASC Topic 860, Transfers and Servicing. We have no retained interest in the transferred receivables, other than collection and administration, and once sold, the accounts receivable are no longer available to satisfy creditors in the event of bankruptcy. Amounts de-recognized for accounts and notes receivable, which are excluded from Trade accounts receivable, net within our accompanying unaudited consolidated balance sheets, are aggregated by contract denominated currency below (in millions):
Factoring ArrangementsAs of March 31, 2022As of December 31, 2021
Amount
De-recognized		Weighted Average
Interest Rate		Amount
De-recognized		Weighted Average
Interest Rate
Euro denominated$140 1.3 %$141 2.1 %
Yen denominated190 0.5 %223 0.6 %
Renminbi denominated
— 3.1 %— 3.2 %

Other Contractual Obligations and Commitments

We had outstanding letters of credit of $132 million as of March 31, 2022 and $134 million as of December 31, 2021, which consisted primarily of bank guarantees and collateral for workers' compensation insurance arrangements. As of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, none of the beneficiaries had drawn upon the letters of credit or guarantees, and accordingly, we have not recognized a related liability for our outstanding letters of credit within our accompanying unaudited consolidated balance sheets as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021.

Refer to Note F – Contractual Obligations and Commitments to our audited financial statements contained in Item 8 of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information on our borrowings and credit agreements.