Can cash and trade get along?  How can corporations benefit and how can banks deliver the benefits?

A much talked about subject in the industry is the convergence of cash and trade within the bank. There has been much written regarding the vast array of benefits for financial institutions’ corporate clients and the benefits are tangible. Corporate CFOs are constantly challenged with a never ending demand to optimize their capital.

For some time now, great strides have been made on operational efficiencies but with the extensions of supply chains globally, the financial impacts have increased. This focus on the financial impacts for corporations is compelling the banks to provide the benefits that merging cash and trade can provide. For far too long cash and trade have been separate silos inside the bank.

Can consolidating the previously exclusive silos deliver on the promise rather than staying true to their distinctive differences? How can corporations benefit and how can banks deliver the benefits? It will take a cooperative realization and shifts in approach, to reap rewards. For the trade teams, their transactional base and documentary experience needs to be combined with the cash management professionals’ thought process for optimizing the overall corporate portfolio. Corporations should go from initiating a trade transaction to checking for settlement to pulling specific reports all in the same view. Maybe cash and trade can get along after all, thriving and striving to deliver real results for the corporations.

The work needed to mix these two natural differences together starts with a single access point for the corporate to view, track, initiate and complete the transaction at hand – such as a secure portal or dashboard designed to deliver a user-friendly experience that will make training easy.