Digital technology is disrupting corporate treasury departments, some more rapidly than others. While retaining their core functions of financial risk management, treasuries are expanding their role from that of a transaction and reporting center to a corporate hub for strategic risk management and analytics. Fintech will drive best practices, according to this cogent and clear analysis from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Corporate financial professionals will find this an instructive overview.
What main challenges technology poses to treasury departments.
The future of a digitalized treasury ecosystem rests on treasury professionals’ readiness to adopt it. An extensive 2018 survey of top corporate financial managers in diverse industries found that responses span the spectrum from acceptance to ambivalence. Treasurers’ takes on the degree to which digital disruption is affecting their work vary by sector. For instance, fewer upending forces are roiling the energy, agriculture, construction and transportation sectors than they are in health care, retail and telecommunications.