The Cashfac Operational Cash Index survey showed that almost two-thirds of corporates in Asia Pacific lack a transparent line of sight to their real-time cash positions, according to a survey* carried out by East & Partners and released today by Cashfac Technologies, a global leader in Cash Management solutions. 

The Cashfac Operational Cash Index report findings

The report, see here, highlights issues the region around clarity on cash positions and the realities of managing multi-bank systems for large corporate treasuries in the region, and found high levels of frustration with the linking of bank accounts and with the cost of bank product solutions and upgrades. 

Specific findings from the report include:

• only 35% of corporates surveyed had access to a real-time view of their transactions and cash.  
• only 23% of cash is physically pooled in Asia Pacific and where Notional Pooling is possible it’s not fully exploited; with less than 50% of all cash being notionally pooled together.  
• the biggest shortcoming in multi-banking arrangements is in the linking of accounts between banks.
• self-serve functionality and reliance on banks for customised changes was cited as a major shortcoming of multi-bank arrangements.

Overall, high costs, proprietary banking systems and patchy work-around solutions were all seen by corporates as undermining the accuracy and confidence in data and impacting the ability to achieve real-time cash visibility. Alastair McGill, Managing Director, Global Business at Cashfac commented that, “East & Partners’ CEO Lachlan Colquhoun put it well when stating ‘…the survey showed that in every region there's still room for firms to benefit from greater control of operational cash’. I think this is a great area for Corporates to focus on to see a significant return on system and process improvements. And for those Banks’ serving them there’s a great opportunity to rethink the services being offered to provide a more holistic solution to regional cash management.”

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* The survey was carried out by the research firm East & Partners Asia who interviewed 364 chief financial officers and corporate treasurers to create a unique snapshot on the true state of play for the treasuries of major organisations in Asia Pacific.