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By Karibi Iketubosin
As the global economy recovers from pandemic aftershocks, treasury functions across industries are being redefined, not as back-office cost centers but as strategic hubs that inform the direction of the enterprise.
In 2023, amid inflation uncertainty, rising interest rates, and evolving regulations, organizations are looking to the treasury not just to preserve liquidity, but to drive value creation.
Treasury today sits at the intersection of finance, technology, and risk. That convergence is where I’ve built my career, first in African banking institutions, and more recently through advanced study and practice in Management Information Systems. This article explores how treasury can become a strategic enabler, especially when empowered with digital tools, cross-functional collaboration, and proactive insight.
Why Treasury’s Role is Changing
Historically, treasury managed three core tasks: liquidity, investment, and risk. But the macroeconomic shocks of the last three years, COVID-19, energy price surges, and supply chain disruptions, have exposed the limitations of static financial models. Senior leadership now expects treasury teams to:
Provide real-time insights on cash and risk exposure.
Align funding strategies with business agility.
Enable better cross-border transaction management and FX planning.
Support sustainability-linked finance and ESG reporting.
In response, treasurers are adopting new tools, new structures, and a new mindset.
The New Treasury Toolkit
In my own work, most recently contributing to the redesign of liquidity tracking models and supporting the implementation of automated dashboards, I’ve seen three types of tools emerge as game-changers:
1. Data-Driven Decision Making
Treasury teams are increasingly leveraging Power BI, SQL-based analytics, and API integrations to move from static reports to interactive dashboards. These tools enable:
Hour-by-hour visibility into bank positions and FX exposure.
Predictive cash flow modeling using historic data patterns.
Automated alerts for breaches in liquidity coverage or borrowing limits.
This dynamic, data-first approach allows teams to model multiple outcomes, quickly react to market changes, and provide the C-suite with actionable insights.
2. Treasury Management Systems (TMS) Evolution
Modern cloud-based TMS platforms like Kyriba, SAP TRM, and Finastra are enabling global cash pooling, multilateral netting, and automated compliance reporting.
At Heritage Banking Company, we piloted a lightweight TMS solution tailored to the Nigerian regulatory environment. By automating treasury bill tracking and FX settlement queues, we cut down manual intervention and enabled better portfolio rebalancing. The project had a direct impact on our yield curves and reduced cash idle time.
3. Process Automation & Workflow Orchestration
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is helping treasury automate repetitive tasks, bank statement reconciliation, investment order processing, and vendor payment validations.
By deploying RPA bots to assist in trade confirmation checks, for instance, our error rate dropped by 80%. More importantly, treasury professionals had more time to focus on advisory tasks, such as scenario planning and stakeholder communication.
From Reactive to Proactive
The biggest shift in treasury isn’t technical, it’s philosophical. Instead of reacting to liquidity shortfalls or currency shocks, leading treasury teams are building proactive response systems.
These systems are grounded in:
Scenario modeling: “What if the central bank hikes rates by 200 basis points?” or “What if customer payment cycles extend by 10 days?”
Digital audit trails: Every decision and data input is logged and traceable, which improves governance.
Early warning indicators: Dashboards highlight unusual outflows or counterparty risks in real time.
At FSDH Merchant Bank, I helped build such a model, integrating FX exposure tracking with business cycle data. This allowed us to identify risky positions in advance of market swings, buying time for hedge adjustments or portfolio reshuffles.
Treasury and Technology: The Skills Gap
As treasury evolves, skill requirements are shifting. Treasury professionals must now understand:
Agile project methodologies for collaborating with IT and product teams.
Data analytics languages like Python or DAX for dashboard customization.
Change management principles to lead digital adoption internally.
In my current postgraduate studies in Management Information Systems, I’ve focused on bridging this gap, learning how to design systems that not only process financial data but enable better decisions through human-centered design.
The Sustainability Imperative
Another area of expansion is ESG-linked treasury operations. Investors and regulators are increasingly demanding transparency on how capital is deployed.
Forward-looking treasury teams are starting to:
Incorporate green investment guidelines into liquidity portfolios.
Develop carbon-adjusted cost of capital frameworks.
Track supplier ESG scores within payment and procurement workflows.
Treasury, by its nature, sees the entire financial web of a company, making it uniquely positioned to steer the firm toward more sustainable practices.
Leadership in Treasury
To become strategic enablers, treasury leaders must:
Advocate for digital tools and ensure budget is allocated for system upgrades.
Train their teams in both financial acumen and digital fluency.
Collaborate horizontally, working closely with legal, procurement, IT, and investor relations.
The best treasurers are not those who know every regulation by heart, but those who build systems that adapt, teams that collaborate, and insights that matter.
In 2023, treasury is no longer a desk with spreadsheets, it’s a cockpit guiding the financial aircraft through turbulence. It is the sensor, the stabilizer, and increasingly, the compass.
As someone who has helped transition treasury operations from manual to digital, and who is now engaged in research on financial systems design, I believe the future lies in treasurers who are technologists, strategists, and communicators, all in one.
Treasury’s transformation is not complete, but it’s well underway. The organizations that invest in it now will not only weather future storms, they will define the flight path.
