Factsheet: The TIS Solution Suite

21-09-2022 | treasuryXL | TIS | LinkedIn |

Introducing CashOptix, PayOptix, and RiskOptix features from TIS (Treasury Intelligence Solutions), which offer enterprises of all sizes and industries improved capability to handle crucial cash management, payments, banking, security, and compliance demands. Find out more about the benefits of each suite right away in this unique factsheet.

Get to Know the TIS Solution Suite

TIS classifies the unique capabilities they offer clients into three distinct categories; CashOptix, PayOptix, and RiskOptix. When combined, this cloud-based suite provides organizations of all industries and sizes with superior functionality to address critical cash management, payments, banking, security, and compliance needs.

You can find the factsheet here


Where did the treasury applicants go? | By Pieter de Kiewit

19-09-2022  treasuryXL | Pieter de Kiewit | Treasurer Search  LinkedIn

As treasury recruiters, we should know enough about corporate treasury to do intakes and screen candidates. Also, we should know the latest about what’s happening in the field of recruitment and so we read the publications of Geert-Jan Waasdorp of The Intelligence Group. I would like to share his latest, very interesting article and build the treasury connection.

By Pieter de Kiewit

Labour market pressures are not equally distributed among all employers.

I left a link if you want to read the full article but this is roughly what he says. There is a huge growth in people working since before covid. In parallel, there is a huge decline in active applicants. This pressure in the labour market is not evenly distributed among all employers. The ones that can find new employees can do so because of a strong employer brand and increased investments in own or external recruitment. Also, they are willing to decide quick and offer a better package.

So what does this mean if we project these findings on the corporate treasury labour market? My personal observation is that treasury staff is, on average, less driven by the company brand and more by the job content than candidates from other job types. We learned this working for clients like Tesla and Nike. Employer branding specifically towards treasurers would also be hard, I cannot envision a corporate recruiter promoting his manufacturing company at Eurofinance.

How to adapt?

The obvious low-hanging fruit is that the hiring manager, already at the start of the process, has to organise and choose a mindset in the following: being able to decide quickly, from fewer candidates than before, and offering more than the old standard. Even highly skilled recruiters sometimes underestimate these aspects over time.

The judgement if the internal recruitment team is equipped to tackle the search or whether an external one should do the job – we, Treasurer Search – I will not elaborate on here. What I do want to mention is another obvious source that can be opened. For some of us that are considered a paradigm shift: bringing treasury talent in from abroad, from within the EU or even sponsoring a work permit. I am aware that some of us consider this topic highly political. What I can tell, both from our own organisation, as well as from successful placements with our clients, that this can be a very successful solution. In the Dutch labour market already the majority of candidates placed by us is non-Dutch. This is not a plea to open the borders and not be critical. Regretfully we have examples where this solution did not lead to success as coming to The Netherlands can be hard for the new employee. But also locally found candidates can fail in their new job.

My conclusion is that indeed, the world is different, as is the labour market. And given current demographic developments I do not expect a shift back. Luckily there are solutions but we will have to accept the consequences and cannot lean back. Those that do will shrink and go extinct.

Good luck in your search,

Pieter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Pieter de Kiewit

Meet our partners at the EuroFinance next week!

14-09-2022 | treasuryXL | EuroFinanceLinkedIn

 

The EuroFinance will finally open their doors in exactly one week. After two years everyone can meet in person again at the largest and most senior gathering of corporate treasurers worldwide.

For over 30 years, EuroFinance is where best-in-class treasury teams come together with the most innovative fintechs and renowned financial institutions to share experiences, discuss best practices and collaborate to solve the challenges of the day.

Schedule your EuroFinance program in advance

 

Benefit from the extensive expertise of 150 world-class speakers across 3 days of thought-provoking keynotes, lively debates, in-depth case studies and technical discovery labs providing practical insights and key skills to advance your treasury.

With such a great number of high quality sessions it’s wise to schedule your session program in advance.

