Detailed payments data is more important than payments in real time, according to a recent survey of corporate treasury professionals. More than half the corporate treasurers surveyed said, with regards to incoming payments, the ability to post more payments information is more important to operations than the speed of settlement, while 36 per cent valued speed of settlement more than rich payments data. The survey, conducted by Strategic Treasurer and TD Bank, also found that more than half of bank respondents agreed with their corporate counterparts.

TD Bank's Tom Gregory said: “Rich data attached to payment files make the jobs of both bankers and corporate professionals easier, so it is not surprising that so many respondents view this as vital to running more efficient operations.”

Corporates focused on payment security

When it comes to innovation, the survey found that corporates and bankers have different views and priorities. Only a quarter of corporates see commercial mobile banking applications as a significant development, compared to 76 per cent of bank respondents. And corporate treasurers are less likely than bankers to see application programming interfaces (APIs) as a more important technology development than blockchain.

Corporate treasurers are more focused on improvements to payment security and reducing fraudulent activity. However, banks overwhelmingly anticipate that developments along the faster/real-time payments front will see the most growth in 2018. Craig Jeffery, at Strategic Treasurer, commented: “The current situation represents a massive incongruity: We see great concern about fraud, but only 26 per cent of companies currently train and test their employees on security. Much greater diligence is required on this front to close the gap.”
Some of the top findings include:

• 52 per cent of corporate treasurers viewed the ability to post more information as more imperative to operations than the speed of settlement;
• 36 per cent of corporate treasurers ranked faster settlement as more important;
• 55 percent of bank respondents stated that more data is more important for inbound payment processing compared with faster settlement;
• 76 per cent of bank respondents stated commercial mobile banking capabilities would be a significant development for their clients over the next three years, compared to just 24 per cent of corporates;
• 19 per cent of commercial financial professionals stated mobile apps are unimportant to their work;
• 74 per cent of corporates and 92 per cent of banks saw increasing cyber fraud as one of their top concerns this year;
• only 26 per cent of businesses require employees involved in payments to take security training with a testing component, compared with 90 per cent of banks.