DBS launches treasury management simulation tool
By DBS
DBS Bank, Asia’s leading digital bank, today announced the launch of the world’s first online treasury and cash management simulation tool for CFOs and corporate treasurers.
CFOs and corporate treasurers often manage several accounts with different currencies and transaction flows across multiple countries. As a result, they often engage a few different banks to help create an optimal treasury and cash management solution. The process in doing so, called a Request for Proposal, is often time-consuming, unproductive and tedious.
Using a human-centred design approach, DBS uncovered five critical areas to address through in-depth interviews with over 50 CFOs, corporate treasurers and finance professionals. These problems include:
– Too much preparatory work to achieve an optimal solution
– Difficulty in monetising or quantifying the benefits and costs of solutions proposed by different banks
– No time to keep up with the latest regulatory, tax and market changes
– Too much effort to work with stakeholders on a new cash management solution
– Difficulty in implementing new and complex solutions
DBS Treasury Prism was custom-built to address these challenges by giving CFOs and corporate treasurers the ability to independently experiment with cash and liquidity management structures and analyse the relative benefits and costs. The bank-agnostic platform takes into account the regulatory and tax environment in the markets where the company operates in, and offers immediate and contextual insights to help them understand the implications that each solution has on the business.
Users can create simulations of account and liquidity structures across multiple markets and compare each solution through a quantified assessment of its cost and benefits. The combination of digital solutioning and contextual insights results in a value-rich experience for treasurers as they explore potential opportunities and solutions.
John Laurens, DBS’ Head of Global Transaction Services said, “CFOs and corporate treasurers increasingly come to DBS for digital advisory services and to co-create digital business solutions with their financial and commercial operations. The nature of these digital engagements have elevated the partnership between transaction bankers and treasury and finance professionals well beyond the conventional bank-customer interaction. DBS Treasury Prism is a product of innovation and customer-centred digital engagement. Finance and treasury professionals have therefore shaped the platform through ideation, development and beta testing stages and will continue to drive the agile development of DBS Treasury Prism.”
Some of the key features of DBS Treasury Prism include:
Building simulations and quantifying benefits
Treasurers often receive multiple cash management proposals from banks; determining the best solution is challenging as the benefits are not always clearly evident. DBS Treasury Prism empowers treasurers by enabling them to simulate various structures for a range of international currencies, taking into account the tax and regulatory implications in over 20 markets including key financial centres in Asia, Europe and the US. Each simulation features an Optimisation Score derived from a smart algorithm that takes into account the interest yield and debt, tax, bank fees and corporate costs, helping users quantify the benefits of each structure.
The dynamic online platform is equipped with over 30 liquidity and transactional flow management tools, including bank solutions and corporate tools such as interest optimisation, notional pooling, instant payments, and payments and receivables management, all supported by real time insights. In addition, the platform has an ‘Optimise’ feature that recommends alternative structures for users to explore and consider.
Access to contextual insights in real time
Keeping up-to-date with the latest changes in regulations and tax is time-consuming and challenging. The platform solves this problem by pulling current tax and regulation updates in over 20 markets globally, providing users with contextual insights in real time as they create simulations. DBS Treasury Prism also features a Knowledge Centre with articles on emerging trends, new solutions and the latest market practices in treasury and cash management, giving treasurers a full breadth of information.
“What takes a week today can be done in two minutes with Treasury Prism. This is the most innovative solution for corporate treasury I’ve seen this year.”
– Goh Seng Ti, General Manager (Treasury & Accounting), Isuzu Motors Asia
“It’s the first time I see a bank making such a system for their clients. It’s very comprehensive. With the search function, knowledge centre, glossary – it really covers all that a corporate treasurer needs in such a tool. We can also use it to educate our internal and external stakeholders on cash management, saving time for us.”
– Henry Ma, Regional Treasurer, Emerson Electric Asia-Pacific
“Managing money across the Asia region is not easy due to regulations – this platform makes it easy to see what’s possible, with regulatory insights, through a drag and drop interface. It’s something not readily available in other Treasury platforms.”
– Group Treasurer, Kerry Logistics
