Staying ahead of the cash management game is vital for treasurers facing multiple challenges, such as economic and political uncertainties, and our award winners are best positioned to do just that.
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.
Payments Pick Up Pace
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.
Methodology
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.
World’s Best Treasury & Cash
Management Providers 2024
| Global Winners | |
|---|---|
| Best Bank for Transaction Banking* | Bank of America |
| Best Bank for Cash Management | Citi |
| Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution* | Citi |
| Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management | Citi |
| Best Bank for Payments | ANZ |
| Best Bank for Collections | Bank of America |
| Best Bank for Financial Institutions | BNY |
| Best White Label System Provider – Bank | BNY |
| Best White Label System Provider – Non-Bank | Backbase |
| Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds |
Industrial Bank of Korea |
Country And Territory Winners
Best Overall Bank for Cash Management
| Africa | |
|---|---|
| Angola | Banco Millennium Atlantico (BMA) |
| Botswana | First National Bank of Botswana |
| Cameroon | Societe Generale |
| Côte d’Ivoire | Ecobank |
| Egypt | CIB |
| Ghana | Ecobank Ghana |
| Kenya | Standard Chartered |
| Mauritius | Mauritius Commercial Bank |
| Morocco | Arab Bank |
| Namibia | First National Bank Namibia |
| Nigeria | Guaranty Trust Bank |
| Senegal | Societe Generale |
| South Africa | Rand Merchant Bank |
| Tunisia | Bank ABC |
| Asia-Pacific | |
|---|---|
| Australia | ANZ |
| Bangladesh | Standard Chartered |
| China | Standard Chartered |
| Hong Kong | DBS |
| India | Standard Chartered |
| Indonesia | DBS |
| Japan | MUFG |
| Malaysia | OCBC |
| New Zealand | ANZ |
| Philippines | Standard Chartered |
| Singapore | DBS |
| South Korea | KB Kookmin Bank |
| Taiwan | CTBC Bank |
| Vietnam | DBS |
| Central and Eastern Europe | |
|---|---|
| Czech Republic | Ceska sporitelna |
| Georgia | TBC Bank |
| Hungary | MKB Bank |
| Poland | Bank Pekao |
| Romania | BRD Group Societe Generale |
| Turkey | Garanti BBVA |
| Latin America | |
|---|---|
| Argentina | Santander |
| Bahamas | Citi |
| Brazil | Santander |
| Chile | Santander |
| Colombia | BBVA |
| Dominican Republic | Banreservas |
| El Salvador | Banco Cuscatlán |
| Mexico | BBVA |
| Paraguay | Banco Itaú Paraguay |
| Peru | BBVA |
| Puerto Rico | Citi |
| Venezuela | BBVA |
| Middle East | |
|---|---|
| Bahrain | Bank ABC |
| Jordan | Arab Bank |
| Kuwait | NBK |
| Qatar | QNB |
| Saudi Arabia | SAB |
| UAE | FAB |
| North America | |
|---|---|
| Canada | RBC |
| United States | RBC-US |
| U.S. Regional Banks | |
|---|---|
| Mid-Atlantic | Citizens |
| Midwest | Fifth Third Bank |
| Northeast | Citizens |
| Southeast | Truist |
| Southwest | Frost Bank |
| West | BMO |
| Western Europe | |
|---|---|
| Austria | Raiffeisen Bank International |
| Belgium | Belfius Bank |
| Cyprus | Hellenic Bank |
| Denmark | Nordea |
| Finland | Nordea |
| France | Societe Generale |
| Germany | Deutsche Bank |
| Greece | Eurobank |
| Ireland | AIB |
| Italy | UniCredit |
| Netherlands | ING |
| Norway | Nordea |
| Portugal | Caixa Geral de Depositos |
| Spain | Santander |
| Sweden | Nordea |
| Switzerland | UBS |
| United Kingdom | Lloyds Bank |
