CorporateTreasurer Awards 2024: Winners Spotlight

Bank of China (Thai) Public Company Limited

Bank of China (Thai) was a stand-out in this category for various reasons, highlighted by the growth of its RMB business.

Bank Mandiri

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AWARDS

• Best Bank for Payment Solutions – Market Winner, Southeast Asia
• Best for Digital Solutions – Market Winner, Southeast Asia

Complementing its status as Indonesia’s largest bank in 2023, Bank Mandiri saw significant growth in Kopra by Mandiri, its wholesale digital super platform. Through also offering Kopra Embedded Finance, which can be integrated within internal Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Kopra became the country’s market leader for wholesale digital transactions last year, hitting the equivalent of $1.24 trillion.

The achievements of this one-stop platform reflect the value it offers the bank’s 30,000 wholesale customers. In short, Kopra enables CFOs to handle all financial management tasks. This includes overseeing operational needs and managing company liquidity, to handling consolidated finances of holding companies, both domestic and across borders, with features such as managing accounts payables/accounts receivables, direct foreign exchange at competitive rates, and streamlining decision making.

In 2023, Bank Mandiri also delivered a new breakthrough in the form of Kopra Beyond Borders. Dubbed ‘Your Super Platform to The Future of Global Business’, this innovation aims improve the customer experience and digital journey by eliminating borders and creating a consolidated portal for overseas transactions.

Key new features include global access to help customers monitor cash flow and other financial information. Further, it simplifies transactions between parent companies and foreign subsidiaries located in Singapore, Hong Kong, Timor-Leste and China.

At the same time, to accelerate digitalisation among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Bank Mandiri released its Livin' Merchant app in mid-2023. By prioritising usability – such as 15-minute digital registration, QRIS payments from various banks and e-wallets, and same-day disbursements – the new app onboarded 1.7 million MSMEs within six months since launch.

PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AWARDS

• Best for Asset / Liquidity Solutions – Market Winner, Southeast Asia
• Best Bank for Payment Solutions – Highly Commended, Southeast Asia

BNI's commitment to excellence, adaptability and customer satisfaction saw the bank strengthen its reputation as a trusted and strategic financial partner over the past 12 to 18 months.

In terms of liquidity management, BNI has continued to enhance its offering for business banking customers via strategic solutions to consistently maintain optimal cash flow, such as cash pooling, cash distribution, intraday notional pooling and target balance. These solutions contributed 90% to the current account position of BNI.

In addition to cross-border channels through API, BNIDirect and Smart Remittance, in the first quarter of 2024 BNI's liquidity products significantly contributed to the bank's fee-based income.

BNI has also increasingly been focused on strengthening its foundations for business expansion, both by enhancing digital capabilities and boosting its current and savings accounts by providing total solutions to customers.

In line with these objectives, BNI set up two dedicated divisions in mid-2023: a Wholesale Transaction Product & Partnership Division, focusing on business ownership and advisory; and a Wholesale Digital Channel Division, responsible for developing wholesale digital channels.

To further enhance its digital payment capabilities, BNI is set to launch several new APIs. These include the API Direct Debit RFP (Request for Payment) to simplify customer transactions by eliminating the need to enter the sender's account number, requiring only a confirmation, and ensuring real-time transactions with a commitment to 99.9% uptime. Other payment solutions include: API BI Fast; API electricity bill payments; and new BNI electronic money, namely Tapcash.

CIMB

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AWARDS

• Best Transaction Bank – Market Winner, Singapore

CIMB’s achievements in Singapore reinforce the importance of performing the basics of banking very well. The bank’s base of corporate clients in the city-state has grown by close to 60% over the last two years, with over 35% year-on-year growth in 2023 alone.

At the same time, CIMB has seen an increase in its non-retail deposit balance by around 15%, with more transactions processed overall leading to an increase in cash management revenue of around five times in FY 2023, when compared with two years earlier.

This follows a dedicated effort to drive customer acquisition via strategic cash management initiatives. CIMB has achieved this through enhanced services such as:

• Extending its Asean currencies offering to support customers’ regional business aspirations
• Waiving intra-CIMB telegraphic transfer fees by allowing all cross-border remittances (initiated or received by CIMB Singapore clients) at zero cost if done within the CIMB network

CIMB in Singapore also introduced industry-specific solutions to target different customer segments. For example, the bank offered bespoke liquidity solutions for external asset managers, created a safeguarding arrangement for a fintech company, and rebranded is SME account service.

To further improve its transaction banking offering, CIMB recognises the importance of the human touch in any relationship. As a result, every corporate client, regardless of size, is assigned a relationship manager and has ready access to the bank’s business call centre for support. In addition, CIMB also embedded Enhanced Virtual Assistant, its conversational-style real-time chatbot, into CIMB Corporate Internet Banking and OBCA platforms, for real-time troubleshooting and enquiry support.

