What do treasurers actually need to think about for the future? An innovative industry collaboration, Journeys to Treasury, aims to discuss and shed some light on the real challenges facing treasury.

Journeys to Treasury is an initiative launched by four partners with expertise in and services for corporate treasury: BNP Paribas, the European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT), PwC and SAP. It began as a creative-thinking session in which experts and of course practitioners discussed the challenges facing treasurers now and in the future. The ideas that came out of that research and debate have been developed into a report just published, focusing on three main themes:

• fintechs & continued innovation,
• anytime anywhere treasury,
• cybercrime & fraud.

Technology 'under the hood'

One of the last sessions today at EuroFinance's International Treasury & Cash Management conference was based on the key themes put forward by the Journey to Treasury report. Jean Marc Servat from the EACT and Jean-Francois Denis, of BNPParibas, discussed how technology is evolving and asked how many of the developments are actually relevant to corporate treasury? And how much do treasurers practically need to know? The EACT's Jean Marc Servat said that, although much is said about how new technologies such as blockchain will affect treasury, in reality many of the developments are 'under the hood' and there isn't a pressing need for treasurers to understand every detail of the technology.

An issue of trust

One of the key messages that the two speakers underlined is the issue of trust.The idea that technology is a threat to banks (not just blockchain but also, for example, how banks will have to open up their data to third party with APIs under PSD2) has been much discussed, but Servat and Denis made it clear they see an important role for banks as trusted partners for treasury in future.

Key take-aways

The Journeys to Treasury report makes many salient points – here are some of the main take-aways:

• Fintechs are having a transformative effect on financial services. The next step for fintech may be 'fintegration', as banks act as hosts to the fintech's services.
• Blockchain could potentially revolutionise treasury best practices through smart contracts in trade finance, or by eliminating the need for reconciliation and confirmation in payments. It could even change the concept of a bank account. Experts say that blockchain won't be used commercially for another three to five years.
• Big data is helping treasurers to improve processes such as cash flow forecasting, FX exposure management and fraud prediction.
• Treasurers say they don't need round-the-clock banking. The only time it's genuinely useful could be during an M&A, for example. Treasurers say that they would prefer to have predictable execution times and service level agreements.
• However, real-time payments may be necessary for retail corporates but this will be driven by consumers.
• Cyber crime and fraud is a matter of if not when for corporate treasurers. The report says: “Treasurers need bullet-proof security policies and procedures.” The authors note that big data will play an important role in fraud detection but crucially, the detection will shift from after the breach has occurred to before any attack is able to succeed.