Luckily, Matthew Adams has at least two decades worth of expertise guiding him with each new policy shift and market shakeup. His resume includes various senior roles at major firms like State Street, HSBC, Northern Trust and BNP Paribas.

By 2022, Adams arrived at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) where he oversees the bank’s international client base of global custodians, broker dealers and private banks.

Adams provided Global Finance with some insight on sub-custody services, his approach to client management, and the complicated nature of modern securities services. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Global Finance: What are the latest trends in sub-custodianship?

Matthew Adams: Sub-custodians are experiencing different trends based on regional factors, local economies and regulatory environments. There is often a disparity in how individual markets can keep pace with infrastructure developments. In the GCCE [Gulf Cooperation Council and Egypt] markets where FAB provides sub-custody services, we see a range of models. Some operate on a broker clearing model, while others have transitioned to true delivery versus payment and central counterparty [CCP] clearing models. This diversity presents a significant challenge as global investors seek uniformity in trading venues. Intermediaries and global institutions are looking for regional consistency in partnerships which can drive substantial commercial opportunities. One notable development is the emergence of the General Clearing Member [GCM] initiative. This allows international broker dealers to become remote trading members of the local exchanges. 

GF: How does that help?

Adams: There are multiple benefits to this. It eliminates the need for a local presence and the requirement to transact via a locally licensed broker. Direct connectivity with the exchanges is established to enable trading on both proprietary and client accounts using a licensed custodian clearing member. However, for the global broker community to move away from using established local broker relationships in multiple markets, we will likely need to see a standardized GCM concept across markets, with CCPs in place. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Dubai Financial Market are expected to go live in 2024, with the Securities Depository Centre Company [EDAA] in Saudi Arabia [owned by Tadawul] following in the future, promising wider adoption thereafter. To achieve post-trade efficiencies and foster commonality in post-trade processes, regional custodians can harness developments in infrastructure to reduce costs and improve overall market efficiency.

GF: Any advice for investment managers when selecting a global custodian?

Adams: The ultimate benefits of appointing a global custodian are efficiency, risk mitigation and cost savings—all captured under one contract. When selecting a global custodian, it is essential to review their due diligence policies with respect to the appointment and maintenance of sub-custodians, as well as their contingent and dual-network operations. Corporates, pension fund trustees and boards of directors should consider these aspects.

GF: Do corporates ever have a say in selecting sub-custodians?

Adams: It’s ultimately up to the global custodian to select and manage sub-custodians. What we do see is that many global custodians, in addition to running dual and/or contingent networks, may appoint an additional sub-custodian at their clients’ request. This typically occurs if the client is of a size and relationship that warrants such a request and has due cause for concerns regarding a particular sub-custodian, whether those concerns are related to risk or competition.

GF: Why are more companies seeking opportunities in emerging markets?

Adams: Many companies are looking to expand into these markets and rightfully so, when you consider the number of untapped opportunities. Many of the more successful markets in the region have a few things in common, such as having a relatively wealthy population—both domestic and foreign—large reserves of capital and most importantly, strong leadership.

To provide some context on why there is more demand in emerging-market expansion, all GCCE markets are currently classified by various metrics as emerging markets. However, each is in a different stage of development. Some, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, achieved significant economic progress in recent years. For example, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange, Tadawul, has risen to take its place among the top exchanges globally since its founding 17 years ago. The market continues to expand and diversify, with around 40 IPOs in the last 12 months alone. However, it remains heavily concentrated in traditional oil stocks, with Saudi Aramco being the only Fortune 500 company in the region.

GF: What are some of the growth drivers?

Adams: Some of the factors driving growth in emerging markets include engagement with the market, pension fund reforms and a growing domestic investment fund industry. 

Strong local or regional financial institutions and service providers can engage with the markets and push for solutions in line with international investor requirements. Many GCC markets have seen a surge in IPOs — the majority of which have been vastly oversubscribed.

Regarding pension fund and saving reforms: The UAE is changing the existing end-of-service benefit, which will divert capital investment into domestic mutual funds. This move will shift multiple billions of dollars from what is effectively an accounting liability into the capital markets in the first year.

A growing domestic Investment Fund industry supports further capital investment, employment, and greater efficiency in relation to capital markets. In the UAE, there is a move to mandate for onshore licensed funds to act as feeders to what is currently and largely a distribution market for offshore funds. 

Progressive regulatory reforms are also driving growth. We expect that Saudi Arabia, the largest domestic fund industry in the GCC, to require independent fund administrators to calculate NAVs—a market standard in the larger global fund markets. This will bring further comfort to investors and lead to additional investment in listed securities.

The ability for sub-custodians to keep up with and manage these regional changes to facilitate clients’ entry into these markets is paramount. This is where institutions like FAB can play a pivotal role in assisting across the spectrum of the regional markets which are our “home” markets, promoting interoperability and consistency to increase accessibility and ultimately boost investor confidence. 

Modern treasuries face a diverse array of demands, such as real-time payments, high inflation and interest rates, and new compliance and sustainable finance obligations. Faced with foreign exchange and interest rate volatility, the complexities of instant payments and liquidity-risk challenges place a sharp focus on banking partners as treasurers endeavor to safeguard their company’s financial well-being.

