Asia’s biggest companies launch digitisation drive to transform corporate treasury

Large Asian companies are kicking off a large-scale drive to use new digital technology to make their treasury and banking operations better, cheaper, faster, and more transparent. According to a report, ‘Asian Corporate Finance: The Treasury Digitization Drive’, from Greenwich Associates, the share of senior Asian corporate treasury officials citing ‘digitisation’ as a top priority for their companies in the year ahead nearly doubled to 22% in Q4 2018.

The report provides an in-depth look at how companies and their banks are using technologies to revolutionise operations and reviews corporate digitisation efforts in the areas of automation, digitisation of payments and receivables, seamless integration of information flows, and data analytics and insights.

When it comes to digitising corporate treasury functions today, Asian companies can turn to a host of alternatives from fintech providers in payments, foreign exchange (FX), trade, liquidity, and even cash management, and full treasury management systems. While fintechs are generally more nimble and easier to work with, many large companies still prefer working with banks. The simple reason for this is trust and compliance. However, this advantage is unlikely to last for long, the report suggests.