KPMG hosted the 9th Digital Treasury Summit in Frankfurt.

Whenever the corporate treasury community meets at KPMG's Frankfurt offices, it can only mean one thing: the Digital Treasury Summit is happening!

On 8 November, more than 100 participants gathered in the large conference area at Frankfurt Airport. Nils Bothe, Partner in Finance & Treasury Management and Head of Corporate Treasury Advisory, explains: “We offer our guests the opportunity to come together, network with peers, think outside the box, and leave with new ideas and a wealth of impressions. Our event has since become a permanent fixture in the calendars of many treasurers.”

Once again, 10 third-party exhibitors had set up their stands and informed interested parties about the latest software developments available for corporate treasury departments.

Illustration 1: Digital Treasury Summit 2024 /#DTRS2024

Illustration 1: Digital Treasury Summit 2024 /#DTRS2024

Source: KPMG AG

Just like every year, this entertaining day's program covered new developments in treasury management. The opportunities offered by digitalization are constantly evolving, and the use of artificial intelligence is opening up new perspectives worth exploring and evaluating. 

Gherri D'Innocenzo, Head of Cash Management Payments, Standards & Projects at Siemens, shared exciting insights into what the path to real-time treasury via banking APIs could look like and outlined the challenges along the way. This was followed by a lively presentation by Dr. Gerd Berghold, Head of Treasury Operations and Digital Treasury at Deutsche Bahn, vividly describing various use cases and illustrating the wide range of possibilities offered by digitalization. Following the coffee break, Dr. David Saive, Special Advisor International Trade, Finance & Digitalization of the German National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Germany e.V.), gave an overview of the state of digitalization in international trade and trade finance.

This was followed by three breakout sessions, each with two parallel presentations. In the first session, Julia Schlosser and Lasse Becker from SAP set out the workings and advantages of an in-house bank and payment factory. In parallel, Dr. Stefan Gröger and Julius Pfahl from Prof. Schumann GmbH provided insights into the use of AI to predict business behavior patterns in payment transactions.

Illustration 2: Captivated audience

Illustration 2: Captivated audience

Source: KPMG AG

After the lunch break, Karel Cup from ION talked about the typical challenges of treasury analytics solutions deployed in treasury management systems. With the help of specific examples, such as a centralized payment process or automated FX hedging, he highlighted the divergent requirements in operational and management reporting and the unique aspects that arise from implementing the solution directly in the TMS or, alternatively, in a data lake/enterprise data warehouse approach. At the same time, a new format was launched: The roundtable “Digital Euro” was an opportunity for interested participants to join in a discussion with KPMG expert Anne-Sophie Gógl after a short keynote speech. It led to a lively exchange that continued well into the following coffee break.

At short notice, Dr. Dirk Bondzio, risk management expert and part of KPMG's Finance & Treasury Management team, stepped in to give the presentation in the last breakout session after the original speaker was unable to attend due to illness. After presenting the results of the “Resilient Treasury” survey conducted by KPMG, he went on to explain the key requirements for a crisis-proof and resilient treasury, notably when it comes to risk management and liquidity planning. In parallel, the roundtable “AI in Finance and Treasury” with KPMG partner and AI expert Andreas Fachinger once again allowed for a lively exchange, which was again well attended. 

To top it all off, Prof. Dr. Christian Debus gave a keynote speech that included an entertaining retrospective of 30 years of treasury, not without drawing lessons for the future. 

So there was plenty to talk about over coffee and cake afterwards. “We are absolutely delighted with all the positive feedback on the event and the pleasant, informal atmosphere we were able to create,” reports Börries Többens, Partner, Finance & Treasury Management. “We thank everyone who attended and look forward to welcoming all those interested to the 10th Digital Treasury Summit in autumn 2025!”

Source: KPMG Corporate Treasury News, Edition 149, November 2024
Authors:
Ralph Schilling, CFA, Partner, Head of Finance and Treasury Management, Treasury Accounting & Commodity Trading, KPMG AG
Nils Bothe, Partner, Finance and Treasury Management, Corporate Treasury Advisory, KPMG AG
Börries Többens, Partner, Finance and Treasury Management, Corporate Treasury Advisory, KPMG AG