Treasury in Transition: Changes and Opportunities for Asia Pacific Treasurers

Changes and Opportunities for Asia Pacific Treasurers

by Ivo Distelbrink, Head of Global Transaction Services, Asia Pacific, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Corporations in Asia Pacific (APAC) currently face a number of challenges and opportunities. Digital and mobile commerce, accelerating regulatory reforms, shifting demographics and declining economic growth all require a response. In addition, Asia’s resilience is likely to be tested as China’s economy continues to slow, whilst US interest rates are set to rise for the first time in almost a decade. These factors fundamentally affect the focus of treasurers in the region. Against this backdrop, strategic treasury advisory will be vital in helping companies deliver against changing objectives and priorities.

Changing economic conditions

Three important concerns for treasurers at present are financial market volatility across asset classes, monetary policy divergence and changes in liquidity cost/availability.

Equity markets, fixed income, commodity and foreign exchange markets are experiencing significant volatility. This volatility is arising in different locations for varying reasons and is no longer unidirectional. These are challenging conditions for any treasurer, but especially for younger treasury professionals who will not have encountered such volatility before.

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