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The tools of controlling expenses during the recession-scalpels and hatchets-have been put back in the drawer for the time being, but a bearish pall still constricts aggressive expansion, and looks to do so for the foreseeable future.
January 1
As a multi-trillion dollar global market whose IT foundation still suffers from too much manual processing and mountains of paper, treasury management still wins IT budget spend while other IT endeavors scramble for money. Fifth Third is the latest to use digital innovation as a client lure, deploying a new system called DTS that automatically tracks deposits to achieve accuracy, provide security and speed exceptions resolution.
"The DTS system tracks all aspects of deposit processing, including deposit creation, armored carrier pick up, bank receipt, posting and verification," says Pat Alcox, treasury management product line manager for Fifth Third. "The integrated system automated the updating of these steps by providing the client with real-time access to transaction data and exception management tools."
Clients, mostly larger multi-location retailers, will be able to track deposits using online deposit tickets. They'll be able to watch the progress of their packages as they are picked up by armored carrier. The bank will provide status reports from receipt through verification as it processes the deposits, giving reasons for any adjustments.
More than 40 reports are available for download, letting customers analyze the timeliness of transactions, staff performance and bank performance.
The bank licensed IFS Services' technology to deploy DTS. Individual retail locations log into the DTS system via the web to create a deposit that they can print out and place in the deposit bag. The deposit is then live on the web and can be viewed by anyone with access privileges. The DTS system is also programmed at setup with the times that each step in a deposit is supposed to occur, which can be matched with the actual arrival times.
Additionally, the identities of all parties who handled the deposit and adjustment details can be obtained, and an alerts function can be triggered by activity on a deposit and sent to key personnel by email to start resolution immediately, rather than waiting for weekly reports.
Alcox hopes this will provide deposit information across operational platforms for coporates, enhancing oversight and other controls.
"Previous manual and paper-based information entry methods resulted in human errors, which could have resulted in inaccuracies and delays on posting of deposits," Alcox says, adding the deployment will be deemed successful based on measurements of savings in time and money through the automation of labor intensive, paper-based processes as well as improved management of clients' daily liquidity positions.
While digitally tracking retail cash deposits may seem low-tech in an age when remote deposit and even mobile capture is taking off on the consumer side, payments and deposits for large corporations have lagged. Many transactions still take place manually, and are processed and tracked via paper-based forms and on spreadsheets. A number of analysts have pegged treasury management IT as a top priority for bank investment for both 2010 and 2011.
Fifth Third also has plenty of company among institutions chasing treasury management process automation. To improve automation, reduce reliance on paper-based processing and help bring retail clients into compliance with international transaction standards such as ISO 20022, many large banks have launched initiatives or partnerships, such as Visa and US Bank's Syncada payments partnership and Citi's BE (Banking Evolution) treasury management service.
