CFOs to narrow talent investment as AI reshapes finance

CFOs will funnel their finance talent investment towards advanced digital capabilities as AI reshapes roles, automates basic tasks and exposes gaps in data science skills, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that by 2028, 20% of finance organisations will stop hiring and developing non-digitally literate talent, directing all talent-related investment towards advanced digital capabilities instead.

The shift reflects a move away from broad, general upskilling towards a more selective approach. Gartner argues that leading finance functions will focus hiring, training and career development on employees with the aptitude and appetite to work in more AI-enabled operating models.

Emily Connelly, senior director analyst in the Gartner Finance practice, said: “The push to adopt more AI solutions in the finance function will disrupt the status quo in finance talent.”

That disruption is already visible in the composition of finance teams. Gartner says basic technology users, who perform recurring tasks with provided systems, currently account for 50% of finance staff. Digitally literate and advanced technology users make up 35%, while digital talent capable of creating or modifying digital capabilities accounts for 15%.

That mix is increasingly mismatched with the direction of travel. Transactional work is being automated, while finance roles are expected to require stronger digital skills, better use of AI and more business partnering. Gartner’s 2025 AI in Finance Survey found that 59% of CFOs are already using AI tools for finance use cases, although results have been mixed.

CFOs are therefore likely to concentrate development spending on staff who can move further up the digital skills curve. Connelly said many traditional roles would be eliminated or redefined, with remaining roles requiring “higher standards in technology use and innovation”.

Digital development is also expected to become part of performance management. Employees will increasingly be expected to upskill and use AI in their workflows, with more emphasis on learning through practical work than classroom-style training.

Gartner does not expect the transition to be driven mainly by large redundancy programmes. “Mass layoffs due to AI will likely be a rare occurrence,” Connelly said, adding that many organisations were more likely to manage the change through retirement and natural attrition.

Pressure on hiring is set to intensify as other business functions compete for similar skills. “Competition for digital talent will only intensify,” Connelly said. “Finance leaders must get creative in attracting and developing talent.”

The forecast points to a more divided finance labour market. Employees with digital aptitude may see more investment and faster progression, while those unable to adapt could face fewer career opportunities. Sustained internal development will be critical, because digital experts may not naturally gravitate towards finance roles.

Finance functions that fail to build those capabilities risk falling behind as AI adoption becomes more embedded. The challenge for CFOs will be to redesign work, retain institutional finance knowledge and build digital depth without treating technology skills as separate from the core finance career path. That makes talent strategy central to the finance transformation agenda.

 

AI capex steadies economic outlook amid oil volatility

J.P. Morgan Global Research has raised its S&P 500 year-end target and kept a constructive view on risk assets, arguing that resilient growth, AI-driven capital spending and improving business sentiment are offsetting the drag from the oil supply shock. The bank’s mid-year outlook sets a new S&P 500 target of 7,800 and lifts its 2026 earnings-per-share estimate to $350, implying 29% year-on-year growth. It also expects Brent crude to end the year at US$78 per barrel, while maintaining a bullish view on the US dollar.

Hussein Malik, head of Global Research at J.P. Morgan, said three themes would shape the second half: “the tension between the ongoing energy supply shock and a resilient growth backdrop”, the broadening AI capital expenditure cycle and persistent geopolitical fragmentation.

“Against this backdrop, we see a broad realignment of supply chains, and of trade and capital flows, as security and resilience considerations increasingly take precedence over cost in global investment decisions,” Malik said.

Those themes point to a market environment in which growth is present but uneven. J.P. Morgan expects US growth to settle in a 1.50-1.75% range in the second half, supported by a resilient labour market, while the Federal Reserve is expected to remain on hold. China’s growth is forecast to average 4.7% year on year in 2026, with tariff escalation and geopolitical risk weighing on the outlook.

Inflation remains a constraint. Global core inflation is forecast to stay close to its 3% average over 2024 and 2025, reflecting firmer goods demand, technology supply-chain bottlenecks and energy price pass-through. Global policy rates are expected to rise less than 20 basis points this year, although developed market central banks are seen moving unevenly.

Oil is the sharper swing factor. J.P. Morgan said renewed escalation in the Middle East could trigger another sharp rise in prices, while Europe remains vulnerable to the direct inflationary effects of the energy shock.

