We’re an organization that loves numbers, so we gathered 20 important stats from AFP’s 2024 surveys that every treasury and FP&A professional should know.

Banking relationships

From this year’s AFP Bank Relationship Management Survey, we learned what’s most important to corporate practitioners, what causes them to increase the number of banks they work with, and how economic events can affect how they relate to their banks.

1. Financial stability is an important consideration for 98% of treasury professionals when they’re choosing a primary relationship bank for their organization.
2. Customer service responsiveness is a valuable quality that 92% of treasury professionals look for in their primary bank.
3. Over 40% of organizations work with 2-5 banks, and one in four organizations work with 6-10 banks.
4. Sixty-six percent of treasury professionals say maintaining economies of scale is the primary driver for increasing the number of banking relationships.
5. Following the 2023 regional banking crisis, 52% of organizations increased the financial due diligence conducted on their banking partners.

Bonuses, talent shortages and top skills

The 2024 AFP Compensation and Benefits Survey provided insights on 2023 salaries, bonuses and benefits packages, based on 1,408 responses from financial professionals, and revealed talent trends.

6. According to 61% of treasury and finance professionals, operating income and EBITDA targets are the top determinants for bonus calculations.
7. A vast majority of treasury and finance professionals say offering work-life balance (cited by 95%) and a flexible work environment (91%) can help employers alleviate talent issues.
8. Over half of treasury and finance professionals say strong analytical skills are the top business competency for career success.

Payments fraud

The 2024 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, underwritten by Truist, showed us how widespread payments fraud is, where you’re most vulnerable to fraud, and how long it takes organizations to become aware of a fraud attack.

9. Eighty percent of organizations were targets of an actual or attempted payments fraud attack in 2023.
10. Sixty-five percent of financial professionals reported that their organization’s check payments were subject to fraud attacks or attempts in 2023.
11. Three in four organizations use checks, and 70% of organizations do not plan to stop using checks by 2026.
12. Thirty percent of organizations were unable to recover funds lost due to a fraud attack.
13. In 2023, 40% of organizations detected fraud activity in less than a week, and 20% detected fraudulent activity within one to two weeks.
14. Sixty-three percent of organizations experienced business email compromise in 2023.

Liquidity

The 2024 AFP Liquidity Survey, underwritten by Invesco, revealed that safety and the diversification of cash holdings were priorities.

15. Sixty-four percent of organizations hold some amount of cash outside the U.S.
16. The majority of organizations (65%) cited safety as their most-valued short-term investment objective.
17. For 47% of corporate financial practitioners, banks are the major depositories for companies’ U.S.-based cash and short-term holdings.

FP&A benchmarks

The 2024 AFP FP&A Benchmarking Survey Report: People Strategies and Development, underwritten by Workday, indicated that FP&A professionals are optimistic about the benefits of technology, automation and artificial intelligence.

18. Three in four FP&A professionals are focused on technology and data when it comes to their professional development.
19. Only 42% of FP&A professionals reported that their companies covered some or all costs of professional development in 2024.  
20. The size of an organization impacts how FP&A professionals work and the skills they need. In 2024, larger organizations were looking for technology skills (49%) and digital transformation staff (56%), while smaller organizations were looking for finance skills (28%) and more help with financial analysis (55%).