The Changing Face of Treasury Investments

Treasurers are using technology to optimize returns on their cash, looking for investment opportunities outside the United States and tightening control over their trades.

Internet-based trading technologies together with shifts in the economy and the business environment are transforming treasury investing. To paraphrase the famous Oldsmobile commercial: These are not your father's investment strategies.

After several years of hype, online trading platforms are making significant inroads into cash management functions; treasurers are increasingly relying on these tools to find and execute the best trades. Key benefits of this technology include significant time savings and access to a wider range of investment options.

More and more U.S.-based companies are buying and selling products and services beyond the United States' borders, prompting treasurers to seek reliable investment vehicles for their organization's overseas subsidiaries. These days, "even midsized and small companies are much more global," says Bob Deutsch, managing director and head of global cash with JPMorgan Asset Management in New York City. "They need global solutions."

Treasury investment decisions are also increasingly being shaped by the heightened scrutiny that all corporate decisions -- especially those that directly impact the organization's coffers -- are receiving from investors and auditors. Treasurers are revisiting their investment policies and tightening their procedures for recording and monitoring trades.