Equity markets are expected to retain an upward bias, though with a less straightforward path. Strong earnings have raised expectations, while crowded momentum trades, increasing equity supply and the possibility of tighter monetary policy could limit multiple expansion.

Currency assumptions may prove important for international businesses. J.P. Morgan has been bullish on the dollar since March, citing stabilising growth, sticky inflation and continued US exceptionalism.

“De-dollarisation is underway but not USD-punitive, as US cyclical dominance persists with foreign inflows still incoming for equities,” said Meera Chandan, co-head of Global FX Strategy at J.P. Morgan.

She added that “conviction in AI-driven US exceptionalism is rising”, with AI’s use as a geopolitical lever potentially widening the gap between the US and other economies to the dollar’s benefit.

The research team is bearish on the Canadian dollar, euro, Japanese yen and Swedish krona, while seeing stronger prospects for higher-yielding emerging market currencies. Credit spreads are expected to move sideways or widen modestly.

Stronger equity markets, a firmer dollar, sticky inflation and volatile energy prices leave companies facing a second half in which funding costs, hedging decisions, investment plans and supply-chain resilience remain closely linked.

 

Banks struggle with reconciliation as automation gaps persist

Almost a third of European banks take more than a day to resolve reconciliation exceptions, highlighting the gap between real-time payment ambitions and the operational processes still supporting them, according to research from Aqua Global. A survey of 150 European banking IT leaders, including 75 in the UK, found that 29% typically need more than a day to resolve reconciliation mismatches. Aqua Global said the delays are often linked to poor-quality or incomplete upstream data, multiple versions of the truth and legacy systems that do not share a common data language.

The findings suggest banks are still repairing problems late in the payment lifecycle rather than addressing the data issues that create them. Some 65% of respondents said they spend more time repairing payment data than producing it, while 71% admitted they lack visibility across the full payment lifecycle. More than half, 51%, reported rising operational costs linked to inefficiencies in payment operations.

Automation is widely seen as critical but remains limited in practice. Some 85% of respondents said automation will determine which banks stay competitive in cross-border payments, while 78% warned that institutions failing to modernise risk falling behind on customer experience. Yet across ten core payment functions, an average of just 13% of banks reported full automation.

Payment orchestration was the most automated process, but only 23% of banks had fully automated it. Liquidity and cash position monitoring was among the least automated, at 7%. Human intervention also remains embedded in higher-risk processes, with 25% saying fraud and sanctions investigations are mostly or fully manual.

Manual workflows remain the main barrier to real-time processing, cited by 74% of banks. Three quarters said regulatory changes will penalise institutions that continue to rely on manual processes, while 69% said spreadsheets and workarounds are increasing operational risk.

Legacy infrastructure is compounding the problem. Nearly two-thirds of respondents, 63%, still depend on outdated messaging formats and systems that should already have been retired, and 72% believe legacy infrastructure will make future Swift changes more difficult and expensive to implement.

“Real-time payments cannot be built on yesterday’s infrastructure,” said Cian Fernando, chief executive officer of Aqua Global. “Manual processes were not built for a real-time payments world.”

The research points to reconciliation as a symptom of broader fragmentation. As payment volumes rise and regulatory expectations increase, banks without cleaner data, stronger visibility and greater automation may find real-time service demands harder to meet.

 

Procurement cost pressures intensify as AI expectations rise

Cost control has returned as the clearest measure of procurement performance, even as companies ask teams to manage risk, sustainability and digital transformation, according to an Economist Enterprise report sponsored by SAP.

The 2026 report, based on a global survey of 2,648 C-suite executives, found that 54% cited cost control as procurement’s greatest contribution to the business, up from 43% a year earlier. The change reflects a tougher operating environment in which inflation, tariffs and supply chain resilience spending are forcing companies to find savings while still investing in protection against disruption.

Digital transformation has also moved sharply up the agenda. Some 60% of executives named it as procurement’s top strategic priority over the next 12 to 18 months, compared with 38% in 2025. AI was identified by 56% as the main driver of that transformation.

Interest in agentic AI is rising quickly, with more than half of executives planning to implement or evaluate the technology within the next 12 to 18 months. The report says these tools could support tasks such as guided buying and purchase order creation, moving procurement technology beyond analysis towards workflow execution.

