(15 April 2024 – Global) East & Partners analyst meeting summary provides a unique insight into emerging research, analysis and client thought leadership trends based on the “voice of treasurer” for 2024 and beyond.
As fieldwork concludes for upcoming research releases including the Global Insight Report, Trade & Supply Chain Finance, Asset Finance, and Business FX services, several valuable areas for further exploration and research are highlighted below.
Quantifying China Economic Slowdown on Corporate Decision Making
As China faces a widescale economic growth deceleration coupled with rising debt concerns, are large corporates considering shifting all or part of their supply chain away from China to other markets? And why?
New analysis by East & Partners seeks to delve deeper into CFOs decision making process confronted with an uncertain operating environment that is set to have ripple effects across Asia Pacific and the globe more broadly. Well advanced “near shoring” and “friend shoring” impulses were underway by importers and exporters ahead of recent official economic data painting a bleak picture for specific at-risk sectors in particular as the Chinese government scrambles to prop up sentiment and business confidence.
Chinese economic growth is forecast by the World Bank to slow to 4.5 percent in 2024 and 4.3 percent in 2025 from 5.1 percent in 2023. The forecast is in contrast to Citi who upgraded its prediction for China's GDP expansion in 2024 to five percent from 4.6 percent, citing recent improved policy delivery and upbeat consumption and investment data. Higher-for-longer interest rates and escalating geopolitical tensions have soured the outlook for the region, in large part due to anticipated recessionary conditions in China, the world’s second-largest economy.
Have corporates shifted in part or in full? How many are considering a full or partial shift in the next 12 months? How many corporates have no shifted nor plan to do so, or plan to continue to increase China trade outright?
Are they responding specifically to corporate defaults and contagion debt risk, supplier defaults, elevated municipal debt default risk, significant RMB depreciation or geopolitical and “trade war” escalation? The upcoming East On Demand research release will provide detailed insight into these queries and much more.
New Global Insight Report – Selling Effectively to the Corporate Treasurer
While there is a strong focus on the evolving role of the CFO in terms of their core function increasingly incorporating elements of technology and traditionally CIO linked tasks, how much decision-making heft does the corporate treasurer carry now and more importantly into the future?
Building on prior Onboarding and RFP focused releases, East & Partners latest Global Insight report, based on direct interviews with the Top 100 revenue ranked corporates in each of eight countries, provides a valuable “playbook” for selling effectively to treasurers that are being given more latitude and responsibility in their day-to-day operations.
This fascinating analysis has generated significant interest and attention throughout fieldwork which has now concluded, answering complex questions such as –
How important is an existing or preferential credit relationship to who you decide to allocate your core cash management relationship to?
What is your primary function as Corporate Treasurer in the decision-making process for transaction banking and adjacent product lines?
What top five factors influence your decision on which bank is successful for RFPs?
What is your key pain point with the bank RFP process?
What is your biggest pain point in being onboarded by a new bank partner or into new services / accounts with an existing bank?
Previous Analyst Meeting Summary
In March 2024, East’s analysts were investigating exclusive new cash & payments analysis, home bank effectiveness matrix and the Macro business banking outlook.