Click here for the full agenda

Click here for the speakers overview

The line-up of 150 world speakers includes:

  • Kristina Moller, Treasury director, Spotify
  • Wendy Venema, Assistant treasurer, Tata Steel
  • Elise le Clerc Director global treasury Willis Tower Watson
  • Jean-Baptiste Disdet, Treasury technology director, Japan Tobacco International
  • Kristina Moller, Treasury director, Spotify
  • Mack Makode, VP, treasurer, Under Armour
  • Mandana Sadigh, SVP, corporate treasurer, Mattel
  • Victor Pausin, Treasurer – Americas, Nissan Motors
  • Clive Bailey, Treasurer, FCE Bank

Connect with our highly valued partners for a chat and a coffee

 

We are happy to announce that the partners that are highlighted below will host a booth at the expo. Together with them we build the treasuryXL community by delivering daily treasury news, blogs, events and vacancies.

They would love to welcome you at the expo and invite you for a quick chat. You can also book your appointment in advance to secure some extra time. Contact me directly and I will introduce you personally.

Technology sponsors plus

Kyriba

Technology sponsors

TIS

Gold exhibitors

Nomentia

GTreasury

Silver exhibitors

CashAnalytics

Refinitiv

Bronze exhibitors

Kantox

Innovation alley

Cobase

 


 

 

I wish you a great time at the EuroFinance. Safe travels and enjoy!

Kendra Keydeniers

 

 

 

 

 

Could Stablecoins Drive Payment Innovation?

12-09-2022 | treasuryXL | Kyriba | LinkedIn |

Despite the current market volatility, cryptocurrencies(1) are slowly seeping into everyday transactions,(2) driven largely by small businesses. There are an estimated tens of thousands of businesses that are accepting cryptocurrencies as payments roughly representing about 0.01% of businesses worldwide.

By Rishi Munjal, Vice President Product Strategy, Payments, Kyriba

Source

Could Stablecoins Drive Payment Innovation?

Large corporations have stayed away from cryptocurrencies with a few exceptions(3) where the use is limited to holding cryptocurrencies in treasury. The treatment of cryptocurrencies as an “indefinite-lived intangible asset”(4) poses an accounting risk, forcing companies to write down(5) the value of these assets when their value plummets.

Global Cryptocurrency Acceptance Chart

The level of adoption is by no means impressive. Meanwhile, challenges with high-fees, scalability and volatility will continue to limit broad adoption of cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. Such limitations pose an important question for CFOs and treasurers: Are cryptocurrencies worth paying attention to?

Stablecoins and the Future of Payments

The answer is yes, given the potential for innovations that can shape the future of payments for corporates and merchants alike. This is especially true for Stablecoins(6), as they present an opportunity to lower fees, reduce barriers and drive better services like instant cross-border payments. The promise hinges on a stablecoin’s ability to maintain its peg to a specified asset (typically U.S. dollars), or a pool or basket of assets, and provide perceived stability when compared to the high volatility of unbacked crypto-assets.

Since the launch of BitUSD in 2014 on the BitShare(7) blockchain, stablecoins have evolved into public and private stablecoins. Public stablecoins exist in two forms. Reserve-backed or custodial stablecoins are backed by cash-equivalent reserves such as deposits, Treasury bills and commercial paper. These are issued by intermediaries who serve as the custodians of the cash equivalent assets and offer a 1-for-1 redemption of their stablecoin liabilities for the asset it is pegged against.

Algorithmic stablecoins (e.g.,UST) rely on mechanisms other than cash-equivalent reserves to stabilize their price. The peg to a specified asset is achieved by overcollateralized crypto and/or smart contracts that defend the peg by automatically buying or selling the stablecoin. These public stablecoins provide liquidity across the thousands of cryptocurrencies currently in the market. The private institutional stablecoins use tokenized deposits held by the bank for efficiently providing internal liquidity or liquidity for the bank’s wholesale clients between accounts held at the same bank. These coins (e.g., JP Coin) form a closed loop payment network similar to the ones offered by wallet providers like PayPal.

