TREASURY MANAGEMENT

ORIGINS AND DIRECTIONS

James M. ONeill
July 2014

CONTENTS
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 1
Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 2
Origins of Treasury Management ....................................................................................... 3
Macroeconomic Environment .......................................................................................... 3
Deregulation and Competition ......................................................................................... 5
Technological Advances.................................................................................................. 7
The Strategic Role of Treasury ......................................................................................... 10
Liquidity Management ................................................................................................... 14
Investment Management ............................................................................................... 14
Capital Management ..................................................................................................... 15
Risk Management .......................................................................................................... 15
Enterprise Financial Management ................................................................................. 16
The Treasury Management Technology Landscape ........................................................ 18
Spreadsheets ................................................................................................................ 18
Bank-Based Systems .................................................................................................... 19
Vendor Systems ............................................................................................................ 20
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 21
Whats Next ....................................................................................................................... 22
Leveraging Celents Expertise .......................................................................................... 23
Support for Financial Institutions ................................................................................... 23
Support for Vendors ...................................................................................................... 23
Related Celent Research .................................................................................................. 24

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The scope of corporate treasury management services (TMS) has evolved significantly
over the past 30 years, moving from the corporate treasurers narrow focus on investing
excess cash and maintaining the firms banking relationships to a much wider and
nuanced role as a principal risk manager with responsibility for its financial assets.
Simultaneously, deregulation and competition in the financial services sector have had a
tremendous impact on the number of financial services partners available to todays
corporations, and similarly the diversity of financial instruments spanning investment,
borrowing, and hedging activities has created a more complex financial environment.
Fortunately for corporate treasurers, advances in computing power and
telecommunications, together with the standardization of information transfer protocols,
have allowed treasury organizations to automate routine work and harness the power of
dedicated systems to process the huge amount of data needed to make good financial
decisions.
Todays corporate treasurers rely on a wide variety of tools, ranging from low-tech
automation provided by the use of simple spreadsheets, to bank-provided online cash
management services, to high-tech treasury management systems provided by the major
ERP vendors and pure play TMS system providers.
Celent is embarking on a series of research projects to develop insights into the following
issues:
1. How has technology enabled the evolution of the corporate treasury market over the
past 30 years?
2. What drives demand for TMS systems among corporate buyers, and what options do
corporate clients have to acquire these technological capabilities: build, buy, or
outsource?
3. What are the primary service differentiators in evaluating third party TMS systems:
functionality, underlying technology, deployment model, etc.?
4. Which TMS vendors distinguish themselves in terms of market presence, solution
capabilities, and customer focus?
This first report traces the origin and evolution of the role of the corporate treasurer over
the past 30 years; examines the role technology has played in enabling the corporate
treasurer to expand and improve their role within the corporation; and provides an initial
overview of the technology vendor landscape for TMS systems.

INTRODUCTION
Few roles in the world of corporate financial management have changed more over the
past 30 years than those of corporate treasurers, evolving in parallel with the banks that
served their needs.
During the post-World War II period of economic boom in the US and Europe, the life of
the commercial banker was indeed the dolce vita. It was in the early 1960s that industry
analysts coined what has become the mythical 3-6-3 rule of commercial banking:
Gather deposits at 3%, lend them at 6%, and get to the golf course by 3 oclock.
Aside from humid days, bankers had little reason to sweat during these post-war years.
In the highly regulated business, bank charters were hard to come by, branching was
prohibited by law in most states, and rates on deposits and loans were tightly governed
through Reg Q and various state usury laws.
On the other side of the table, most corporate treasurers had a similarly simple job: to
collect and monitor the firms cash and invest the excess, and to establish and maintain
various short-term and longer-term lines of credit to ensure that the firm had adequate
funding for growth.
Today, the picture could not be more different for bankers and corporate treasurers. The
combination of steady banking deregulation since the 1980s, the market volatility that
characterized the capital markets since deregulation, and dramatic advances in enabling
technologies turned the world of the corporate treasurer on its head.
The role of the modern treasurer has evolved from a modest start as the cash manager
and bank relationship lead into a much more complex and central role as a principal risk
manager with responsibility for the firms financial assets.

Chapter: Introduction

In this report Celent surveys the evolution of the treasury management practice, reviews
the various technologies available to todays treasury managers, and sets the stage for
an ongoing set of reports around treasury management services (TMS) systems.

ORIGINS OF TREASURY MANAGEMENT

Three themes have dominated the development of the treasury management discipline
over the past 30 years: increasing macroeconomic volatility, financial services
deregulation and the resulting competition, and rapid development in enabling
technologies.
While each of these factors can work independently, they also worked together to shape
new risks and opportunities in treasury management.

MACROECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
During the post-war growth years of the 1950s and 1960s, interest rates remained low as
policymakers aimed to boost industrial growth and promote the emergence of a large
middle class in America that was underpinned by widespread home ownership, in turn
financed by the savings and loan industry. This period was the heyday of the 3-6-3 Rule,
as bankers and their corporate treasurer clients relaxed and went about their business in
a predictable if unexciting business world.
This all changed in the 1970s, when a combination of government deficit spending on
defense and social services, oil-price shocks fueled by unrest in the Middle East, and an
accommodative monetary policy on the part of the Federal Reserve fueled high inflation
and two recessions between 1970 and 1975. A new term called stagflation was coined
to describe this unusual combination of low economic growth and high inflation during the
early 1970s.
In 1980 Paul Volcker, the inflation-fighting Chairman of the Federal Reserve, resolved to
fight stagflation by raising interest rates and slowing the growth in the money supply, and
as a result rates remained high until the mid-1980s, when they began a long and steady
decline.

Loan interest spread is an important issue to a corporate treasurer, because the strategic
decision of deploying surplus cash will reflect the opportunity cost of investing cash
versus using it to repay corporate debt. The Federal Reserve publishes historical yields
for the 3-month US Treasury bills and for AAA-rated medium-term bonds, and Figure 1
tracks these benchmark investment and borrowing rates.

Chapter: Origins of Treasury Management

Traditionally, a commercial banks loan spread the difference between what the bank
pays for deposits and what it can charge borrowers on loans has been wider in a high
interest rate environment. The exception to this rule of thumb occurs during a recession,
when economic uncertainty can drive banks, which become reticent to extend their loan
portfolios, to increase their loan spread regardless of the overall rate environment.

