This blog was posted at Finextra by a fintech exec with a background in FX and capital markets. The title of the posting provides the piece’s subject matter, although it’s a bit more nuanced as one reads through. Members of our CEP service will have access to the release of the Sibos 2020 review, as well as a summary of the recent virtual AFP event.
These events are chock full of insights on what is happening and will happen across financial services as it relates to corporate and government financial operations. So indeed there is no lack of options available regarding automation of treasury management. The author makes a somewhat different point.
‘Fintech innovation has transformed financial services at a rapid pace, enhancing customer experiences and accessibility and making services faster and more streamlined. As a result, costs have fallen, barriers to entry have been reduced and new entrants have emerged to take on the incumbents…..Yet, amidst the rise of challenger banks and alternative payments providers, relatively few innovations have found their way into the corporate treasury space….In many regards, treasury management remains hindered by increasingly outdated and fragmented processes. This becomes all the more apparent as other areas of finance move ahead in terms of efficiency, customer satisfaction and cost-saving benefits resulting from fintech adoption.’
So the more nuanced point is that treasury has been overloaded with systems solutions over time, and many of them don’t talk to each other. The author references a treasury survey that speaks to this and provides some additional examples, with particular focus on cross border (which our readers know has been a sore point for many years and is undergoing some transformation itself).
‘Take international payments and bank accounts, for example. In an increasingly globalised world, very few companies operate using a single currency. However, making international payments remains a costly and cumbersome process, and multi-currency accounts remain inaccessible, require manual input to operate and take weeks to open.’
So a good piece to spend a few minutes reading, especially for corporate bankers, whose primary constituency includes treasury. Therefore paying attention to various perspectives and opinions about what may be impacting their clients and revenues is a bit important.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
