The Perfect Storm - Opportunities and
Threats on the Horizon

As real-time payments are adopted, transactions will settle throughout the day. In today’s batch world, transactions largely settle overnight (except for largely predictable collection activities and known urgent payments), while in the new real-time world, understanding one’s cash position and the level of precision in the cash forecast becomes vastly more critical

Treasury departments beset with staffing challenges or turnover are particularly vulnerable and would clearly benefit from stronger controls and predictive intelligence to flag and prevent fraud

Companies are trying to digitize and automate the working capital cycle to maximize efficiency and accelerate execution and insights. Winning firms will leverage data and disciplined management processes to improve forecasting and collaboration around exceptions and disputes through integration of critical data with customers and suppliers

Many companies were unprepared for the impact of recent events on currency, interest rate and commodity markets and incurred financial losses as a result. Today’s turbulent market suggests that additional “tail events” could arise

The recent banking crisis reminded treasurers and CFOs that uninsured bank deposits – and moreover, the ability to clear transactions – are only as secure as a bank’s credit position. With the increase in interest rates, firms are also waking up to the value of their cash and increasingly seeking yield

Most treasury and finance functions are small and sub-scale: prone to key-person risk, with disjointed data and technology, and inadequate automation and process orchestration. CFOs and Treasurers must address this challenge in multiple ways

Encourage deposits by splitting cash into operational and non-operational balances. Create a win-win situation for the bank and the customer by earning higher returns through maturity transformation and passing on some of the benefits to the customer. Analyze, measure, and report account behavior to gain insights into accounts that are close to meeting operational qualification.