The Handbook of Global Corporate Treasury

Chapter Twenty Five

Treasury Systems

TREASURY SYSTEMS TOOK their baby steps with the advent of computing, and banks, for which Treasury is a core and critical function, led the way with automation and management of balance sheet and liquidity. The emergence of markets, asset classes, and market risk increased the rate of automation of processes and bookkeeping, leading to today’s world of interconnected system environments that span a multitude of purposes, environments, and budgets.

This chapter provides an overview of what Treasury systems are, how the entire system universe is connected, and how the benefits accruing from a system implementation can be assessed. We end with a process and checklist that you can adapt to suit your needs while doing your own system assessment and implementation.

TREASURY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM BACKGROUND

Treasury systems have evolved over time, use, and the corresponding growth of global markets and their complexity. While there is a cost and maintenance resource impact (as is the case for every system), more often than not, a good system implementation has far-reaching efficiency effects for Treasury and hence the corporation as a whole.

Why Do We Need a System?

The topic of why we need a system may sound generic and clichéd, but we would like to discuss this important aspect at the outset. It is important because it feeds into the final impact: better financials. The success of any project, including system implementations, is to achieve efficiency ...