Research Reports

Often quoted in the financial press, AFP research provides a benchmark for members to use in planning their corporate strategies.

AFP Research provides financial professionals with proprietary and timely research that drives business performance. The AFP Research team is led by Director of Research and Data Standards, Kevin A. Roth, PhD, who is joined by four research analysts. AFP Research also draws on the knowledge of the Association's members and its subject matter experts in areas that include bank relationship management, risk management, payments, and financial accounting and reporting. Study reports on a variety of topics, including AFP's annual compensation survey, are available online at www.AFPOnline.org/research.

AFP EconWatch provides you with a summary of the latest economic data releases from the previous week - tracking everything from prices and output to interest rates and business confidence. Designed to provide you with a roundup of the latest economic trends that could affect your organization, this quick read is published every Monday morning. On Wednesday, look for AFP EconWatch Mid-Week Update, featuring an update of the latest economic data and a brief commentary on what it all means to your organization.

Current Edition: December 1, 2008 

The nation entered the Thanksgiving holiday last week with news that the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve had set up another $800 billion fund with the goal of shoring up consumer credit. The week’s data series highlighted the need to support lagging consumer spending. The news of the week showed that housing continues its struggle as the credit crunch starved hopes for a rebound in the sector. Elsewhere, news about consumer sentiment, income and spending data further highlighted the challenges facing the U.S. economy. In total, it appears that the 0.5 percent annualized decline in third quarter 2008 GDP will look mild compared what it will likely be in the fourth quarter.

Previous Editions:

November 24, 2008 Update

November 17, 2008 Update

2008 Annual Conference On-Site Survey
(October 2008)
Financial professionals believe that government action over the past three weeks have stabilized the credit markets. Over 1,000 attendees at the Annual Conference of the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) indicated that various government action, including the U.S. Treasury plan to purchase an equity stake in key financial institutions and guarantee money market funds, along with the Federal Reserve’s plan to purchase Commercial Paper, has improved the outlook for credit availability.

2008 Short-Term Credit Access Survey
(September 2008)
The recent turmoil in the financial markets has had a direct impact on the ability of organizations to access short-term credit. As a result, companies are hoarding cash and taking defensive actions, including reducing capital spending, freezing hiring, considering layoffs, and delaying payments to their suppliers. This survey was originally conducted in early September 2008 and was supplemented by a shorter survey conducted in late September to reflect evolving market conditions.

2008 Women in Finance Survey: The Impact of the Economic Slowdown on Financial Professionals' Careers
(August 2008)
Nearly 60 percent of financial professionals believe that the U.S. economy will continue to slow at least into the fourth quarter of 2008, while a third believe economic conditions should begin to stabilize and/or improve over the next 90 days. While few financial professionals report having lost their job as a result of the current economic slowdown, two out of five survey respondents feel, at most, only somewhat secure about the safety of their current job. This year's Women in Finance Survey, sponsored by Citi Global Transaction Services Group, looks at the impact that the current economic slowdown has had financial professionals' outlook on their career.

AFP's 2008 Compensation Report
(July 2008)
Financial and treasury professionals continued to experience an increase in salaries and bonuses in 2007. The 2008 Compensation Report addresses the impact of education and certification on compensation in diverse financial areas. The report features salary information on 26 job titles and looks at the effects that different demographics such as company size and industry have on compensation. The report also includes job descriptions and organizational charts. The full report can only be viewed by AFP members that have successfully logged in.
Survey Highlights and Guide - An abbreviated report featuring general results and analysis. This version of the report can only be viewed by registered users and members.

2008 Liquidity Survey
(June 2008)
U.S. businesses moved their short-term investments into more conservative investment vehicles in reaction to volatile market conditions along with the slowing economy. This is 3rd annual survey, which provides financial professionals with an understanding of how organizations currently are managing their short-term portfolios. The 2008 survey also looks at the impact of the collapse of the auction rate securities market has had on short-term investment strategies.

2008 Payments Fraud and Controls Survey
(March 2008)
Safeguarding their organizations against payments fraud continues to be a major concern of treasury and finance professionals. Repeated reports of check scams, data breaches and losses from online commerce reinforce the need to strengthen defenses against attempted fraud.
This report spotlights the type and frequency of payments fraud experienced by organizations in 2007. Underwritten by the Electronic Payments Network (EPN).

2008 Business Outlook Survey
(December 2007)
This annual survey uses the expertise of financial professionals to gauge both current business conditions and project into 2008. U.S. financial professionals believe the U.S. economy will weaken over the next 12 months but will not slip into recession in 2008. More than a third of survey respondents also expect their organizations to expand their U.S. workforce in the coming year.

2007 AFP Electronic Payments Survey
(October 2007)
Checks represent a declining share of business-to-business (B2B) payments. This report shows that while checks are still the dominant payment method for B2B payments, organizations are gradually overcoming the barriers and increasing their adoption of all electronic payment methods - ACH, cards and wire transfers. This survey, underwritten by the Electronic Payments Network (EPN) is a follow up to 2004's AFP Electronic Payments Survey.