Bank of America (BofA), our award winner as Best Bank for Transaction Banking and Best Bank for Collections, works closely with large global organizations that have accounts in multiple currencies, helping them to create liquidity strategies to optimize working capital and weather unpredictable market dynamics. According to Mark Monaco, head of Global Transaction Services, it involves bringing awareness of BofA’s existing solutions, built over the years, and then proactively advising clients on which ones address the various challenges they may face, such as forecasting, increasing costs, and the need to optimize return on cash. “Many corporates have limited experience dealing with uncertainty, especially when combined with very high interest rates, and are unsure how to plan or adjust,” says Monaco. “Some may lack the appropriate treasury management solutions or may not know how to maximize liquidity process efficiency.”

Higher interest rates make unplanned funding shortfalls more expensive, he adds. “These shortfalls are more likely if a company has not fully automated its processes. Resistance to making operational investments when interest rates are high results in many companies looking to cut costs and becoming hesitant to make substantial investments in treasury management solutions.”

As rates change, treasurers may be unsure about how to continue optimizing the value of cash balances and may fall back on “safe” approaches that may not be flexible enough to keep up with the changing economic environment.

Monaco says that in addition to rising rates, high inflation increases the cost of goods and services, eating into liquidity and cash reserves.

“Another factor impacting the delivery of treasury and cash management solutions is the rapidly changing regulatory environment,” adds Monaco. “Across the world, markets are facing new compliance obligations spurred by developments in real-time payments schemes, AML/KYC [anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer measures], cyber threats, sanctions compliance, and data sharing and localization. Companies and their partner banks are having to enhance and improve both infrastructure and processes as a result.”

BofA brought all payments activities under a new Global Payments Solutions division in recognition of the strategic importance of payments to the bank.

Citi, our winner as Best Bank for Cash Management, Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution, and Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management, also recently combined Treasury and Trade Solutions and Securities Services under one umbrella. At the June Citi 2024 Services Investor Day, Shahmir Khaliq, head of Services, noted that “it made sense to bring these businesses together under one portfolio, as they have strong synergies across our entire institutional client base.”

“Our clients are looking for fully integrated solutions across the entire continuum of accept, hold, pay, and finance as they look to scale quickly and globally,” added Debopama Sen, head of Payments at Citi, at the time. She added that acceptance capabilities are powered by Spring by Citi, an end-to-end digital payment acceptance solution. Hold capabilities include integrated liquidity and a banking-as-a-service offering that allows e-commerce clients to serve their merchants and seller customers. Payment solutions then enable clients to manage payouts globally, including navigation of cross-border complexities. And finally, Sen pointed out that for finance, Citi offers tailored offerings for e-commerce businesses, including the ability to offer flexible financing options and working capital management solutions.

According to Lisa Vasic, managing director of Transaction Banking at ANZ, our Best Bank for Payments, instant payment systems and real-time gross settlement now form part of a broader payments ecosystem. “Connected, automated, insight-driven, and always on, they provide corporate treasuries with an efficient, effective, and safe way to manage their liquidity and working capital, giving them greater control over financial transactions.”

The complex nature of corporate treasury cash management means the adoption has been slower among consumers; but as awareness of the benefits grows, customers are showing significant interest in exploring the path toward a real-time treasury.

“In response,” Vasic explains, “banks across the globe will need to evolve their systems, processes, and security controls to adapt to a 24/7, always-on environment. It’s not about simply turning on a new settlement capability; it’s about re-imagining business processes in light of what the technology can enable, redefining the standard of service that customers have come to expect, and working closely with them to create experiences for their clients.”

Over the past seven years, ANZ has significantly invested in technology to offer unprecedented flexibility and transparency.  Vasic adds that ANZ’s payments and cash management business success is the result of long-term system and platform investments  that support customer transactions, while not losing sight of the basics. “As banks continue to invest in digital transformation, it’s crucial to think long-term and to recognize the complexities, opportunities, and challenges. Ultimately, competition and innovation in the industry are driving better outcomes for clients.”

Having released a whitelabeling service for its enhanced liquidity management solutions LiquidityDirect and an open-banking payments solution (Bankify) that helps organizations receive consumer payments from bank accounts in 2023, BNY is our Best Bank for Financial Institutions and Best White Label System Provider – Bank. The bank has enabled a real broadening of treasury and cash management solutions.

Backbase wins as Best White Label System Provider – Non-Bank, offering white-label engagement banking solutions to more than 40 business banks, credit unions, and community banks around the world. These include Coutts, National Bank of Canada, BECU, and Standard Bank, who leverage the Backbase platform to drive customer loyalty and wallet share across onboarding, loan origination, daily banking, and investments.

If strong cash flow is important to large corporations, it is the lifeblood of small to midsize enterprises (SMEs). To better serve them, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), winner as Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds, created the Small and Midsize Industry Financing (SMIF) bond—a unique product aimed at securing stable financing for SMEs.

