The Treasurer magazine Cash Management supplements were launched in December 2007. The aim of the series is to provide practical, topical advice on what treasurers are doing, how they are doing it and why. Case studies will form a key part of the series and there will also be articles based around the ACT’s exclusive educational material.
The series of Cash Management supplements is sponsored by Deutsche Bank. Each issue may also include individual article sponsors.
Societe Generale
The white stuff: Cash concentration across Europe
Electric dream: The Payment Services Directive
Lifeblood of the business: Liquidity is king
Gaining currency: Can the wocu close out FX risk?
It’s good to share: The many attractions of SSCs
Tap the world: Liquidity on a global scale
Don’t trip the tax trap: Get to grips with transfer pricing
Putting cashflow first again: A golden opportunity for treasury
M POWERED PAYMENTS: Mobile phones as payment devices
BANK ON A SEPA PAY-OFF: Big benefits for treasurers
THE GREAT FX FIX: How CLS sorted out settlements
A FULL IN-TRAY: Directive piles up payment work
Past issues of the Cash management supplement
The need to be in control of cash has never been greater. This issue of Cash Management covers various angles of keeping cash and liquidity firmly under control. It is vital to have a proper strategic focus on liquidity and cash management and that strategy has to be followed up by sound policies to ensure delivery. Treasurers need to be able to see the funds they have in the business but poor visibility of cash resources has long been an issue for all companies, especially global groups. Processes and technology must be harnessed to locate the cash and these days treasurers should be in a position to ensure they make use of the latest sophisticated systems and processes.
The credit crisis allied with the advent of a global recession has brought working capital management into sharp focus. The contraction of ready availability of funding from the banking sector combined with the increased threat of slow payment or non-payment from customers and former customers means that the need to keep control of working capital is now a top priority.
Treasurers know cash is always important in good times as well as bad. But in these more difficult times the rest of the business stops taking cash for granted and becomes interested in liquidity.
The Treasurer, in conjunction with Deutsche Bank as founding sponsor, launched the Cash Management supplement just over a year ago. In those days few would have forecast the credit crunch, or how cash management was consequently set to rise up the corporate agenda.
Given rising prices combined with the credit crunch and the subsequent liquidity crisis, it is little wonder that cash management has risen up the agenda as much for individual households as for multi-nationals. As Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, recently warned, the threat of inflation and an economic downturn has signalled the end of the NICE era (non-inflationary constant expansion) and instead we may be heading for prices increases and growth slowing (is there an acronym in that?).
Efficiency is one of the central drivers for a successful treasury department in proving its value to the company – whether it’s improving cash visibility, getting the most out of your supply chain, having the best available system or indeed making sure that the company’s cash isn’t disappearing altogether. This second edition of The Treasurer’s Cash Management supplement addresses all of these issues. With the credit crunch focusing attention on the importance of cash and liquidity, we take a timely look at the problems of late payments for companies of all sizes (p13).
I am delighted to welcome readers to the first of The Treasurer’s series of eight Cash Management supplements. The combination of developments in technology, the widening scope of the treasurer’s role and the commercial benefits to be gained from a well-structured cash management operation make it a challenging and exciting time to be involved in cash management.
