Orchestrating Cash & Liquidity - Finastra Forum Panel Overview
(28 March 2022 – Middle East / Asia) East & Partners Global Head of Markets Analysis, Martin Smith, joined the Finastra Forum live stream event for the Middle East and Asia to discuss where banks are on their journey to normalise the new, how they can enhance their cash and liquidity services and ask whether being a collaborator takes on a whole new meaning in an open world.
With many banks having had to accelerate their digitalisation journeys to support operational change over the last two years, is it now time to once again look ahead and see what the future can bring? For cash and liquidity management, are corporate banking relationships as stable and sticky as banks would like?
Cash Dynamics Founder & CEO Joost Bergen, East & Partners Global Head of Markets Analysis Martin Smith and Finastra’s Carlos Teixeira and Tim Tyler discussed the rapid uplift in activity from new banks and fintechs in the business and corporate space for transaction banking. The reality is that technology is enabling smarter, faster cash and liquidity management as well as shorter lead times. The panel investigated how well have banks managed to change and adapt to better serve their customers since 2020, how important data and connectivity is to corporates, Open Banking, where banks are on their journey to normalise the new, how they can enhance their cash and liquidity services and whether being a collaborator takes on a whole new meaning in an open world.
Corporates are increasingly open to switching between multiple financial partners and onboarding processes remain a key pain point for CFOs and corporate treasurers. Corporates must make the best decisions and embrace technology quickly in order to compete.
“All this means that banks are seeing less sticky client relationships with their corporate clients, and banks themselves have to act quickly to meet those banking needs” commented Finastra Global Solution Consultant Principal, Tim Tyler.
“As the Middle East economy rebounds faster than anticipated on the back of strengthening non-oil output returning to pre-COVID levels, buoyant private investment, IMF negotiations with Lebanon progressing well and bullish upward GDP revisions across the region, corporates are scaling up for growth and turning to their Bank for greater cash forecasting and visibility functionality. Where this is not forthcoming CFOs are taking matters into their own hands and recalibrating their transaction bank panel, reflected in record high customer churn intentions” said East & Partners Global Head of Markets Analysis, Martin Smith.
“In Asia a similar trend is unfolding however this is against a backdrop of uncertainty and stagnation as China enforces harsh COVID restrictions and lock downs, further compounding crippling supply chain disruptions across the region. Despite mounting economic headwinds, over one in five large corporates are planning to switch transaction bank in the next six months, voicing their frustration with perennially tedious Onboarding processes and driven by a rapid rise in multibanking for cross border payments in particular” Smith added.
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