Delivering the Relationship

by Pierre De Montessus, Global Treasury Solutions, Senior Vice President and Senior Sales Officer, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Dhiru Tanna, Global Treasury Solutions, Senior Vice President and Senior Account Manager, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and June West,

Service model – a central point of contact

The onset of the credit crunch has changed the global banking landscape and the fall-out has changed the way banking is executed. Corporates have had to change the way they approach things from strategy, to long-term structural changes, to a change of focus from more traditional home markets to rapidly expanding emerging regions that offer unparalleled opportunities for growth. These changing parameters provide a host of challenges from a treasury perspective.

Before the financial crisis, large companies could look to their corporate bankers strictly as support functions – there to deliver a discrete or specific service. As companies diversify and expand geographically, their treasury function and needs become more complex. And it’s not just additional regulatory frameworks to navigate cross-border transactions, or currency and tax issues, or technology and liquidity issues – all of which one would expect. There are also the simple practicalities of accessing talent in new markets, understanding local business cultures, and even adapting to the realities of managing and controlling risk across time zones.  

As companies diversify and expand geographically; their treasury function and needs become more complex.

As a result, a centralised treasury team at corporate headquarters cannot keep abreast of every moving part at the local operating level, at least not every minute of the day. For global organisations (or those that have global aspirations), navigating the landscape today often demands that treasury employ a decentralised operating structure – one that reliably supports the risk management framework, and also meets the demands to collect, disburse and fund locally.

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