Six-point action plan for crisis-proof treasury departments

What consequences does the ongoing polycrisis have for treasury departments? And which areas of action should be given particular attention in future in order to strengthen their resilience in a volatile market environment and ensure financial stability? Our latest white paper "Resilient Treasury" provides detailed answers. The publication is based on a survey of 360 treasury professionals.

One thing is clear: the multi-layered constellation, characterised by geopolitical tensions, digital transformation and increasing regulatory requirements, among other things, presents treasury units in companies with complex tasks. The analysis of the survey provides remarkable insights into practice and sheds light on transformation processes and future success factors.

• Only 17 per cent of respondents stated that they had never experienced a crisis situation with consequences for their own activities. The majority said they had been affected by crisis situations once, twice or even three to five times in the past five years.
• According to the participants, the most frequently cited significant crises in the recent past were the coronavirus pandemic (57 per cent), crisis-related developments in energy and procurement prices (48 per cent) and the effects of the interest rate turnaround and global supply bottlenecks (40 per cent each).

• In crisis situations, the treasury professionals surveyed were most concerned about dwindling liquidity or the threat of insolvency, greater market price fluctuations and damage to the IT infrastructure.
• "My treasury organisation is currently resilient to crises": 20 per cent of respondents agreed with this statement. A further 49 per cent at least "somewhat agreed". This indicates a largely positive perception of the organisation's own resilience.
• Crisis-related procedural adjustments (64 per cent) were mentioned the most in terms of implemented changes. Most future measures are also planned in this area. An adjusted strategic orientation (42 per cent) follows in second place among previous adjustments and adjustments in the IT area (41 per cent) in third place.
• Changing liquidity management (63 per cent) is by far the most relevant concrete measure for overcoming the crisis. A total of 69 per cent of respondents say that specific measures already implemented have strengthened the resilience of their treasury unit. Moreover, 20 per cent still give the measures a neutral rating.
   

In the white paper, we analyse these and various other figures to determine the extent to which the following hypotheses are actually true:

• Cash is king
• Crisis management increases resilience
• Types of crisis determine the countermeasures
• Only limited lessons can be learnt from other industries
• Company size does not say much about effectiveness
• Centralisation increases resilience
   

We then set out a practical six-point action plan on what needs to be done now to future-proof treasury units. The categories at a glance:

1. Implement robust liquidity and risk management
2. Learning lessons from past crise
3. Drive forward the centralisation and optimisation of treasury operation
4. Investing in technology and IT security
5. Adapt to specific types of crisis
6. Strengthen stakeholder relationships and effective communication