Regulatory, infrastructure challenges hound RP – HSBC

The application of cash and treasury management is high in the Asia Pacific region but the Philippines is still coping with regulatory and infrastructure issues.

Lawrence Webb, HSBC head of payments and cash management for Asia Pacific said the level of experience and knowledge in the application of cash management among the Asian countries is quite high compared to Western countries.

"But in the Philippines, it is a challenge in terms of the regulatory and infrastructure environment. There is no efficient electronic payment system," Webb pointed out.

There is no low value, same day payment electronic system. In contrast, the level of knowledge and anticipation among the corporate and multinational chief finance officers (CFOs) is very high.

"The challenge is really for the highers up (referring to the regulators)," he added.

He cited the case of HongKong and Singapore which has advanced electronics infrastructure payments systems which "endeared" it to multinationals and corporates. That is due to real time and same day electronic payments required.

There is so much pressure for efficient payments. When the multinationals, like service centers, shop around for a location they do not only consider language like the Philippines but also the business environment and the electronic payment infrastructure.

The "HSBC’s Guide to Cash and Treasury Management in Asia Pacific" is on its eighth edition since 1997.

"The eighth edition is living proof of the continued and growing interest ub cash and treasury management within and outside the region," Webb said.

It is not only printed in English but also in Chinese and Japanese. The Chinese edition started in 2003, and 5,000 copies were gobbled up.

But the largest number of copies was devoured in Singapore although a lot of the US and European multinationals subscribe to the HSBC manual to get a deeper understanding of the Asian market.

This year, the Philippines accounted for 500 copies. Of the total number of copies, roughly 15 percent were acquired by the banking system, between 75 to 80 percent by the corporates, and the remaining by the academic community.

This year’s edition is the thickest with 448 pages. It has reports written not only from bank executives of HSBC. It has reports from various global and regional banking institutions, investment houses, information technology, software and hardware specialists, credit rating agencies, corporate financial specialists, government agencies, central bankers, credit card issuers, and the academe. – TPT