Figure 1: Historic Relationship Between Treasury and AAA Bond Yields, 19842014

16
14
12
10
8

3-mo. T-Bill Yield

AAA Bond Yield

4
2
Jan-84
Feb-86
Mar-88
Apr-90
May-92
Jun-94
Jul-96
Aug-98
Sep-00
Oct-02
Nov-04
Dec-06
Jan-09
Feb-11
Mar-13

Source: Federal Reserve Board

A wide loan interest spread requires particular vigilance on the part of the corporate
treasurer. As Figure 1 shows, the opportunity cost between investing and repaying debt
can change over time, requiring the treasurer to constantly monitor the current state of
the markets and economic environment, and to make adjustments to the companys
investment and financing strategies accordingly.
Corporate cash reserves serve as both litmus tests of the health of the corporation and
barometers of the outlook of the business. In the short term a companys cash reserves
can increase due to current financial success, but eventually the cash will be invested in
new production capacity, the retirement of debt, return of capital to shareholders, or
another productive use.

Figure 2 illustrates that throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, corporate cash
reserves grew roughly in lockstep with the overall growth in corporate assets; however,
since 1995 corporate cash holdings have begun to grow at a distinctly higher rate than
corporate assets.

Chapter: Origins of Treasury Management

Over the long term the level of corporate cash holdings is a barometer of the outlook for
the business and/or the economic climate. During uncertain times, a company will tend to
maintain a larger cash cushion than it does during times of growth.

Figure 2: Growth in Corporate Cash Reserves, 19842014

350.0
300.0
250.0
200.0
150.0

Indexed Growth:
Cash/Equivalents

100.0

Indexed Growth:
Total Assets

50.0

1985Q4
1987Q4
1989Q4
1991Q4
1993Q4
1995Q4
1997Q4
1999Q4
2001Q4
2003Q4
2005Q4
2007Q4
2009Q4
2011Q4
2013Q4

Source: Federal Reserve Board (1984 values = 100)

While the outsized buildup of cash reserves beginning in 1995 was initially a result of
firms reaching near-term operational capacity, by the early 2000s it had become clear
that cash reserves had become a strategic buffer for many successful corporates made
wary by the two economic downturns of the 1990s.

This outsized growth in corporate cash holdings against traditional benchmarks reflects
increased corporate conservatism with respect to balance sheet management through
the course of the last few business cycles. This trend in turn has created a back to
basics movement among corporate treasurers as they manage their companies
increasing cash balances.

DEREGULATION AND COMPETITION

Over the past 30 years, the evolution of the US financial services industry has created an
environment which holds the promise of significant financial reward to corporate
treasurers along with equally significant financial risk.
The traditional tool for financial services regulation in the 1950, 60s, and 70s was the
Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which regulated the permitted activities of US banks.
Important provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act were Regulation Q, which regulated the
rates banks could pay on deposits; the establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC), which established insurance for depositors funds within set limits;
and the prohibition on banks from engaging principally in nonbanking activities, which
was intended to exclude banks from the securities business.

Chapter: Origins of Treasury Management

The trend toward maintaining larger corporate cash surpluses continues to this day, with
technology titan Apple Computer boasting a cash balance of $159 billion, an amount that
would rank the company 56th among the 189 countries ranked in the World Banks Gross
Domestic Product league table for 2013. Industry rival Microsoft Corp. is second among
US firms with cash holdings of $84 billion, an amount that would place the company 64th
in the World Bank GDP tables.

The Glass-Steagall Act worked well toward rebuilding confidence in the US banking
system, with the number of bank failures declining from 75 in 1937 alone to a figure not
exceeding single digits in any year from 1943 through 1975. However, in the late 1970s
and continuing into the 1980s, a progression of court decisions and legislative actions
significantly relaxed the restrictions imposed on the banking system and allowed for the
influx of competition in the financial markets.
In 1978, the US Supreme Court effectively negated state-specific limitations on the
interest rate on loans (Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp.), setting
the stage for South Dakota to repeal its usury ceiling laws, and in the process
transforming the state into a national center for bank consumer lending operations.
Two years later, with double-digit inflation rendering the original Reg. Q interest rate
restrictions meaningless, President Carter signed the Depository Institutions Deregulation
and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (DIDMCA), which phased out all interest rate ceilings
by 1986 and increased the level of deposits that were eligible for FDIC coverage.
The incoming Reagan administration continued and extended the progressive
dismantling of regulations in the banking industry. In 1982, the Garn-St. Germain Act
authorized savings and loan associations to enter the commercial lending business and
compete with commercial banks for deposits into money market mutual funds.
As a result of the Garn-St. Germain Act, thrift institutions became aggressive in
increasing deposit rates in order to attract funding to invest in new ventures including
commercial real estate lending and other related projects, reducing their traditional focus
on residential consumer lending. (By the late 1980s, the savings and loan industry came
to regret its aggressive growth and diversification, which culminated in a federal
government bailout of the industry in 1989.)
In 1986, the Federal Reserve reinterpreted the Glass-Steagall restrictions on commercial
banks engaging in the securities business, allowing commercial banks to engage in
investment banking provided that a bank could not derive more than 5% of its gross
revenue from that activity.

By 1996, the Federal Reserve had increased the revenue benchmark to 25%, effectively
negating the impact of Glass-Steagall on the separation between commercial banking
and investment banking. In 1998, Citibank was so confident that Glass-Steagall would be
repealed that it announced a merger with insurer Travelers Insurance Group, a
combination that at the time of announcement was technically illegal due to the 25%
benchmark.
Proving Citibank correct, in 1999 the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act
dismantled the remaining elements of Glass-Steagall and allowed unfettered competition
and business combinations between banking, securities, and insurance firms.
Along with deregulation in the banking industry, the emergence of the rapidly growing
and non-regulated derivatives markets in the 1990s presented opportunities and
companion risks to banks and their corporate clients. As with the financial
deregulation, the derivatives market was allowed to introduce products and create
markets mostly on a self-regulated basis.

Chapter: Origins of Treasury Management

This loosening of regulatory limits was ostensibly done to allow banks to compete with a
widening variety of nontraditional competitors including non-bank banks established by
diversified services providers such as Sears Roebuck & Company, which attempted to
cobble together a financial services supermarket by combining services from its
subsidiaries Discover, Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker, and Allstate.

