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Short-term Investors at Crossroads

Majority of corporate cash is stowed in bank deposits as treasuries await higher rates, new money fund regs.

By Susan Kelly | Updated on August 05, 2015
Corporate treasuries continue to stow the majority of their short-term cash in bank deposits, according to a recent survey, and put the largest chunk of the remaining money into money-market funds, a traditional short-term investment option. But those patterns could change in the next year or so as U.S. interest rates rise and new regulations make banks and money funds less hospitable places for corporate funds.

“As I talk to treasurers, it’s a very much wait-and-see approach,” said Tom Hunt, director of treasury services at the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP). “The decisions will get made when all the options are presented to them.”

AFP’s 2015 Liquidity Survey shows companies are keeping 56% of their cash in bank deposits, which include CDs and time deposits as well as demand deposit accounts. That’s up from 52% in 2014, and is the highest portion of corporate cash kept at banks in the 10 years AFP has been conducting the survey. The first survey, in 2006, showed just 23% of short-term funds held in bank deposits.

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