Credit crunch sparks flight to quality in liquidity management
Citi: focused on service delivery
Banks start to show their hands on Sepa
A STARKLY INEVITABLE feature of the global cash management industry is a steady consolidation of market share in the hands of a limited number of banks. Only large banks can now win global mandates. And only this select group of banks can handle the price compression that began in the US, has since spread to Europe, and is expected to accelerate following the introduction of the Single Euro Payment Area (Sepa), which will begin to be implemented from January 2008.
As corporates – even medium-sized companies – increasingly source from abroad, the demand for international cash management services is rising. At the same time, though, companies are seeking to reduce the number of bank relationships they have, so banks require market width – the ability to operate across a wide number of countries and markets. Similarly, the solutions required by corporates need scale in order to make them cost-effective.
As a consequence, local banks are increasingly sidelined and often don’t even feature on requests for proposals any more.