What do corporate treasurers want from their banks? The Consultant’s perspective

RWE is an international energy provider headquartered in Essen, Germany that operates subsidiaries around the world – including in Australia, the UK and the US. Our latest episode of the flow InCorporateTreasury Podcast sees Nicolas Meyer and Marius Kämmerer, Group Treasury at RWE, discuss the key challenges they are facing when it comes to investing surplus cash in the current climate, as well as the instruments they are using. They are joined by Leon Kurz, Director of Investment Solutions EMEA at Deutsche Bank.As they explain reverse repos, although complicated, have some specific benefits when compared to other instruments such as money market funds or commercial papers. They can be particularly helpful for corporate treasurers seeking to invest surplus cash amid fluctuating interest rates and bouts of market volatility.Tune into this new episode of the flow InCorporateTreasury Podcast to learn more.

Getting access to high-quality and consistent data is key for steering a treasury department. Only if you have a well-structured reporting landscape, you can achieve transparency on liquidity, cash and FX risks and make informed decisions on financing, investing, and hedging.This is why “improving treasury reporting has been in the back of mind since I joined MANN+HUMMEL five years ago”, says Dominik Paschinger, Vice President Group Treasury & Risk Management. MANN+HUMMEL is a family-owned German filtration company which generated a turnover of €4.7bn across its 80 locations globally in 2023. According to Paschinger the current reporting structure based on excel sheets is not ideal: “The process is very manual, and we have access to a lot of data which we never use for reporting purposes.” Last year, his team then finally had the capacities to put a revamp of the reporting structure on the agenda. “We set down with entire treasury team to develop a target structure for the treasury function in 2030 which we called ‘Shaping a future-proof treasury',” he explains. And one key element of this vision was to define how the treasury reporting should look like.So how does this vision look like and how far has his team come since then? What kind of information will his team and MANN+HUMMEL’s top management be able to source from these newly built dashboards? And what role does artificial intelligence (AI) play?Tune into the podcast and get Paschinger’s insights here:

India is predicted to become the third largest economy by size after the US and China before the end of this decade. Driven by a supportive regulatory environment, high investments in (digital) infrastructure and a vast talent pool, the Indian economy is set to double to US$7trn by 2030.One of the companies that aims to benefit from the country’s immense growth potential is Fuchs SE, an independent global supplier of lubrication solutions that has generated revenues of €3,.5bn in 2023. “We were able to double our growth in India over the last two to three years by identifying the right market segments here in India,” says Parag Dongare, Managing Director of Fuchs Lubricants India – a 100% subsidiary of the Germany-based Fuchs SE. Yet, growing the business in India comes with challenges from a treasury point of the view, adds Prathamesh Khedekar, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. “Managing the foreign exchange risks and ensuring compliance with cross-border trade regulations which are very time-demanding tasks.” How did Fuchs tackle these challenges? Tune into this new episode of the flow InCorporate Treasury podcast and learn more about the story of Fuchs Lubricants India.

Over the last few years, Brazil has re-established its attractiveness to foreign investors. According to the World Investment Report 2023, FDI inflows into Brazil increased to US$86bn in 2022 compared to US$50.6bn one year earlier (+69.9%) which was the second-highest value ever recorded and the fifth worldwide. Yet, for companies doing business in Brazil there are several challenges when it comes to financing local operations. Jeremy Hamon, Head of Group Finance, CFO, Primetals Technologies Treasury explains, “Brazil is peculiar because of its cross-border currency regulation preventing cash concentration partially with stamp duty for offshore deposits and a high withholding tax on interest income when doing intercompany financing.” Moreover, adds Hamon, the Brazilian real is a non-transferrable currency which makes hedging for long-term maintenance contracts an “expensive challenge”. Primetals Technologies designs and builds plants for the metals industry and its Brazilian affiliate is a specialist in steel castors maintenance – which means it has long-term contracts with its customers.In the light of all these challenges, how has Primetals still managed to set up an automated intercompany cross-border loan for its Brazilian affiliate? This comes close to a cash pooling structure with an FX component and therefore fulfills the requirements from the central treasury organisation. Tune into the new flow InCorporate Treasury podcast and learn more.

Driven by a young and aspirational middle class, digital consumption and travelexpenditures are booming in South-East Asia. A company that sits at the sweetspot of these two trends is Tiket.com, one of the fastest growing online travelagencies (OTA) in the world with more than 15 million app installations.Founded in 2011, the Indonesian new economy company now cooperates with 140airlines and 2.6 million accommodation providers. Yet, acting as an intermediary between different parties creates multiple challengesfor the treasury function, explains Eddy Putra, Head of Treasury at Tiket.com. Giventhe nature of travel, where booking is usually done in advance and settlementto hotels is done only upon completion of travel, the company is exposed to FXrisks. It also faces multiple recurring cross-border payments to overseas hotelswhich led to high fund transfer fees as well as manual processing.  How did the company address these challenges in a workflow automation project withDeutsche Bank? Tune into the new flow InCorporateTreasury podcast and learnmore about this award-winning solution!

Apart from the obvious of everything working on time every time, and a trusted partner in good and tough times – the relationship needs to be dynamic and enterprise-wide. Treasury consultant Kate Pohl hosts two flow podcast episodes to find out more.This episode focusses on the Corporate’s perspective, with Maria de la Fuente, Iberdrola; Patrick Kunz, Pecunia Treasury & Finance, Treasury-as-a-service.com and Christof Hofmann, Global Head of Corporate Cash Management at Deutsche Bank

Apart from the obvious of everything working on time every time, and a trusted partner in good and tough times – the relationship needs to be dynamic and enterprise-wide. Treasury consultant Kate Pohl hosts two flow podcast episodes to find out more.This episode focusses on the Consultant’s perspective, with Craig Jeffery, Strategic Treasurer and Christof Hofmann, Global Head of Corporate Cash Management at Deutsche Bank.

As more and more B2B companies are selling their products and services directly to the consumer, this changes the way in which payments are being made. At Swiss multinational healthcare company F. Hoffman-La Roche, business model transition began a couple of years ago in the diabetes care segment – and since then the number of business units that are addressing the patient directly has continually increased. So, what can treasurers do to support direct-to-consumer-models? And how can they ensure that the payment set-up remains efficient and secure in a digital world? In this episode, Group Treasurer Britta Döttger and Head of Treasury Operations, Martin Schlageter, share insights into Roche’s digital payment strategy and how a new project with Deutsche Bank is helping them to stay ahead of the curve.Tune into the new flow InCorporateTreasury Podcast and learn more!

Extreme events are getting more frequent – whether it is the outbreak of a global pandemic or the war in Ukraine. On this backdrop, being flexible and reacting quickly to new market conditions has become a key driver for a successful treasury organisation, and agility has become the new buzzword. But what does agile working actually mean for treasury departments and how can your organisation get there? In this episode, Steffen Diel, Head of Global Treasury at SAP explains when and why he kicked off an agile transformation project in his team, how he addresses concerns of employees and what the new concept demands from him personally. Tune into the new flow InCorporateTreasury podcast and learn more!

As the world went into the first Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020, German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon managed the largest take-over in its history acquiring US competitor Cypress for an enterprise value of €9bn. In our first episode of the flow InCorporate Treasury Podcast, Alexander Foltin, Head of Treasury and Investor Relations at Infineon, explains how market turbulences affected the deal – but in particular he shares insights on how his treasury team is managing post-merger integration. Listen in and learn more about aligning treasury policies, integrating cash management structures and building trust in a remote work environment.