The survey, which examines the views of more than 1,200 treasurers and senior finance leaders around the world, including over 40 from Singapore, reveals that most across the profession are expecting large-scale changes to their roles, driven by their organizations’ need to adapt and seize new growth opportunities in a rapidly evolving landscape.
More than eight in 10 treasurers who took part in the survey (Singapore 89%, global 83%) say they expect their roles to transform by 2030 – a view that’s backed up by the vast majority of CFOs (Singapore 100%, global 84%) who believe that treasurers’ roles will place much more emphasis on value creation and supporting business growth, over the coming years, for example by unlocking additional cash, providing strategic insights, collaborating on enterprise-wide projects and developing finance talent.
Lee Wei Hock (李伟福), Singapore Head of Assurance at Ernst & Young LLP says:
“As Singapore is an international hub for many global organizations, corporate treasurers here tend to already have far greater remit in terms of geographical scope compared with many of their global peers. The findings from the survey further reinforces the need for treasurers to continuously reinvent their roles to keep up with the fast-changing business landscape and increased global volatility”
Barriers to value creation
The changing view of treasurers’ future responsibilities is being driven in large part by the expectations of CFOs within their companies – CFOs (Singapore 100%, global 84%) say they already expect treasurers to identify new opportunities to create value.
However, the findings show that little over half of treasurers (Singapore 58%, global 52%) already see themselves as value creators, and that many see barriers to value creation including managing relationships with banks and investors (Singapore, 40%, global 33%), operational responsibilities (Singapore, 40%, global 33%) and a lack of time for building necessary skills (Singapore, 21%, global 32%).
There are also clear signs of a disconnect between treasurers’ current capabilities and their value creating potential. Slightly less than half (Singapore, 42%, global 27%) say they feel very confident that their financial risk management strategies are improving company decision-making and just a fraction (Singapore, 9%, global 29%) say they have full responsibility over working capital and cashflow.
Making use of technology
Despite these clear challenges, treasurers are leading the way with their use of technology. Eight in 10 (Singapore 82%, global 70%) are using artificial intelligence (AI) in daily operations, as well as data analytics and visualization tools (Singapore and global 82%). Close to one in three (Singapore 28%, global 30%) say that data and technology are the main tools they use to create value, while close to half (Singapore 42%, global 25%) report that it is building a culture of innovation.
The survey also shows that there is some recognition of the need to build skills and grow talent. Almost two-third (Singapore 63%, global 57%) of treasurers are confident they have the skills to become a key player in value creation and about one-quarter (Singapore 23%, global 26%) say that talent development is one of the main drivers of value for the Treasury function.
However, there are some respects in which treasurers may be underestimating the work they need to do in order to prepare for the inevitable shift – just 8% of Singapore CFOs (global 28%) believe that treasurers need more leadership skills, but 16% of Singapore treasurers (global 18%) see this as a priority.
Wei Hock says:
“Singapore CFOs will do well by positioning treasurers as an indispensable resource and a lead member in the overall finance function to support strategic decision-making. CFOs can do more to empower treasurers to bring innovation to the finance function and broader organization, leveraging their knowledge and experience to unlock greater value for their organizations.”
