Q & A WITH GARETH WILSON , HEAD OF UK BANKING & CAPITAL MARKETS , CAPGEMINI

Why is treasury becoming increasingly important ? A recent Capgemini report of 600 C-suite executives found that they were most focused on how they managed cash flow and liquidity . The treasury function is increasingly important . And I marvel at the speed of change at which treasury is evolving , especially as banks adapt to corporate treasurer needs .

What does that mean when it comes to a treasurer ’ s relationship with their bank ? Treasurers aren ’ t just handling cash in the short term , they ’ re balancing the cash across the whole business , and being able to rely on your bank is crucial . Resilience is a word we use increasingly regularly . I view treasury as a bank within a bank in terms of managing assets , it ’ s clear that the role of treasury is only amplifying .

How has open banking and APIs changed how treasurers interact with banks ? Open banking and APIs have exponentially increased the level of data and information that is available to the treasury function . Like the Chinese ideogram , this is both a challenge and an opportunity . We talk about data risk but we never talk about data opportunity . If you have more data that you can interrogate on a deeper level , that helps your financial forecasting , putting you in a better position going forward .

How is technology going to evolve when it comes to treasury ? The question is , how can you use technology to let the treasury function become more agile and more accurate in terms of planning and going forward ? Technological advancement , leveraging data , analytics , generative AI , will only accelerate the function of treasurer .