During periods of market volatility, SMIF bonds exhibit two distinct strengths that make them a preferred choice for funding. “SMIF bonds enjoy a superior credit rating compared to other bank bonds, leveraging IBK’s strong creditworthiness as a government-owned bank. According to Moody’s, while bank bonds are mostly rated Aa3, SMIF bonds are rated Aa2. This higher rating enhances their attractiveness as a liquid asset. In 2023, SMIF bonds saw an annual issuance of 50.7 trillion South Korean won [about $36.7 billion], with an outstanding balance reaching KRW73.8 trillion by year’s end,” states Kim Sung-tae, chairman and CEO at IBK. “During uncertain market conditions characterized by investor risk aversion and cautious attitudes, SMIF bonds’ higher credit rating provides a significant advantage over traditional bank bonds.”

The bonds also provide greater investment diversity—offering various options to a wide range of investors, including individuals, corporations, and institutional clients. “Amid uncertainty, where short-term fund management demands rise, SMIF bonds cater to varied investor needs regarding investment duration and strategies. The bonds provide flexible maturity periods ranging from 30 to 364 days and offer investment structures such as lump-sum and installment plans,” Kim says. “Additionally, to meet growing market demands for ESG [environmental, social, and governance] investments, SMIF bonds are also issued in ESG-bond formats, effectively addressing the diverse preferences of investors.”

As companies of all sizes strive to improve cash management systems in a cost-effective way, they will seek out the financial institutions that can provide the best tools to enhance treasury processes in a nimble manner, helping treasurers to be proactive in the current uncertain economic market.

Global Finance editors select the winners for the Best Treasury & Cash Management Awards with input from industry analysts, corporate executives and technology experts. The editors also use entries submitted by financial services providers, as well as independent research, to evaluate a series of objective and subjective factors. It is not necessary to enter in order to win, but experience shows that the additional information supplied in an entry can increase the chances of success. In many cases, entrants are able to present details and insights that may not be readily available to the editors of Global Finance.

 This year’s ratings are based on the period from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023. 

Global Finance uses a proprietary algorithm with criteria—such as knowledge of local conditions and corporate customer needs, quality of product and service offerings, financial strength and safety, market standing, compliance and excellent customer service—weighted for relative importance. The algorithm incorporates various ratings into a single numerical score, with 100 equivalent to perfection. In cases where more than one institution earns the same score, we favor local providers over global institutions, and privately owned banks over government-owned ones.

The winners are those financial services providers that best meet the specialized needs of corporations engaged in global business. These top-notch finance institutions are not always the biggest, but rather the best—those with qualities that companies should look for when choosing a provider.

As the dynamic payments landscape presents both challenges and opportunities for corporate treasury, it’s unsurprising that financial institutions are finding new ways to help treasurers leverage new payments trends to improve efficiency, manage risk, and support business growth.

Banking Circle is the winner of our award for Best Embedded Treasury Solution, providing the core financial infrastructure that allows businesses to build and offer embedded financial solutions. Embedded finance features include global payments, virtual accounts (VAs), and account management.

Nordea, which wins two awards this year, as both Best Fraud Detection Solution and Best Bank for Treasury FX Services, has developed a new secure Cash Management self-service request. Meanwhile, Nordea’s foreign exchange (FX) automation has evolved into a “comprehensive treasury management autopilot” that includes daily FX, FX hedging, and money market products, according to the bank.

Tailoring treasury management tools requires a nimble approach, owing to the diversity of client needs. Backbase is another winner of two awards, as Best Non-Bank for Treasury FX Services and for Best A/P & A/R Integrated Solution. Jarno van Hurne, head of Business Banking and VP Product, says business banks and their relationship managers face unique challenges when it comes to modernizing customer experiences. “This is due to the extremely diverse and complex needs of their client base, often ranging from sole proprietors to large corporate clients,” he says. “Backbase’s ‘buy for speed and build for differentiation’ approach provides a unique way to effectively cater to the needs of all these segments without having to build different applications from scratch or settling for one-size-fits-all, disconnected point solutions.”

With over 400 out-of-the-box composable business capabilities and digital journeys, including accounts payable (A/P) and receivable (A/R), banks can quickly create tailored, segment-specific applications and services for their customers and employees: from onboarding to origination, servicing, and investing. “The fact that these capabilities are not only fully extendable, but also reusable across channels and apps, means financial institutions can get to market faster; ensure a consistent, high-quality experience; and focus their development efforts on innovation rather than foundational plumbing,” van Hurne explains.

In January, JPMorgan Chase, our winner as Outstanding Web and Merchant Acquirer – Bank, unveiled a full-stack omnichannel platform, including online and in-store payments. It will also include biometric phone-free payments.

Although not a traditional merchant acquirer, Stripe is our Outstanding Web and Merchant Acquirer – Non-Bank, as a payment-service provider simplifying the payment process for businesses by combining the roles of payment processor and acquirer into a single service and offering businesses a range of tools and services to accept online payments seamlessly.

Herve Carrere, chief product and technology officer in the Treasury and Capital Markets Business Unit at Best Cloud Managed TCM Services award winner Finastra, says, “When combined, cloud and an API [application programming interface] marketplace can significantly transform treasury services by providing a unified solution for all treasury functions, leveraging cloud computing power with API access to various data sources. Customers can enable advanced analytics and insights, improving decision-making and strategic planning. With this model, treasurers can become much more agile, adopting new technologies and services quickly, and innovating continuously to meet changing market demands.” This combination, he adds, offers significant benefits by enhancing efficiency and operational resilience.