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 was notable for prohibiting the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission from regulating the sale and trading of most
derivative contracts, including the credit default swaps that underpinned the explosion in
securitized mortgage lending market and along with it, housing sales and prices.
Not surprisingly, the combination of rapid growth and a lack of regulatory oversight led to
financial abuses within the industry that by 2008 led to the failure of Lehman Brothers,
the forced sale of Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, and the need for the federal
government to bail out much of the commercial banking industry through the Emergency
Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which established the Troubled Asset Relief Program
(TARP), which recapitalized the banking industry and purchased a significant portion of
the toxic assets which saddled the banks balance sheets.
For the corporate treasurer, the decade of the 2000s was particularly tumultuous. The
promise of growing markets and increased competition for the corporations investment
and loan business yielded to a financial crisis of historical proportion, precipitous declines
in the value and liquidity of previously reliable financial instruments, and the addition of
counterparty risk to the treasurers lexicon.

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
Prior to 1981, computers were purely the domain of large banks and corporate
enterprises. Banking systems were written for the mainframe at a time when an IBM
Systems/370 with 16 MB of memory cost nearly $5 million, or could be rented from IBM
at the cost of more than $100,000 per month. Smaller banks could not afford the
investment in technology required to run data processing operations in-house and opted
for mainframe time-sharing or full outsourcing of back office processing.
Treasury management data analysis was typically performed on a manual basis, with
inbound information arriving in paper form, data being transferred by hand into paper
spreadsheets, and the resulting investment or borrowing instructions being transmitted
verbally by phone or in written form via fax.

Less recognized but equally important to the treasury management profession was the
introduction of the Hayes Smartmodem in 1981. Unlike earlier, primitive data modems,
the Smartmodem included a chip that allowed it to interact and receive stored instructions
from a connected PC utilizing standard commands including initiating a connection,
receiving a call from another computer, and terminating a connection.
Using an IBM PC and a Hayes Smartmodem, a company could configure a system to
automatically create or receive host connections to and from its operating units, its
suppliers, or its banks, with no user intervention required to upload or download the
information needed to perform treasury management tasks.
As important, in many cases the data was transmitted in a format that the PC could parse
and store, eliminating the need to rekey data for further analysis and processing.
Particularly for corporates with far-flung operating units, banks, or other trading partners,
the new Hayes modem also made it possible for treasury to operate largely on a lights
out basis.
Of course, the question was how the treasurer could utilize that information once
received. For the largest companies, in-house IT departments began to create custom

Chapter: Origins of Treasury Management

Birth of the Personal Computer

The introduction of the IBM Personal Computer on August 12, 1981 changed everything.
With a starting price of $1,565 and featuring the robust Microsoft DOS 1.0 operating
system and BASIC programming language, the IBM PC placed powerful computing
capabilities in the hands of nearly all midsize and small businesses.

programs to receive, consolidate, and process incoming treasury data, and these inhouse specialists were soon joined by third party development efforts, some of which
were driven by spin-outs of established data processing firms.
The Spreadsheet
For all but the largest companies, the potential benefit of automation in the collection and
consolidation of bank balances and other important treasury data was limited by the fact
that the analysis of collected information was still largely manual. The launch of Lotus 12-3 in January 1983 completely changed this dynamic. Known as the IBM PCs first
killer-app, Lotus 1-2-3s functionality spanned spreadsheet analysis, chart and graphs
generation, and basic database functionality.
Along with Lotuss companion products dBASE and WordPerfect, corporate treasurers at
companies of any size suddenly had access to industrial grade data collection, analytical
resources, and report generation.
Lotus 1-2-3 dominated its market for spreadsheet analysis throughout the 1980s and into
the early 1990s, stumbling when it was slow to respond to the introduction of Microsofts
new Windows operating system. This gave Microsoft the opening it needed to overtake
Lotus with its newly developed Excel, a more powerful and feature-rich product originally
introduced in 1987.
EDI and Messaging Standards
When the IBM PC was introduced in 1981, most financial data was transmitted on a peerto-peer basis between the mainframe computers of one bank and another, and as such
the data transmission protocols reflected the programming languages in use by these
mainframes, most notably COBOL. Although the development of messaging standards
by the Bank Administration Institute (BAI) in the US had been in progress since the
early 1970s, the standard was primarily in use by the large commercial banks.
At the individual corporate level, the impact of early standards was not felt, as inbound
banking data was accessed visually either on a computer terminal or via paper output,
and transaction instructions and other data were rekeyed by the treasury staff for use in
other systems.

The first international EDI standard was established in 1987 by the United Nations Center
for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) and was known as the
EDIFACT standard. The EDIFACT standard was intended to form the foundation for
further work in developing data transmission standards for specific industries.
In the US, the Accredited Standards Committee (X9) of the American National Standards
Institute (ASC-X9) has been working since 1984 to develop standards for the
transmission of data within the financial services industry. ASC-X9 began to establish
standards encompassing everything from paper and electronic check standards to
magnetic card and ATM card reader standards, and over time the BAI work on
messaging standards converged with ASC-X9, and in its present form is known as the
Balance and Transaction Reporting Standard (BTRS).
In addition to the ASC-X9 set of standards, on the international front the Society for
Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) has for many years created
and extended a standard message set for facilitating cross-border communication of

Chapter: Origins of Treasury Management

The proliferation of the PC in banking and business in the early 1980s created a need for
a more accessible standard for the transmission of data between trading partners, and
thus the electronic data interchange (EDI) initiative was born. The purpose of EDI was to
allow for the transmission of structured data between systems without the need for
significant manual intervention.

financial transaction data. Over time this message set, in its current form known as
SWIFT MT, has been incorporated into the recently developed ISO 20022 standards, an
XML-based messaging standard for financial services that is also integrated with the
newly introduced Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payments standard.
The final piece of the puzzle in understanding the development of todays treasury
management systems was the emergence of the public Internet beginning in 1989 with
the launch of the first commercial Internet service provider.
Whereas previously financial data was transmitted from one computer to another utilizing
a dedicated data transmission line, and multiple sources of data could only be imported
on an individual case-by-case basis, with the emergence of TCP/IP and the emergence
of commercial Internet service providers, a corporate treasury group could use a single
Internet connection to connect to multiple banks or trading partners on a nearly
simultaneous basis.

Chapter: Origins of Treasury Management

Early Internet connections were very slow, but by the late 1990s they had progressed to
the point where the collection of data from multiple sources could be achieved very
quickly.

THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF TREASURY

When the growth in corporate cash reserves is considered against the backdrop of
continuing market volatility, deregulation and competition, and ongoing advances in
enabling technology, the role of the corporate treasurer has become multifaceted and
significantly more complex in the years since the nostalgic days of the 3-6-3 Rule.
In response to the ever-increasing demands placed on corporate treasurers, the industry
has developed standards for professional training and development. A leading
professional organization for treasury management professionals is the Association for
Financial Professionals (AFP). The AFP provides educational and networking
opportunities for its treasury professional members. Founded in 1979 as the National
Corporate Cash Management Association (NCCMA), the organization changed its name
to the Treasury Management Association in 1991 and again rebranded in 1999 as the
AFP, reflecting the evolution of the role that its members play in their firms.
The AFP is also the accreditation body for the Certified Treasury Professional (CTP)
designation, the widely recognized standard for treasury professionals, with nearly
30,000 receiving accreditation since the 1980s. The CTP designation began life as the
Certified Cash Manager (CCM) accreditation of the NCCMA, and as the NCCMA evolved
into todays AFP so did the underlying knowledge base on which the CTP accreditation
was based (as AFP terms it, the Body of Knowledge or BOK).

Hill, Ned C., Emery, Gary W., Sartoris, William L.. Essentials of Cash Management: A Study Guide.
Connecticut: National Corporate Cash Management Association, 1985. Print.
2

Webster, Mark K.. Essentials of Treasury Management, Fourth Edition. Maryland: Association for Financial
Professionals, 2013. Print.

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

The AFP has published a study guide for the CCM/CTP accreditation test since 1985.
1
Initially called Essentials of Cash Management (ECM) , the guide was later renamed
2
Essentials of Treasury Management (ETM) to reflect the growing scope of responsibility
of corporate treasury professionals.

10

Figure 3: Evolution of the AFT Body of Knowledge

900
800
700
600
500
400

Pages

300
200
100
0
ECM-1st Ed.
(1985)

ECM-5th Ed.
(1995)

ECM-7th Ed.
(2001)

ETM-4th Ed.
(2014)

Source: AFP

Figure 3 tracks the evolution of the AFP guide to cash management into todays CTP
certification study guide. From its start as a modest-size guide containing information
about cash collection, investment, and bank relationship management, the AFT body of
knowledge has become the corporate treasurers playbook of best practices, and the
guide expanded in size to that of a large citys telephone book.

During the initial 20 years of the CTP certification, BOK growth reflected primarily the
increased scope of the corporate treasurer, from a narrow view of cash and equivalents
to a broader focus on the components of working capital that impact a companys cash
flow and liquidity, namely inventory management, the provision of trade credit, and
receivables management.
Figure 4 shows the distribution of topical emphasis that is reflected in the AFP BOK over
the past 30 years. In addition to the previously mentioned broadening of interest from
cash to all working capital components, the development of the AFP BOK through the
1980s and 1990s reflected the much wider range of financial instruments available to the
treasurer for an increasing number and type of providers, now including commercial
banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and other financial services providers.

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

The evolution of the AFP BOK reflects the development of the treasury profession from a
narrow focus on cash balances and bank relationships into a well-rounded and trusted
member of the financial executive team. The growth in size and scope of the AFP BOK
also reflects on the growing operational complexity of the treasurers role in todays
modern corporation.

11

Figure 4: Distribution of Topics in AFP BOK, 19852014

300
250
200
150

1985
2001

100

2014

50
0
Treasury
Working
Risk
Financial
Management
Capital
Management Management
Environment Management

Source: AFP

The growth in the scope of the role of corporate treasury into risk management and
financial management has been made possible by the power of technology in automating
manual processes, and reflects the fundamental skills that the position has developed
and acquired over the years in standardized processes and formalized financial analysis.
Table 1 shows how the AFP BOK classifies the division of responsibilities of todays
corporate treasurer across these four categories of concern.

TREASURY
MANAGEMENT

WORKING CAPITAL
MANAGEMENT

RISK
MANAGEMENT

FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT

Banking relations

Metrics and
benchmarking

Operational risk
management

Financial accounting

Payment operations

Cash collections and

concentration

Enterprise risk
management

Financial reporting

Investments

S-t Borrowing/Investing

Insurance management

Financial planning and

analysis

Capital management

Cash forecasting and

reconciliation

Hedging operations

Financial decisions and

management

Vendor relationship
management

IT management

Treasury policies and

procedures

Source: AFP

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

Table 1: The Treasurers Division of Concerns

12

While the various roles of the modern corporate treasurer can be unwrapped and
classified in many different ways, Celent believes that the fundamental roles are best
described in terms of five components, as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Liquidity management
Investment management
Capital management
Risk management
Enterprise financial management

Two additional concerns cut across several or all of these five functional components,
namely the corporations bank relationship management and the use of information
technology to manage the complex workflows that underpin the TMS universe.
Adding these two concerns results in what we call the Seven Ms of treasury
management, as depicted in Figure 5.

Source: Celent

Underpinning the treasurers liquidity, investment, and capital management is the function
of bank relationship management, the maintenance of the many deposit and borrowing
relationships that a firm may maintain with banks and other financial institutions. An
important aspect of bank relationship management is the need to maintain proper
governance over the many bank accounts that many corporations require to manage
their diverse operations.
In the case of IT management, the scope ranges from financial data interchange systems
to financial analysis tools to complex workflow engines, and encompasses transactional
activity between the corporation and its banks and other financial partners, its suppliers
and customers, and its other trading partners.

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

Figure 5: Celent's Seven Ms of Treasury Management

13

Two important features of modern TMS systems that address bank relationship
management are electronic bank account management (eBAM) systems that automate
the opening and closing of accounts and updating of authorized signatories; and bank
account analysis systems that allow treasury groups to assess the cost-effectiveness of
their banks.
Each of the foregoing five functional components of treasury management (shown at the
top of Figure 5) will be described briefly, and then we will consider the technological
environment that supports all of these roles of the treasurers office.

LIQUIDITY MANAGEMENT
The corporate treasurers fundamental responsibility is to manage the firms day-to-day
liquidity, specifically to ensure that the business is in a position to pay all of its bills as
they become due.
Often referred to as the treasurers cash management role, the essence of liquidity
management is monitoring and administering not only the firms cash and short-term
financial assets, but also other working capital components such as inventory, accounts
receivable, and accounts payable.
In the context of the treasurers role as chief liquidity officer, there is an important
distinction to be made between how the treasurer views cash and the conventional
understanding of how cash is measured under US Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles.
Whereas the accountant records may reflect cash as increasing or decreasing at the
moment a financial transaction is booked in the firms accounting records, the treasurer is
concerned with when the transaction is actually settled that is, the moment when cash
is actually transferred into or out of the firms bank account.
This difference between when a financial transaction is initiated and when it is settled is
called float, and the management of the firms float is a key component of the corporate
treasurers job.

