2018 new regulations – collaboration between corporate treasury and internal departments

| 27-12-2017 | treasuryXL |

2018 is looking to be one of the busiest years for new regulations. Among the new regulations will be MIFID II – which will have an affect on many different aspects of trading; PSD2 – which will allow agreed third parties to access your bank accounts; GDPR – which defines our rights to have our personal data deleted and how personal data is stored; BEPS – which aims to reduce the movement of profits to more tax efficient locations and will affect internal reporting; IFRS9 – which brings new rules for hedge accounting. All these new regulations will require collaboration between many departments – not just treasury.

Information and Knowledge

To be able to work together, and improve existing efforts at collaboration, there must be a free flow of information and knowledge to all stakeholders. This will entail storing all relevant data in a centralized point with access for all stakeholders, whilst meeting the security requirements as to who can view, edit and contribute the information. By sharing the information, a mutual respect of the needs for each department can be better appreciated and existing inter-departmental walls can be torn down.

Define tasks and workflow

In any project environment managing the workflow and monitoring all the requests can be labour intensive and time consuming. Requests need to be managed with a clear structure and be transparent to all participants. Tasks need to be assigned and workflow needs to be consistent allowing everyone to see the status of all work activities. This should increase efficiency with the group and allow for a good quality control, ensuring that all work complies to the regulations.

Risk awareness

Whilst one department might own the project, assessing potential risks should be actively promoted within all departments. Allowing participants to identify risks and announce these should be encouraged. Sometimes, a solution can from another department – perhaps they had encountered a similar problem in another project. If a risk is detected, sharing it with others can lead to a quicker solution.

Feedback

By reporting constantly on the progress within the project to everyone, it allows others to follow its progress whilst also enforcing on them a need to also supply constant updates. When all information is held at one point and only distributed in a collated form once every so often, collaboration can quickly slow down as it becomes unclear to everyone what the value of their contribution is to the group. By publishing data regularly and assigning permission levels and access rights to everyone, they are also able to retrieve information when they need it – leading to a greater feeling of being a part of the project.

Recognition

Realise and acknowledge the contribution of all participants – both as departments and individuals. Try to learn from mistakes and understand that your needs as a treasury department are not always clearly understood or known within the rest of the organisation. Explain the benefits that can be achieved – less time spent on time consuming issues, clarity of data, better reporting and compliance standards, monetary savings etc.

Implementing new regulations via technology can lead to greatly increased collaboration between internal departments. This can include more intensive daily contact, better ability to identify risks, taking decisions that increase efficiencies for the company, and fostering a more open and healthy relationship with colleagues outside your own department. Successful projects can empower people to seek solutions that deliver positive change.

True collaboration will enable you to achieve results, accelerate delivery, create value and add strength. So, whilst 2018 is a challenge with all the new regulations, the potential results via collaboration can be seen.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact us via email at [email protected]