Cash & Liquidity Management
Published  6 MIN READ

The SWIFT Way to Build a Treasury Function from Scratch

Establishing a dedicated treasury function from the ground up requires a great deal of hard work, strategic thinking and, in the case of Fareva, vital connectivity links to be built in a short space of time. Here, Thomas Papier, Fareva’s Group Treasurer, explains how he teamed up with BNP Paribas to put in place the essential cash management plumbing for his new treasury function, alongside leading-edge cash centralisation and optimisation projects.

Family-owned group Fareva is a major CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation) in the areas of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and make-up, as well as industrials and homecare. In the space of 30 years, the company has grown exponentially to become a global group with circa 39 sites across 12 countries, posting turnover of €1.81bn in 2019 and with more than 12,000 employees worldwide.

Thomas Papier, Group Treasurer, joined Fareva around five years ago. “When I came on board, there wasn’t a treasury department as such. We now have a treasury team operating from the corporate headquarters in Luxembourg, and it’s been such an amazing journey to get to this point. It was great to start with a blank sheet of paper and be able to choose best practice workflows and systems from the outset.”

Connecting the dots

From the start, Fareva had BNP Paribas on board as one of their global banking partners,so it made sense to appoint BNP Paribas as one of the company’s four main cash management banks.  After all, with just one other full-time employee in the treasury department, BNP Paribas’ assistance with building out the ideal cash management structure for Fareva, as well as putting in place the correct plumbing between systems and entities, would be more than welcome.