Following the initial shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, treasurers and CFOs across the region took a fresh look at their operations to ensure their resilience. What was seen as nice to have in the past has become a must for companies looking to expand in high-growth regions such as Asia.
From payments to risk management services, a number of firms reached out to their banks to seek solutions for a number of pain points in any treasury department, whether it be grappling with manual reconciliation processes or extending payment terms with suppliers.
Over the course of this year, the board of editors of The Asset received a record number of solution submissions supported by insightful conversations with treasury management professionals.
While the solutions are varied in structure and execution, the firms’ general sentiment is the same – appreciation for their service providers in implementing solutions that have had tangible benefits for their respective organizations.
In the payments and collections segment of the solutions awards, part of The Asset Triple A Treasury, Trade, SSC and Risk Management Awards 2022, a number of treasury management professionals transformed their transactional processes to incorporate acceptance of digital payments from a variety of channels such as e-wallets or national payment infrastructures such as Thailand’s PromptPay. Other treasury departments sought ERP integration and standardization across their subsidiaries in the region.
To see the list of Best Payments and Collections solution winners, please click here.
Liquidity, a key consideration in the early part of the pandemic, continued to be a major factor in developing solutions for treasury management professionals. Over the course of The Asset’s review period, a number of transformational projects were presented, focusing on rationalizing the account structure of an organization and the setting up of multi-currency notional cash pools to help companies move capital within their network. For cash-rich organizations, banks were also active in showcasing short-term and highly liquid investment instruments to ensure enhanced yield on balances.
These represent just the surface of the impactful liquidity and investment solutions presented to The Asset this year. To view the Best Liquidity and Investment solutions in the region please click here.
Challenges posed in the post-pandemic era, which is marked by uneven recovery progress across countries and supply chain bottlenecks, propelled transactional banks to lead efforts in digitalization and strengthening of supply chain resilience in 2021.
This involved working alongside treasury management professionals to craft receivable finance and supplier finance programmes aimed at improving working capital. Like in previous years, The Asset editors heard stories of banks expanding their supplier finance capabilities, leveraging their network or digital platform capabilities to onboard suppliers at a record pace.
Other banks took it a step further, not only providing financing to anchor buyers’ immediate suppliers but also to second-tier suppliers along the value chain. This was commonly found in the Chinese market where financing support for SMEs has gained national importance at the government’s urging.
Click here to check out the Best Supply Chain solutions across the region.
As with supply chain solutions, there were several trade finance and risk management solutions that played an impactful role in improving operational efficiencies from flexible LC arrangements for companies to automated FX hedging modules to offset currency fluctuations.
To view the Best Trade Finance and Risk Management solutions, please click here.
Another encouraging development has been the growing momentum gained by banks in supporting industries and crafting ESG-themed solutions to help address issues such as climate change and financial inclusion.
Some examples presented to The Asset team this year include improving the treasury operations of sunrise industries such as electric vehicle and renewable energy companies, helping them further expand in the region. Green deposits grew in popularity this year as companies invested surplus balances in the ESG-certified projects of their banks.
Products such as sustainability-linked interest rate swap agreements and trade facilities have also come to the scene. In one example, a company will be rewarded with preferential rates if specific ESG benchmarks are hit.
To see the list of ESG solutions, please go here.
Being a high-growth region with a digital-savvy population, Asia continues to be a ripe ground for new economy companies to flourish, offering real-time, app-based services from logistics to e-commerce. These companies often rely on tech-enabled banks to support their growth, offering API connectivity integration and compliance reporting support.
To see the list of new economy companies actively transforming their treasury operations and the banks that support them, please click here.
Blockchain and data analytics: these are just some of the notable emerging technologies treasury management professionals have been embracing to make their operations truly world-class. As in previous years, The Asset team was presented with several solutions that utilized Contour’s blockchain system to process digital LCs. Other solutions focused on using data analytics supplied by platform providers to develop appropriate financing packages for merchants.
To see the Best Digital Solution winners, please click here.
Stay tuned in the coming days as more announcements are on the horizon as part of The Asset Triple A Treasury, Trade, SSC and Risk Management Awards 2022. To join the in-person annual celebratory dinner on the 6th of July 2022 at the Four Seasons Singapore, please contact us at [email protected].
