When the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) surveyed corporate finance professionals in 2011, 81 percent of respondents said the treasury function's role had become more strategic over the past five years. That trend shows no sign of abating. In the “2014 AFP Strategic Role of Treasury” survey report, released today by the AFP and Oliver Wyman, 84 percent said treasury's role has expanded again. And 83 percent expect their treasury team to become even more strategic in the next half-decade.

The latest survey explored exactly what treasury is doing these days, and the answers to those questions—especially among large companies—indicate why more and more consider the word “strategic” to apply to the treasury function. The activities in which the largest proportion of respondents said their treasury function plays a lead role are fairly predictable: bank relationship management, borrowing, and investing (see Figure 1, below). More than half of treasury teams, and nearly two-thirds of those in large organizations, also have lead roles in financial risk management and counterparty risk analysis.

Treasury is also heading up some efforts that did not traditionally fall under the function's purview. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said their treasury team has taken a lead role in investor relations, 26 percent in mergers and acquisitions, 28 percent in business continuity planning, and 12 percent in accounting and SEC compliance.