80% of corporate treasurers would change banks to obtain better services: Ovum

By Digital News Asia October 19, 2017

EIghty percent of corporates say real-time payments has improved risk management
Fifty-three present of banks plan to offer virtual accounts within the next 12-15 months

80% of corporate treasurers would change banks to obtain better services: Ovum

FOUR-fifths of corporate treasurers operating in countries without real-time payments infrastructures would be willing to change bank for one offering superior servicing and products, according to a report released by Temenos, a software specialist for banking and finance, in conjunction with Ovum, a research and consulting firm.

The finding illustrates the importance to banks of providing state-of-the-art payments facilities in order to stay competitive.

According to the report, “2017 Transaction Banking Survey: Challenges & Imperatives of Real-Time Payments & Liquidity”, real-time payments is the most valued service enhancement, with 64% of survey respondents citing it as one of the top three most desirable service/account enhancements.

Real-time payments has added value to corporates in a number of key areas, the survey found, with 80% of corporates saying real-time payments has improved risk management, 77% saying it has improved liquidity management, and 76% saying it has improved cash visibility.

The survey – which reviews and compares the priorities of corporate treasurers and the banks that serve them – also found virtual accounts to be high on the banks’ agenda: 53% plan to offer virtual accounts within the next 12-15 months, rising to 57% among banks based in countries with real-time payments.

The survey underscores the importance to a bank of servicing its corporate clientele with what they need.

And while the report indicates that banks are listening to their corporate clients, it also finds they are slow to change, hampered by ageing legacy platforms and isolated, so-called best-of-breed single function systems that can only communicate with other platforms via complex and expensive interfaces.

Ovum principal analyst David Bannister commented: “Corporate banks are responding to the ever-changing landscape of banking and the move from batch to real-time but they are often still driven by regulation, and are still grappling with the issues of ageing legacy systems and a tangle of bolted-together in-house developments.

“This report by Ovum and Temenos, provides insight into the priorities and attitudes of today’s corporate treasurer and shows where the banks that service them need to invest in order to satisfy their needs – both now and into the future.”

“The findings of this survey reinforce the opportunity that real-time payments and liquidity management solutions offer,” said Darryl Proctor, product director – Payments, Temenos. “With 80% of corporates in countries without real-time payment infrastructures considering moving their banking relations within the next year, it’s time for banks to address the move to real-time by leveraging the latest end-to-end digital software that will allow creation of true real-time services in a single platform.

“This is why Temenos developed a payments offering that enables true end-to-end banking with seamless processing, and why we continue to enhance our software in order to align with the industry as it evolves, first with real-time, and now with virtual accounts.”

The report is based on interviews with 100 corporate treasurers and 100 corporate bankers from around the world – both in countries that have implemented real-time payments and those that have not.