The Best Treasury Management Software award goes to ION Treasury Wallstreet Suite, the result of an ambitious program involving more than 100 people over five years, reengineering Wallstreet Suite. Capitalizing on the long-standing strengths of ION’s treasury management system in trading, risk, and accounting, it now includes an open and modular architecture based on real-time web dashboards, and a 360° payments hub with high volume capabilities. Boasting a robust back office, it provides treasury analytics with real-time key performance indicators, a modern and intuitive user experience, process automation, and exception-based management.

Payable, another double winner, takes both Best Cash Forecasting Solution and Best Treasury Analytics Provider. Payable built an intuitive API and dashboard with a reconciliation engine powered by artificial intelligence (AI), and with payments automation and cash management modules that seamlessly connect customers’ finance stack (including payment service providers, business tools, and banks) with leading accounting and enterprise resource planning platforms with no engineering effort.

FAB wins for the Best Virtual Accounts Solution for Corporates. VAs help streamline the payment process and improve cash flow management; and Anand Sampath, FAB’s Managing Director, Head – Global Payments & Collections, says VAs offer corporates an efficient and cost-effective way to manage and concentrate cash. “All transaction flows routed through VAs are immediately reflected in the underlying physical header account, providing immediate visibility of cash and (in terms of collections) an easy identification of payers who settled funds in their favor, for example.”

“Corporate treasurers,” Sampath adds, “can also see high efficiencies in implementing VA structures, in terms of rationalizing accounts maintained across their bank providers. For certain use cases, VAs allow the easy segregation of funds settled by various counterparties or customers, wherein corporates can determine the total amounts received from institutional customers over a given period of time.”

VAs help reduce—and eventually eliminate—various costs associated in managing multiple physical accounts, he says. “This includes the costs of maintaining balances, managing multiple access rights to monitor the cash balances and the administrative costs associated with periodic due diligence activities. Additionally, payment processing can be controlled at the VA level by setting spending limits for certain periods, even if cash is available at subentity levels.”

ICD takes home the Best Investment Management Solution award. This institutional investment technology provider serves more than 500 treasury organizations (including approximately 17% of the S&P 100, as of December 31, 2023) across 65 industries and 46 countries, trading money market funds and other short-term investments. ICD launched an AI portfolio analytics solution for corporate treasury investment reporting.

Treasury is not immune to the transformative capabilities of AI, and FIS Global wins the award for Most Innovative Treasury Solution with its Integrity SaaS Solution. This software-as-a-service (SaaS) system will be among the first corporate-facing treasury technologies to embed generative AI (GenAI). “There are countless GenAI possibilities for treasury, applying to every area of treasury operations: from the automation of basic cash positioning, to improved decision-making in complex areas like foreign exchange and interest rate risk management,” states Steve Wiley, vice president of Treasury Solutions at FIS. “Treasury, along with many other industries, finds itself in the midst of an AI revolution, one that will radically transform how treasury operations work.”

To counter the challenges of a growing number of payment types and file formats, Fides Treasury Services, winner of the Best Cross-Border Payments Solution for Corporates award, maintains a payment library consisting of thousands of unique payment formats to help streamline transactions to even the smallest of banks. Over 4,000 companies connect to more than 13,000 banks worldwide via the Fides platform, which processes over $6 trillion every year. Whether it’s payment files, FX confirmations, or trade finance messages, Fides ensures compatibility with any bank’s file formatting or local attribute requirements.

Standard Chartered takes Best Open Banking Treasury Solution. Through a VA solution, client PingPong has seen tangible and quantifiable results such as accelerated market entry, faster collections, revenue growth, cost reduction, and an overall enhanced customer experience.

“As businesses transform their operating models into platforms to meet consumer and supply chain demands, open banking revolutionizes the financial landscape through driving digital product innovation, facilitating collaboration and healthy competition between ecosystem partners, and offering improved client experiences,” states Mahesh Kini, global head of Cash Management at Standard Chartered. “Through secured sharing of information across different platform participants, it provides consumers access to a wider range of services and offers businesses data-driven insights and new opportunities.”

The cloud, open banking, APIs, and AI are all working together to transform corporate treasury into a more data-driven, automated, and strategic function within corporations, while reshaping how financial services are delivered and consumed.  

Faced with high interest rates and inflation, companies in Western Europe are turning to their banking partners to find ways to optimize cash flow and protect its value.

Societe Generale, our winner this year as Best Bank for Transaction Banking, has developed a Sustainable GTB (global transaction banking) Framework—one of the first dedicated to asset-based GTB solutions—to enhance the ability of the bank and its clients to assess and monitor the environmental and social impacts of their day-to-day working capital, trade, and liquidity management. “It is particularly intended for corporate treasurers, who have a crucial role to play in the corporates’ ESG strategy but who are currently facing the absence of mature market standards for sustainable GTB solutions while having a growing need to quantify the impact of their transactions and fulfill corresponding reporting requirements,” explains David Abitbol, head of Global Transaction and Payment Services at Societe Generale.

