MasterCard within Cash Management

As business becomes more global, and markets open up to new challenges, the timing of payables and receivables becomes more crucial to profit margins than ever before. The guarantee of payment, predictability of timing, and the value of reconciled data are the key components of efficient cash management. By extending its global network and platforms, MasterCard is able to offer Corporations a range of products that addresses the accounts receivables and payment needs of corporate treasurers.

Liquidity has to be available at the right time, in the right place, and in the correct currency. MasterCard offers the payments and receivables tools that assist corporate treasurers, increasing the efficiency of their cash flow!

MasterCard offers corporate cash managers tools for payments and receivables using a global network that is connected to 25,000 global financial institutions—processing 140 million transactions per hour in 210 countries—providing seamless interoperability to global corporations. Global Corporate Product solutions offered by MasterCard are

• Cash management tools beyond simple payment cards, providing added value to the realm of accounts receivables (AR) and payables (AP)
• Data and reporting tools—integration capabilities that provide reconciliation of accounts payables and receivables on a global basis
• Customized solutions that impact the “bottom line” of the business leading to improved ROI by providing integrated payment and data tools that enable true benefits from seamless end-to-end processing of accounts payables and receivables.

Challenges of Corporate Cash

Treasury and cash managers are faced with the following key challenges:

• Sluggish cash flow
– The need for increased predictability of payments/receivables timing
• Decrease working capital and shift funds to more valuable uses
– Information to increase decision-making capability
• Hedging of Risk
– Knowing cash positions and decrease Forex. Exposure
• Lack of streamlined processes
– Manual and paper processes hamper the ability to obtain true end-to-end processes
• Regulatory/Corporate governance requirements
– The need to increase visibility, control, and increased transparency

Manual reconciliation of collections by credit transfer (or check) is labor-intensive and error prone—a significant cost—and is not only costly in terms of personnel but inflates AR and DSO (Days Sales Outstanding). As a result, more than $20 billion of working capital is unavailable to Fortune 500 companies due to the lack of clarity on their receivables.

The MasterCard Value-Add

The portfolio of MasterCard Global Payment Solutions enables organizations to Capture, Receive, Integrate, Pay, and Analyze their specific cash flow positions at any point in time.

Globally distributed Point-Of-Sale endpoints Capture transaction and enhanced data from various mediums whether online or card-present environments. MasterCard also offers corporations with accounts receivables outsourcing tools such as the Distribution Card, replacing cash and checks with a payment product issued to retail clients for inventory purchases. Corporations will benefit from reconciling the sales data with the actual payments/transactions information, integrated with their Management Information Systems. The electronic data is available for reconciliation with the various Enterprise Resource Planning and business software applications. MasterCard Accounts Payables Solutions such as the Purchasing Card is available for streamlining the monitoring, management, and administration of corporate expenses. For travel, the MasetrCard Business Travel Solutions offers Central Travel Account and the Corporate Travel Card. All MasterCard Corporate products are supported by a comprehensive suite of Data Management products and services that capture, match, deliver, and integrate financial data in various formats to suit a corporation’s requirements.

All these features combine to provide true end-to-end transaction processing in the accounts receivables/payables environment, across various applications. Available cross-region and interregional in standard or customized formats.