Net neutrality received a blow this week as a bill intended to continue current net neutrality measures for the next two years languished in Congress. The bill was introduced by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Harry Waxman.

Waxman said in a statement that the lack of support from Republicans means that the bill cannot pass before Congress’ mid-term elections. He said that it is essential to break the deadlock on net neutrality in order to build the most open and robust Internet possible.

It is time to update and standardize cash reporting formats, according to a survey by the Association for Financial Professionals. 

It found that a vast majority of companies want to see the Banking Administration Institute (BAI) cash reporting format—which is used for everything from bank account information reporting to controlled disbursements to lockbox or receivables information reporting--standardized across banks. The format is used for current-day or previous-day information reporting from banks. 

US corporate and financial treasury system supplier Wall Street Systems announced earlier this month that it has snapped up rival City Financials--further consolidating the treasury management system (TMS) marketplace and reducing the options for companies looking at sending out an RFP for treasury technology.

The buy-and-integrate approach has long been a hallmark of the TMS space. In fact, few of the biggest-name providers from 15 years ago are still around – aside from Wall Street Systems, SunGard, and IT2. A number of upstarts have since entered the market—such as Kyriba—and some have entered and been bought out—like FXPress.

Given the time and resources needed to manage complex treasury and finance systems, companies are increasingly choosing to have outside vendors manage their treasury software systems. But outsourcing management of treasury or finance systems comes with a unique set of risks that vendors are often hesitant to share with clients.

In a survey last year, consultancy Aite Group found that 66 percent of new treasury management system purchases made by companies were for vendor-hosted systems--where the software vendor, or a third party, manages the software on an outsourced basis, rather than the company managing the software in-house.

With Treasuries at all-time lows and bank lending still declining, companies are reorganizing their treasury operations in record numbers as they strive to increase efficiency, reduce costs and make best use of their internal cash. According to a recent survey by JP Morgan Treasury Services, 61 percent of companies polled had either just completed a treasury restructuring, were in the process of restructuring, or were building the business case for a restructuring.

The poll of 182 treasury executives—primarily from large corporations--found that 35 percent were implementing systems that would allow the company to get a global cash balance, 25 percent were reorganizing their bank account structures to reduce their number of banking partners, and 19 percent were restructuring their cash concentration programs to make use of extra cash for self-funding or debt repayment.