Few dispute that Chinese tech giants have shaken up retailbanking, changing how millions of customers do everything frompaying their bills to choosing insurance. But the real disruptionmay be occurring in a more staid corner of finance—and it's beingled by Wall Street.

As investment-banking revenues slumped in the wake of the globalfinancial crisis, traditional broker-dealers found that trading anddeal-making weren't cutting it. Steadier money could be made incash management, the humdrum business of assisting multinationalcompanies with daily liquidity and getting the most out of idledeposits by deploying them in global markets.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s treasury services business, its lingofor cash management, hit a 20 percent return on equity last year,compared with 15 percent for its corporate and investment bank.Citigroup Inc., a global leader in this area, posted a return onequity from transaction banking (which is dominated by cashmanagement) in the mid-20 percent range, according to a 2017investor presentation.