Banking-as-a-service has been a major topic of conversation in financial services circles of late. The rise of open application programming interfaces (APIs), cloud and the evolution of open banking have enabled many organisations to deliver a 24/7, on-demand, banking service — most notably in the consumer banking space. These developments usually concern non-financial providers, such as a retail store, offering ‘banking services’ including payments or lending to their clients — accessed ‘as a service’.
These developments have not been ignored by the corporate banking space. Corporates have long been asking for on-demand access to treasury services.
But how does all this technology and customer demand translate into a treasury-as-a-service (TaaS) offering? The answer is complicated because it depends on who you ask. Views differ on industry readiness, customer demands and the acceptance of standards.
While TaaS solutions are evolving among banks, providers and corporates, treasurers have two main demands: to automate previously manual processes and to enable real-time access to data for cash forecasting and decision-making. TaaS can make it possible to respond to these demands by providing a seamless connection to allow corporates to manage accounts, make and receive payments, deposit balances and so on, instantly and in real time.
However, the industry is at various stages of technical readiness. The ultimate goal of TaaS is the ability to do anything a corporate treasury would do, but with APIs and in real time. As offerings mature, banks may see TaaS smooth client interactions by removing multiple layers of inefficiency and achieving real-time visibility, and ultimately allowing corporate clients to offer these treasury services to their own clients.
