Treasury survey reveals corporate treasury managers' priorities

What are the priorities for a corporate treasurer? Permjit Singh Treasury Consultant finds out

US based Treasury Management consulting firm, Treasury Strategies (a division of Novantas Inc) has released its "Annual State of the Profession" Treasury Management survey.  It makes for interesting reading of the latest thinking of many corporate treasurers.

As expected, cash forecasting tops the list of priorities for the Treasurer, with liquidity and working capital management making a comeback into second place.  Optimising banking services remain a factor high on the list.  The top three priorities are all cash-related activities, reflecting the critical importance of cash to a company and the most important task for a Treasurer.

Perhaps surprisingly, optimising or replacing the Treasury Management System and enhancing controls against cyber and fraud risks have jumped from 11 and 10th places to 4 and 5th places respectively in 2021.  These upward shifts might reflect the rapid development of technology in Treasury and the increased risks such developments present (for example, faster payments and processors might mean less time to detect and avert payment fraud and cyber attacks).

Support for acquisitions or divestments, replacing LIBOR, debt finance, and improving the payments process, were also on the list but farther down.

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