Corporate treasury teams today face heightened economic and geopolitical risks, amplified by digitization, regulatory shifts, and financial market volatility. In such an environment, robust bank account management (BAM) and bank relationship management (BRM) capabilities have become vital to navigating disruption and mitigating financial and operational risks.

As the steward of an organization’s liquidity and financial risk management, treasury is inseparable from the optimization of its banking structures and relationships. To achieve this, corporate treasury must systematically track metrics that reveal strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement across banking activities and processes.

The Association for Financial Professionals® (AFP) Executive Guide: Selecting the Right Treasury Metrics outlines eight critical banking metrics that combine efficiency and effectiveness. We have explained these below to provide corporate treasurers with a clearer lens to assess performance, strengthen relationships, and support informed decision-making.

1. Percentage of transactions executed through the Treasury Management System (TMS) versus bank portals: This metric measures the degree of automation and system integration within treasury operations. A higher percentage of transactions routed through the Treasury Management System (TMS) provides greater cash visibility, stronger process control, and a significant reduction in manual errors and operational risk. Leading treasury teams increasingly centralize transactions within a TMS platform rather than relying on individual bank portals. This approach not only streamlines operations but also enhances payments fraud prevention, delivers real-time insight into global cash positions, and boosts productivity by enabling treasury staff to work from a single, unified platform instead of juggling multiple bank portals.
2. Number of bank accounts per $1 billion in revenue: By tracking account proliferation relative to revenue size, treasury teams can pursue the simplification of bank account structures. Excessive accounts lead to reconciliation delays, increased administrative burden, greater operational complexity, and higher exposure to fraud. Conversely, maintaining fewer, well-controlled accounts enables stronger oversight, lower maintenance and reconciliation costs, improved visibility into cash and liquidity positions, streamlined reporting, and tighter compliance governance.
3. Earned credits offset: This metric quantifies how efficiently corporate treasury leverages earned credits generated from deposit balances to offset or reduce banking service fees associated with treasury activities. It captures the true cost of cash management by reflecting how well-maintained balances are utilized to minimize fees or charges invoiced by the bank. A higher earned credits offset is desirable, as it maximizes the value provided by banking partners while minimizing costs related to fee-intensive services.
4. Bank fees versus industry standards: Bank fee analysis is among the most insightful metrics treasuries use to monitor costs. By benchmarking both total and category-specific fees against industry norms, treasurers can uncover cost inefficiencies and pricing outliers—such as international transactions or cash sweep services—that may reveal opportunities for renegotiation or process optimization that can yield measurable savings. With the growing availability of detailed fee data, corporate treasurers are increasingly able to conduct granular trend analyses across banks, regions, and product portfolios, ensuring they consistently receive fair value for the services provided.
5. Bank covenants: This metric monitors ongoing adherence to bank-imposed covenants and obligations, which are critical for maintaining liquidity access, avoiding penalties, and preserving trust with banking partners. Proactively tracking covenants and flagging potential breaches early are essential, as timely warning signals facilitate rapid remedial actions. This approach reduces the risk of breaches escalating into penalties or defaults and promotes disciplined financial management. Effective covenant monitoring, supported by automation and real-time alerts, can significantly enhance risk mitigation and bolster lender relationships.
6. Number of bank relationships: This metric evaluates the proportion or percentage of corporate treasury business allocated across banking partners. Treasurers should strive to maintain a well-balanced portfolio—broad enough to mitigate counterparty risk yet focused enough to build meaningful, strategic partnerships with key banks. Holding too many banking relationships can dilute Share-of-Wallet and impede relationship depth. Cultivating fewer, deeper banking relationships typically results in improved pricing, resilient support during periods of market stress, and better alignment of banking services with the company’s overall corporate strategy.
7. Earnings credit product offsets: While closely related to earned credits offset, this metric differs in scope. Earnings credit product offsets assess how well treasury leverages the bank’s broader suite of earnings credit–based or interest-bearing products to offset or reduce total service costs across all accounts. It evaluates the effectiveness of the overall offset mechanism—not just the earned credits generated from individual balances—offering a wider view of how treasury optimizes value from its banking relationships.
8. Bank fees percentage by exceptions per category: This effectiveness metric adds precision to bank-fee monitoring by measuring the proportion of banking fees that arise from exceptions—such as rejected payments, failed transactions, returned items, or other irregular processing events—segmented by specific fee categories. Tracking fees by exception category helps corporate treasury pinpoint operational bottlenecks that cause disproportionate costs, improve transaction accuracy, and automate workflows. Lower exception fees demonstrate operational discipline backed by high-quality processes. A high percentage of exception-related fees exposes process weaknesses that warrant closer attention.

Banking metrics do more than measure operational performance—they shape strategic relationships and allow corporate treasury to negotiate from a position of strength, justify Share-of-Wallet allocations, and ensure partner banks remain aligned with corporate priorities.

In conclusion, bank account and relationship management metrics are no longer optional dashboards—they form the backbone of data-driven treasury leadership. Treasury teams that can master these eight metrics can unlock efficiency, elevate banking relationship quality, and sustain strategic focus through continual change.

Strengthening BAM and BRM capabilities is vital for treasury teams striving for resilience, agility, and value creation in uncertain times, and these eight banking metrics provide the analytical framework to benchmark performance and drive long-term treasury transformation.