It’s no secret that transaction banking, particularly in the payments space, is at the forefront of innovation and rapid transformation. To keep pace, banks must act swiftly, remain agile, and prioritise the end customer’s experience.

In an exclusive interview with Euromoney, Mahesh Kini discusses recent changes in the business and increased demand of corporate treasurers for multiple solutions, especially visibility.

If you missed Euromoney’s webinar ‘The benchmark for excellence in cash management’, watch on demand the key insights from 30,000+ corporate treasurers worldwide who participated in the Euromoney Cash Management Survey 2024.

Key learnings from HSBC, voted by 30,000+ corporates in Euromoney’s Cash Management Survey 2024 as the best cash management provider in the world.

The role of corporate treasurers is evolving into a strategic function, driven by internal and external factors. Internally, treasurers are facing increased demands from the C-suite and business leaders. Externally, they must navigate rapid changes in real-time payments, complex liquidity and cash-management needs.

Corporate treasurers face a range of challenges in producing accurate liquidity forecasts. Not all of them can be addressed by technology alone.

After years of being off the table due to historically low interest rates, treasurers can now realistically look to profit from rate differentials between currencies.

Wholesale banking head Andrew Bester explains the renowned retail bank’s ambition to win new revenues building on its expertise in sustainable finance.

There is pressure on corporate treasurers to maximise the benefits of embedded finance, despite the lack of additional resources.

By starting from a blank sheet of paper, Royal Bank of Canada hopes its new US cash-management platform will allow it to capture a greater share of wallet from existing clients while not being held back by legacy technology.

Corporate treasurers are playing it safe when balancing the merits of exploiting improved access to capital against the risk of unexpected economic shocks and business interruption.

Market conditions have heightened concerns over the potential cost of failed securities settlement as the world’s largest financial market prepares to move to T+1.

In a world of higher interest rates, economic uncertainties and data overload, corporate treasurers are turning to cutting-edge tools and strategies to predict and optimize their cash flows.

Implementing real-time payments can have consequences for corporates who underestimate the impact of cash leaving their business more quickly. Even as solutions become cheaper to implement, corporates are being cautious.

Proposed regulatory changes will not dull treasurers’ appetite for money-market funds, even if interest rates are cut more aggressively than expected.

Many companies still ignore the contribution that properly resourced treasury teams make to corporate performance.

Elevated inflation and interest rates have focused treasury attention on the importance of diversification, particularly for those with an environmental, social or governance focus.

Standard Chartered’s corporate and institutional bank can increase its profitability even when rates fall, divisional head Simon Cooper tells Euromoney. After reaping the benefit of investments in cash management, he is now turning to the financial markets business, especially credit – reinforcing efforts to grow clients in Europe and the Americas.

Competition for deposits is influencing pricing decisions on commercial loans. However, the major cash-management banks insist that they have maintained both deposit levels and lending rates.

Transaction banks must help their corporate clients to make the best use of new technologies, but without burdening them with unsustainable IT spending commitments.

Lack of standardization is one of the main reasons why API adoption has been slow in certain markets.

Liquidity concerns and the search for yield are encouraging corporates to expand their roster of cash management service providers.

The big cash management banks are confident that offering a wider range of services will enable them to maintain their market strength.

Transaction banks are collaborating with ERP system vendors and other fintechs to maximise corporate use cases for ISO 20022.

Securities finance practitioners are taking a mix of approaches to managing cash, funding and liquidity in a shortened settlement cycle.

For decades, transaction banking was a profitable but largely ignored corner of the banking industry. Then Covid happened. Today, bank chiefs see it as critical to everything they do. Given the challenges ahead – collaborating with fintechs and embedding ESG principles in global supply chains – the revolution under way in this business is unstoppable.

Growing treasury demand for advisory services from banks suggests that investment in predictive analytics applications at the latter is starting to bear fruit.

Rising interest rates have driven demand for more efficient liquidity structures.

Patents are a high-profile demonstration of a bank’s commitment to innovation, but they are not the only option for those looking to encourage new ways of thinking.

As the treasury sector reflects on another eventful year, Euromoney looks at likely developments for the next 12 months.