ICD Survey: ESG Interest Growing
A press release entitled, "ICD Survey Reveals Treasury Trends in Cash Investments, Technology in 2021," summarizes the online money fund trading portal's "2021 Client Survey." It says, "ICD, an independent portal provider of money market funds and other short-term investments, released the findings of its annual client survey today. The 2021 ICD Client Survey, conducted in January, reveals this year's plans and preferences for cash investments and technology from over 150 treasury professionals in the U.S., Canada, UK and Europe." CEO Tory Hazard comments, "This year's survey respondents indicated cash levels would remain elevated into 2021, but they are also opportunistic, looking to go out further on the curve to find yield. Treasury workflow optimization is also a major theme this year as investors look to technology to drive efficiency." Among the highlights: "61% percent of respondents to ICD's client survey said they are maintaining or increasing cash balances in the first half of 2021; 70% of organizations in the Americas are investing in alternative products; 41% of respondents globally said they are interested in ESG and Socially Responsible Investing instruments; 86% saw their treasury teams shrink or stay the same in 2020, while 99% expect their roles and responsibilities to increase or stay the same, indicating that expectations for treasury are increasing while treasury staff is not; and, 66% said they were taking on treasury transformation projects while only 15% said they were implementing a treasury management system (TMS), suggesting integration of technology is key." The release adds, "With approximately $5 trillion in trades annually running through ICD Portal from over 400 clients across 65 industries and 43 countries, ICD is a proxy for treasury's short-term investment behavior. For the fourth consecutive year, 99% of clients taking the survey rated ICD's client service as excellent or above average. In addition, the number of respondents reporting that they would recommend ICD to a colleague resulted in a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 79 for ICD, which compares to an average NPS of 35% for the financial technology industry."
