Two-thirds of treasury professionals surveyed report that their treasury departments have no plans to supplement banks and other entrenched vendors with non-traditional vendors in the immediate future.
This finding from the 2019 AFP Risk Survey: The Evolving Treasury Ecosystem, prepared by the Association for Financial Professionals with the support of Marsh & McLennan Insights, captures trends in how treasurers are working with new vendors enabled by digitization and transformative technologies.
The survey data suggests despite the growth in “fintech”, the treasury ecosystem is slow to evolve. This is driven by a degree of risk aversion from treasurers as well as limited capacity to identify, evaluate and build relationships with non-traditional treasury solution vendors.
That said, this could change as one-third of departments, especially in larger organizations, anticipate using more non-traditional vendors in the future. Treasury departments may be cautious in using these vendors, but the survey suggests they could offer treasurers more credible and effective solutions
This data reinforces that treasury adoption of new technologies and processes can rapidly accelerate once they have demonstrated proven and reliable benefits.
This year’s survey also examined the evolving risk landscape for treasury professionals over the next 18-36 months. Strategic and financial risks, along with cybersecurity are ranked as the top three risks.
