AFP Press Release

AFP Releases Results of Inaugural Treasury Benchmarking Program

Partners AFP, IBM and Deutsche Bank analyze treasury operations’ performance against peers, top performers

Bethesda, MD -- Today, the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), in conjunction with IBM and Deutsche Bank, released the results of the first in a series of treasury benchmarking surveys comparing the performance of organizations' treasury operations against those of their peers.

"Financial professionals have been telling us for years that there are few benchmarks that truly measure the most critical aspects of effective treasury management," said AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz. "Now, with the combined treasury management expertise of AFP and IBM, along with the financial support and guidance of Deutsche Bank, we are analyzing key treasury operations issues impacting today's organizations, and helping them focus their efforts on optimizing those operations."

Corporate financial professionals from AFP's membership participated in the study at no cost. Over the summer, each of the over 400 participants received customized benchmarking reports comparing their companies' operations with those of their relevant peer group, as well as with all other study participants. The benchmark reports allow participants to identify opportunities to immediately improve the efficiency of their treasury operations.

According to Kaitz, "The treasury profession plays a major strategic role within organizations, and these benchmarking surveys provide treasury and finance professionals with measures for comparing business entities’ performance, pinpointing performance gaps, and evaluating improvement opportunities at a strategic level."

Aggregate results of the initial study will be presented at the 2008 AFP Annual Conference in Los Angeles from October 19-22. Key findings of the study include:

• Treasury Costs – Typical treasury operations cost 97 cents per $1,000 of annual revenue, with costs for the 80^th percentile at 35 cents per $1,000 of annual revenue;
• Treasury Service Delivery -- Forty-five percent of organizations rely on spreadsheets to manage treasury functions while another 22 percent use even more manual processes. The combination of "Manual" and "Spreadsheet" categories reveal that two-thirds of organizations have yet to exploit enabling technologies to streamline operations;
• Treasury Full-Time Treasury Equivalents -- Most treasury departments are very lean and operate with relatively few personnel. The typical participating organization has 4.3 full-time treasury equivalents (FTEs) per $1 billion of annual revenue, with the 80th percentile treasury organization having 1.7 FTEs.

As part of the three-year benchmarking effort, new studies will be launched at the 2009 and 2010 AFP Annual Conferences. AFP, IBM and Deutsche Bank will jointly announce the topic of the 2009 survey at the 2008 AFP Annual Conference.

AFP has partnered with IBM to leverage IBM’s extensive experience in both treasury management and financial benchmarking, "This study reveals that almost all treasury departments are operating efficiently, yet there is room for improvement," said William Fuessler, Global Leader, Financial Management, IBM Global Business Services. "By incorporating automated tools which are often pre-built and proven solutions through a combination of business consulting and software we can help clients realize faster time to value than ever before."

Marilyn Spearing, Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management Corporates, Global Transaction Banking, Deutsche Bank, said, "Deutsche Bank is pleased to support this landmark peer group survey and to share in the announcement of its inaugural results. In today’s market, corporates and providers are striving to implement best practices in search of greater efficiencies. This is even more challenging as treasury departments are shrinking while they are assigned greater responsibility. Deutsche Bank will use the benchmarking survey results to help our client base achieve continued process improvement around treasury and cash management." 

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About AFP
The Association for Financial Professionals® (AFP) is a membership organization that serves more than 16,000 corporate treasury and finance executives. In addition to its Annual Conference, the Association offers executive resources, industry news, financial tools, networking opportunities, continuing education, print and online publications and public policy research representation. AFP is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and its global reach includes AFP of Canada and gtnews, a London-based on-line resource for the finance community. AFP strives to be a daily resource for strategic solutions, best practices and peer collaboration: AFP–Your Daily Resource at www.AFPonline.org

About IBM
For more information on IBM, visit www.ibm.com

About Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank is a leading global investment bank with a strong and profitable private clients franchise. A leader in Germany and Europe, the bank is continuously growing in North America, Asia and key emerging markets. With 80,253 employees in 75 countries, Deutsche Bank offers unparalleled financial services throughout the world. The bank competes to be the leading global provider of financial solutions for demanding clients creating exceptional value for its shareholders and people.
www.db.com