Treasury Management and Financial Perfomance of Commercial Banks in Russia

Cash and liquidity management is an important process for any large organization. It is aimed at ensuring the efficient management of cash holdings, thus maximizing a firm’s profitability. The main functions of treasury management are: managing firm’s liquidity, facilitating different types of risks, maximizing financial returns by managing investment decisions and optimization of funding sources. However, there is a gap in understanding the efficiency of different treasury management techniques in Russian practice. Thus, there are two main objectives of the study: to examine the effect of treasury management practices on the financial performance of commercial banks in Russia; to determine treasury management practices which are adopted by commercial banks in Russia. Quantitative methodology is applied in the research. New results are obtained with two methodologies: regression analysis of secondary data and dispersion analysis of primary data. Secondary data was collected in form of financial indicators from published financial reports. Primary data was obtained in form of semi-structured interviews with banks’ treasury managers about treasury management practices implemented in their banks. The study determined that risk, liquidity and investment strategies have a strong positive effect on the financial performance of Russian commercial banks. Also, it is defined that liquidity and risk practices are mostly adopted by commercial bank in Russia. As a result, the recommendations for policy makers and banks’ management are formulated and can be implemented. The paper consists of introduction in the topic and a problem statement; a theoretical background and a review of existing studies on the topic, a methods’ description, a presentation of research results, with their discussion and recommendations.