Inchcape Shipping Services, a global port agent operating since 1847, manages operations across 60 countries and 260 offices, covering roughly 85% of global ports. That scale created a fundamental treasury challenge for Group Treasurer Anthony Ho: visibility and control.
With around 600 banks and 100 banking partners, cash was scattered across hundreds of accounts and currencies. Fragmented relationships, manual payments, and limited visibility slowed decisions and increased risk. Month-end reporting cycles were too slow for day-to-day needs, and manual, multi-step processes left payments vulnerable to errors and delays.
“People would tell me, ‘You have to wait until after month-end to get your numbers,’ and for a treasurer, that's not really sufficient… I needed much quicker information, which is why Kyriba was on board for us.”
— Anthony Ho, Group Treasurer, Inchcape Shipping Services
Why Kyriba
The mandate was clear: centralize liquidity visibility and automate payments. Kyriba was chosen because it was easy to use, modular, and configurable. The team could adopt exactly what they needed—core data, deal capture, and bank payments—without being forced into unnecessary components. Kyriba’s interface accelerated adoption, while its connectivity made it possible to stitch Inchcape’s front-end and ERP through Kyriba to the banks, with strong controls on static data and approvals to remove manual typing and reduce exceptions.
“Kyriba is intuitive and very configurable, which helped the team adopt it quickly. Smart assignment rules now drive consistent, automated payment configuration for us.”
— Simerdeep Sagoo, Head of Global Finance Systems, Inchcape Shipping Services
Before vs. after: measurable outcomes
A single payment flow used to take eight minutes—riddled with the risk of incorrect IBANs or amounts—was redesigned to execute in about one minute, with automation and checks built in. On the liquidity side, treasury gained a single source of truth: all bank accounts, all balances, all currencies in one place. That unified view unlocked trapped liquidity in markets like Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and enabled Inchcape to upstream cash to the group level.
With improved visibility and the support of Citibank’s local expertise, the company funded acquisitions and transformation from its own cash rather than seeking costly external financing.
Quick highlights
Payments reduced from 8 minutes to ~1 minute, eliminating manual rekeying and errors.
A centralized, real-time view of liquidity across 600 accounts and multiple currencies.
Trapped cash identified and released, supporting acquisitions and transformation without external funding.
Recognition and lessons learned
The program’s impact reached beyond operational efficiency. Together with Citibank and Kyriba, Inchcape earned the Adam Smith Global Treasury Award for best cash management solution, a validation of the strategy and, for Ho, a personal career milestone.
Behind the scenes, the journey also surfaced important lessons. The team initially underestimated the scope of their banking footprint and payment types, discovering more than 100 banks and over 140 payment formats. Mapping that landscape upfront would have smoothed onboarding. And shifting from manual to automated workflows required focused upskilling across teams in Chennai and London, a change management effort that paid off as the new processes took hold.
The a-ha moment and what’s next
The “a‑ha moment,” as Anthony describes it, came when everything lived in one place. Instead of hunting through portals and spreadsheets, the team could trust Kyriba as the system of record and orchestrate cash with confidence.
Looking ahead, Inchcape plans to deepen integration across the finance ecosystem, scale automated payments with strong controls, and deliver reliable real-time data, channeling billions through a single, trusted south of truth.
“For Inchcape, the a-ha moment was seeing every bank account in one place. Instead of portals and spreadsheets scattered everywhere, we finally had a single source of truth, and I could trust Kyriba to look after all of our data.”
— Anthony Ho, Group Treasurer, Inchcape Shipping Services
Inchcape’s story is ultimately about converting global complexity into strategic advantage. By pairing Kyriba’s modular platform with disciplined process redesign and a focused banking partnership model, the company transformed liquidity visibility, compressed payment cycle times, unlocked dormant cash, and funded growth from within—turning treasury into a catalyst for the business.
