Microsoft, Toyota Financial Services and Cliffs Natural
Resources are finalists for the Association for Financial
Professionals 2012 Pinnacle Award.
Sponsored by Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), the Pinnacle
Awards have recognized excellence in treasury and finance each year
since 1997.
Finalists were selected based on their dynamic solutions that
helped their treasury and finance operations run more efficiently
and effectively. The AFP Pinnacle Grand Prize winner will be named
Oct. 14 at the AFP Annual
Conference in Miami.
Wells Fargo will make a $10,000 donation to a charity of the
winner's choice. Danny Peltz, executive vice president and head of
Wells Fargo Treasury Management, and Jim Kaitz, AFP President &
CEO, will host the award ceremony.
"AFP is pleased to honor the 2012 Pinnacle Award winners," said
Kaitz. "The theme of this year's Annual Conference is Bold Visions
for the Future, and the solutions presented by Microsoft, Toyota
Financial Services and Cliffs Natural Resources certainly meet that
high standard."
Microsoft
Microsoft was selected as a finalist for its approach to
enhancing zero balance account arrangements. By working with its
bank to add additional information to better identify transactions,
Microsoft streamlined collection sweeps for hundreds of its bank
accounts and created a just-in-time funding model for subsidiary
disbursements. As a result, Microsoft's treasury team reduced its
balances in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain by more
than 94 percent in the past year.
Toyota Financial Services
Meanwhile, the Toyota Financial Services treasury team led a
cross-organizational effort to establish robust transfer pricing
that was consistent across product lines. Instead of using a
benchmark rate as an approximate cost of funds, each loan was
match-funded based on its characteristics and expected monthly cash
flows. The impact helped treasury, finance, analytics, sales, and
marketing make more-informed decisions and more-accurate funds
transfer pricing for 4 million consumer retail and lease loans
outstanding and over 2,000 dealer lending loans outstanding.
Cliffs Natural Resources
Based in Cleveland, Cliffs Natural Resources was selected as a
2012 AFP Pinnacle Award finalist in recognition of how its treasury
team managed transformational growth in two ways. First, while
increasing staff from four to 14 in less than 18 months as the
company grew globally, Cliffs implemented a global risk management
policy to manage its increasing foreign currency exposures across
many newly acquired business units. Second, Cliff's treasury team
emphasized managing talent, developing bank relationships, and
leveraging real-time data and technology throughout the process
with its treasury groups in Australia and America.