Marsh & McLennan is proud to support the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) 2020 survey that examines the strategic role of treasurers. The survey explores evolving treasury responsibilities, critical skills for treasury leaders and their teams during Covid-19 and post pandemic, and the role of technology within treasury in the next three years.
Treasurers have been in the spotlight with the Covid-19 crisis and the prolonged and uncertain economic impacts are an opportunity to accelerate to a better “new normal” in terms of the impact and role of the function. For example, leading treasurers are partnering with the business and other functions across the organization to identify liquidity levers and develop liquidity risk management frameworks to support decisions in the future. In other instances, treasury teams’ insights are supporting supply chain strategies and decisions around options for financing or offering flexibility in payment terms to position the organization for success. Digitalization projects that may have been lagging are being accelerated to achieve efficiencies.
The survey shows that over 80% of treasury professionals believe there is a greater or significantly greater value assigned to treasury during the Covid-19 crisis. In the next three years, 68% of survey respondents also believe that this will continue. The skills and competencies considered to be important for treasury leaders during the Covid-19 crisis are very similar to those predicted to be important in the next three years: communication, the ability to collaborate and being a strategic thinker.
With many challenges ahead, Marsh & McLennan believes this is an opportunity for treasurers to step into the driver’s seat and support vital decisions considering financial and non-financial impacts on the organization.
