A snapshot of what’s on International Treasurer’s radar screen this week.
Several topics came out of this week’s International Treasurer editorial that we will explore further in the coming days and weeks, among them more thoughts on money-market funds – specifically what will replace them if and when they’re gone, as well as the virtues and endurance of the Excel spreadsheet.

After money-market funds, what?
International Treasurer has covered widely the topic of regulations that may have a chilling (if not killing) effect on the money-market fund business. Coming up at the end of August, the Securities and Exchange Commission will vote on those regulations, which include a floating net asset value, a hold-back on withdrawals, as well a capital buffer requirement. Any one of the SECs proposals makes MMFs unpalatable for corporations. Corporations of course use MMFs constantly for short-term funding needs like payroll, etc. Despite push-back from practitioners and the industry, the prospects, frankly, do not look good. The SEC, several Fed governors and presidents, and even the Wall Street Journal, are all aligned against MMFs’ current structure. So it’s likely that change – in a bad way for MMFs – is coming.

What will they use as a replacement once MMF? Will they move to banks, which most view as a high-risk alternative? How will they manage the concentration of risk if they already use a bank for trade finance or other funding needs?

Excel spreadsheets, forever.
We live in a technological age where new technology comes at us at a rapid clip. It’s kind of Moore’s Law – the computing hardware law that says the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years – writ large and across the tech universe. All technology needs to be replaced just about every two years, otherwise you’re left behind with slow or unsupported software or hardware.

This is certainly true when it comes to treasury management systems, which in the grand scheme of things is relatively young. New technology (and new promises) keeps advancing, often compelling treasurers to sign up for the latest gewgaw.

That’s why it’s surprising the Excel spreadsheet continues to be the main “technology” that treasury uses when it comes to functions like cash forecasting or even enterprise risk. Somewhere in the range of 70 to 80 percent of practitioners in The NeuGroup universe lean heavily on excel. We’ll take a look at how this seemingly old technology continues to dominate the market and why it will likely endure.