The major challenges for treasurers are digitalization and ESG
The top priorities for French treasurers were stated as clearly as it gets
Digitalization
As pandemic influenced our working conditions, remote work became a standard and resultantly, accelerating digitalization has become a priority. Of course, treasurers are no exceptions to this trend.
Treasurers face a dire need to equip themselves with tools that can be linked together, reduce margins of error, and access digital and secure workspaces.
With TMS, FX platforms, debt communication platforms, treasurers are well aware that they need to get on the train of digitalization and do it as quickly as possible. The good thing is – Onbrane is here to offer a helping hand.
ESG
ESG… today’s hot topic and the next big concern of tomorrow.
From our AFTE experience, we can divide treasurers into two categories when it comes to ESG:
The first ones are at the beginning of their reflection, asking questions such as “How will I organize my sustainable transition?”, “How to label my debt issuances ?”, “How do I build my ESG framework?”, “What about legal impacts?”, “How to do the reporting of my ESG efforts?”
Treasurers that fall into the second category are more advanced in terms of sustainable finance and currently are looking for ways to automate and facilitate the transition towards a more sustainable future.
Another great point that was put forward by a certain asset manager is that the market needs standardization. We could not agree enough.
Indeed, the ESG frameworks for issuers that exist today are disorganized, making it extremely challenging to access and compare information as well as to track the KPIs.
“You must have the right tools. The excel sheet will not hold up given what we are facing with ESG.”
Said Nicolas Dutreuil, Deputy Chief Financial Officer at Gecina.
Speaking of tools…
Onbrane, with its most comprehensive ESG offering that is ready to help the treasurers better manage their efforts in terms of ESG and sustainability at large.
There are a couple of ESG tools up our sleeve to achieve this:
- Fully customizable framework builder that allows users to negotiate and communicate their framework in an interactive and transparent way to their counterparties;
- Powerful KPI tracking tool that makes tracking your ESG progress simple and efficient – you choose your own KPIs, add them to the framework, and showcase your efforts to anyone who’s concerned;
- Data Intelligence services give access to a wide range of information from the ESG ecosystem related to your ESG framework, KPIs, and company reports.
And just like the ESG concept itself, Onbrane’s ESG+ services are in flux – evolving, growing, and developing along with market needs and challenges. You can even keep an eye on our development if you take a peek at our ESG page!
Now let’s get back to AFTE2021 reflections…
An increasingly connected ecosystem
The new generations of platforms, notably the ones based on the SAAS model, open up new API possibilities. They become cheaper, faster to set up, and, above all, scalable – once set up for one user, they are available to all the others.
Platforms like Onbrane are full API, meaning that all actions that can be done on the Onbrane platform are available by API. This opens up a huge field of possibility for us for even deeper integrations.
Ticket reduction, exchange rate recovery, direct updating of ratings, sending orders to other markets … We were very happy to be able to discuss these subjects with the players present at AFTE.
Schedules have been established and some new features & links with 3rd parties will be in production before the end of the year.
We would particularly like to thank 3V Titan, 360T, and Quivalio for the concrete exchanges.
Users are shaping the evolution of our tool
Events like AFTE blend perfectly with the way the Onbrane platform develops over time – we meet and speak with market players – people whose problems we are trying to solve. They provide us with valuable insights into their daily struggles associated with their work, which allows us to better understand their needs and solve them!
This was the case with AFTE as well – we met many French treasurers, had interesting conversations, and were able to present the demo of our latest features to showcase the powerful tools we create to address their pain points.
A desire for modernity in networking
During these days we were able to witness a real mix of generations. The “council of wise men” of the AFTE was present, but also the future generation of company treasurers was there as well.
It is clear that the desire to meet with peers and exchange experiences is there. A desire to add more modernity and less formalism in the communication was also often mentioned.
The message has been received on our end, and we will soon organize events in this spirit!
P.S. – Please leave the ties in the locker room 😉
A nice speech from the BPI but …
Lastly, we truly appreciated the energy of the speech of Mr. Nicolas Dufourcq. We only regret that he did not take the time to come to the Fintech stands. We could have discussed about the difficulties of BPI to effectively support B2B fintechs.
