In 2020, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was made available under Emergency Use Authorisation, becoming one of the leading vaccines used globally, before receiving commercial approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2022. The company commenced US sales and embarked on a global expansion in 2021, with product sales reaching US$18.4bn in 2022. Over the past few years, the company has continued to invest in research and development (R&D) and has set a goal of ten product approvals within the next three years. The company is also completing build-out of manufacturing in Australia, the UK and Canada.

From 2021 to 2023, Moderna set-up treasury processes rapidly to support the global expansion, but the team quickly realised the decentralised nature of its operations were highly inefficient. This led to the launch of an innovative treasury transformation project to support the rationalisation of the international treasury function, which looked to position the company for future success in its next growth stage. The primary goal of this initiative was to attempt to enable corporate treasury to have visibility and access to cash in all the relevant regions and build a strong and scalable foundation for potential future growth.

Moderna’s objective was to rollout an in-house bank (IHB) function with a complimenting multi-currency notional pool (MCNP) structure to automate the global movement of cash to a centralised source for further deployment and yield optimisation to reinvest in R&D. Adding to the challenge the treasury team faced, they had limited headcount in the US, minimal in-country representatives and significant technology projects already underway that required technology staffing. These competing technology projects included the simultaneous implementation of major treasury and financial technology platforms and solutions. At the same time, Moderna was also transitioning to XML ISO 20022 standards for further synergies globally.