Thomas, youve recently undertaken work to integrate and automate your treasury operations with a view to providing improved STP for your group treasury business. What factors played a role in that decision?

The central Treasury function within Infineon Technologies is staffed very lean and for that reason we were looking for automation processes for the daily flow business in the past. We started using 360T, a multi bank dealing platform, in the second half of 2002. From the start we also used their internal dealing system I-TEX which offered our entities the same dealing functionalities which we used with the external trading system TEX from 360T.

How does centralising a treasury assist you with your job function?

Centralized treasury departments are a customised approach used by many corporates nowadays. Infineon Technologies started with a centralized treasury department from the very beginning. The advantages are commonly recognized; only one face to the banks, possibility to net different currency positions of the various entities and getting a clear picture about all currency related cash flows of the entities.

What do you think are the key benefits that STP and automation brings to your organisation?

As everyone is aware, the daily flow business does not create any value added for a company, so we tried to streamline the time-consuming dealing process as far as possible. Three major benefit factors played a dominant role in the decision to use an electronic dealing platform and to link it to our Treasury Management System (SAP):