Always a Step Ahead

François Masquelier’s Treasury Vision

CORPORATE RECOGNITION AWARDS

Treasury Commentator of the Year

François Masquelier, CEO, SimplyTREASURY, surpassed himself in 2020, with a newly launched treasury consultancy firm and thought leadership practically on tap. He was the outstanding candidate in the Treasury Commentator of The Year category for TMI’s Corporate Recognition Awards 2020.

When Masquelier stepped down from his role as Head of Corporate Finance and Treasury, RTL Group, it felt like a huge loss to the treasury community. But, in fact, it has turned out to be an enormous benefit as Masquelier has had more time to offer his insights to the treasury world.

Throughout 2020, Masquelier not only published many insightful articles on LinkedIn but he has authored and contributed to numerous TMI articles, and participated in several podcasts. Masquelier comments: “I believe it is important to share my views with my peers on the treasury function. The nature of treasury keeps evolving quickly and requires significant efforts to cope with future challenges.”

Preparing for what comes next

One hurdle in particular has caught Masquelier’s imagination: the move towards smart treasury through modernisation and digitisation of the department. “Complexity and the sheer number of IT applications in use make treasury the reference department for transforming and modernising the whole finance function. Therefore, treasury can become a fantastic laboratory for further digitisation,” he told TMI when talking about his Award win.

“I am convinced that ‘smart treasury’ will be the next step. We need to make better use of financial data and develop business intelligence. There are solutions on the market to assist with this – we simply need to implement them. Technology evolution and the current economic situation will power these necessary changes to help face the ‘new abnormal’”, he added.

Masquelier also spoke in-depth about these issues during a TMI podcast, featuring Coupa’s Martin Bellin and Donna Wilczek, about the future of treasury management systems (TMSs). As part of this discussion, Masquelier explained how treasurers can work with vendors to build an ‘on-demand’ digital treasury ecosystem – a notion that we will hear more about this year and beyond.

Masquelier was also a pivotal contributor to TMI’s guide to TMSs in 2020. He outlined how technology should be regarded as an opportunity to review the treasurer’s role and its likely future. In the article, he also stated that to revolutionise the treasury function it is vital to have a clear treasury IT strategy that must take account of cyber-attacks, fraud, tighter regulation, reinforcement of internal controls, greater centralisation and a disrupted economic environment. “Treasurers are going to have to become ‘data consumers’ – which means data analytics skills will be more and more sought after in treasury recruitment,” he said.

In the same article, Masquelier shared his top predictions for the TMS market, which make interesting reading:

Branching out

While smart treasury has been a huge focus for Masquelier, he has also shared insights on a broad range of topics – from climate change risk to the interbank offered rate (IBOR) transition. Another subject of interest was the possibility of in-house banks to help corporates through the Covid-19 crisis.

On the latter, Masquelier observed: “The silver lining to every financial crisis is the opportunity to change the organisation, revamp processes, and become more resilient. One of the treasury-related responses to this health and economic crisis is the need for further centralisation of financial operations and enhanced visibility. Therefore, the Covid crisis can be viewed as a catalyst for establishing an in-house bank [IHB]. After all, the objective of such a central financing arm is to reduce costs, increase efficiency, reinforce internal controls and improve visibility on operations.”

He added: “Establishing an IHB it is a great project for those who have not yet adopted such an approach. It will help treasury functions to face future challenges and will assist in making the wider organisation more resilient to crises”.

These wise words are a perfect example of Masquelier’s contribution to the treasury profession – always positive and always practical. The TMI judges thank him for his ongoing thought leadership, which benefits not only TMI readers but the wider treasury community. He is more than deserving of the accolade of Treasury Commentator of The Year 2020.