Data-led services

“The responsibilities of treasurers haven’t changed hugely over time, excepting an increased focus on risk as the world gets more volatile,” says Celent’s Hines. “Treasurers still want price-efficient partners – whether from a bank, finserv or fintech – to help them execute their global responsibilities around cash and liquidity management, FX, compliance, and other areas. Treasurers just want to get the job done and are increasingly willing to engage with fintechs if they can offer the data-rich solutions they need.”  

“Treasurers essentially want access to data, improved automation in areas such as payments and insights into their cash positions,” says Hines, citing a Celent report he wrote entitled Expectation v Reality – Identifying the Data-led Services Corporates Want, which showed accuracy of forecasting as treasurers’ primary desire (38%).

The associated survey of 217 corporates also identified preventing fraud in cash management (34%) as a key want, which is  possible only with effective, aligned data. A survey of 168 corporate banks, asked the same questions in the same research, sought to ascertain if their viewpoints aligned with treasurers. Banks believed that stopping fraud was the top expectation of their corporate clients (38%).  (See fig. 1.)

Figure1: Expectation v Reality for Payments Data Monetisation – Identifying the Data-led Services Corporates Want

Which of the following are your biggest challenges [corporate]

What do you see as the biggest pain points for your corporate clients? [bank]

^{Source: Celent report, 2021.}

“Generally, the survey and report showed that corporate banks are indeed targeting their specific corporate treasury APIs where they are wanted,” continues Hines. “But where there are gaps, such as in receivables management and reconciliation – where a -4% gap exists – fintechs may be able to gain a foothold. But it’s only likely via a bank collaboration as investment is presently hard to come by due to high interest rates. Manual processes in key workflows had a -5% gap as well.” 

“Treasury Prime in the US is an example of a potential disruptor that wants to offer embedded banking and financial services on its platform,” says Hines.