Cash management poll 2008: Cash captains see their ship come in

For so long seen as a banking backwater, cash management’s time has come. Revenues are high-margin, stable and growing. Products such as liquidity management will only grow in importance. And, with the huge client bases involved for the biggest players, it’s a gateway into a lot of other business. Laurence Neville reports.

Cash captains (l-r): Paul Galant (Citi), Werner Steinmüller (Deutsche), Andrew Long (HSBC), Brian Stevenson (RBS/ABN Amro)

THE TIMING OF the cash management industry’s annual Sibos jamboree in Vienna in September appeared symbolic. The event was book-ended by Lehman Brothers’ collapse and Bank of America’s absorption of Merrill Lynch the weekend before delegates arrived and Goldman Sachs’ and Morgan Stanley’s shock decisions to become bank holding companies the following weekend.