He says the framework provides clear and transparent definitions of sustainable GTB solutions (those that can be considered green, social, etc.) and the associated requirements that apply at both client and transaction levels. It specifies activities with positive environmental and/or social impacts (such as renewable energy projects, clean transportation, or sustainable wastewater management) covered by trade finance instruments or short-term financing. Monitoring will include reporting on impact indicators such as CO2 emissions avoided; renewable-energy-produced MWh; passengers or tonnes per kilometer; or annual amount of wastewater treated, reused, or avoided—both before and after the project.

This framework is based on an efficient and transparent ESG-qualification process made public and available to clients. The bank said in a statement, “This methodology has been established in the spirit of best market practices, such as the Green or Social Loan Principles, while considering the specificities of GTB.”

In addition to the Benelux region (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), Best Bank for Cash Management award winner ING is well positioned in Germany and Ireland. A leading supply chain finance provider in Benelux in terms of volume and the number of existing programs, ING continues to develop its footprint within the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the Nordics.

With a large international network, BNP Paribas, which takes the award for Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution, boasts an extensive reach to facilitate smooth cross-border transactions. This is bolstered by expertise in foreign exchange and in real-time tracking and management of cross-border payments.

Matthew Davies is head of Global Payments Solutions (GPS) for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and global co-head of GPS Corporate Sales at Bank of America (BofA), winner of two awards this year, as Best Bank for Payments and Best Bank for Collections. He says BofA is constantly looking at ways to provide its clients with more insights into their data, including payments-based insights.

“It means they can be much more autonomous and predictive with understanding all of their different payment flows,” states Davies. “They can uncover if payments are optimized, being sent on the most appropriate rails, where they are, and if they are duplicating payments to suppliers in different parts of the world, etc.”

Nordea, the winner as Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management, can help treasurers optimize their liquidity and gain more visibility and control over their cash, with the added benefit of real-time reporting and constant transparency of their liquidity position.

Sustainable finance is another key area in which banks are showing the way across Europe. The Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds, Royal London Asset Management, manages $9.2 billion. Royal London Short Term Money Market Fund, a low-risk investment option, yielding 5.5% over the past year, with high liquidity and good ESG credentials. Companies are also exploring the potential of new technologies like open banking application programming interfaces (APIs) for efficient data exchange and streamlined payments. BofA has over 1,600 API clients globally and this continues to grow. Davies says clients are using APIs more to get real-time access to information—constantly pulling data and transactions, for example, to embed in their own systems.   

Payments innovation creates both opportunities and challenges for US treasurers; and understanding how to optimize liquidity and bring about greater operational efficiency with the ever-evolving transformations in real-time payments, open banking, and embedded finance lies at the heart of treasury’s future. Partnering with banks can help treasurers access the best tools, expertise, and resources needed to stay competitive.

Bank of America (BofA) takes the award as Best Bank for Transaction Banking, servicing one in five midsize companies with revenue of $5 million to $2 billion operating in the US. BofA invests heavily in technology, offering online banking platforms, mobile applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs), for seamless cash management and integration with corporate treasury systems. In mid-2023, BofA brought together Global Transaction Services and Enterprise Payments under the umbrella of Global Payments Solutions, to strengthen and focus resources and efforts to improve the payment experience for all client segments.

Citi is a double winner, as Best Bank for Cash Management and for Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution. Debopama Sen, head of Payments at Citi, said, at the Citi Services Investor Day in June, that the bank has a broad suite of products and solutions in four core areas: domestic payments and payment acceptance, cross-border network, clearing, and commercial cards. “Through this product suite, we are addressing our client’s key needs, on the right-hand side, along the full payments continuum of accept, hold, pay, and finance—from facilitating payroll payments to gig economy payouts, like paying app developers, to managing receivables from their customers.” She added, “We are laser focused on enabling digital commerce.”

BNY, this year’s winner as Best Bank for Payments, has been busy rolling out payments innovations over the past year. A new aggregated payment platform, Vaia, can help give US-based institutions access to the latest digital payment options for disbursements. The open banking payments solution BankifySM can help organizations receive consumer payments from bank accounts with a seamless user experience and offers guaranteed funds for business receivables. BNY is keeping pace with real-time payments and the demand for faster and safer disbursements. The bank is an active participant in the FedNow instant payment rail. BNY has also formed a strategic alliance with MoCaFi (Mobility Capital Finance), a leading Black-founded and mostly Black-led fintech platform, to help extend payment options to unbanked and underbanked individuals in the US.

BMO, our Best Bank for Collections award winner, provides cross-border cash management solutions. These were recently restructured to have ownership of cash management collections solutions across Canada and the US, to ensure better cross-border parity and interoperability of the bank’s products. New products include the next generation of BMO’s remote deposit-capture product, DepositEdge, to serve both the US and Canada as a single solution. BMO is also working on enhancing AI and machine learning capabilities to support customer reconciliation of received payments and further improve the cross-border customer experience.

Citizens wins as Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management. Its liquidity management platform, accessLiquidity, provides a comprehensive dashboard view of a client’s liquidity positions, with detailed information across a wide spectrum of deposits and investments, which empowers clients to make well-informed decisions and execute money market trades at their convenience, without having to consult a banker.

