Working Group on Common Treasury Services
- Reporting to: Finance & Budget Network
- Chairs: UN Secretariat (Mr. Carlos Perrone) and UNHCR (Ms. Carmen Hett).
The Working Group on Common Treasury Services targets an opportunity to realize savings and allow for economies of scale across the UN system through a combination of harmonized treasury services.
This initiative intends to institutionalize best treasury management practices in the UN system and to explore the establishment of common treasury management for UN system organizations.
Since its inception, WGCTS has consistently implemented practical, best practice, cost-efficient solutions across treasuries within the UN system. Among the deliverables to date (although not a complete list) are:
- Negotiation of Master Banking Agreements (MBAs) which include UN privileges & immunities and result in reduced banking fees and overall costs.
- Joint RPFs for banking services in over 30 countries and ongoing.
- Significant savings resulting from the implementation of Forex transactions being negotiated at the head office in lieu of in the field.
- Successful pilot project on cash digitization payments which will be expanded to additional agencies in 2020 onwards.
- Consolidated approach to sanctioned countries when establishing banking relationships.
- Sub-working groups are established on an ad-hoc basis, to address particular issues and provide suggestions/recommendations to the group on the way forward.
- Shared information on counterparties relative to Time Deposits and Money Markets.
- Real-time online inter-agency collaboration during emergency situations anywhere in the world which result in timely, efficient and cost-saving solutions.
WGCTS continues to collaborate throughout the year via email and teleconferences and meets annually face-to-face for the purpose of monitoring the status of projects, addressing challenges facing the group, and identify priorities for the coming year.