Expansion of Takeda's Internal Banking Operations Across the APAC Region
In the heart of Osaka, Japan, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a company with roots dating back to 1781, began its journey selling traditional Japanese and Chinese medicines. Fast forward to the present, Takeda has grown into a US$28.2bn company, ranking among the 15 largest pharmaceutical players globally.
Takeda's global reach is significant, with more than half of its revenues (51%) coming from the US, 23% from Europe and Canada, 11% from Japan, and 15% from growing and emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. The company's operations span across six business areas: oncology, rare diseases, neuroscience, gastroenterology, plasma-derived therapies, and vaccines.
To manage its growing financial operations, Takeda implemented an in-house banking (IHB) structure. This transformation began in 2008 with a bank tender for European cash management. The IHB journey culminated in 2024 when the IHB project in Singapore, which includes a central Singapore dollar account at Deutsche Bank Singapore, went live.
Takeda's IHB operates on a four-step approach: Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. The treasury team at Takeda, which operates out of three locations: Tokyo, Zurich, and Dublin, follows a three-pillar approach. The largest pillar, comprising 13 out of the overall 21 treasury specialists at Takeda, is the treasury operations team.
The IHB structure provides greater visibility and access to cash around the group, reducing international bank fees and transaction costs. FX exposure management is also easier to identify and manage with the IHB structure. As a result, approximately 90% of intercompany payments are now managed via the IHB.
Takeda's IHB includes 87 entities managing Payments-on-Behalf-of (POBO) within the IHB, and 6 on Collect-on-Behalf-Of (COBO). The service level agreement (SLA) signed by each entity onboarded includes cross-border intercompany lending and borrowing.
The IHB has been rolled out in Europe, with a Swiss entity as "owner" and European entities as participants. There was a separate IHB for the US and one in Japan. Takeda plans to roll out POBO for Japan, leverage increasing standardisation of payment formats to centralise POBO further, and continue focusing on integrating fraud protection to the payment process and the broader adoption of COBO globally.
The IHB structure also offers advantages from a governance and compliance point of view, as central treasury is in control of payments and liquidity. In 2025, Takeda will have almost completed the integration of its IHB in Europe, US, and Japan to allow for more straight-through-processing and less manual work.
To facilitate the management of this complex structure, Takeda implemented a treasury management system (TMS) by Kyriba, which was introduced shortly after the Shire acquisition. This system streamlines the management of Takeda's global cash and provides a single source of truth for its financial operations.
Without the specific details provided, it is not possible to identify which institutions involved in Takeda's IHB are not directly mentioned. However, it is clear that Takeda's IHB transformation has been a significant step in streamlining its financial operations, reducing costs, and improving its financial visibility and control.