Stablecoin Guidance

Stablecoins have had their share of troubles(8) and collapses(9) in their short history. These risks were well understood by regulatory agencies. However, the explosive growth in cryptocurrencies has made it difficult if not impossible for regulators(10) to keep up. Outside of the ad-hoc enforcement actions against crypto firms by the SEC(11), the industry continues to operate largely outside of regulations. Given the complexity of the crypto ecosystem, it is pragmatic for regulators to start with Stablecoins as they are relatively simpler and have real applications. It is therefore not a surprise, that despite the market turmoil, New York became the first U.S. state to issue guidance for Stablecoin issuers.

The Virtual Currency Guidance(12) provided by the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) outlines redeemability, reserve and attestation requirements for entities issuing U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins. The industry has been waiting for long-overdue commonsense regulations for reducing systemic risk and providing a fertile ground for stablecoin issuers and other fintechs to drive broad innovation in financial services and payments.

Table 1: Key points from The Virtual Currency Guidance provided by the New York DFS

Backing and Redeemability
  • Fully backed by safe reserve assets like T-Bills, Notes and Bonds
  • Market value of the reserve is at least equal to the nominal value of all outstanding units of the stablecoin as of the end of each business day
Reserve
  • Segregation of reserves from the proprietary assets of the issuing entity
  • Must be held in custody with U.S. state or federally chartered depository institutions and/or asset custodians.
Attestation
  • American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“AICPA”) standard
  • Examination of management’s assertions at least once per month by an independent Certified Public Accountant (“CPA”) licensed in the US

Kyriba has taken a forward looking posture in this space, for example via partnership with Copper to offer corporate treasury direct access to Copper’s award winning digital asset investment platform, and the ability to manage liquidity across fiat, crypto and money market funds.

While the specific time-horizon on when a trend would become meaningful is not easy to predict, CFOs and treasurers can preserve optionality by partnering with providers that stay at the forefront of payment market trends.

More to Read:

  1. API: Copper Integration
  2. Blog: The Top 5 Trends for CFOs in 2022
  3. Blog: Digital Currencies: Not Ready for Corporate Treasury

References

(1) FSB defines all private sector digital assets that depend primarily on cryptography and distributed ledger or similar technology as crypto-assets and not currencies; for this article the two terms are being used interchangeably.
(2) Map of Cryptocurrency ATMs and Merchants, Coinmap.org
(3) Public companies holding bitcoin, Coingecko.com
(4) Accounting for and auditing of digital assets
(5) MicroStrategy Posts a Loss After Taking Bitcoin Impairment, Bloomberg 2/22
(6) Financial Stability Board, Crypto-assets and Global “Stablecoins”
(7) Whitepaper: BitShares – A peer-to-peer polymorphic Digital Asset Exchange
(8) Terra Luna timeline; TerraLuna UST collapse – What Happened?
(9) CFTC fines Tether and Bitfinex for misleading claims; Panics and Death Spirals: A history of- failed stablecoins
(10) Stablecoin risks and potential regulations, BIS Working Paper 11/2020
(11) Crypto Assets and Cyber Enforcement Actions, notes seven enforcement action for the period Jan – April 2022
(12) Guidance on issuance of US Dollar backed stablecoins, New York Department of Financial Services, Jun 2022



Quickly refresh your treasury knowledge? Download our eBook: What is Treasury?

08-09-2022 | treasuryXL | LinkedIn |

Hello Treasurers, CFO’s, Cash Managers, Controllers and other Finance addicts, how do you quickly refresh your treasury knowledge? Or how do you explain ‘What Treasury is’ to family and friends? Well, there is a simple solution for it. Download our eBook: What is Treasury? 

This eBook compiled by treasury describers all aspects of the treasury function. This comprehensive book covers relevant topics such as Treasury, Corporate Finance, Cash Management, Risk Management, Working Capital Management.

This eBook was prepared by treasuryXL based on the most useful best practices offered by Treasury professionals throughout the previous years. We compiled the most crucial information for you and wrote clear, concise articles about the key topics in the World of Treasury.