When financial markets are characterized by economic and market volatility, the
emphasis is not as much on maximizing investable cash but rather on ensuring that the
firm does not experience a liquidity shortfall which might result from any number of
unexpected events like a customer payment delay or default, an Act of God event
requiring an unexpected capital investment, or other unanticipated situations.

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
When a firm is generating a level of cash that exceeds its current financial obligations,
whether this is a temporary/seasonal effect or a long-term result of successful business
practices, a role of the corporate treasurer is to invest these funds in accordance with the
firms investment strategies and policies.
In this context, the treasurers objective is not simply to maximize return on investment; in
fact, a the treasurer of a firm that exhibited much higher than market rates of return on
the firms investment portfolio would be scrutinized to determine what level of additional

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

When financial markets are strong and growing, the primary concerns of the treasurer are
to manage the daily activity of collecting cash from the firms various businesses and
divisions across the country or around the world, ensuring that daily outgoing payments
are properly authorized and executed, and determining the net amount of excess cash
that can be invested for the firms benefit, or alternatively the amount of cash that needs
to be borrowed by the firm to support the days disbursements.

14

financial risk the firm was assuming. Rather, the objective of the corporate treasurer is to
achieve a reasonable rate of return while balancing the risk of loss to the firm.
Important sources of investment risk include issuer risk (the risk that the issuer of the
security could fail to make good on its payment obligations), market risk (the risk that the
entire market could decline, bringing the firms investment down with it), and duration risk
(the risk that the treasurer may commit the firm to a longer-term investment than its
current cash needs would allow, creating a temporary liquidity shortfall).
In the latter case, in the event that the firms investment policies do not meet its shortterm cash requirements, the treasurer may need to prematurely liquidate certain
investments and incur a loss, or may need to draw down the firms line(s) of credit,
negating the positive returns of the investment.

CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
In the early days of treasury management, the treasurers role in capital management
was limited to establishing and maintaining strong long-term relationships with the firms
banks, as bank lines of credit and term loans were the primary source of financing for
most US corporates.
For many decades following the passing of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, investment
banks focused on underwriting publicly traded debt and equity securities on behalf of
large public companies, leaving the private short- and medium-term funding market
largely to the commercial banks and, to a lesser extent, private placements to insurance
companies.
However, starting in the early 1980s and aided by an increasingly permissive regulatory
environment, investment banks and insurance companies began steadily encroaching on
the traditional short-term lending business of the banks, which in turn made the
treasurers role in managing the firms financing resources much more complex and
interesting.

While traditional bank loans have remained a source of financing for firms of every size,
the Basel II and III reform initiatives to improve the soundness and transparency of the
banking system have resulted in the need for banks to reevaluate how traditional lines of
credit are priced and lending commitments are managed over time, creating additional
risk and uncertainty for the corporate treasurer.
The continued evolution and consistent volatility of the capital markets require the
formulation and execution of a capital plan that supports the firms underlying financing
needs, while maintaining flexibility in times when the markets behave in unexpected
ways.

RISK MANAGEMENT
Perhaps the largest change in the role of the corporate treasurer over the past 30 years
is in the area of financial risk management. While economic downturns have certainly
occurred in the past, in most previous cases the impact was been short-lived; the
economy rebounded during the subsequent turn in the business cycle.

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

New financing alternatives offered by the investment banks included short-term

commercial paper, asset-based financing, securitized debt offerings, sale/leaseback
transactions, and other innovative financing structures. (Of course, some of the very
same innovative financing structures were ultimately blamed in part for the financial crisis
of 2008, but that is a story for another day.)

15

The recession of 2008 changed all of the prior ways of thinking about risk, as longstanding Wall Street firms went under or were sold under duress, entire investment
markets ground to a halt under the pressure of fleeing investors, and once reliable capital
markets became unpredictable and undependable.
Beyond the daily liquidity risk managed by the corporate treasurer, the primary sources of
financial risk remain interest rate risk, commodity risk, foreign exchange risk, and of great
concern during uncertain economic times, counterparty risk. Although the first three forms
of financial risk have been understood and managed for many years, the rate and level of
change in the markets has created a new level of vigilance on the part of treasury staffs
in regard to these risks.
A large part of this increased complexity relates to the wide increase in financial
instruments that can be utilized to assist in hedging interest rate, currency, commodity, or
other types of financial exposure. Additionally, a significant amount of new industry focus
is now on measuring and monitoring counterparty risk, the risk those parties that stand on
the other side of a futures or options contract might default.
The concept of counterparty risk is a relatively new area for corporate treasurers to
understand and manage. While notionally counterparty risk has been part of the financial
vocabulary for a long time, the speed at which an investment grade trading partner
(whether it be a customer, supplier, or financing partner) could tumble into financial
distress was a shock to the system of most corporate treasurers, and in response
enterprise counterparty risk management continues to grow in scope and importance for
many firms.
Todays corporate boards require a 360-degree view of the business risk that the firm is
exposed to in terms of counterparty risk, and treasurers have become accustomed to
tracking exposure to material counterparties on a regular basis.
What makes this process unusually complicated is that a given counterparty say, a
bank lender can serve several roles in regard to the financial relationship with a firm. A
bank lender can be providing a needed short-term line of credit while also standing on the
other side of an interest rate swap arranged by an investment bank.

This in turn has created the need for a rigorous process for selecting banks and other
services providers, performing appropriate precontract due diligence, and ensuring
continued compliance of these providers with the services contracts as well as with
relevant governmental regulations and other requirements.
Additionally, the purview of risk management has expanded to include the establishment
of treasury policies, procedures, and controls for all transactions that take place within the
treasury function. These enterprise policies and procedures underpin the modern
corporations need to comply with relevant regulatory and compliance requirements
including Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance.

ENTERPRISE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

The lifeblood of the corporate treasurers office is the preparation and review of cash
forecasts on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis for operational purposes, and annual and
multiyear forecasts in conjunction with a firms strategic planning process. If liquidity
management is the fundamental responsibility of treasurers, the cash forecast is the
fundamental tool that enables them to do their job.