Fitch Group

SERVICE PROVIDERS AWARDS

• Best Credit Ratings Agency - ESG Ratings – Winner

A wide range of developments helped Fitch’s business contribute to the firm’s suite of transparent ESG data and analysis tools. Developed in conjunction with industry consultation and investor outreach, the emphasis is on consistency, comparability, coverage and granularity.

Fitch’s full coverage of the ESG-related needs in the market comes via several solutions:

• ESG Relevance Scores, showing how ESG factors affect credit ratings
• Climate Vulnerability Signals, offering analytical opinion of the relative vulnerability of creditworthiness to ESG trends in a 2°C scenario in a period of up to 30 years until 2050
• The first global ESG Ratings solution for all asset classes at entity, framework and instrument levels, along with Second Party Opinions (SPOs)
• ESG research on ESG credit risks and macro trends in ESG and debt capital markets
• Bespoke thought leadership and data-driven projects on ESG themes

By June 2024, the firm achieved its goal of covering nearly 800 entities across corporates, public finance entities and financial institutions, and over 2,300 instruments globally.

In Asia Pacific, meanwhile, Fitch met its objective of providing SPOs and ESG ratings to nearly 130 issuers since it launched its services in the region. Among all offshore ESG bonds issued by Chinese state-owned enterprises between January 2023 and June 2024, 15 of them adopted the SPOs provided by Sustainable Fitch, representing 58% of the market share.

The’s firm wide and in-depth offering won accolades from the judges. One of them praised Fitch for its “very impressive framework and results in the ESG rating area”, and another said the firm “has a human powered innovative approach”.

XTransfer

SERVICE PROVIDERS AWARDS

• Best Payment Solutions Provider – Winner

XTransfer has continued to build on its competitive edge in working with well-known multinational banks and financial institutions to provide SMEs with secure, compliant, fast and low-cost digital solutions for cross-border business payments.

The Chinese fintech has further enhanced its business model based on the view that the more financial partners it has, the more products and value-add it can offer clients – plus, the more regions it can reach. As a result, over the past 12 months or so it has added partnerships with TransferMate, TerraPay, and Banking Circle.

This gives XTransfer’s various benefits. For example, via TransferMate, Chinese supplier clients can now access to the US, Mexico, Malaysia, Canada, Singapore and New Zealand. Further, via TerraPay’s global payments infrastructure, XTransfer clients can execute local payments on a global scale and settle payments in local currencies across 136 countries and regions, including emerging markets such as Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia. In addition, the Banking Circle partnership offers local payment and fund collection options in six additional currencies in Europe and the Middle East.

XTransfer also made strides in early 2024 to go global. The firm launched its international services and has plans to expand its business to over 200 countries and regions worldwide to serve local micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Such initiatives led the judges to highlight the firm’s impressive position in SME cross-border payments, differentiating itself by its niches.

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) is key for XTransfer’s future, with initiatives such as AI-based risk management and anti-money laundering algorithm models addressing challenges in these areas.

Techcombank

BEST STRATEGIES & INITIATIVES

• Most Innovative Treasury Initiative – Winner

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AWARDS

• Best for Sustainable Treasury Solutions – Market Winner, Southeast Asia

Techcombank, which prides itself on pioneering digital transformation in Vietnam’s financial industry, has stood out in the region over the past year or so for its work with leading partners to deliver a first-in-market corporate treasury management solution – called C-Cash.

This is a particularly notable innovation in a country where the majority of corporates lack a dedicated treasury function.

To accelerate this development within Vietnam, C-Cash offers an all-in-one solution to bring Vietnamese corporates’ treasury management up to global standards via three key elements: firstly, a world-leading cloud-based treasury management system (TMS) tailored for use in Vietnam; secondly, treasury adoption support in the form of policies, processes, KPIs, tools and learning, offered by PwC; and thirdly, liquidity optimisation solutions to optimise yield and reduce financial costs.

Through offering businesses a way to increase efficiency, productivity and risk mitigation in how they manage their treasury operations, C-Cash saw significant success within its first year of piloting and a soft launch.

Up to June 2024, it helped around 100 CFOs from clients of Techcombank make better treasury-related decisions based on available data, in turn enhancing returns on their cash surplus, reducing the financial costs and improving the efficiency of their teams.

As a result of these benefits, for corporate clients, the C-Cash solution has led to Techcombank seeing an increase in its deposit and lending average balance over the past year. This initiative is also leading to employees gaining knowledge of corporate treasury processes to become more agile in delivering what clients want and need.

