It’s no secret that the makeup of the C-suite has evolved in recent years, as Stella Choe, Global Head of Corporate Coverage, Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Chartered, explains. “Today’s dynamic business environment – driven by rapidly evolving technology, digitalisation and changing macro conditions – require companies to rethink their leadership capabilities to navigate complex challenges and ensure sustainable growth,” she says.

Until a few years ago, the classic composition of the Executive Board was the CEO, the CFO, and depending on the company, “one or more division heads, and perhaps a legal counsel,” says Thomas Stahr, an interim treasurer and treasury project specialist based in Switzerland. He adds that with the rapidly growing demands of digitalisation, a CIO “is increasingly being appointed to the Executive Board. This means that IT, which was often managed as a sub-department of the CFO, has developed from a pure service provider into an independent pillar of the company.”

Furthermore, an increasingly diverse collection of C-suite titles has arisen in recent years. As Choe explains, these include Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Innovation Officer (CINO), Chief Experience Officer (CXO), Chief AI Officer (CAIO) and Chief Growth Officer (CGO).

Where hiring patterns are concerned, a survey by LinkedIn noted that the fastest growing C-suite roles in 2022 included Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Chief Delivery Officer, Chief People Officer and Chief Growth Officer.

Meanwhile a 2021 white paper published by the World Economic Forum explored ‘The Rise and Role of the Chief Integrity Officer’.

But not all of these new roles carry the same weight. As a recent article by the BBC explains, “Not everyone with ‘chief’ in their title sits with the executives at the top of the pecking order, and not everyone in the C-suite is labelled a chief.”

Treasury as strategic partner and innovator

Alongside these changes, the role of the treasurer is also undergoing something of a shift. Ten years ago, treasurers were the primary point for payments, the movement of cash and forecasting within the organisation – but today, treasurers are taking on a bigger role than ever before, argues Sue Caras, head of Global Commercial Banking, Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America.

“Treasurers are at the strategic centre of these large matrix organisations,” she says. And while day-to-day partnerships may previously have included areas such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, procurement, tax and accounting, Caras notes that this is now expanding to include a larger group of stakeholders.

“At the centre of that would be the information technology team,” Caras notes. “Many corporates also have data scientists. Shared service centres are becoming more prevalent. Treasurers are also working in close coordination with risk management and investor relations.” Alongside these changes, another significant development is the emergence of the Chief Sustainability Officer.

As treasury services have become more digitised, decision making has expanded to include a company’s technology and payments teams. Caras cites the example of a company that is exploring merchant processing.

“The conversations might begin with the treasury team, but they will quickly pivot to the head of payments or the Chief Technology Officer, who would assess the technology requirements for adopting merchant processing,” she says. That could include how to integrate with multiple software vendors, point of sales systems and automated reconciliation processes. “So while treasury might be responsible for choosing the processor, their decision will lean heavily on the due diligence conducted by others around design, cost, the implementation schedule, and what return it will bring to the company and its customers.”

Responsibility for treasury technology decisions can similarly extend beyond treasury and the CFO. Stahr observes that the conversion of an ERP from SAP R/3 to S/4HANA often leads to processes being coordinated by the CTO or CIO alone, “especially from the core accounting and operational control applications,” with the CFO only responsible for the financial resources. Likewise, decisions about a central treasury system “stand or fall with the opinion of the CIO”, who is ultimately responsible for the compatibility of the treasury system within the group’s other IT systems.

Evolution of the CFO

Alongside the rise of other C-suite roles, the CFO’s responsibilities have also undergone something of a shift. A survey by Accenture found that 93% of CFOs agree the responsibility they’ve been entrusted with today feels much greater than in the past, while 86% said that the speed of strategic decision making had increased.

According to Caras, the evolution of the CFO’s role is having a knock-on effect on the treasurer’s responsibilities. “More often than not, we are seeing CFOs asking treasurers to do large scale project work, such as ESG-linked loans, co-ordinating with investor relations, or shareholder meetings,” she says. “The shift in the treasurer’s role to be more strategic just continues, and it now includes proficiency in digitisation and technology. That’s helped free up the CFO to be a partner to the CEO around the overall direction of the business.”

Likewise, the CFO is increasingly leaning on treasury to lead innovation. Caras cites the example of a large construction company which was competing for talent in the midst of an industry-wide staffing shortage. “One of the ideas raised by the treasurer was to use a real-time payments model to pay the construction workers faster,” she says. “Instead of paying them on a two-week cycle like everyone else, you can accelerate payments on a daily basis or on a project basis, making the company more competitive.” As a result of this shift, Caras argues that treasury is increasingly seen as a high value group for the company, which in some cases is resulting in a higher headcount.

Multi-dimensional relationship

Against this backdrop, Sander van Tol, Partner at independent treasury and risk consulting firm Zanders, believes there are two ways of looking at the relationship between banks and their corporate clients. “The traditional view is that of ‘relationship centralisation’, where all bank-related discussions are primarily focused on the treasurer,” he explains. “The treasurer is the main client and decision maker from the banks’ perspective and acts as a liaison officer in case other corporate functions need to be involved.”

The new view, however, is of a more multi-dimensional relationship. This involves banks broadening their service offerings to their client portfolio, with the goal of being more relevant to the entire financial value chain for corporations. “These new services are targeted to deliver value on the primary business activities of corporates, like offering embedded finance, financial marketplaces, platform-based models, innovative payment services, etc,” says van Tol.

“Another dimension is that the traditional banks are also facing more competition from new competitors like neobanks, credit funds and payment service providers. These innovators do not have the traditional relationship with or via the treasurer but focus directly on the business.” As a result, van Tol says traditional banks both want and need to cover certain market segments, while broadening their service offerings.