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

Additionally, the corporate treasurer must seek to determine what material seconddegree counterparty risk a firm may be subject to; for example, if one of the firms key
suppliers of components in turn utilized an unreliable provider of raw materials, the firm
could be subject to supply chain disruptions two layers down.

16

The daily forecast is the most basic component of a functioning treasurers office, and the
forecast is compiled from a variety of sources including sales, production, and finance in
order to determine what the firms target cash position will be on a given day. Key inputs
to the daily cash forecast include changes in working capital components, the timing of
new investments, and expected transactions relating to the firms capital structure (major
debt financings or repayments, planned dividend payments, and the like).
Of course, a daily forecast that is not reliable will not serve its purpose of allowing the
treasurer to anticipate and plan for how future cash surpluses or deficits will be managed.
For this reason, cash forecasts are reconciled on a daily basis with the firms actual cash
receipts and outflows, differences are identified and categorized, and future cash
forecasts are retuned to reflect this continual learning process.
At the same time, given the corporate treasurers additional responsibility for both
investment management and capital management, the treasury staffs of many firms have
accumulated years of experience in performing a wide range of various financial
analyses. These financial analyses range from what if financial contingency analysis for
the firms cash flows to sophisticated investment analysis aimed at achieving optimal
investment returns taking into consideration a blend of various financial sub-strategies.
As the introduction of technology into the daily workflows of the treasurers office
automated many tasks, the broad and rigorous financial analytical skills that have been
built up have been in high demand in other areas of the firm, not only in the finance
department but across the organization.

Chapter: The Strategic Role of Treasury

The value-add of the corporate treasury function within a firm has thus evolved from a
cash management-centric role to an enterprise-wide financial analytical resource. From
the corporate treasurers original focus on the financial analysis of banking products and
relationships, todays corporate treasury groups are often involved in financial
management processes including build vs. buy decisions, supplier due diligence projects,
production planning analysis, mergers and acquisitions analysis, and other tasks that
require a multidisciplinary approach to financial analysis.

17

THE TREASURY MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

LANDSCAPE
3

According to the AFPs 2014 Strategic Role of Treasury survey sponsored by Oliver
Wyman, over 80% of the financial professionals surveyed reported that the treasury role
is playing a more strategic part in the management of the corporation, and the same
number anticipated a further expansion in their role over the next five years.
More than two-thirds of the respondents surveyed attributed the professions emergence
to the greater emphasis in the corporation on cash management and liquidity, and nearly
half reported that their treasury departments served as internal financial consultants to
other departments and business groups.
Despite the fact that more than half of the respondent firms had revenues of more than
$1 billion, the survey also indicated that more than two-thirds had a total headcount of 10
professionals or fewer in the treasury group. The ability of treasury managers to take on
greater responsibility with a small headcount is enabled by the use of technology in
managing the treasury operation workflows.
The technology deployed in US firms range from spreadsheet-based systems to bankprovided systems and on to vendor-developed products.
Future Celent reports will examine the key functionality of modern TMS systems and the
various deployment models available from banks and IT providers. While todays TMS
systems provide support for a wide range of functionality on various global payments
systems, the payment systems themselves will not be covered in this series because
they are already covered by Celent separately.

A paradox of treasury management lies in the fact that with a small staff and growing
responsibilities within the firm, over 52% of the 554 firms surveyed by AFP in its 2013
4
Treasury Benchmarking Program Survey Report (September, 2013) reported that their
primary tool for managing cash involved manual processes utilizing spreadsheets.
As with the 2014 Strategic Role of Treasury survey, more than half of the companies in
the 2013 benchmarking survey had revenue of more than $1 billion. Although the results
were skewed toward smaller firms and private companies that are largely free of the
compliance burden of public companies, it is surprising that 42% of the more than 200
public companies surveyed reported primary use of spreadsheets.
The attraction of the humble Excel spreadsheet is not hard to understand. A Microsoft
Excel license sells for a few hundred dollars, versus the tens or even hundreds of
thousands of dollars that modern treasury management systems command in the market.
An Excel spreadsheet is easy to construct and easy to adapt over time, as levels of
analytical complexity can be layered onto the original spreadsheet.
Furthermore, as Excel has evolved over the years, very powerful functional capabilities
have been added to this product, further increasing the attraction of spreadsheet-based
3

Association for Financial Professionals. 2014 AFP Strategic Role of Treasury: Report of Survey Results.
Maryland: Association for Financial Professionals, 2014.
4
Association for Financial Professionals. 2013 AFP Treasury Benchmarking Program Survey: Report of Survey
Results. Maryland: Association for Financial Professionals, 2013.

Chapter: The Treasury Management Technology Landscape

SPREADSHEETS

18

treasury management. These functions include enhanced data import and export
capabilities, data processing functions (e.g., string concatenation, data counting and
various lookup functions), and sophisticated analytical tools including statistical analysis,
the construction of what if scenarios using pivot tables, and the production of helpful
graphs, histograms, and other data mapping functions.
Ironically, it is the power and flexibility of the Excel spreadsheet that attract treasury
groups at both ends of the company size spectrum. Small companies view spreadsheets
as an inexpensive DIY solution, while large companies prefer a customized spreadsheet
to a complex, expensive, and often inflexible enterprise solution, particularly for financial
analysis and report production.
In the case of the largest companies, it is unlikely that Excel is used as the primary
repository of treasury data, but rather is used to consolidate and analyze information from
various systems of record, including bank systems and enterprise accounting systems.
Of course, the use of spreadsheets as a tool of treasury management does not come
without its disadvantages, principally the loss of control over formula and input errors
which can undermine the accuracy of the analysis, the difficulty in creating and
maintaining a good audit trail to ensure that changes to the spreadsheets are authorized
and appropriate, and finally the system latency and lower reliability that many larger
and/or computationally demanding spreadsheets can produce for underpowered desktop
systems.
There are several technology vendors that are working on addressing some of the quality
and compliance issues inherent in the utilization of spreadsheets, in part through central
control of the flow of data in and out of the spreadsheets and in part through the use of
spreadsheet control measures (logging the opening, closing, saving, and changes to a
spreadsheet on a cell-by-cell basis).

