Only 9% of corporate treasurers are satisfied with their ePayment solutions, according to research, leaving banks vulnerable to loss of custom.
Temenos and IDC Financial Insights, today announce the results of their ePayments Corporate Treasurers survey, which canvassed the opinions of 245 corporate treasurers within the FTSE 500.
The survey recorded a high level of dissatisfaction among treasurers, with, on average, only 9 per cent reporting them-selves ‘satisfied’ or ‘moderately satisfied’ with their ePayments services. This stands in sharp contrast to the abundant profitability opportunities currently offered by corporate banking, with payments and international trade showing strong growth. Banks’ failure to take advantage of these opportunities is leaving them open to disintermediation, with 47% of respondents within Europe having investigated alternative payments providers.
The survey did identify tangible ways for banks to improve their ePayments services, through gathering information on the pain points most commonly experienced by treasurers. The lack of a universal view and the inability to access and create a single picture from multiple systems scored highest in the survey. The former was predictably the top item on the corporate’s “wish list”, recorded by 91% of the respondents.
Surprisingly, security concerns ranked high in only one or two geographies, perhaps because security is seen as a core banking function. The remaining pain points included the lack of payment deferral, the requirement to prioritise payments, and the inadequacy of mobile payments functionalities.
Overall, the survey revealed that resolving pain points and offering value-added payments services is clearly the route for banks wishing to improve their overall profitability through corporate banking services. The technology for achieving this already exists; it’s incumbent on banks to act quickly and institute the necessary changes if they’re to avoid losing out to alternative providers.
“It’s more important than ever that we understand what banks’ corporate customers want,” said Amanda Gilmour, Product Director of payments, Temenos. “While our survey reveals a low level of satisfaction with ePayments services, almost a third of respondents rated their satisfaction level as ‘neutral’. Addressing the pain points identified in the survey should raise this rating to ‘satisfied’, and prevent these corporates from transferring their custom to new players in the market. Where there is a gap, there is an opportunity; we can help banks to focus on this opportunity.”