Offering an institutional share class with same-day liquidity to institutions and individuals, North Capital is our winner as Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds. Via its North Capital Treasury Money Market Fund (NCGXX), it hopes to encourage all types of investors to incorporate NCGXX into their liquidity management. Being a government money market fund, it offers great safety. By modernizing infrastructure, banks can seamlessly integrate new technologies, such as real-time payments and open banking APIs—allowing corporates to benefit from faster transactions, better data analysis, and improved cash flow management.

FAB wins two awards this year, as Best Bank for Transaction Banking and Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management. The bank invested heavily in innovative cash management and liquidity solutions to enhance the experience and treasury capabilities of the region’s corporations. According to Anand Sampath, managing director and head of global payments, collections & implementation at FAB, APIs are revolutionizing corporate treasury functions in the Middle East by enabling greater automation, efficiency, and integration across financial systems.

“This seamless integration allows for more-accurate cash flow forecasting, efficient liquidity management, and streamlined payment processes for an overall improved, end-to-end working capital management structure,” Sampath says.

APIs enable clients of HSBC, our winner as Best Bank for Cash Management, to integrate the bank’s capabilities with their enterprise resource planning and treasury management system platforms and move away from batch processing into a real-time treasury environment. They can also take advantage of Swift GPI tracking services, virtual account multiple-entity structures, and an online liquidity management dashboard that offers a consolidated view of global cash position.

Bank ABC takes the award for Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution. The bank collaborated with the Central Bank of Bahrain and JPMorgan Chase to facilitate a landmark instant, high-value, cross-border payment pilot. “Over the past year, we continued to work to scale this solution for our corporate clients, starting with a soft launch—driving increased efficiencies in trade-related payments, alongside building market awareness and use-cases for programmable payments,” says a bank spokesperson.

Citi is our award winner as both Best Bank for Payments and Best Bank for Collections, offering uniform connectivity via 30 instant-payment schemes globally. Cross-border payments into digital wallets support the needs of direct-to-consumer transactions. Financial institutions (FIs) can now take advantage of Citi’s 24/7 USD Clearing for FIs to make commercial payments on behalf of underlying retail and corporate clients. The Citi Global Beneficiary Services Payment Tracker enables FIs to provide payment beneficiaries with full visibility into the status of their domestic or cross-border payments and receive alerts for any changes in their status.

The Middle East is not immune to high interest rates and a potentially slowing global economy, so ensuring sufficient liquidity to meet financial obligations remains a challenge that requires a mix of financial solutions. With its Cairo headquarters and Dubai office, CI Capital Asset Management, winner of the award as Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds, provides money market and fixed income funds that have been delivering superior returns to investors and earned it a top-ranking position on the Funds’ Performance Report put out by the Egyptian Investment Management Association. The region must also continue with its efforts at diversification away from oil and gas. According to the World Bank, the Gulf Cooperation Council region’s GDP is estimated to have grown by 1.1% in 2023 but is forecast to pick up again to 3.6% and 3.8% in 2024 and 2025, respectively—impressive because of a drop in oil activities. As the Middle East continues to diversify its economies, it will present more opportunities for both domestic and international companies. Treasurers will need to stay up to date on new regulations to ensure compliance while continuing to evolve and embrace technology needed to thrive in this competitive region.  

Forecasts from the US Federal Reserve signaling just one modest cut this year will have far-reaching implications on how US-headquartered corporations with Latin American subsidiaries manage their liquidity flows.

Although nearshoring has been a boon for Mexico, and the outlook is generally positive, risks in foreign exchange and commodity markets persist and require companies to partner with banks having regional expertise and cash management solutions tailored to the Latin American market.

Bank of America, the winner of the Best Bank for Transaction Banking and Best Bank for Collections awards, has been present in Latin America for 78 years. Today, corporates can better manage their cash via the CashPro working capital management platform. CashPro Search lets corporates search for a transaction or payment across multiple data repositories, while CashPro Insights centralizes four key data elements into one dashboard with proactive recommendations. Clients in Brazil and Mexico can optimize working capital with Intelligent Receivables—powered by artificial intelligence—a collections tool and invoice matching tool that achieves straight-through processing metrics into the 80-90 percentile range.

“Multinational clients are increasingly asking for digital cash management solutions with embedded services such as BNPL [a buy now, pay later platform] and payments, and APIs [application programming interfaces] have been instrumental in meeting these demands,” states Mencía Bobo, head of Global Transaction Banking at Santander. The bank takes three awards this year: Best Bank for Cash Management, Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution, and Best Bank for Payments. “By enabling a seamless communication exchange, APIs have transformed how we integrate with our clients’ systems and new business models based on ecosystems by simplifying the integration of different technology stacks. Thanks to APIs, we can provide a faster, more efficient way to exchange information and data and can better integrate new solutions from third parties, such as software providers, ERP [enterprise resource planning systems], and fintechs.”

From a business view, she says APIs have been key to generating new revenue streams such as business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) models offerings. APIs have facilitated process automation and personalized data exchange, crucial for making quick, informed decisions about incoming and outgoing payments.

