The majority (67%) of treasurers believe their supply chain is currently suffering cash and liquidity challenges.

 

A survey of leading UK corporate treasurers in Q4 2015 found that most treasury functions are looking into the value of accelerating payment to suppliers. They (71%) believe invoice discounting can act as a means for the treasury to provide tangible value add.

 

“Corporate treasurers frequently don’t have the ability to enhance both the P&L and the balance sheet – digital platforms do just that and are an extremely powerful tool for any treasurer’s toolkit,” said Jason Bristow, former vice president and treasurer at Amazon.com, now CFO of Code 42 Software. “Having the ability to deploy cash based on business cycles and seasonality proved to be extremely valuable,” says Bristow.

The survey, conducted by C2FO, an exchange operator for working capital with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and India, highlights growing interest in supply chain financing and tools such as dynamic discounting. The study finds that 96% of corporate treasurers agree that the role of supplier finance is growing.

 

Innovative technology is supporting the role of the treasury function, with invoice discounting clearly enhancing the treasury’s added value to the rest of the organization. One branch of this, “dynamic discounting”, allows treasurers to simultaneously generate a better return on their cash whilst support their supply chain.

 

Colin Sharp, SVP EMEA at C2FO said, “Given the increasing pressure on treasurers to manage working capital and to generate a better return on cash, we have seen tremendous growth and we expect to see more big buyers implementing invoice discounting programmes in 2016.”