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Treasurers across
Asia Pacific have recognised the need to go digital
for a while in part due to the growing external
pressure from competitors, customers and the
increasingly complex supply chain, but also because
of a stronger internal push for efficiency.
How is this
progressing and what are some of the innovations
that are likely to benefit the corporate treasury?
Current State of
Digital Strategy Development: A Work in Progress
Only one in four
(24.8 percent) large businesses in Asia Pacific have
a clearly defined digital strategy, according to
insights research conducted by East & Partners for
DBS’ Digital Treasurer Index
in May 2019, indicating the digital transformation
journey for most treasuries in the region is in its
infancy. The majority (50.1 percent) of the
businesses are, at best, in either the initial stage
of development or are still conceptualising.
That said, businesses
in the region’s developed markets are more likely to
have a well-defined strategy, including those in
Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Notably,
Australian businesses are lagging far behind the
rest of the developed markets on this
Spotlight on China
Businesses in China stand out in particular as
paving the way for digitisation in Asia with more
than half (57.6 percent) seeing their treasury
function being on top of developments. This is
partly reflected in the fact that not only does the
market have the largest proportion of businesses
using APIs when connecting with their banks and
other partners, mainland corporates also have the
second highest level of automation in the overall
treasury reporting system, including work reports,
compliance and management reports.
Interestingly, close to nine in ten (89.9 percent)
Chinese businesses are often challenged with
inadequate or unknown reliability of new treasury
technologies, perhaps signaling the cutting-edge
innovations being trialed.
Smart Contracts: The Way Forward
Smart contract has been singled out as the most
valuable digital application for treasurers in Asia
Pacific moving forward with an average rating of
1.76 (on a 1-5 scale, with 1=
very valuable and 5= not valuable at all),
ahead of automating reporting/ end to end accounting
(1.89), and API integration with banks/ corporate
ERP and TMS systems (1.94).
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