Improving cash visibility and cash-flow forecasting are the top priorities for corporate treasurers in Asia-Pacific over the coming 12 months, new research suggests.
But they also see additional scope for enhancing treasury process automation, optimising working capital and focusing on risk management within their functions.
According to the second edition of the Asia Pacific Treasury Management Barometer Survey, produced by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, gaining greater visibility over cash balances and cash-flow forecasting will be strategic focus areas among treasurers in the region.
These priorities illustrate the ongoing shift of the roles and responsibilities of treasurers in Asia-Pacific and reflect the common challenges of operating in this diverse region. These challenges include managing a range of banking relationships, operating with a large number of accounts and having disparate means of accessing account information.
Around 1,350 treasury professionals from a broad range of companies responded to the bank’s survey. The study also revealed that 61% of respondents expressed no or little awareness of the implications of Basel III and the liquidity coverage ratio regulatory initiatives, while 62% do not use automated cash pooling.
Among the other findings were that 35% of participating companies use the renminbi for cross-border trade (compared with 16% in 2013), reflecting the growing internationalisation of the Chinese currency. Furthermore, 78% of participating companies make payments into three or more countries.
Nearly half (49%) of participants had a treasury management system or treasury module of an enterprise resource platform, while 41% were making use of mobile and tablet devices in treasury.
Ivo Distelbrink, head of global transaction services, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said: “It is clear that corporations in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly focused on integrated treasury management platforms and solutions, which deliver real-time analytics, multi-bank visibility, cash-flow forecasting and transaction management across countries, currencies and time zones.”
He added: “Against this backdrop, the role and responsibilities of the treasurer in Asia-Pacific are changing meaningfully, and strategic treasury advisory will be imperative to enable treasurers to take advantage of changing objectives and priorities.”