We took a deeper dive into each of the above-mentioned treasury functions and highlight:

  • The purpose of each named Treasury function (What is?)
  • What specialists do
  • Examples of Activities
  • Summary of Frequently Asked Questions and answers
  • Conclusion

How to receive the eBook ‘What is Treasury’ for Free?

We simply giveaway two presents for you! By signing up for our newsletter you will automatically receive the following in your inbox:

  1. On Fridays, our Coffee Break weekly newsletter will land in your inbox. In this weekly newsletter, we will highlight the whole week full of the latest treasury news within our community.
  2. The 41 pages eBook, What is Treasury?

 

Subscribe, Join, Download and Relax.

Welcome to our community and have fun reading!

 

 

Director, Community & Partners at treasuryXL

 

 

 

 

RECAP | Cash and Treasury Management Event Copenhagen | By Pieter de Kiewit

06-09-2022 | cashandtreasury.dk | treasuryXL | Pieter de KiewitLinkedIn

 

Last week, Pieter de Kiewit was Chairman of the Cash & Treasury Management Conference in Copenhagen. Pieter decided to take the effort to share his experience with you.

 

By Pieter de Kiewit, Chairman of the event

Corporate treasury events come in many shapes and sizes. Earlier this year, I reported on my visit to Mannheim, in a few weeks you can expect a blog about Vienna, in this blog more about Copenhagen. I can already tell you that I liked the format and set-up of this event.

Corporate treasury markets will always be very niche. The event organiser, Insight Events, targeted a mainly Danish-Scandinavian audience. The sessions were all in English and the venue was the beautiful Hotel D’Angleterre in the heart of Copenhagen. It was also a conscious choice to keep the audience small, just under 150 and of high calibre: almost all treasurers, most of them quite senior and well informed. The consequence of this choice is also that there were no parallel sessions, all sessions were attended by the entire audience. During the break one could meet the various treasury service and product providers, including treasuryXL partner Nomentia.

Last year, I was asked to present on “how to get hired for your next treasury position” and had some questions during other sessions. Based on the bond we built, I was asked to be moderator/chairman of this year’s event. I thought it was a great gig, if it was appreciated, you just have to ask others.


The programme consisted of presentations and panel discussions led by Nordea. I was impressed by the level of quality offered. There were two macro-economic presentations, one by the Chief Economist of Nordea, a well-known TV personality in Denmark and the other by a senior director of EKF, the Danish export credit agency. Both gentlemen brought very thorough interesting insights but, given the current global developments, also a gloomy and dark future.

Another highlight was the input on ESG financing where treasurers and senior sustainability experts together informed the audience about the reality of this type of funding making in, at least for me, an inspiring way. In a cleverly constructed format, credit rating and Basel IV developments were linked in a session with the most questions from the audience.

In other, more traditional but also essential and informative sessions, building treasury teams, mergers and career development were on the agenda. And the non-treasury topic was brought up in a very entertaining way about a hacked company that does not want to pay a ransom. Relevant not only for treasurers and definitely food for thought.

Looking back, I see a very successful and high quality event. On a personal note, I always enjoy the international in my work. Me as a Dutchman, extrovert, direct and sometimes unintentionally rude, communicating with civilised, reserved Scandinavians who do not ask too many questions hopefully did not result in not being invited for next year. We shall see…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading!

Pieter de Kiewit

Get to Know TIS

05-09-2022 | treasuryXL | TIS | LinkedIn |

To give their clients the best treasury, payments, and liquidity management software and support possible, TIS is continually expanding and developing. Download the “Get to Know TIS” Factsheet to view the most recent details about their business and solution portfolio.

Source

Get to Know TIS

Read the factsheet to learn more about TIS. The purpose is to summarize each area of our business in order to educate readers on all the core capabilities, value-added services, and general operational expertise that TIS offers to clients.

