Citi Perspectives Fall 2019

Treasury is on the verge of a great change. It is being driven by a technological revolution that will alter the way it operates. The recent past has witnessed the first steps of treasury’s journey to digitization, with the use of different technologies such as the banking platform, treasury management systems and trading platforms. These are now considered the standard for best-in-class operations. Yet, treasury processes are far from being entirely automated or digitized. In some cases, a high level of manual intervention is still required in treasury operations. Similar to what has happened recently, where operational and transactional tasks have been streamlined and partly automated, the evolutionary phase we are seeing now is focusing more on what automation is yet to achieve — making it more pervasive and better integrated within the full treasury platform, while helping to more effectively manage risk. These factors may have the following immediate effects on the daily activities of the treasury function: • As automation starts delivering on multiple aspects of treasury, the creation of bandwidth will allow teams to focus on strategic aspects and less on manual tasks. • New data processing techniques will continue to grow and, as such, these skill sets will develop within treasury, leading to more data-assisted decision-making across treasury. • Treasury will be part of business strategy discussions. The main benefit will be the reciprocal understanding between ”business” and ”treasury” where key decisions will take into account the treasury perspective. Manu Taneja Executive, Cash Management and Treasury Services (APAC), General Electric Andrea Vanara Asia Pacific Head, Treasury Advisory Group, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi Treasury of the Future 28