The acquisitions of Hibernia and North Fork banks in 2006 and 2007 catapulted McLean, Va.-based Capital One Financial Corp. from a consumer finance company with a below-investment-grade credit rating to the 11th largest bank in the U.S., with an A- credit rating and $87.7 billion of insured bank deposits, including more than $50 billion in consumer deposits.

These changes opened the door to a new era of liquidity management, which meant treasury had to replace or consolidate 12 diverse systems or platforms in less than three years. So, a new system or platform had to go live every 85 days, says Darcy Williamson, vice president of corporate treasury.

More than 150 people from treasury, IT, legal, procurement, debt capital markets, banking deposit operations and corporate communications participated. A new treasury workstation cut ongoing application management costs by 25%, Williamson says.