(24 March 2025 – Global) What are East & Partners analysts focusing on in global commercial banking markets? Tap into emerging thematics influencing key decision makers with “on the ground” perspectives from East’s financial services clients and latest “voice of the treasurer” research.
Personal Touch Crucial for Successful Technology Adoption
As the latest artificial intelligence (AI) hype shifts from generative AI to agentic AI, how are rapid advancements in digital capability being absorbed at a treasury level?
The overwhelming response from leading treasurers and CFOs is that AI innovation “for the sake of innovation” is not in demand and cannot come at the expense of service, support and especially relationship management that exceeds expectations. In fact, moves to implement AI throughout commercial banking product and service offerings have resulted in a re-prioritisation of RM capability and needs as highlighted in East & Partners Global Insight reports “Resurrection of the RM” and “Selling Banks to the Corporate Treasurer”.
ISO20022 Adoption Race is On Ahead of November Deadline
Despite a raft of clearly defined benefits to early adoption of ISO20022 payment standards ahead of the November 2025 deadline such as modernisation, seamless straight-through processing and support for global transactions, many banks continue to drag the chain. Swift reports the global adoption of ISO20022 is accelerating however, reporting an average of 1.4 million CBPR+ payments exchanged daily, spanning 150 sending and 220 receiving countries.
“The way how I look at the adoption is instead of thinking of this migration as a compliance requirement, we should consider as an opportunity for innovation across the payment ecosystem. Financial institutions can benefit by streamlining compliance, simplifying regulatory reporting, and resolving payment exceptions faster and growing strategically, improving customer insights, building vertical value propositions, and strengthening corporate treasury activities. ISO 20022 is more than just a mandate; it’s important for transformation in the way financial institutions operate and innovate” commented StoneX Business Development Manager Ahmed El-Kady.
“Typically, what we’ve seen is about a third, a third, a third – a third that are still formulating their plans, a third that are actually progressing now they’ve formulated their strategy, and then the other third either fully done or haven’t started yet. The results show how varying financial institutions are in their stages of ISO20022 readiness” commented Alacriti SVP of Product Management, Neeraj Gupta during an online webinar hosted by American Banker.
Will this emerge as a key driver of customer churn in cash management & payments where banks are placed at a competitive disadvantage to falling behind leading adopters such as JPMorgan?
Treasury Today Regional Focus – Evolving Challenges in Taiwan
Buffeted by global headwinds, Treasury Today reports that Taiwan’s treasurers have had to cope with currency and interest rate volatility by strengthening their risk management frameworks, as well as leaning on their banking partners for greater support.
In the past year, interest rate volatility has come out as a top risk for corporate treasurers in Taiwan, according to East & Partners research, well ahead of tech infrastructure upgrades, intermediary risk, trapped liquidity, payment execution risk, and fraud and money laundering.
“Despite the push towards digitisation, automation and enhanced application programming interface (API) functionality, old fashioned relationship management excellence is increasingly winning the hearts and minds of Asia’s chief financial officers (CFOs) and treasurers” commented East & Partners Global Head of Markets Analysis, Martin Smith.
Download the latest Treasury Today Asia March/April 2025 edition now.
What Makes Corporate Treasurers Tick?
Ahead of the next Global Insight Report release, East is inviting clients and Banking News readers to nominate the most appealing topics below.
Which topics lack defined data based insights?
What areas are your clients asking for deeper benchmarking information?
- Beyond the RFP in Pitching Corporates
“What do treasurers see as “special” in the pitch?”
- Demystifying the Risk Management Enigma
“Detailing relevant threats to balance sheet stability”
- Cybersecurity, Fraud and Risk Management
“Addressing data protection, internal fraud, AI impersonation, and how banks can assist corporates in navigating these threats.”
- Best Practice Liquidity Management
“Cash forecasting Deep Dive”
- Where to Focus the Bank Marketing Budget
“What do treasurers really value from outbound bank marketing activity?”
- Onboarding Day 2
“Linking New Customer Acquisition with RM Excellence”
- Private Credit/Embedded finance
“Defining financial stability risks from the voice of the CT”
- COP29, Scope 3 Emissions and ESG
“Risks to FIs for Sustainability”
- Best Fit Solution Bundling for Corporates
“What products do treasurers want integrated /intuitively see linked?”
- Financing the Full Supply Chain
“What are treasurers asking their banks for?”
February Analyst Meeting Insights
The prior February 2025 analyst meeting insights highlighted retail banking experiences colouring business banking expectations, rapidly evolving Fintech landscape, the impact of the Trump tariff war and tapping into treasurers decision making process.
East & Partners’ Outlook 2024/25 uncovers how corporates, middle market enterprises and small businesses are responding to changes in the global economy, from new technology to emerging trends for business banking. Download now.