“By building digital ecosystems together with their B2B distribution partners, large corporates in LatAm are transforming the way they reach and engage with their end customers, who are often small mom-and-pop stores that remain unbanked,” Bobo continues. “By embedding in their loyalty apps key financial products, such as merchant acquisition, digital accounts, and BNPL, B2B2C models enable the financial inclusion of small merchants into the system. From our experience with leading consumer goods corporates, B2B2C models unlock profitable growth for all value chain members, improve sales volume and conversion, and generate greater loyalty and client retention.”

Latin American firms are also increasingly looking to banking partners for both liquidity provision and treasury services. Citi, our Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management, offers cash concentration and pooling that lets clients optimize idle cash across subsidiaries for better returns. The Americas Trade and Investment Act (Americas Act), introduced in the US Congress in March 2024, could open the way for some Latin American countries to join the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement. It would expand US concessional lending and offer up to $70 billion in loans and grants to support the nearshoring of production. Although the bill will struggle to gain legislators’ attention in an election year, it is hoped it will usher in a new era of inter-American cooperation and economic resilience and help Latin America to further weather global choppy headwinds.

Inconsistencies between standardized payment systems among EU members and ad hoc systems used by non-EU members have resulted in fragmented receivables scenarios, where payment collections remain complex owing to the differences in payment practices across the region. Cash still remains the preferred method of payment in an evolving regulatory landscape where emerging regulations and compliance requirements add more layers of complexity for companies managing cash flow across the region.

UniCredit, our winner of two awards, as both Best Bank for Transaction Banking and Best Bank for Collections, uses its pan-European platform to leverage a sprawling network of businesses, fintechs, financiers, and investors to ensure that CEE receives the same services and products as its Western counterparts. In 2023, UniCredit established its new product factory, Group Payments Solutions, to provide greater global harmonization whereby best practices from across the bank’s network can be optimized and applied locally.

“We have all the tools to become every European client’s first choice in payments—the product is in our group’s DNA and represents the backbone of many of our client relationships, from individuals to the largest of corporates,” states Raphael Barisaac, global head of Payments & Cash Management at UniCredit.

To this end, UniCredit expanded its UC PayFX solution in 2023 to corporate and microbusiness retail clients in Romania—the country’s first fully automated, end-to-end international payments service, offering instant conversion for multiple currencies. To simplify trade finance guarantee issuance, meanwhile, e-signatures were implemented across Romania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

ING wins as the Best Bank for Cash Management. Payments and cash management experts provide local advice and solutions across its network of 21 countries in both CEE and Western Europe. ING’s InsideBusiness platform recently enabled setting up alerts for payments and improved user verification to comply with local anti-money-laundering regulations. SoftPOS enables flexible, immediate payment options, where in-person contact and immediate payment are required.

Citi, our winner for Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution, offers a robust suite of payment solutions for corporate clients in CEE, including domestic and international payments, trade finance solutions, and supply chain finance. Citi continued its focus on intelligent pooling solutions in 2023 with the market expansion of cross-currency sweeps in CEE. Spring by Citi enables end-to-end digital payment acceptance in locally preferred payment methods and is now available in 24 markets, including the Czech Republic, while a partnership with a fintech provider has enhanced Citi’s payments-and-collections solution offering in Turkey.

Best Bank for Payments Bank Pekao’s PeoBIZ mobile payment system allows business users to sign and send payments or track transaction history for various payment cards. Bank Pekao is also on the cusp of launching a raft of payments innovations, including instant payments, enhanced Swift GPI services, and domestic transfers for corporate customers in an e-commerce market via six-digit BLIK codes and payments and collections on behalf of targeting international transactional banks with limited operational presence in the Polish market.

OTP Bank takes the award as Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management, offering a comprehensive suite of cash management solutions to optimize liquidity, including account pooling, sweeping services to automatically transfer idle funds to interest-bearing accounts, payment automation for streamlined payables and receivables processing, and advanced reporting and analytics for real-time cash flow visibility. Partnering with banks that offer regional expertise and cash management solutions tailored to the specific needs of the CEE market, while utilizing technologies that help streamline payments and collections across borders, is the best route for companies in CEE to navigate the complexities of cash management and ensure optimal liquidity in the region.          

In the Asia-Pacific region, geopolitical risks and supply chain diversification require contingency planning by corporates, and banking partners who can help treasurers mitigate foreign exchange risk to protect profit margins.

“Businesses navigate an increasingly complex environment and confront a shift in trade patterns and supply chains across Asia,” says Lim Soon Chong, group head of Global Transaction Services at DBS, Global Finance’s winner both as Best Bank for Transaction Banking and for Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution. “Leveraging our broad and deep network in the most exciting growth nexus across Asia, we help clients navigate the complex environment and fortify their ability to capture regional opportunities.”

Citi, winner of the award as Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management, has focused on delivering solutions that will enable clients of all sizes, industries, and geographies to achieve their ambitions. Citi has, for example, built a real-time liquidity dashboard solution for mutual fund clients in India and introduced on-demand sweeps in China—providing clients with access to their cash to support real-time funding of payments. Citi is expanding its Global Liquidity Sharing platform to include greater functionalities and more countries. The expansion of Citi’s Intelligent Pooling Solutions across Asia continued in 2023; while Citi Interest Optimization (CIO) end-to-end, straight-through onboarding has been expanded to 12 Asian markets, with automated system setup and validations to improve the client experience with faster turnaround on selected CIO requests.