To address the treasury management needs of their clients, most of the large
international banks have developed functionally rich systems aimed particularly at
corporates with large international businesses, both on the import and export side. The
2013 AFP benchmarking survey indicated that 8% to 10% of the corporate treasury
groups polled use these systems.
5

The finance publication Euromoney performs an annual survey of corporate cash

management and the banks supporting these larger corporates, and in 2013 the top
banks serving the North American market included HSBC, Bank of America, Citibank,
JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank. Around the world, the names Citibank and HSBC
consistently come up, often along with other banking players within each regional
geography.
The bank-based systems have appeal for corporations with a limited number of banking
relationships, particularly firms that have aligned themselves with a single bank partner
on an international basis. These firms may have many accounts in various locations
around the world but have chosen to work exclusively or semi-exclusively with their
primary relationship bank and its correspondents to source the companys cash
management services.

Euromoney. Euromoney Cash Management Survey 2013. London: Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC,
2013. Electronic/print.

Chapter: The Treasury Management Technology Landscape

BANK-BASED SYSTEMS

19

Most of the banks in question have extensive capital markets operations, and as such
many corporate treasurers who have implemented bank-based treasury management
systems will also utilize their relationship banks investment banking and capital markets
affiliates for execution and settlement of investments.
The technology underpinning the bank-based treasury management systems may be
internally developed by the bank, or may be based on an off-the-shelf system provided by
a third party vendor, although in the latter case it is likely that the system will be heavily
customized to reflect the banks specific service delivery model.
For corporate treasury groups maintaining relationships with several or many depository
banks, bank-based treasury management systems become limiting in that, beyond basic
balance reporting, a given bank-based system will generally not allow transactions to be
initiated or tracked across various external banks.
This creates the need for treasury staff to transact in multiple systems, perhaps utilizing a
combination of the companys enterprise accounting system and spreadsheets to track
cross-bank activity.

VENDOR SYSTEMS
For larger corporates with multiple banking relationships, a vendor-based solution
becomes an attractive path for automating the daily activity of the treasury function.
According to the 2013 AFP Survey, 34% of the corporate treasurers surveyed utilize a
vendor-provided TMS system.

1. The TMS electronically polls the firms banks and aggregates daily deposit data using
messaging standards including SWIFT MT formatted messages, BTRS, or XML.
2. The TMS reconciles the actual deposit data against the daily cash forecast, and
material variances are identified and reported.
3. Short-term investment rates from the firms various financial institutions are pulled in
along with market data from third party feeds such as Bloomberg and Reuters.
4. A treasury staff person responsible for investments selects an investment or
investments and executes a trade; if the trade is within the parameters of the firms
investment policy and the staff persons authority as to size and scope, the TMS
transmits the trade instruction to the financial institution, and otherwise the proposed
trade is rejected or sent to the treasurer for approval.
5. The TMS adjusts the firms cash forecast for the following day to show the size and
tenor of the investment.
6. The TMS creates detailed journal entries for the transaction and pushes these entries
to the firms accounting system.
While the level of integration and automation of todays TMS offerings are attractive to
midsize and larger corporates, the cost of these systems can range from tens of
thousands up to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, with much of the initial cost
coming from the need to map the system workflows to the firms specific policies and
procedures as well as creating the data integration paths to the firms various banks and
trading partners.

Chapter: The Treasury Management Technology Landscape

Many of the vendor-sourced systems available in the market today offer enterprise-grade
functionality and seamless integration with the firms internal accounting systems as well
as those of its external banks and other financial and trading partners. Some vendors
feature their systems as offering straight-through processing (STP), as seen in the
following use case.

20

In response to the sticker-shock that some prospective corporate buyers experience

when considering the purchase of a TMS system, in the past five to seven years
providers have been aggressively promoting their application service provider (ASP)
offerings, where the cost of technology acquisition, hosting, and ongoing service has
been combined into a more affordable monthly subscription cost.
In the US market, there are generally three categories of TMS systems providers, as
follows.
1. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system providers including market leaders SAP
and Oracle that sell TMS functionality as an add-on module to their core ERP
systems.
2. Diversified financial services technology companies such as SunGard and Misys that
sell TMS functionality as a complementary offering to other capital market systems.
3. Pure play TMS independent software vendors (ISVs) such as Wall Street Systems,
Kyriba, and others whose primary business is developing and servicing these
systems.
Ten years ago, more ISVs operated in the TMS business in the US. However, through
industry consolidation led by Wall Street Systems and others, over the years the number
of major players has been significantly reduced.

SUMMARY

Likewise, while the plumbing that underpins the major payments systems has not been
changed in the past 30 years, banks and vendors alike continue to promote their game
changing new systems for things like real time and P2P payments. All of this has
continued to create confusion in the market as to where, for example, the line between
where a basic business online banking ends and an industrial-grade TMS system begins.
This question is not easily answered in that another byproduct of the development of
technology is that specific functionality that exists in one system can be much more easily
cut and pasted into another system. As an example, a bank or vendor might take a
pedestrian business online banking system, add wire transfer capabilities, and rebrand
the product as a cash management system.
The takeaway is that, just as words can have many meanings, so too is the case in the
evaluation of TMS systems. To the corporate treasurer, the most important issue is not
what the system is called, but what the system actually does.

Chapter: The Treasury Management Technology Landscape

Todays leading banks have developed a plethora of IT systems aimed at enhancing the
customer experience for their corporate customers, and systems developed many years
ago including VRU-based banking have come to coexist with leading-edge systems like
mobile and tablet banking.

21

WHATS NEXT
With the increased level of corporate cash holdings during these uncertain economic
times, the continuing volatility in the money and capital markets, and the increasing
demands on todays treasury management team, technology has become more important
than ever in ensuring that the treasurer can remain successful in adding value to the
corporation.
There are a few TMS technology vendors with long experience in the industry, but there
have also been a lot of mergers and acquisitions in the TMS market over the past 10
years, with a few providers experiencing a change of control several times.
This dynamic has made it difficult for TMS users to compare the various bank and
vendor-provided offerings. It is for this reason that Celent is embarking on a research
initiative in the area of TMS.
As a starting point, we intend to focus on the specific functional needs of corporate users
in relation to TMS systems. We will attempt to identify the primary participants in the
provision of TMS systems to corporate treasury groups, including banks, ISVs, and other
services providers such as professional services firms, and will seek to inventory and
evaluate their capabilities in relation to each other.
With the exception of the work done by AFP, there is not a lot of statistical information
available regarding the use of TMS systems, and for that reason we will be inviting all
relevant industry players to participate in our research.

