Treasury Strategy & Transformation
Published  7 MIN READ

Running an Award-Winning Treasury… From Home

When Hitachi Capital UK’s treasury team planned the implementation of a host of new business continuity processes and digital treasury tools, Covid-19 was unheard of. Fast forward to March 2020 when lockdown began in the UK, and the five-strong team was well-prepared for these most challenging of circumstances. Here, they share highlights and learnings from their journey so far.

Sometimes, the right ideas are acted upon at just the right time. For Hitachi Capital UK (HCUK), a provider of financial solutions for retail, motor, business and consumers, its judgment could not have been better.

During 2018/19, HCUK’s treasury team had planned and executed delivery of a new funding strategy – including an oversubscribed first public bond issuance – implemented a new treasury management system (TMS), installed a VPN-accessible Bloomberg terminal, further automated its treasury processes, and gone paperless. But this was not just the project list that helped HCUK win the TMI Treasury Team of the Year 2019 Award. It was also the transformation initiative that enabled treasury to keep delivering as lockdown measures and the imposition of homeworking started to bite.

Jeremy Johnson, Group Treasurer, HCUK, explains: “All of the projects we undertook prior to lockdown were the right thing to do, especially for our business continuity planning [BCP]. We were keen to transform into a digital and resilient treasury function – and our timing on the delivery of this was extremely fortunate.”