2007 Women in Finance Survey
(October 2007)

Trade Finance Survey
(October 2007)
As global trade increases, letters of credit continue to be a dominant method for managing trade, but other methods, particularly open account transactions, are growing rapidly. This survey, underwritten by Scotiabank, reviews current practices with respect to trade finance and explores areas for future development.

AFP's 2007 Compensation Report
(July 2007)
Financial and treasury professionals continued to experience an increase in salaries and bonuses in 2006. The 2007 Compensation Report addresses the impact of education and certification on compensation in diverse financial areas. The report features salary information on 26 job titles and looks at the effects that different demographics such as company size and industry have on compensation. The report also includes job descriptions and organizational charts. The full report can only be viewed by AFP members that have successfully logged in.
Survey Highlights and Guide - An abbreviated report featuring general results and analysis. This version of the report can only be viewed by registered users and members.

2007 AFP Liquidity Survey
(August 2007)
U.S. businesses are maintaining high levels of cash and a significant percentage are building their cash positions. As a follow up to the July 2006 survey report, this survey provides financial professionals with an understanding of how organizations currently are managing their short-term portfolios and to measure the impact of the elimination of cash equivalents on their organizations' investment strategies. This survey was underwritten by Citi.

2007 AFP Payments Fraud Survey
(March 2007)
This follow up to AFP's previous work on Payments Fraud shows that a majority of organizations continue to be victims of payments fraud and the incidence of fraud continues to climb. This report highlights the reasons why defending their organizations against fraud is a top concern for treasury and finance professionals. Nearly three-quarters of organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2006, up from sixty-eight percent reported in a previous AFP survey. This survey was underwritten by the Electronic Payments Network (EPN).

AFP 2007 Business Outlook Survey
(December 2006)
Financial professionals report that they are cautiously optimistic about economic growth in 2007. Forecasting modest growth for the year ahead, survey respondents expect their organizations to expand their U.S.-based workforces in the coming year. However, financial professionals also cite factors including volatile energy costs, the declining value of the U.S. dollar and rising health care costs as issues of concern.

Strategic Role of Treasury Survey
(October 2006)
The treasury profession continues to grow, playing a greater strategic role within the organization. While treasurers have long been responsible for managing cash flows, they are now being drawn further into the strategic framework of organizations, creating new opportunities and responsibilities for the profession. This study, a follow up to the 2003 Evolving Role of Treasury Survey, tracks these trends and was underwritten by Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking.

AFP Women in Finance Survey, Sponsored by Citigroup
(October 2006)
As corporations have become multinational, it's no secret that some financial professionals have achieved a competitive edge through assignments overseas. In a groundbreaking 2006 Women in Finance Survey, sponsored and underwritten by Citigroup, AFP has learned that well over 90% of financial professionals believe treasury/finance is becoming more international in scope and over 80% believe international experience is important to their careers. When jobs abroad become available, the question is: Should I stay or should I go?

Volatility in Energy Costs Survey
(October 2006)
This survey was conducted at the AFP Annual Conference in Las Vegas. The survey revealed finance professionals do not expect energy prices to spike to previously record high levels.

AFP's 2006 Compensation Report
(August 2006)
A combination of good business conditions and increased job responsibilities has lead to increasing salaries and bonuses for finance and treasury professionals in 2005. The report underscores the impact that education and certification have on compensation in the dynamic finance and treasury fields. The report features salary information on 27 job titles and looks at the effects that different demographics such as company size and industry have on compensation. The report also includes job descriptions and organizational charts. Survey sponsored by Spherion. The full report can only be viewed by AFP members that have successfully logged in.

Survey Highlights and Guide - An abbreviated report featuring general results and analysis. This report can only be viewed by registered users and members.

Liquidity Survey
(July 2006)
Many organizations have in recent years generated historically high levels of cash flow as the result of a sustained period of strong earnings growth and because of a perceived dearth of opportunities to invest in new projects or acquisitions, many organizations cash holdings have increased as well. This survey tracks organizations' short-term investment strategies and the use of tools to execute their strategy. This report is underwritten by Credit Suisse Asset Management.
•Graphs

Treasury's Role in Risk Management
(June 2006)
Through an in-depth survey and interviews with a diverse cross-section of treasury professionals, this research report examines the types of risk that treasury is commonly managing, as well as its involvement in enterprise risk management programs. The first in the AFP Executive Research series, the study also explores how organizations have structured their risk management function and assesses treasury's responsibilities for insurance management. The report also features risk management profiles, including interview summaries, of several of the study's participants.

Payments Risk Survey
(March 2006)
Organizations today are engaged in a variety of initiatives to strengthen payments risk controls and protect the security, integrity and continuity of financial transactions. They are building defenses against fraud, tightening internal controls over the payments process and testing disaster recovery plans. This survey highlights the ways that treasury and finance professionals are managing two categories of risk: fraud risk and operating risk. Questions delve into payments fraud, internal controls and business continuity of payments activities.

