The survey of 380 corporate treasurers from enterprises across Europe, the Middle East and Africa found that the areas most under threat from new market entrants are core elements of the transaction banking business, including payments (71%), FX platforms (67%), liquidity pools (67%) and trade and supply chain networks (56%).

The move is well underway: 76% of respondents say their business has already integrated with trade networks to link supply chain financing with payments. More widely, just one in four say they now exclusively use their bank to facilitate payments, with others choosing alternatives including SWIFT gpi (46%) and other cross-border payments services (43%).

Finastra says banks have an opportunity to claw back some of the lost business, on the proviso that they fully embrace new real-time payments channels, machine learning tools and Open Banking APIs to meet changing customer requirements for streamlined instant payment reporting, insightful liquidity management and risk management services.

Anders Olofsson, head of payments, Finastra says: “Demand for convenient, real-time, digitally-enabled services has finally come to the corporate treasury. Treasurers are seeing first-hand the benefits of powerful technology platforms that use open APIs to connect cutting-edge services and are open to collaborating with third parties to benefit from these technologies. Banks need to act fast to strengthen their relationships with customers and offer the innovative services they demand.”
Microsoft and Accenture provided insights into the survey."