Technology

Corporate Treasury Technology Roadmaps

Report date: 
1 Sep 2023

Commentary

Technology is changing the way many businesses work: with online commerce, many traditionally B2B businesses are moving to B2C. Logistics and supply chains are being transformed. Ride hailing and food delivery services operate real time payment systems. Assets we used to buy are increasingly available as a service, often linked to the internet of things.

Where are our banks in this turmoil? And how are treasurers adapting? We wanted to get a first view. Judging by the response we received, we are clearly not alone in being very interested.

This report is long – even the summary takes several pages, and it does not capture all the nuances. It is well worth reading the detail – it clearly lays out the challenges treasurers are facing.

Business transformation

For the time being, treasurers are adopting a wait-and-see approach to business changes. When the business moves to B2C, or becomes a full asset as a service enterprise, treasury will adapt accordingly. In the meantime, treasurers see no need to get ahead of the business, or even necessarily be a change agent.

On the other hand, CXC members who are in the new, online enabled industries are, of necessity, proving to be early adopters of the new technologies.

Communicating with banks

Over the years, centralised global and regional treasury management has been enabled by online banking tools with balance reporting, remote account management and payment initiation.

This has brought enormous benefits to treasury management. But it is not perfect:

  • Mostly, the data is not real time. It is often yesterday’s balance and transactions
  • There are many different tools: host to host, e-banking systems, SWIFT reporting, APIs
  • Security protocols remain a conce

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Topics covered in this report: 
API, Technology
Service providers discussed in this report: 
Kyriba, FIS, Reval, Ion, Wall Street Systems

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AI & Robotics in Corporate Treasury

Report date: 
9 May 2023

Commentary

This call was organised in the midst of media hype about AI (Artificial Intelligence), with several banks having banned the use of ChatGPT, and highly convincing fake videos being created and going viral. The first question was whether our members share the banks’ concern over the danger of tools such as ChatGPT running out of control and executing highly credible frauds. The answer was “No” - in the sense that it was not on anyone’s radar screen.

The second question was about the adoption of robots to automate treasury processes: these typically execute pre-defined processes, with no decision-making function. There are high levels of interest in this, and increasing levels of adoption. 

AI is of interest for areas such as forecasting, where an increasing number of applications are available which look at historical data and use it to predict future patterns. However, only one participant is currently using it for cash forecasting. But:

  • Banks are increasingly using AI to screen transactions, and highlight unusual ones. This is good – but one participant saw valid, but unusual, transactions fail to execute on time as a result.  
  • AI’s ability to handle large data lakes or oceans inside companies is a positive - but it is hard to be sure all the relevant data has been included. 
  • One participant is concerned that the questions being asked on ChatGPT could potentially be tracked, leading to confidentiality breaches.
  • The same participant is also concerned that the inability to track and verify the source of data in this tool could lead to unintentional copyright infringements. Usage rules are being put in place to manage these risks.

On the other hand, most participants are actively using robots for various tasks:

  • Allocation of
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Topics covered in this report: 
Robotics, AI, Cash forecasting, Technology

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