One of the biggest challenges for multinational corporations (MNCs) is to determine and consolidate their borders. In order to do so, MNCs increasingly strive to create value innovation, particularly within their internal capital market. Accordingly, their corporate treasury functions have witnessed three stages of major evolution in the 21st century.

Until 2002, Roche’s treasury activities were decentralized. Then a number of external factors resulted in the multinational company recording a loss of CHF5,192 million. Determined to build a more robust centralized treasury system, Roche conceptualized and implemented an in-house bank (IHB) coupled with cash pooling from its affiliates worldwide.