As payments automation and bank connectivity are still limited in Asia, treasury professionals in the region are prioritizing to optimize existing payments processes.

"As Asia has a diverse financial sector with dynamic emerging markets, handling payments is far more complex than in Europe or the Americas," says Tony Singleton, managing director, Asia-Pacific, at Reval. "Corporates like our client Global Logistics Properties handle more than 1,300 bank accounts at over 30 banks on a daily basis."

About 56% of treasury professionals recently polled said that optimizing existing payments processes is their top priority, according to a poll conducted in the webinar, "Keeping pace with the evolution of treasury payments," hosted by Reval, a leading global software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of comprehensive and integrated treasury and risk management (TRM) solutions.

According to the Reval poll, only 9% of treasuries have fully automated payment workflows and have straight-through processing to multiple banks, and 26% are still handling payments manually using spreadsheets.

"Using spreadsheets is not only burdensome, but also inefficient and error-prone," says Singleton. "A SaaS TRM solution enables a high degree of payments efficiency and fraud control. Although most treasurers focus on streamlining existing processes, we see the first innovators on Reval already moving onto more sophisticated concepts such as payment factories and shared service centres."