Known as one of the longest surveys in the treasury space (over 100 questions, although split between banking and corporate respondents), the Treasury Perspectives Survey recently finished its fourth run. Strategic Treasurer and TD Bank released the results this week, and their findings indicate that things are beginning to look up in the corporate world.

Each year, the survey polls respondents on how their organizational outlooks have changed over the past 12 months. For two years prior, with responses collected just before and then during the lockdowns, outlooks were strongly negative: only 14% each year noted an improved or significantly improved outlook. The numbers from this most recent survey, however, have almost reversed, with only 18% of corporate respondents showing a more negative or significantly more negative outlook, while a majority have moved positively. Coupled with heightened revenue growth expectations and much lower downsizing projections, the overall perspectives of companies seem to be looking up for 2022.

Source: 2021 Treasury Perspectives survey report by Strategic Treasurer and TD Bank

While this indicates that some of the pandemic’s larger financial impacts may be reaching the beginning of the end, the survey respondents believe that other impacts of the disruption are continuing. These include increased EFT use in AP, willingness to accept more payment types in AR, changes to security & control procedures and to cashflow forecasting in treasury, as well as the expected ongoing adjustments to work from home policies.

The Treasury Perspectives Survey covers multiple areas, including not only organizational outlooks and the impacts of disruption, but also spending plans and views on technology. Some of these key findings from the newest data include corporate two-year plans emphasizing technology upgrades, ML/blockchain adoption, treasury staff additions, and merger & acquisitions (in that order). In addition, API use is now expected to double in the next two years, according to corporate respondents.

To find out more about TD Bank and Strategic Treasurer’s Treasury Perspectives Survey, view the infographic, watch a webinar replay and download the survey report, click here. To those who took the survey, thank you for contributing your voice to the industry and allowing us all to learn from your responses.