more with the wealth of data they have,
to help us better understand the data,” she
says.
That’s where choices come in.
“Larger institutions can try to
solve this by building their own data
infrastructure–enabling technology,
resources, data architects, engineers and
so on,” suggests Porfirio. “But this comes
at a cost and is often not an option for
smaller institutions. A second option is
for institutions to embrace collaboration
by partnering with fintechs and bringing
outside innovation in.”
“Another route to explore is third-
party partnerships with companies
offering cloud-based platforms, such as
FusionFabric.cloud—where data can be
made available securely—that provide
access to an ecosystem of analytical solu-
tions, fintechs and other third parties,” says
Porfirio. “This creates an opportunity for
corporate treasurers involved in the eco-
system to capitalize on Big Data, enabling
them to make smarter decisions.”
The pandemic has helped identify busi-
ness levers for treasuries considering simi-
lar data integrations, says Kurian.
“The more you talk to the business,
the closer you get to the drivers [of deci-
sion-making] and what that means to
cash flow,” she says. “Where I feel we’ve
been successful is that we took the very
large swings we saw in the pandemic and
used the opportunity to uncover those
drivers. Through this work we’ve been
able to make a lot of refinements.”
Andrew Hollins, director of Foreign
Exchange and Corporate Treasury at
Refinitiv, says data analytics can help with
cash management and cash flow forecast-
ing—funding the business, investing sur-
plus cash, market monitoring, executing
transactions and engaging in risk manage-
ment and hedging.
Without a dedicated credit risk depart-
ment, corporates are unsurprisingly heav-
ily reliant on credit market data to analyze
credit risk. “The source of this credit data
could be the CDS [credit default swap]
market, the corporate bond market,
income statements and balance sheets or
rating agency data, and [it can also be]
generated from applying spreads to a risk-
free rate such as Libor,” Hollins explains.
In most cases the data will be used to
derive some kind of default probability
score. In addition to market-observed
data, there is also research-derived credit
risk data such as the credit risk models
from quantitative analytics platforms,
including Refinitiv’s StarMine as well
as the CRIS Index data developed by
Singapore University for nonlisted enti-
ties. “This specialist, research-derived data
can have a critical role to play, since in
certain cases market-observed data may
overlook factors that can be instrumental
in impacting default probabilities,” says
Hollins, insisting that both StarMine and
CRIS Index data can be used by corpo-
rates as part of their toolbox to analyze
credit risk.DATA SHARING AND AI
Treasurers are seeing the value of efficiently
storing and collecting all their data, as well
as the ability to share with finance and their
various lines of business, says Singh.
“This helps in setting competitive pric-
ing, identifying where to improve margins
and creating workflow efficiencies,” he says.
“Add artificial intelligence and machine
learning models on top of that data, and
the insights gleaned and possibilities for
operational improvement are endless.”
A data lake can be even more powerfulwhen corporate treasurers and banks use
it in conjunction with a platform econ-
omy by sharing access to their data, says
Porfirio.
“This is something treasurers need to
get used to, and it is a two-way street,”
he argues. “Corporate treasurers agree on
sharing anonymized data, and they can
then access anonymized data from other
companies. This improves the database;
which banks can then access to informtheir decisions. The result is that banks
can use data intelligence to provide better
services and give optimized advice to cor-
porate treasurers. Microsoft Azure Data
Share is a good example of technology
enabling this,” says Porfirio
However, in today’s interconnected
world, real-time payments are increasingly
the norm. Andy Schmidt, vice president
and global industry lead for Banking at
technology and business consulting firm
CGI, emphasizes that proper risk man-
agement and liquidity management are
therefore more important than ever.
“Having a free flow of information
between payers, payees and their banks is
crucial, especially now,” he says, “given that
corporates are seeking greater visibility into
their cash flows so they can make the best
possible decisions taking in their cash posi-
tion, their relationship with their bank and
their desire to keep their business and trad-
ing partners happy, at the same time.” ■49Schmidt, CGI: Having a free flow of
information between payers, payees and
their banks is crucial, especially now.
Singh, Oracle: There’s no point in trying to
make decisions from your data until you trust
the quality.