Published: January 01, 2010
Welcome to this special Anniversary Awards edition, in which we recognise innovation and excellence in banking and professional services to corporate treasurers. The TMI Awards are now in their eleventh year, and over this period, the number of Awards and the votes by our readers has grown enormously. We are now pleased to present 49 Awards to banks and suppliers of technology solutions and professional services to treasurers globally; this year for the first time, in acknowledgement of SWIFT’s growing importance to corporate treasurers, we include the new category of Best Bank- SWIFT for Corporates.
This year has been another difficult year for corporate treasurers, in which liquidity and risk management have proved paramount concerns. Being acknowledged with an Award at this time is perhaps an even greater testimony to the solutions, innovation and commitment to clients amongst banks and suppliers than in more benign years. Once again, for the second year, we recognise the financial supply chain management as a specific activity. In many corporates, and indeed within many banks, a holistic view of the financial supply chain, including identifying and optimising the various drivers of working capital, is still in its infancy, but we are pleased to recognise the growing importance of this approach in our Awards.
Bearing in mind the challenges which all companies now face, not least the banks themselves, we are delighted to acknowledge the banks, vendors and suppliers which have exceeded expectations and delivered real value to their corporate customers. The Awards will be presented formally at a ceremony in London in January, but we hope that you will join us in congratulating our Award winners and spend some time reading the information and comments from our Award winners.
If your bank or service provider is not represented amongst the Award winners, do let us know how they have helped you, and make sure you nominate them next year!
Firstly, I would like to add my personal congratulations to those of Robin. This year has been tumultuous, to say the least, and no organisation has been left untouched by the crisis. The TMI Awards recognise the efforts that banks’ and suppliers’ staff have put into developing, delivering and supporting solutions to help their clients through challenging times.
For the fourth year, I am proud to be able to present special Editor’s Awards, now extended into specific areas to recognise the contribution of corporate treasurers globally to whom we are indebted. For 2009 we have included four new Excellence in Treasury Recognition Awards in the areas of Risk Management, Cash Management, SWIFT Connectivity and Treasury Technology. The winners were selected from a personal shortlist of treasurers who have demonstrated innovation and excellence in one of the four key category areas. These Awards are not voted formally by readers, but reflect my personal experience of meeting, interviewing and talking to treasurers around the world.
Finally, we would like to wish all our readers a very happy New Year and we look forward to sharing your experiences through the pages of TMI in 2010.
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Marilyn Spearing, Global Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management Corporates at Deutsche Bank’s Global Transaction Banking, reflects on recent events and current strategy.
As the dust settles around the financial sector and the world’s leading economies emerge from the downturn, many corporates and financial institutions are taking stock of their position. And for Deutsche Bank, the picture is a good one. The flight-to-quality in cash management during the crisis was certainly to our benefit – clients recognised that the Deutsche Bank brand continued to represent security and stability, even during the unprecedented events of the past two years.
Indeed, the fact that Deutsche Bank did not take government support in the form of taxpayers’ money has certainly been reassuring to many. And this has also meant that we have been able to continue investing in those areas that will deliver the maximum benefit for existing and future clients – expanding our global footprint and ensuring that products and services are best-in-class across all practice areas.
For instance, Central and Eastern Europe is a key area of expansion, with a new branch having opened in Ukraine in October 2009 and others planned for the region in the coming years. And in key markets where Deutsche Bank already has an established presence – such as India, China and the Middle East – our on-the-ground coverage and range of products offered is also set to grow steadily in 2010 and 2011.
In terms of actual products and solutions, improving the client experience is the guiding theme behind current initiatives and investment. For example, on-boarding processes have recently been overhauled, streamlining documentation and making it quicker and easier to become a new Deutsche Bank client. This initiative has been complemented by efforts to improve the flexibility of our offering – extending self-servicing tools and ensuring that specific solutions can be tailored to meet client requirements, whatever their industry sector or geographic location.
Commenting on the TMI awards - Best Bank Cash Management - Global and Best Bank Risk Management, Marilyn Spearing, Global Head of TF/CMC said, “2009 has proven to be a crucial year for Deutsche Bank. It is in times like these that corporates determine who they can and cannot rely on to support them with their treasury management. Clients expect to work with a banking partner that can not only help them reduce risk and improve efficiencies within their companies, but also generate revenues through innovation, be it on a domestic, regional or global level. Both our clients and the industry as a whole recognise the fact that Deutsche Bank is delivering on all accounts.”
In essence all our customers want safe, easy and fast payment instruments. On top of that our corporate customers have specific channel requirements and need lending capacity, a full product suite and footprint. This requires continuous innovation - both now and in the future. Overall SEPA will have a negative short-term impact on innovation because it will soak up the industry’s resources - occupying minds and budgets.
Some say SEPA is not about innovation but about evolution. In the long run the rate of innovation will increase as barriers to cross-national players are removed. Standards never reduce innovation, they support and facilitate it. This is all the more reason to keep the costly dual period of SEPA and local domestic schemes to a minimum and to fix an end date. Despite disappointing migration the underlying trend of standardisation is sustainable and persistent. Some countries have already expressed their commitment and have even started to migrate. SEPA can be seen as innovation on a continental level, as part of Project Europe. It is about creating a community by adopting a standard which will generate economies of scale. The bigger the community, the greater the potential for innovation. In other words: lower costs and safer, easier and faster payment instruments. For the corporate and SME market e-invoicing will unleash working capital and boost operational excellence. But this will require standardisation at a European level.
The European Central Bank requested an ambitious and realistic end date and the public consultation held by the European Commission showed widespread support for the move. SEPA helps the industry as a whole migrate to one European standard. As a result of ING’s ‘Back-to-Basics’ strategy we have decided to focus on being one European bank. Our customers have expressed their preference for an end date to prevent a long, drawn-out SEPA migration and that is why we are stressing: ‘without an end date no start date.’
Sander Cok – ING Payments and Cash Management
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