Overcoming time zone differences and regulatory complexities with Tech Mahindra

Best Cash Pooling Solution

Highly Commended Winner

Tech Mahindra Ltd

Photo of Mark Payne, HSBC and Santosh Gambhire, Tech Mahindra Ltd.

Aniruddha Gadre

VP and Global Head – Treasury and Insurance

India

Tech Mahindra is an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting company. It was formed in 1986 as a joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and BT Group.

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The challenge

Tech Mahindra’s acquisitions created a complex financial ecosystem with more than 100 legal entities globally. This is exacerbated by the fact that most of the firm’s acquired entities continued to maintain their original banking relationships, ERP systems and financial processes post‑acquisition.

Treasury is managed from India with key stakeholders, signatories, accounts payable and accounts receivable teams, all based in India. In Europe and the UK, where the acquired entities represent nearly one-third of Tech Mahindra’s business, the group had around 16 ERP/accounting systems on multiple versions, operating simultaneously. This resulted in highly fragmented data, complexity of processes, operational hassle and challenges from a control and visibility perspective.

These challenges need to be addressed to find a future ready, sustainable and scalable solution for:

Trapped cash.
Time zone mismatches.
Limited visibility over cash positions.
Decentralised structure that delayed reconciliation and data collation.

This resulted in idle cash in many entities, expensive borrowing in others, high bank charges, administrative overhead and increased operational risk from manual processes.

The solution

Tech Mahindra worked with HSBC in UK and Europe to implement an automated notional pooling structure, with a significant large scope and coverage, including 37 legal entities having bank accounts in nine different currencies across 16 countries.

Given the overall scope of the project where the company had 37 legal entities using 16 different ERP/accounting systems in eight different versions, 83 bank accounts across nine different currencies across 25 different banks, the solution was implemented in phases.

Rather than manually gathering data from multiple sources, reconciling different formats and making decisions with incomplete information, the treasury team now accesses real-time HSBCnet dashboards. This enabled multiple GLE reports indicating consolidated cash positions across all its UK and European entities. This automation allows the team to save almost 42 man hours and focus on strategic financial management while maintaining complete visibility and control over Eurozone liquidity from halfway around the world.

“To win an Adam Smith Award, which is recognised as the ultimate industry benchmark for corporate treasury excellence, is a great honour that validates our team’s relentless drive for innovation and financial excellence. It is a profound celebration of resilience, creative problem-solving and unified action. They highlight the remarkable power of overcoming challenges and transforming ambitious visions into reality through deep collaboration. We are confident that they will continue to inspire our teams to push beyond conventional limits.”

Aniruddha Gadre, VP and Global Head – Treasury and Insurance

Best practice and innovation

Tech Mahindra has implemented a robust cash management solution that transcends geographical boundaries. The treasury team embraced the best practices of cash pooling by consolidating funds from multiple legal entities across 16 countries in the European continent into a single structure, optimising liquidity and minimising external borrowing needs.

Tech Mahindra manages the entire European cash pool remotely from India – a rare occurrence amongst Indian corporates. This achievement has helped Tech Mahindra overcome time zone differences and regulatory complexities.

Key benefits

Number of banking partners/bank accounts reduced.
Improved visibility.
Increased automation.
Manual intervention reduced.

The solution has met qualitative and quantitative objectives, deriving significant benefits for the company in terms of cash unlock, paying off high-cost debt, generation of interest income and real-time cash visibility.

The solution has driven broader change throughout Tech Mahindra’s business. With standardised processes and systems now in place, the company has established a blueprint for global cash management that can be replicated in other regions. Company leaders from other regions have already begun requesting similar implementations after seeing the benefits. This demand represents a shift in organisational mindset toward centralised liquidity management.

By consolidating visibility and control of scattered funds, Tech Mahindra is expected to unlock over US$60m in trapped cash per month that previously sat idle in separate accounts across different entities, while other parts of the business borrowed at high interest rates.

Shrutipriya Shailesh Kumar

Sales Manager, Corporates, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC

HSBC is proud to have partnered with Tech Mahindra to deliver a scalable, automated notional cash pooling solution across the UK and Europe. Working closely with their treasury team, we helped bring together 37 legal entities across 16 countries and nine currencies, improving visibility, control and liquidity management despite complex legacy systems and time-zone challenges. The phased implementation unlocked over US$60m of trapped cash per month, improved returns by 200 bps and reduced manual effort by around 42 hours. We’re grateful for the trust and collaboration that helped achieve this award-winning outcome.

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The Adam Smith Awards are the industry benchmark for best practice and innovation in corporate treasury. The 2026 awards attracted 635 nominations. To find out more please visit treasurytoday.com/adam-smith-awards

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