This resource also highlights relevant stats, figures, and metrics that demonstrate TIS’ position as a global leader in enterprise payments and liquidity management. For more information about the capabilities that TIS offers or to better understand any aspect of our solution suite, request a private demo with one of our experts by emailing [email protected].

 

You can find the factsheet here


What Does Real-time Connectivity Mean for Your Organization?

08-08-2022 | treasuryXL | Kyriba | LinkedIn |

Nowadays if you work in treasury, probably not a day goes by without you seeing a social post or article from your subscribed newsletters on the topic of real-time Bank API. It stands for the future of bank connectivity, and it will change the way data is exchanged between corporates and banks. Trent Ellis, Senior Solution Engineer at Kyriba, spends his time assisting clients to evaluate what works the best for them from a solution point of view, with both their current and future business needs in mind. In his discussions with clients and prospects, bank connectivity has always been a focus area and recently he noticed a growing interest in real-time Bank APIs.

 

By Trent Ellis, Senior Solution Engineer

Source



When it comes to real-time bank connectivity, the first thing I usually tell my clients is that it’s important to delineate between the different data flows such as inbound balance reporting, transaction details, confirmation reporting and outbound payment initiation. When an organization plans to make real-time bank connectivity a reality, the first thing they should do is to look at their data flows from daily operations. Identify and determine what data would benefit from a real-time update? Which items are critical for that real-time treasury decision making? Where are you going to maintain the balance and transaction data once it is received or payment data prior to it being transmitted to the bank?

Next, because many banks have grown their footprint by acquisition, bank accounts held in different regions (even regionally within a country) can be on different platforms with different technology. Therefore, within a single bank, API readiness can have a different status for different subsets of bank accounts based on branch and geographic location.

Now that the bank may have made an API connection available, how are you going to connect to it? Do you look at internal technical expertise and availability? Do you look to a third-party vendor? Consider a specialist that just does API connections or a TMS vendor that has other integrated modules and additional functionality beyond just the bank connection for statements and/or payments?

Real-time Bank Reporting, what does this really mean?

Banks are now offering bank balance API’s as well as transactional statement APIs, but sometimes not (yet) both. It’s more than likely not the same as what you would get from that same bank in the form of a BAI or MT940 standard bank statement as banks are still working on what data becomes available through the API. Bank balance reporting is important for real-time liquidity monitoring but will not always help your treasury or AP team confirm the status of a cleared payment, or the status of an important cash credit.

Yes, an API can deliver data in real-time but is the underlying platform that holds that data providing real-time data? Some banks are providing their “real-time” data on a predefined schedule throughout the day which means it is not what most would consider “real-time”. True real-time reporting requires process changes at the bank. Decreasing update time from day to hours or within the hour is an improvement that is easier to absorb without restructuring the process.

Real-time payments, what does this really mean?

Real-time payments are payments that are cleared and settled nearly instantaneously. Real-time payments are generally facilitated by domestic or regional payment infrastructures on a 24x7x365 basis including weekends and holiday.1

Many may not be aware that globally real-time payment infrastructures have been around for as long as 40+ years, and real-time payments can be enabled via FTP or API based on Bank / FI’s offerings and the connectivity option preferred by the corporate customer. Relatively, it has been a recent development in the US payment ecosystem. In November 2017, The Clearing House launched the first real-time payment infrastructure RTP® network in the US, built on the same Vocalink technology that powers the UK’s Faster Payment System. The RTP® network was built for financial institutions of all sizes and serves as a platform for innovation allowing financial institutions to deliver new products and services to their customers. Financial Institutions can integrate into the RTP® network directly, through Third-Party Service Providers (TPSPs), Bankers’ Banks and Corporate Credit Unions.2 The US Federal Reserve will be launching its real-time payment infrastructure FedNowSM in the 2023 – 2024 timeframe.

