Cash and liquidity access remains the top priority for corporate treasurers, while centralisation is still a key strategy for ensuring visibility of cash flows, according to a survey conducted by Nordea.

The survey - The future of the corporate treasury – is based on replies from 82 large global corporate treasuries and interviews with more than 60 CFOs and treasurers. The report's findings present a picture of the objectives of large corporate treasuries looking ahead to 2017.

The survey had five key findings:

1. Cash and liquidity are key
   Ensuring access to cash and liquidity is the top priority for treasurers. However, trading activity is now a far less important part of treasury's mandate and only a third still have a trading mandate.
2. Centralisation
   The future of treasury is centralised, to enable treasurers to get a better overview of their cash and liquidity positions. Technological advancements are facilitating centralisation and bringing greater efficiencies as the role of treasury expands.
3. Beyond transactions to strategic advice
   Following the 2008 global financial crash, corporate treasurers have been on hand to provide essential strategic advice about funding. However, the transactional element of treasury’s role remains as important as ever.
4. Risk hedging is increasing
   Large corporates are increasingly hedging against fluctuations in FX and interest rates, mainly using futures. However, this means they often lose any potential upside from changes in interest or FX rates.
5. Fewer banking relationships
   The biggest corporates want to work with a small number of core banks to give greater oversight of liquidity and exposure.