Driving global liquidity efficiency: How HSBC partnered with ERM Group to transform treasury operations

A global consultancy helping clients achieve their environmental, health, safety and social goals, ERM Group is headquartered in the UK with 8,000 employees in 40 countries running projects in 152 markets.

Operating across such a vast footprint brings natural treasury complexities including suboptimal cash visibility and control. The firm’s Treasury was largely decentralised, with local entities managing cash independently, leading to inefficiencies and underutilised surplus balances.

When Alex Baker joined as the new Head of Treasury his initial priorities for the business were to reduce costs and increase yield on surplus cash.

“I wanted to enhance our company’s liquidity structure to consolidate cash from group entities to HQ more effectively,” he explains. “As our primary cash management bank, it was great to partner with HSBC and engage with their Treasury Solutions Group (TSG).”

HSBC’s Treasury Solutions Group (TSG) team began with a comprehensive treasury assessment, including deep dives into liquidity structures, banking connectivity, and investment strategies. The analysis revealed opportunities to streamline and concentrate external liquidity and improve access and control through enhanced liquidity automation and reporting.

“We identified key insights and actionable recommendations to support Alex’s objectives,” says Amit Sudhakar Bhalerao from HSBC’s TSG Team. “The TSG analysis provided a clear picture of gaps, potential solutions, and the benefits of addressing them, including a more agile global liquidity structure, automated aggregation and sweeping.”

The liquidity management best practice the team shared with ERM included a ‘heat-map’ of the broader regulatory landscape which highlighted potential local market challenges and restrictions as well as key considerations for effective cash flow forecasting.

“Following HSBC’s input, we’re implementing a global cash concentration structure to efficiently centralise liquidity, automate funding and increase yield on cash positions. Working with TSG provided an expert perspective and has supported us in delivering meaningful solutions for our business.” says Alex.

“As a key client, we’ve taken a proactive approach in partnering with the team at ERM to co-create solutions that deliver sustainable value,” adds Candice Andrews, a Senior Consultant in HSBC UK’s Global Payments Solutions Team. “Together, we designed a centralised liquidity framework, with automated sweeps aligned to the groups cash usage patterns.”

“We’re pleased that the outcome of these workshops has enabled Alex’s team to actively begin optimising group liquidity”, adds Amit. “ERM now has a greater control and efficiency, with a clear roadmap to support broader financial efficiency and growth.”

HSBC’s TSG brings ideas, expertise and experience to businesses who are actively seeking to transform their treasury.

We support treasurers and encourage them to apply these ideas and strategies in practice during their business transformation journeys. Whether you are looking to form a treasury function for the first time, are in a phase of rapid international growth or are a mature multi-national, we can share our experiences working with hundreds of organisations worldwide.