With interest rates rising and a possible recession looming, what are treasury and finance teams doing to ensure they're as effective and efficient as possible? Two recent surveys provide divergent insights.

According to a recent "voice of the customer" report released by Deloitte's financial services practice, a substantial proportion of companies continue to use outdated—in some cases, severely outdated—technologies to perform core banking activities. The report is based on a survey of 175 treasury professionals and in-depth follow-up interviews with 12 of them. Participating companies are small to midsize. Still, their responses are eye-opening.

In terms of the banking services they utilize, 67 percent require access to bank branches and night deposit capabilities. Forty-six percent use a cash vault service and 59 percent a lockbox. And 20 percent of corporate treasury groups still require CD-ROMs. Why? For 17 percent, the transition to a new solution would take too much time and money. "We are not as interested in direct API, since our ERP is batch and the ERP system would need to change," said the vice president of treasury for a utility provider. And for 40 percent of respondents, their current treasury and banking systems are meeting their needs—so shifting to a more modern option doesn't seem necessary.