Treasury's success depends in part on its ability to quickly mobilize global cash and direct it to where it will generate the highest returns. This task has been especially challenging for companies operating in the Asia-Pacific region, because of the large number and geographic dispersion of countries and the lack of a common currency. Compounding the problems, many countries in this region do not have open economies, freely convertible currencies or state-of-the-art banking infrastructures or capital markets. To overcome the obstacles, according to Pui Yee Lee, director of international treasury at Honeywell International Inc., "Honeywell needed to develop and implement a treasury strategy specifically tailored to the Asia-Pacific region."

To gain efficiencies, Honeywell quickly opened regional offices in Singapore and Shanghai and selected one primary cash management bank for each country: Deutsche Bank was chosen for Korea;HSBC for Taiwan and Hong Kong; Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi for Japan; and Citigroup for the rest of Asia. Honeywell worked with its banking partners to implement the most appropriate cash-pooling structure permitted in each country.

Whenever regulation and tax policy permitted, surplus cash was moved from in-country pools to a central concentration account, located at Honeywell's treasury coordination center in Brussels. These funds were then used to reduce debt balances or invested in high-yielding assets. "When cross-border concentration wasn't possible, Honeywell worked with its Asian banking partners to achieve optimal investment returns within each domestic market," Lee reports.