The judges for the 2015 Adam Smith Awards, sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, have been facing their most challenging task yet, with many truly exceptional submissions to choose between. A record 210 nominations from 23 different countries were received.
After much cogitation, the Adam Smith Awards judging process has now concluded. The successful corporates have been individually advised and the full winners’ list has been made publicly available.
Now in their eighth year, the Adam Smith Awards are firmly established as the ultimate industry benchmark for achievement in corporate treasury. These awards recognise the very best in class across the whole industry.
All overall and highly commended winners will be invited to attend the prestigious Adam Smith Awards Gala Presentation Lunch in London on Thursday 18th June.
Highlights from the 2015 nominations
Over half of all Adam Smith Awards entries received in 2015 were global in their geographic reach. In terms of the areas in which most benefits have been achieved by the nominated projects or solutions, cost savings, process efficiencies and risks removed/mitigated were the most frequently cited. Many submissions also demonstrated the importance of accelerating the delivery of such benefits, with some very impressive timelines being achieved.
This year’s nominations also saw a record number of entries for the Top Treasury Team accolade, again demonstrating the multi-faceted projects corporates have been working on. But there can only be one winner and Treasury Today’s Top Treasury Team for 2015 is Hyundai Capital America. On learning of the award, Eric Senay, Vice President and Head of Treasury said:
Receiving this year’s award for Top Treasury Team is truly an honor for us at Hyundai Capital America, especially considering the premier calibre of the Adam Smith participants and the industry forum created by the Treasury Today magazine. While our young team is humbled by the recognition, it is a validation of the core belief we all share: a successful treasury organisation must earn a seat at the table helping drive sustainable business growth. To do this, we found the courage to profoundly change the treasury function at Hyundai Capital America. We did so by assembling and developing a team capable of playing both tactically and strategically. Our collective experience has been second to none, which makes us incredibly excited to share what we’ve learned with our peers and help create more opportunities to advance the treasury function.
A benchmark for the industry
Elsewhere, the 2015 Adam Smith Award nominations illustrate some interesting trends happening within the industry. For example, from the submissions received, it is clear that the use of cloud technology is rapidly gaining ground and a number of companies have also deployed eBAM.
Judging by the nominations in the Best Financing Solution category, there has also been much activity in the debt capital markets space. Companies have also taken the opportunity to review their financing arrangements with several restructuring their debt maturities and instruments.
The banks and technology vendors continue to respond to their corporate clients’ needs with some impressive solutions across the entire corporate treasury domain. That said, a number of submissions received this year again demonstrate that some very innovative ‘DIY’ solutions are also being implemented, with several ‘in-house builds’ proving this point.
View the 2015 winners’ list
