Transaction banking across the decades

In one of the earliest issues of Euromoney, two bankers from Chase Manhattan's international cash management division highlight the differences between European and American methods, an increasingly important discussion during the rise of multinational corporates.

In the 1970s and 1980s there was a sudden rush of interest by the banks to supply cash-management services to corporates. One way to get corporate treasurers on board was to sell cutting-edge technology to minimize idle funds and maximize information.

Banks continue to pitch the benefits of electronic banking systems to treasurers. Citibank has even invested $500 million in global electronic banking, including the development of a satellite communication system.

Corporate treasurers no longer want their departments to be costs centres but rather to be generators of profit. This drive encouraged some of the world's leading global treasurers to run banks of their own; John Browne, group treasurer of British Petroleum, leads the charge.

A wave of change sweeps over the trade finance industry. New areas such as factoring and structured deals boom. In this feature, Euromoney looks at how new techniques are transforming trade finance for the future.

The rise of the internet threatens the bank monopoly on data. Euromoney predicts that a host of new internet institutions will upset the position conventional banks have held for the last 150 years. Banks will need to innovate to survive, we say. It is a story that rings just as true today as it did 20 years ago.

Euromoney's first cash management survey polled treasurers and financial officers at 1,250 non-financial corporates in 44 countries. It asked participants which bank provided the best cash-management services overall and the criteria they used when assessing them. Since then, the core questions haven’t changed much, but the rankings have.

International cash management was feeling the credit crunch 10 years ago. When things were good, so were relationships. But the pressure was on as corporates began to shop around, especially as liquidity became hard to come by and banks priorities seemed to be elsewhere.

The fallout of the global financial crisis continued to play out among the banks: economic uncertainty combined with an extremely tough regulatory environment meant that corporate clients required extra transparency about managing their money. In this guide, Euromoney focused on how banks were managing the move to the Single Euro Payment Area (Sepa).

The tension between legacy infrastructure and new digital demands in treasury services came to a head for bankers trying to sustain older, valuable corporate relationships while pitching for business with new and nimble companies. Both want efficiency but there are still risks.