Corporate treasurers willing to change bank for one offering superior servicing

According to a report released by Temenos, the banking software povider, in conjunction with Ovum, a market research and consulting company, the importance to banks of providing state-of-the-art payments facilities in order to stay competitive.

According to the report, “2017 Transaction Banking Survey: Challenges & Imperatives of Real-Time Payments & Liquidity”, real-time payments is the most valued service upgrade, with 64% of survey respondents citing it as one of the top three most desirable service/account enhancements.

Real-time payments has added value to corporates in a number of key areas, the survey found, with 80% of corporates saying real-time payments has improved risk management, 77% saying it has improved liquidity management, and 76% saying it has improved cash visibility.

The survey – which reviews and compares the priorities of corporate treasurers and the banks that serve them – also found virtual accounts to be high on the banks’ agenda: 53% plan to offer virtual accounts within the next 12-15 months, rising to 57% among banks based in countries with real-time payments.

The survey underscores the importance to a bank of servicing its corporate clientele with what they need. And while the report indicates that banks are listening to their corporate clients, it also finds they are slow to change, hampered by ageing legacy platforms and isolated, so-called best-of-breed single function systems that can only communicate with other platforms via complex and expensive interfaces.

The report is based on interviews with 100 corporate treasurers and 100 corporate bankers from around the world – both in countries that have implemented real-time payments and those that have not.