includes details of every payment made and received, the timing and location of those payments, the behaviour of cash- flows over time, data on FX flows and hedges, data on indebtedness over eco- nomic cycles – and, importantly, data on all the counterparties to these transac- tions and, of course, the amount of money the bank has made from all this activity. The combination of Big Data techniques, distributed cloud technology and AI will increasingly mean that they will be able to analyse this data. So what will they do with it? On the upside, it should mean that banks are able to offer a set of prod- ucts radically improved by the addition of AI-driven advice. So, for example, banks will be able to analyse corporate transaction data across the cash cycle to determine which bills should be paid when, which customers should be offered discounts and what those discounts should be. It could suggest how payment terms could be altered more broadly to improve the overall P&L and to model the impact of suggested packages of products products. AI is also being used to improve vice, more accurate matching of prod- and services tailored to the client. retail credit scoring by looking at core ucts and services to client needs and The data could be used to look at balance data more intelligently at firms like better pricing, treasurers need to think of sheet optimisation, the best sources and online lender Elevate, Equifax and ID the possible downsides. types of funding for particular projects or Analytics. Experian too is researching acquisitions, for asset management and machine learning while relying for now Banks have unimaginably large data- on traditional regression methods. bases of customer behaviour which, until hedging. And, because banks will use AI now, they have been unable to analyse in for their own AML/KYC compliance, The same basic idea will be applied to any meaningful way. This data is not they will be able to help corporates with corporate banking – and while the banks simply basic data on loans, timely repay- their supply chain and supply chain emphasise how AI will lead to better ser- ments and core financial variables, it finance optimisation. 14 // TREASURY PERSPECTIVES 2017/2018 www.eurofinance.com