OCBC Bank

BEST STRATEGIES & INITIATIVES

• Best ESG Initiative – Winner

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AWARDS

• Best for FX / Hedging Solutions – Apac & Market Winner, Singapore
• Best for Digital Solutions – Apac & Market Winner, Singapore
• Best for Sustainable Treasury Solutions – Apac & Market Winner, Singapore

OCBC showcased the breadth of its capabilities in providing financial services for a sustainable future, earning it a range of awards. These also came during a year when the bank reinforced its core strengths by accelerating investment in transformation, digitalisation and people assets.

From an ESG and sustainability perspective, OCBC achieved several milestones over the past year or so. These included introducing various sustainability-linked financial instruments, across interest rate swaps, cross currency swaps and Islamic cross currency swaps, to incentivise and reward sustainable practices among clients.

At the same time, OCBC established a carbon credit trading desk, helping companies offset their carbon emissions and comply with regulatory requirements. The bank also granted a S$419 million ($311 million) green loan to Frasers Centrepoint Trust, incorporating carbon credits into the loan structure to promote a transition towards a low-carbon economy.

In terms of FX and hedging solutions, OCBC was able to achieve significant penetration into customer segments, including acquiring new corporate clients. The bank also developed bespoke and flow structured products, enabling strong volume and revenue growth across both areas.

Further, OCBC has been effective at leveraging digital platforms, data and artificial intelligence to drive efficiency, access and scalability.

This also reflects the bank’s digital capabilities and solutions more broadly, across cash management, FX & Treasury, liquidity management and wealth – via platforms, mobile applications and APIs – in 19 markets globally, including Asean, Greater China, New York, London and Sydney.

Among notable outcomes over the past 12 to 18 months, OCBC has seen 37% growth year-on-year in revenue across digital channels.

UOB 

BEST STRATEGIES & INITIATIVES

• Best ESG Initiative – Winner
• Most Innovative Treasury Initiative – Winner

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AWARDS

• Best Cash Management Bank – Market Winner, Southeast Asia
• Best for Digital Solutions – Highly Commended, Southeast Asia
• Best Transaction Bank – Highly Commended, Southeast Asia

UOB impressed the judges across key components of its offering, ranging from cash management and transaction banking, to sustainability, to digitalisation and innovation.

Within cash management, the bank’s solutions in Malaysia continued to help customers better manage their cash flow, reduce costs and maximise returns. This was a result of real-time visibility into cash positions to make better informed decisions, while customisation has also been a key element.

The results for UOB Malaysia over the past 12 to 18 months speak for themselves: 35% growth in cash management income; 15% deposit growth; a 12% increase in trade assets 5% increase in trade income.

Meanwhile, UOB’s transaction banking offering has helped contribute to more than 50% of its overall wholesale banking business income.

The bank has been focused on trying to stay ahead of the curve, especially in digitalisation and technology. After launching its next generation internet banking platform in 2022, UOB saw 8% year-on-year customer base growth, 80% digital penetration of its wholesale banking customer base, and an average monthly transaction volume of 700,000.

Specific achievements for clients over the past year include: enabling real-time, secure online payments, virtual account services and simplified reconciliation with unique virtual account numbers; creating more seamless and efficient trading platforms; showcasing Asean connectivity and cross-border capabilities; and embedding ESG initiatives.

UOB has also responded to the continuous growth of fintechs and new economy players across e-commerce platforms, e-wallet and in-app service providers, by delivering suitable digital payment solutions.

RGE Group

BEST STRATEGIES & INITIATIVES

• Best ESG Initiative – Winner

CORPORATE AWARDS

• Excellence in Cash Management – Winner
• Leading Woman in Treasury – Winner

RGE was recognised by the judges for a wide range of achievements in managing its treasury, especially for its holistic approach to integrating ESG principles into its treasury and cash management function, and its financing strategies.

This focus within RGE is rooted in the belief that the private sector should lead the ESG and transition journeys. By structuring its loans as sustainability-linked loans (SLLs), RGE is now challenging the banks to monitor its business – which it considers a good thing to raise the bar in terms of sustainability commitments and goals. In addition, the progress of the company’s science-based sustainability targets is monitored, reported and verified by independent parties for transparency. 

This commitment has translated into tangible and measurable business outcomes, such as lower financing costs through sustainability-linked financing, enhanced liquidity through efficient cash management driven by ESG considerations, and long-term resilience as a result of minimising risks.

Ultimately, ESG is at the core of RGE’s business model. The firm believes the business can only be sustainable if it does the right thing.

More specifically in terms of cash management infrastructure, RGE has made several enhancements and innovations over the past 12-18 months. These included strengthening cash pooling in China to increase execution flexibility for liquidity management, as well as enhancing the SWIFT payment system with Treasury Express for SwiftNet.

In addition, Kaka Wong, RGE’s regional treasurer, was a deserving winner of the ‘Leading Woman in Treasury’ award. Beyond her professional capabilities, the judges recognised her outstanding efforts to help develop and mentor the women in her team, and to champion gender diversity.