TREASURY & CASH MANAGEMENT WHO'S WHO 2005

Global Finance, Sep 2005 by Hawser, Anita

This is Global Finance's inaugural Treasury & Cash Management Guide. As well as addressing some of the most topical issues affecting treasury managers today-regulation, centralization of cash and treasury management, and outsourcing of back-office processes-the Guide also turns the spotlight on some of the personalities behind the companies and the banks leading this dynamic industry, in our Cash Management Who's Who. These are the people responsible for shaping the future delivery of treasury and cash management services within leading global cash management banks and major multinational companies. The list of luminaries includes the head of the world's largest cash management and payments business, a World Series poker winner and application developer, a treasurer/marathon-runner, a global product management executive in charge of a $5.7 billion business, and a group finance director who has brought financial discipline to one of Britain's most revered media institutions, the BBC.

In addition to the people shaping the business, the Guide also explores some of the headline trends that are having an impact on the way CFOs and treasury executives manage their business. With a spate of new regulations on the horizon calling for greater financial and accounting transparency, we look at how corporate treasurers' demands for more sophisticated treasury management technologies and higher levels of automation are transforming the industry. An overarching trend that has shaped the industry for the past decade is centralization of cash and treasury management. We recount some of the experiences of companies that have gone down that path, the pros and cons, and lessons learned. Last, but not least, for a number of treasury and cash managers, all of these developments inexorably lead to one conclusion: outsourcing their back-office treasury operations to a third party. We look at how the confidence level of both providers and customers has changed the outsourcing question from one of not 'if but 'when'?

Anita Hawser

Europe Editor

anita@gfinance.co.uk