It’s clear that corporations expect more than ever before from their banking service providers. They are demanding the same level of insight for payments as they receive for other areas of their business, e.g. the tracking of products in the manufacturing cycle. At the moment, however, many payment systems are not dissimilar to a “black hole” - the payment request goes in but no visibility of progress is provided as the transaction works its way through all the systems.

Corporate customers also want their banking partners to enable better, more up-to-date reporting for intra-day liquidity management. Corporates need a complete picture of their exposure in order to manage their overall risk. They need to be able to specify which high-value payments must be made immediately and which can be delayed, what their positions are and how any excess cash should be invested.

What’s more, in the event of there being a problem with a specific payment or account, customers want to have it fixed centrally and quickly, rather than engage in separate processes for each payment type. 

As a result, corporate treasurers are increasingly asking their banking partners for features in their payments services, such as data consolidation, standardisation and integration with their general ledger and ERP systems. Analytical tools to help them understand their end-of-day options more quickly have also become vital.

Timely information for corporate customers has never been more critical. But can banks, with their existing payment systems, deliver?