Cash management: it's a new ballgame.

• Position: Marketing News - Brief Article

The good news, says Deloitte Consulting, is that there's still money in traditional cash-management business.

The bad news is that there isn't much money in it, and there's even less new money. The global payments business is expected to grow about 7 percent a year through 2008, says Deloitte partner Colin Klipin, but revenues are expected to remain essentially constant--which means that, in real terms, prices will actually decrease about 5-7 percent per year.

Klipin says that kind of money does not amount to a sustainable financial model for banks. "Banks have to re-think how they do this business." He recommends a complete strategic re-evaluation. Noncore functions that could...