Globally real-time payments are growing at a double-digit growth rate across all major markets. Adoption of real-time payments will continue to be use case specific, especially for use cases that are underserved by existing payment infrastructures. In the long-term, we should expect real-time payments to be an important part of corporate’s payments mix alongside other traditional payment systems. Like other real-time payment infrastructures globally, the RTP® network has been increasing its transaction limits, which currently stands at $1million. This makes it more relevant for B2B / Corporate payment use cases – a very good example from our client HUNT Companies being the intracompany transfers for efficient deployment of working capital. However, this also means that if you need to make payments with value greater than $1million, you would need an alternative type or method for the time being. You cannot rely on the RTP® network as your only means to make payments and will still require connections for other payment types such as Wire, ACH and international formats.

Recommendations to clients

The world is certainly migrating towards real-time bank connectivity, but organizations will ultimately require various connectivity strategies to fit different geographical and banking technology. In 2022, most real-time Bank APIs are an incremental addition to existing connection methods and formats for both statements and payments. Currently, Bank APIs are not a replacement for other options, which are still required to get a complete picture of prior day statement activity and/or ability to send all required payments. Therefore, my recommendations to my clients always remain the same:

  • Identify and evaluate your data flows.
  • Where does real-time data make sense?
  • Talk to your banking partners and understand their offerings in detail.
  • Ask the question: Do your internal requirements align with the bank’s offerings?
  • Where are you going to house the data that is received/transmitted via the real-time Bank connectivity?
  • Talk to vendors that have teams of people that do this every day and evaluate their perspectives and subject matter expertise.

Find out more details on Bank APIs from the Kyriba Developer Portal, and watch any time an on-demand webinar on everything you need to know about APIs: Bank Connectivity and Beyond.

1 Real-Time Payments: Everything You Need to Know. Paymentsjournal.com. 2021
2 The RTP® Network: For All Financial Institutions. The Clearing House.



Cash & Treasury Management: Join The World’s Leading Experts in Copenhagen

04-08-2022 | cashandtreasury.dk | treasuryXL | LinkedIn

 

Featuring Chairman of the event, Pieter de Kiewit – Owner of Treasurer Search

 

Be a part of the exclusive Cash & Treasury Management Conference on the 1st of September 2022, which will be held in the extraordinary luxury settings at Hotel d’Angleterre in Copenhagen.

Get updated, expand your network, and get inspiration for optimizing your work within the Cash & Treasury Management community.

 

 

The international program consists of selected and experienced speakers that have proven success within a certain area of Cash & Treasury as e.g., ESG, digitalization and Cash Management. The conference brings together a selected group of high-level senior treasurers from global organizations. Learn from your international peers and join the exclusive network. The event ensures you a full day of new knowledge and inspiration made for high level Treasurers. You get in-depth with the latest trends, valuable content from recognized speakers and extensive networking opportunities.

Among others, these topics have been selected for this year’s conference:

  • Sustainability financing – experiences one year down the road
  • Proprietary data driven cash flow forecasting model
  • How we integrated Nets Group Treasury in to Nexi Group treasury
  • Experiences from a massive hacking attack
  • A career within Novo Nordisk treasury
  • Macroeconomic trends and predictions

 

As part of TreasuryXL’s network we offer treasurers 25 % discount.

Sign up now and join us 1 September – Remember to use the code when signing up: TreasuryXL25

 

 

Read the program and learn more about participation and sponsorship opportunities: cashandtreasury.dk

 

 

 

 

The State of Treasury in 2022: Research Summary

28-07-2022 | treasuryXL | TIS | LinkedIn |

This blog gives you insights into the state of the treasury function in 2022 and a short list of recommended action items for better management of modern-day treasury operations

Source



About TIS’ Global Research

The insights highlighted in this article are based on a comprehensive set of studies conducted by TIS and our affiliates between Q1 2017 – Q2 2022. During this period, TIS held one-on-one interviews with hundreds of treasury experts and also released a suite of digital surveys that gathered feedback from thousands of financial practitioners regarding technology, staffing, and general operations.

