For those interested in financial operations and treasury management trends in general, an article from The Times of India will be worth a quick read. It’s penned by a senior at a fintech based in Bangalore that specializes in treasury technology.
The article begins with a setup of the global macro situation highlighting various issues that impact corporate treasurers simultaneously, including recessionary expectations, inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain disruption. Not to mention currency risks around international trade along with geopolitical conflicts. We covered much of the same territory for members in research that was released last year on treasury automation. In that research we talked about the post-global financial crisis, and how the role of treasury began to evolve into a more strategic position, driven by various factors including advancing technology capabilities that provided more account visibility across organizations and banks. In a certain sense, the pandemic caused a reprise of the great recession, although the earlier version was a credit crisis whereas the self-imposed COVID recession resulted in a liquidity crisis forcing greater cash management focus.
In this referred piece the author asks, “How can treasurers tackle the difficult external environment effectively? What innovative strategies and current trends should treasurers embrace amidst this change?” Then he lays out five different approaches, all involving some of the high-profile automation that we have steadfastly been recommending now for some time. The article mentions these as:
- AI Augmented Analytics, which helps to analyze the increased data being captured as digitization takes hold.
- AI-Powered Collaborative Treasury, which looks across all systems related to or interacting with treasury, providing visibility and coordinated decisions.
- Automated Financial Ecosystem talks to the continued integration between financial systems, both internally and between banks and corporates. This provides an opportunity for more STP.
- Process Automation, such as RPA, which automates repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
- Cloud Computing, which provides for the flexibility to gain access to the latest innovations form vendors.
The author suggests that the last several years has resulted in a paradigm shift for treasury and hence “a treasury that adopts new technology and embraces automation will be best equipped to sail through the volatile markets and emerge as a clear winner.”
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.
