Bloomberg on Treasury Cash Mgmt
Bloomberg wrote recently that "Wall Street's Big Moneymaker Isn't Sexy," explaining, "Cash management may not have the whizz-bang appeal of fintech. But there's plenty of disruption in this staid corner of the financial industry." They tell us, "As investment-banking revenues slumped in the wake of the global financial crisis, traditional broker-dealers found that trading and deal-making weren't cutting it. Steadier money could be made in cash management, the humdrum business of assisting multinational companies with daily liquidity, and getting the most out of idle deposits by deploying them in global markets." The Asia-focused piece adds, "JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s treasury-services business, its lingo for cash management, hit a 20% return on equity last year, compared with 15% for its corporate and investment bank. Citigroup Inc., a global leader in this area, posted a return on equity from transaction banking (which is dominated by cash management) in the mid-20% range, according to a 2017 investor presentation. These sort of results underpin Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s recent decision to use technology to make a splash in cash-management -- in Japan, among other countries -- as part of a global push later this year. The country's appeal is two-fold. Corporate treasuries everywhere seek yen assets when they want to hide from global turmoil. Meanwhile, Japan could also support Goldman's fledgling ambitions in online retail banking, which requires reliable access to liquidity. Taking a digital platform to cash-rich, yield-hungry Japanese companies -- and snagging even a sliver of their deposits -- would mean cheaper funding than the wholesale market."
