HSBC celebrates Treasury Gamechangers

The corporate treasury teams that partner with HSBC’s Global Payments Solutions division have been recognised in the Adam Smith Awards since the Treasury Today Group launched the awards programme 17 years ago. An Adam Smith Award is recognised across the globe as the industry benchmark for best practice, innovation and excellence in corporate treasury and finance.

Today, in recognition of these pioneering corporate treasury teams across the globe, HSBC launches Treasury Gamechangers to celebrate treasury innovations and share corporate stories to inspire the wider community of the transformative power of a bold, innovative treasury strategy.

Manish Kohli, Head of Global Payments Solutions at HSBC describes a key part of his team’s role as bringing new products and solutions to clients to support their growth in an end-to-end process that links efficiency, globality and digitalisation. These are the hallmarks of modern, forward-looking treasury unit.

“Many of these winning treasury teams are in the trenches running transformation programmes that are not always visible to others. But clients always like to hear from other clients, and these stories give real credibility to a corporate’s treasury journey, and we love being one of the bank partners to support them.”

Treasury Gamechangers reflect HSBC’s truly global client base. Like Imerys, the French multinational, which transformed visibility and control of its local treasury function in Egypt in a digital overhaul. Or Ricoh, the Japanese imaging and electronics group, which implemented a post-Brexit cash pooling solution in Ireland. In the US, HSBC supported AbbVie to roll out a new cash pooling solution after the pharmaceutical group acquired Allergan in a US$63bn transaction.

Asian Treasury Gamechangers include Foodpanda, the online food and grocery delivery platform, which HSBC partnered with to streamline its multiple banking relationships and introduce automation. In South Korea, the bank worked with retailer Coupang to transform its cross-border payments. Latin America’s Treasury Gamechangers include Danone’s Brazilian business which upset the status quo to overhaul payment reconciliation in an automated environment.

Treasury Gamechangers holds a mirror to the solutions HSBC offers its clients and the treasury challenges that corporates are solving for. Like integrating available and emerging technology, running a treasury with less resources and increased visibility of cash and risk management, or centralising treasury into regional or global hubs where transactions are completed in a harmonised, straight-through manner.

Treasury Gamechangers also captures the solutions treasury teams are putting in place today to solve challenges ahead, explains Kohli. Like the need for global consistency, and treasury teams increasingly opting for fewer banking relationships to simplify counterparty management and their own operations. Liquidity management is another priority, particularly in a heightened rate environment where the cost of capital is higher. This has led to increased demand for better pooling and netting solutions. Alongside better insights into projecting cash flows, treasury teams also want to integrate digital commerce solutions in line with the explosion in 24/7 payments and instant fulfilment and the move away from conventional batch payment runs

Corporate treasury teams increasingly pull the levers of change that guide businesses navigating economic, technological and regulatory shifts. Achieving bold corporate change and innovation to drive advancement is challenging, especially for professionals who are also focused on risks, costs and safeguards.

HSBC hopes this collection of inspiring stories of corporate treasury endeavour and innovation will encourage and inspire others to embark on their own transformative journey of change. “We hope you enjoy our Treasury Gamechangers yearbook and look forward to partnering with more award-winning treasury teams in the future,” concludes Roberts.