Chapter: Whats Next

Was this report useful to you? Please send any comments, questions, or suggestions for
upcoming research topics to info@celent.com.

22

LEVERAGING CELENTS EXPERTISE

If you found this report valuable, you might consider engaging with Celent for custom
analysis and research. Our collective experience and the knowledge we gained while
working on this report can help you streamline the creation, refinement, or execution of
your strategies.

SUPPORT FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Typical projects we support related to treasury management systems include:
Vendor short listing and selection. We perform discovery specific to you and your
business to better understand your unique needs. We then create and administer a
custom RFI to selected vendors to assist you in making rapid and accurate vendor
choices.
Business practice evaluations. We spend time evaluating your business processes,
particularly in terms of the automation of key workflows. Based on our knowledge of the
market, we identify potential process or technology constraints and provide clear insights
that will help you implement industry best practices.
IT and business strategy creation. We collect perspectives from your executive team,
your front line business and IT staff, and your customers. We then analyze your current
position, institutional capabilities, and technology against your goals. If necessary, we
help you reformulate your technology and business plans to address short-term and longterm needs.

SUPPORT FOR VENDORS

We provide services that help you refine your product and service offerings.
Examples include:
Product and service strategy evaluation. We help you assess your market position in
terms of functionality, technology, and services. Our strategy workshops will help you
target the right customers and map your offerings to their needs.

Chapter: Leveraging Celents Expertise

Market messaging and collateral review. Based on our extensive experience with your
potential clients, we assess your marketing and sales materialsincluding your website
and any collateral.

23

RELATED CELENT RESEARCH

Treasury Management Systems: Market Assessment of Opportunities for Banks and
Vendors
December 2013

Alignment of Treasury Management System Stars

October 2013

Liquidity Management: Balancing Regulation with Business

May 2013

Top Trends in Corporate Payments: A Year in Review

Chapter: Related Celent Research

January 2013

24

Copyright Notice
Prepared by
Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman, Inc.
Copyright 2014 Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman, Inc. All rights reserved. This report
may not be reproduced, copied or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form or by any
means, without the written permission of Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman (Celent)
and Celent accepts no liability whatsoever for the actions of third parties in this respect.
Celent is the sole copyright owner of this report, and any use of this report by any third
party is strictly prohibited without a license expressly granted by Celent. This report is not
intended for general circulation, nor is it to be used, reproduced, copied, quoted or
distributed by third parties for any purpose other than those that may be set forth herein
without the prior written permission of Celent. Neither all nor any part of the contents of
this report, or any opinions expressed herein, shall be disseminated to the public through
advertising media, public relations, news media, sales media, mail, direct transmittal, or
any other public means of communications, without the prior written consent of Celent.
Any violation of Celents rights in this report will be enforced to the fullest extent of the
law, including the pursuit of monetary damages and injunctive relief in the event of any
breach of the foregoing restrictions.
This report is not a substitute for tailored professional advice on how a specific financial
institution should execute its strategy. This report is not investment advice and should not
be relied on for such advice or as a substitute for consultation with professional
accountants, tax, legal or financial advisers. Celent has made every effort to use reliable,
up-to-date and comprehensive information and analysis, but all information is provided
without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Information furnished by others, upon
which all or portions of this report are based, is believed to be reliable but has not been
verified, and no warranty is given as to the accuracy of such information. Public
information and industry and statistical data, are from sources we deem to be reliable;
however, we make no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of such
information and have accepted the information without further verification.
Celent disclaims any responsibility to update the information or conclusions in this report.
Celent accepts no liability for any loss arising from any action taken or refrained from as a
result of information contained in this report or any reports or sources of information
referred to herein, or for any consequential, special or similar damages even if advised of
the possibility of such damages.
There are no third party beneficiaries with respect to this report, and we accept no liability
to any third party. The opinions expressed herein are valid only for the purpose stated
herein and as of the date of this report.
No responsibility is taken for changes in market conditions or laws or regulations and no
obligation is assumed to revise this report to reflect changes, events or conditions, which
occur subsequent to the date hereof.

For more information please contact info@celent.com or:

James M. ONeill

joneill@celent.com

AMERICAS

EUROPE

ASIA

USA

France

Japan

200 Clarendon Street, 12th Floor

Boston, MA 02116

28, avenue Victor Hugo

Paris Cedex 16
75783

The Imperial Hotel Tower, 13th Floor

1-1-1 Uchisaiwai-cho
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0011

Tel.: +33.1.73.04.46.20
Fax: +33.1.45.02.30.01

Tel: +81.3.3500.3023
Fax: +81.3.3500.3059

USA

United Kingdom

China

1166 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10036

55 Baker Street
London W1U 8EW

Tel.: +1.212.541.8100
Fax: +1.212.541.8957

Tel.: +44.20.7333.8333
Fax: +44.20.7333.8334

Beijing Kerry Centre

South Tower, 15th Floor
1 Guanghua Road
Chaoyang, Beijing 100022

Tel.: +1.617.262.3120
Fax: +1.617.262.3121

Tel: +86.10.8520.0350
Fax: +86.10.8520.0349

USA

Italy

China

Four Embarcadero Center, Suite 1100

San Francisco, CA 94111

Galleria San Babila 4B

Milan 20122

Central Plaza, Level 26

18 Harbour Road, Wanchai
Hong Kong

Tel.: +1.415.743.7900
Fax: +1.415.743.7950

Tel.: +39.02.305.771
Fax: +39.02.303.040.44

Brazil

Spain

Singapore

Av. Das Naes Unidas, 12901

Torre Norte - 33 Andar
So Paulo SP 04578-903

Paseo de la Castellana 216

Pl. 13
Madrid 28046

8 Marina View #09-07

Asia Square Tower 1
Singapore 018960

Tel.: +55.11.5501.1100
Fax: +55.11.5501.1110

Tel.: +34.91.531.79.00
Fax: +34.91.531.79.09

Tel.: +65.9168.3998
Fax: +65.6327.5406

Canada

Switzerland

South Korea

1981 McGill College Avenue

Montral, Qubec H3A 3T5

Tessinerplatz 5
Zurich 8027

Youngpoong Building, 22nd Floor

33 Seorin-dong, Jongno-gu
Seoul 110-752

Tel.: +1.514.499.0461

Tel.: +41.44.5533.333

Tel.: +852.2982.1971
Fax: +852.2511.7540

Tel.: +82.10.3019.1417
Fax: +82.2.399.5534