Over the course of our research, TIS partnered closely with a niche team of industry experts, thought leaders, and consultants to interpret the findings. Historical treasury data was also obtained from the Association of Financial Professionals (AFP) and the consulting firm Strategic Treasurer to provide context regarding the evolution of treasury technologies and practices over time. Together, the expertise of our consortium and the extensive feedback collected from industry practitioners has provided us with unparalleled insights into the state of the treasury function in 2022.

While this article serves to highlight the summary findings and recommended action items from our studies, readers that would like more data and information are encouraged to download our full whitepaper for extended coverage.

 

 

Research We Relied Upon

The below surveys, polls, and interviews represent the full suite of research that TIS relied upon to complete our study. Links to the associated research conducted by our affiliates are provided as applicable.

  1. 2017 Strategic Treasurer Technology Use Survey. View Full Results Here
  2. 2020 AFP Strategic Role of Treasury Survey. View Full Results Here
  3. 2020 TIS Rapid Research: Remote Work Capabilities Poll
  4. 2022 TIS Rapid Research: Treasury & Payment Systems Usage Poll
  5. 2022 TIS & Treasury Priorities & Opportunities Survey. View Full Results Here
  6. 100+ One-on-One Interviews with Active Treasury Practitioners Between 2017-2022

 

Key Findings & Highlights

This section provides a brief overview of the key points obtained through our research. For more information on any point of interest, please refer to the full whitepaper.

1. Treasury’s Responsibility List is Constantly Growing: The treasury function has never been more critical to the success of an organization, and this is being recognized internally by key stakeholders. However, treasury practitioners are now being handed additional responsibilities as executives and other departments realize the value they can provide, and nearly 80% of U.S. treasury teams saw their “net” list of responsibilities increase in 2022 vs 2021.

 

 

2. Stakeholders View Treasury as Equally Strategic & Operational: Over 50% of financial practitioners believe the treasury function holds key strategic value, which represents a significant shift from the traditional viewpoint of treasury being mostly an operational function. This shifting perspective is shared widely amongst internal stakeholders like accounting and AP. Today, treasury’s strategic influence is impacting areas like technology adoption, working capital management, bank connectivity, payment processing, and financial reporting.

3. A Saturated Technology Market is Confusing for Treasury: The growing importance of the treasury function and widespread digitalization of global financial operations has resulted in an abundance of Fintech and bank-led software products entering the market. While this has helped foster innovation, data also shows that many treasurers have become confused by the breadth of categories and service offerings in the market, which has led to greater indecision and headache during RFPs and implementations.

 

 

4. The Line Between “Treasury Expert” and “Tech Expert” is Blurring: As the treasury function continues shifting away from paper-based and manual workflows to digitally automated processes and software tools, treasury personnel are finding that their technological proficiency has a significant impact on their ability to perform their core financial responsibilities. This is leading many practitioners to seek out technology-based learning courses in tandem with their more traditional financial education.

5. Fraud & Security Concerns Remain a Critical Issue: In today’s remote and digitally-operated business landscape, tech-savvy criminals are presented with even more opportunities for infiltrating a company’s systems and processes. This is leading to a noted increase in fraudulent attempts across a variety of areas, and treasury teams are continuing to invest heavily in both technology and training to protect themselves.

6. Successful Treasury Teams Collaborate with Other Stakeholders: Research found that many of the most successful treasury teams are proactively working cross-collaboratively with other internal stakeholders and departments like accounting, AP, and IT to accomplish their objectives. These teams are also frequently partnering with external consultants, solution vendors, and bank personnel to ensure alignment and cohesion across all their various systems and operational workflows.

 

Recommended Action Items for Treasury

Based on the findings from our research and interviews, TIS experts have compiled a short list of recommended action items that treasury teams should consider as they seek to better manage their operations in 2022 and beyond. They are as follows:

1. Embrace the Opportunity to Provide Greater Strategic Input: As CFOs and other departments increasingly rely on treasury for reliable data and insights, practitioners should embrace the opportunity to expand their strategic influence internally. In the long run, this ability to provide value in new ways across the organization will benefit treasury when it comes to securing new budget and staffing approvals. However, in order to provide the most visibility and control over their operations without overloading their small teams, treasury must become highly adept at leveraging technology to eliminate manual workflows and repetitive tasks.

