Mr. Rick Burke reports

ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS AND INVOICING INCREASE FINANCE PROFESSIONALS' CONCERNS ABOUT CYBERSECURITY AND FRAUD; TD BANK'S LATEST SURVEY PROVIDES TRANSPARENCY INTO 2017 TREASURY MANAGEMENT TRENDS

As every facet of the financial services industry faces the imminent shift to digital platforms, more than one-third of treasury and financial professionals have heightened awareness of the growing risks of fraud and cyberattacks, shows Toronto-Dominion Bank's treasury management survey. Heading into 2017, corporate treasury and finance professionals cite protecting assets, securing transactions and cybersecurity as top priorities.

TD Bank surveyed more than 350 financial professionals at the 2016 Association of Financial Professionals conference to learn more about their concerns and opportunities.

"The transition to electronic receivables and payables can improve organizational efficiency and reduce costs in financial departments, but these moves do create additional organizational risks," said Rick Burke, head of corporate products and services at TD Bank. "While there are numerous benefits to automating these processes, companies need to work with a trusted partner that will provide tools and insights to help them to protect their data, transactions and company assets."

The digital shift

Financial executives' increasing concerns around cybersecurity are merited, as more and more organizations are expected to move to digital transactions. Only 17 per cent of respondents said that they have paper-free receivables today, but this is set to dramatically change as 69 per cent reported they expect their organization to begin the transition to electronic payments in the near future.

While corporate treasury is undergoing a digital transformation, it will not happen overnight. Forty-seven per cent of respondents said they expect it will take between one and two years for their organization to move most receivables from paper to electronic, and 20 per cent said it will take three to four years. When the shift does happen, more than half of executives believe it will save 6 per cent to 15 per cent of their departments' work hours, indicating that automation of receivables is worth the investment, saving companies both time and money in the long haul.

Corporate inertia

The majority of respondents said they expect the implementation of electronic invoicing systems to save their company a significant amount of time, so why are all organizations not migrating to paperless processes? The results indicate that corporate inertia is a major obstacle.

Approximately two-fifths (42 per cent) of respondents believe the biggest barrier to adopting paperless receivables is internal resistance to change as their organization is content with the current process. Other barriers include:

• The lengthy transition time and required IT (information technology) resources -- 24 per cent;
• Antiquated company infrastructures -- 18 per cent;
• The expense of implementation -- 8 per cent.

Challenges -- and changes

Although the overarching trend from the survey was growing anxiety around cybersecurity, these professionals have additional concerns, including:

• The strict regulatory environment -- 30 per cent;
• The ability of their organization to adapt to faster payments -- 20 per cent;
• Impending interest rate hikes -- 15 per cent.

In response, organizations plan to invest in cyber and fraud security protections (31 per cent), and faster and integrated accounts payable capabilities (26 per cent) in the next year. Other considerations include investment management and monitoring systems (21 per cent), and mobile/on-line self-service capabilities (20 per cent).

For the full survey results, please visit the bank's website.

Survey methodology

TD Bank polled finance professionals at the 2016 Association of Financial Professionals Conference held in Orlando, Fla., in October. A total of 353 responses were collected from industry professionals including business end-users, and financial and technology services organizations.