Corporate Treasury at a Technological Crossroads

More than two-thirds of companies say treasury’s responsibilities have expanded, with a focus shifting from purely operational to strategic and visionary. Treasurers are increasingly expected to make more precise, timely decisions, while delivering strategic guidance to business leadership. Despite expanded responsibilities and expectations, treasurers struggle to leverage and optimize technology at a time when the consequences of technology lapses have never been greater. The expanding role of the treasury function accelerated pace of innovation, and emergence of new risks from unexpected sources place more pressure on treasurers than ever before.

Many treasury departments haven’t been effective at implementing new technology or leveraging existing technology to solve their growing challenges. According to our 2019 Treasury Modernization Survey, more than half of treasury professionals surveyed said that their current technology is not meeting their needs today. Many companies have implemented treasury management software, but solutions often are lacking or underused for complex tasks such as cash forecasting, risk quantification, and limit setting and monitoring.

FIS surveyed more than 100 treasury professionals across a range of industries around the world to understand current challenges and future opportunities. In 2019 and beyond, treasurers will turn to new technologies to improve controls, achieve greater efficiency and strengthen decision-making.

Here are some key takeaways from our Treasury Modernization Survey:

• Operational efficiency, global liquidity optimization and foreign-exchange risk management are the biggest challenges for treasurers.
• Less than one-third of treasury departments consider themselves very effective at managing risk. Cyber-risk is especially challenging.
• Use of cloud and AI in key functions such as cash forecasting are among the most important technological developments.
• Treasurers see global payments centralization, standardization and increased speed as the greatest improvement opportunities in the payments function.
• Three-quarters of organizations have initiatives for treasury technology adoption, replacement or enhancement in 2019.

To learn more about corporate treasury and modernization – download our market survey here.

Tags: Technology, Innovation, Risk and Compliance