2. Becoming Proficient with Technology Should be Non-Negotiable: As technology continues to play a massive role in treasury, it’s crucial for practitioners to familiarize themselves with the core tenets of the modern technology landscape. This does not mean simply researching new buzzwords, but instead seeking to understand the unique differentiators that separate various bank and fintech product offerings in the market. Treasury should also not hesitate to seek out the help of specialized consultants or technology experts for help. Ultimately, treasury’s ability to effectively identify the solutions and capabilities that best fit their company’s needs will save significant time, money, and headache during implementations and migrations.

3. Managing Security for Remote Workforces Requires Extra Care: Given the continued prominence of fraud attacks within the treasury and finance environment, there is no room for error when it comes to protecting a company’s systems, workflows, and personnel. To secure their funds and assets, treasurers must implement multifaceted security controls and protocols that extend beyond the “frontlines” and include executives, administrators, and other “back-office” staff. Combining education and awareness with multiple layers of technology is the only way to gain the upper hand against a new era of tech-savvy criminal.

4. Building Strong Relationships with Other Stakeholders is Crucial: Today, most of the financial systems and workflows that exist within a business are closely intertwined. This means that treasury operations have a significant impact on other departments, and vice versa. Given the extent to which treasury workflows are integrated with those of other stakeholders, it’s vital for treasury to communicate and collaborate effectively with these groups. To ensure total alignment and cohesion, treasurers must be proactive in establishing solid relationships with internal IT, accounting, and AP departments as well as external banking and solution vendors.

5. Ongoing Education is Vital for Staying Ahead of the Curve: Treasury and finance teams have made it clear they are intent on furthering their education and professional skillsets. This professional development is not limited to any one area but encompasses a broad array of topics across both technology and finance. In a digital world, many practitioners are relying on remote seminars and webinars, but in-person events and training are still on the list for many teams as well. Moving forward, it’s highly recommended that practitioners who are serious about their careers undergo regular education and training so that they can stay abreast of new industry developments and innovations.

How Can TIS Help?

The TIS team hopes that the findings highlighted in our research are helpful for teams currently evaluating their own treasury structure, technologies, and workflows. For businesses that view these insights and find themselves in need for enhanced payments, cash management, and banking functionality, we would strongly urge you to consider the solution and services provided by TIS.

Today, TIS is streamlining treasury automation through a cloud-based platform that is uniquely designed to help global organizations optimize global payments and liquidity. In essence, the TIS solution is a multi-channel and multi-bank connectivity ecosystem that streamlines the processing of a company’s payments across all their global entities and systems.

Sitting above an enterprise’s technology stack and connecting with all its back-office, banking, and 3rd party solutions, TIS effectively breaks down department and geographic silos to allow 360-degree payments visibility and control. To date, the more than 200 organizations that have integrated TIS with their global ERPs, TMSs, and banking landscape have achieved near-real-time transparency into their payments and liquidity. This has benefited a broad variety of internal stakeholders and has also enabled them to access information through their platform of choice. Data is available either through dashboards or direct downloads but can also be delivered back to the originating systems.

As part of our client-centric service model, we fully commit our own resources to your implementation and manage the configuration of all required system functionalities, back-office integrations, and bank connections on your behalf. Beginning with project kick-off and lasting through testing and go-live, TIS’ all-inclusive approach to customer support means you never have to rely on internal resources to maintain our solution or integrate it with your existing technology stack.

This systematically controlled payments workflow is managed by TIS for both inbound balance information and outbound payments, and data can be delivered from any back-office system via APIs, direct plug-ins, or agents for transmission to banks and 3rd parties. No matter where you operate from, TIS provides global connectivity and provides the real-time data, control, and workflows needed for treasury to automate and control their end-to-end payments and liquidity processes.

For more information, visit our website or request a demo with one of our experts.