AFP 2006 Business Outlook Survey
(December 2005)
In the third survey of the semi-annual series, U.S. financial professionals indicate that they believe that the U.S. economy will grow at a moderate pace in 2006. In addition, many survey respondents indicate that they expect their organization to expand its U.S. workforce in the coming year. While financial professionals are optimistic about business conditions, they note several threats to future economic growth; including, rising interest rates, volatile energy costs, and rising health care costs.
• CNBC Video: Interview with AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz

The AFP Interchange Survey
(October 2005)
The AFP Interchange Survey looks at credit and debit card acceptance for consumer and business-to-business (B2B) transactions, benefits of card acceptance, trends in interchange costs (that is, fees paid by the merchant’s bank to the bank that issued the card, which are typically passed back to the merchant), and respondents’ views about current interchange issues. Among its key findings are that organizations are unable to refuse credit cards even as the high cost of accepting credit and debit cards becomes a growing concern for American businesses. Many financial professionals believe their organization would sustain a significant decline in sales if it no longer accepted certain cards, especially those offered by Visa and MasterCard.

AFP Wire Transfer Survey
(October 2005)
Even though organizations need basic remittance information in a standard format with their wire transfers in order to accurately identify incoming payments and automatically apply the payments to their accounting systems, most of the time the necessary information does not often travel with the wire. The reason: there is no standard format for organizations to provide remittance information with wire transfer instructions and no assurance that data that is included will be received by the beneficiary. AFP distributed this survey to its corporate practitioner members asking about the scope of this problem and the potential benefits if a standard format were to be adopted for wire transfer remittance information. The results highlight the benefits that would be realized by organizations if a standard format for entering remittance information with wire transfer instructions were offered by financial institutions and software vendors.

AFP Business Continuity Survey
(October 2005)
This survey, sponsored by JP MorganChase, was conducted at the AFP Annual Conference in San Antonio.

AFP Women in Finance Survey
(September 2005)
Tom Peters characterizes the New Economy as one shaped by upheaval, explaining that successful companies will be those that can respond effectively to a few key trends. One of these trends, he says, is the emergence of women both as drivers of the New Economy and as effective business managers. Findings of AFP's 2005 Women in Finance Survey, sponsored by Citigroup, support this assertion.

AFP Mid-2005 Business Conditions Outlook
(June 2005)
As a follow-up to our December 2004 survey, financial professionals indicate that the U.S. economy will continue to grow at a moderate rate for the remainder of 2005. While treasury and finance professionals continue to highlight concerns about the fluctuating value of the U.S. dollar and the trade deficit, growing energy costs and higher interest rates now rank as the factors most influencing overall business conditions over the next twelve months.

2005 Retail/Consumer Payments Survey
(May 2005)
Released at the AFP 2005 Retail Industry Forum, this survey tracks the payment preferences of customers, the impact of changing interchange rates, and the impact technology has had on the number of cash management and depository banks retailers use.

AFP 2005 Payments Fraud and Control Survey
(March 2005)
Payments fraud is on the rise and finance professionals are raising their defenses against it. Financial professionals tell us about how corporate payments fraud has impacted their organization and the fraud control services that they utilize. Survey sponsored by JPMorgan Chase.
• Press Release

AFP Business Outlook for 2005 Survey
(January 2005)
Shows what financial professionals believe to be the direction of the business environment for 2005. Report also outlines the issues and economic circumstances that financial professionals believe will have the greatest influence on business conditions for the year.
• Press Release

2004 Electronic Payments Survey
(October 2004)
Focuses on B2B payment transactions, attempts to determine the obstacles for converting the majority of B2B payments from checks to electronic payments and indentifies possible solutions.
• Press Release • Article: Consumers Ahead in Electronic Payments, Businesses Catching Up

2004 Credit Rating Agency Survey
(October 2004)
An update to AFP's landmark 2002 survey, this report provides the corporate financial professional's perspective in the credit rating agencies debate. Many companies question the accuracy and timeliness of the ratings and tend to support SEC regulation changes for credit rating agencies.
• Press Release

2004 Compensation Survey
(August 2004)

2004 Credit Access Survey
(June 2004)
Follow up to our ground breaking 2003 survey finding evidence of continued linking of corporate credit to the awarding of other financial services.
• Press Release

The Evolving Role of Treasury
(November 2003)
Because of technology, outsourcing, and changing organizational strategies, treasury and financial professionals' roles within their organizations have been changing at a dramatic pace. This report outlines what the modern treasury and finance department does and what it looks like. The report also sheds light on where the role of treasury is heading in the future.
• Press Release

AFP Subcertification Survey
(July 2003)
Reveals sign-offs on financials "trickle down" to other finance staff.
• Subcertification White Paper

AFP Research Report Archive

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