US Treasurers Expect Stable Rates During 2015

Relatively few treasurers at US corporations expect the Federal Reserve to begin increasing interest rates before the end of 2015, according to a survey by Clearwater Analytics.

The company has issued the results and analysis of its 2014 Corporate Investment Benchmark Survey, based on responses from over 400 accounting and treasury professionals from various US companies. Their investment portfolios range from less than US$100m to larger than US$50bn+ across more than 30 industries.

Survey participants were asked what they thought about the current investment environment, how they perform key treasury, accounting, and investment reporting processes, and their investment allocation strategies.

Clearwater reports that responses to the question “What are your biggest investment-related concerns?” were particularly illuminating, illustrating four universal categories of challenges:

• The investment environment – 83% of respondents believe interest rates will stay the same in the short term (within the year).
• Operational efficiency – Almost 50% of respondents take five days or more to close their books at year-end.
• Risk and compliance – 50% of respondents are “very” to “extremely” concerned about US generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) regulations.
• Strategy execution – just over 20% of respondents are considering moving into separately managed accounts

“The survey was designed to capture detailed information regarding the investment environment, key challenges corporate treasury and accounting teams face, and the operational side of investment accounting and regulatory reporting,” said Tyler Haws, director of business development at Clearwater Analytics.

The survey results can be accessed on the Clearwater website at: https://cw-an.co/corp-survey. The company will conduct the Corporate Investment Benchmark Survey again in mid- to late-2015.

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