With a large global presence but a core strength in Asia, Bank of China (Hong Kong), winner of our Best Bank for Cash Management award, has a suite of cash management services, including account management, collection and payment processing, liquidity management, and investment options. A leader in renminbi transactions, the bank has developed a Distinctive Overseas Treasury Development (DOTD) solution for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in order to raise liquidity, maximize efficiency, and mitigate risk of funds, by concentrating cross-border services worldwide and offering a comprehensive solution, which can be tailored to solve SOEs’ pain points.

In Australia, the New Payments Platform (NPP) is an open-access infrastructure launched in 2018 to facilitate data-rich, real-time payments, helping to set up Australia’s digital economy for the future. It enables customers of different banks to make and receive domestic real-time payments.

“The NPP infrastructure supports an increasingly digital economy: improving payment speed, reducing errors, and providing convenience and transparency, which all goes toward enhancing the customer experience,” says Lisa Vasic, managing director of Transaction Banking at ANZ, our Best Bank for Payments.

Also in Australia, PayTo provides a digital way for merchants and businesses to initiate real-time payments from their customers’ bank accounts. ANZ became the first major bank to offer it to billers, in December 2023. “PayTo demonstrates how investment in modern payment rails and solutions can transform the customer experience across a range of industries and use cases,” states Vasic. “The first successful transaction using PayTo was completed with the Australian Bond Exchange, helping customers purchase fixed-interest bonds digitally, in real time and 24/7, which had never before been possible.”

She says another big benefit will be the NPP’s international payment services. “At present, a treasurer transferring money from Singapore to Australia would need to make payment prior to midday Singapore time to achieve same-day value. Payments coming in from Europe or the Americas will also materially benefit. Previously, payments sent on a Friday would hit Australia on a Saturday, therefore being held over for the weekend.” Industrial Bank of Korea, winner as Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds, takes a leading role in money market funds by offering short-term bonds tailored to customers’ needs, effectively responding to continuously changing market conditions. Small and Midsize Industry Financing (SMIF) bonds are issued to secure stable funding for small and midsize enterprises.

A fragmented regulatory environment, uneven access to financial services, a shallow pool of readily available funds, and currency controls and limitations in some African markets can lead to trapped cash. This diversity of problems challenges companies to manage their cash flow effectively, elevating the need for data insights on cash flows to create more-accurate forecasts; requiring integration from local banking partners to deliver treasury solutions.

Standard Bank, this year’s Best Bank for Transaction Banking, has been enabling corporate clients’ capabilities on its OneHub business platform. The bank has been developing frictionless payment experiences through integration of payment features within client apps, platforms, and software. The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, cloud-based computing, and application programming interface (API) integration are all helping Standard Bank provide value-added services to its clients.

“In the fast-paced business environment of today, corporate banking clients need payment solutions that are fast, efficient, reliable and secure,” says Kent Marais, head of Payments and Cash Management, Transaction Banking. “These clients require solutions that can adapt quickly to their changing needs and offer greater visibility and control over payment flows. A modern and agile technology stack that is modular, API driven, cloud ready and utilizes data and AI is imperative to meeting client needs and remaining competitive.”

Ecobank Transnational is a triple winner this year, as Best Bank for Cash Management, for Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution, and as Best Bank for Payments. The bank has seen usage of its Omni Plus, a cash management platform for corporate and investment banking, grow 10% from the previous year as African corporates and small to midsize enterprises look for cash-management transparency, visibility, and controls.

Through the Business Online platform of our winner as Best Bank for Collections, CIB, clients gain access to a wealth of relevant information. This includes incoming payments, cash deposits, and cleared checks against their accounts. Being able to monitor everything not only simplifies reconciliation but also enhances management of accounts receivable. The CIB CashConcentration module caters to businesses seeking real-time insights into cash deposits. Integrated into the Teller Core system, it offers a tailored solution for reconciliation purposes, providing clients with granular details about cash deposits credited to their accounts.

Bank ABC takes the award as Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management. The bank is fast developing its cash management position in the Middle East and North Africa region. The completed merger with Blom allows Bank ABC to combine their strengths while tripling its market share in Egypt and extending innovation capabilities to serve a larger regional customer base.

CI Capital Asset Management wins as Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds. CI Capital’s money market fund portfolio contains Egypt’s only foreign currency-denominated funds—Banque Misr Money Market Fund (in US dollars) and Banque Misr Money Market Fund (in euros). It also boasts Egypt’s largest money market fund, Banque Misr Money Market Fund (in Egyptian pounds), currently standing at 29.7 billion Egyptian pounds (about $618.7 million). CI Capital’s portfolio also contains the first fintech-enabled money market fund, the Fawry Yawmy money market fund, which is available through more than 300,000 points of sale (POS) for retail investors. The fund promotes financial inclusion through a low entry minimum (EGP500), and can be redeemed daily, 24/7, through vegetable sellers, pharmacies, kiosks, supermarkets, gas stations, and any other outlets that have a Fawry POS machine. Africa boasts seemingly unlimited resource potential, not least because of its supplies of renewable energy; but a complex and varied economic landscape requires deft navigation. A specialist banking partner will help provide and support an effective treasury model to help make the most of the opportunities.