Expectations remain measured, however. Only 9% of respondents want AI to lead most procurement decisions within three years, suggesting executives still see human judgement, supplier relationships and trade-off management as central to the function.

Investment priorities also show where procurement bottlenecks are forming. Category and demand management are expected to receive the second-highest level of digital investment among procurement disciplines over the next three years, behind only spend and performance analytics. The report says category strategy has become the third most common source of process delays, after contracting and sourcing.

That finding points to a more complex role for category teams. They are being asked to weigh cost, risk, sustainability and supplier performance at once, making better data and faster decision-making critical if strategy is to translate into execution.

Confidence in procurement’s strategic role has weakened. While 74% of executives still believe procurement collaborates effectively across the organisation, that is down from 90% in 2025. The report also found a meaningful decline in confidence in procurement’s role in shaping digital transformation strategy.

The data suggests procurement is under pressure to prove its broader value in harder financial conditions. Cost savings may be back at the top of the scorecard, but executives also expect stronger supplier resilience, faster AI adoption and clearer evidence that procurement decisions support wider business performance.

 

Bond funds see record demand as investors rebalance risk

Bond funds drew £1.06bn of net inflows in June, their third-strongest month on record, as investors shifted money towards income and diversification while pulling cash from equity funds, according to Calastone. The fund network’s latest Fund Flow Index showed equity funds lost £437m during the month despite steady markets, with June ending broadly flat. By contrast, multi-asset funds attracted £1.97bn and money market funds returned to inflows, taking in £215m.

Edward Glyn, head of global markets at Calastone, said: “Investors are still willing to take risk, but they’re becoming much more selective about how they do it.” Bond funds, he added, were benefiting from “high income and the prospect of capital gains if interest rates begin to fall”.

The data points to a more cautious form of risk-taking rather than a full retreat from markets. Investors are still allocating to assets with return potential, but the strongest flows are going into funds that offer income, flexibility or professional asset allocation rather than single-sector equity exposure.

All equity sectors saw outflows in June except global and North American funds, which gained £328m and £200m respectively. Asia-Pacific funds were the weakest area, shedding £312m and recording their 38th consecutive month of outflows. Calastone said investors have withdrawn £7.05bn from the sector since May 2023, the longest run of outflows for any fund sector in its record. UK-focused equity funds also remained under pressure, losing £260m in June and more than reversing May’s rare inflow.

The first half of the year reinforces the rotation. Bond funds have attracted £2.25bn of net new money so far in 2026, while equity funds have recorded £2.67bn of outflows. Multi-asset funds have been the standout, drawing a record £11.9bn in the first six months, Calastone’s strongest six-month total for the sector.

The figures suggest investors are rebuilding portfolio resilience without moving wholly into cash. Demand for multi-asset funds also indicates a reluctance to make firm calls on whether equities or bonds will lead returns in the second half, leaving allocation decisions increasingly in the hands of professional managers.

 

International firms defy dip in UK business confidence

Business confidence fell in June, but UK companies with international operations remained more optimistic than domestic firms, according to the latest Lloyds Business Barometer. Overall confidence dropped three points to 44%, below its 12-month average of 47%. Economic optimism fell four points to 31%, also below its 12-month average of 38%, as more firms cited inflation, cost pressures and global uncertainty.

Businesses’ own trading outlook slipped two points to 56%, close to its 12-month average of 57%. Some 64% of firms still expect stronger output over the year ahead, while those expecting weaker activity was unchanged at 8%.

The divide between domestic and international firms was stark. Domestic companies’ economic optimism fell 21 points to 3%, an 18-month low and well below the 12-month average of 20%. Their trading outlook dropped 11 points to 37%, with cost pressures, global uncertainty and tighter financial conditions weighing on sentiment. Internationally active firms were more upbeat. Their optimism in the wider economy rose eight points to 47%, supported by stronger customer demand and improved financial conditions. Their trading outlook increased five points to 68%, helped by stronger demand, investment plans and improved supply chains.

“While cost pressures and global uncertainty continue to weigh on business confidence, international firms are much more confident with many seeing signs of supply chain disruption easing and strengthening customer demand,” said Amanda Murphy, chief executive officer, Lloyds Business and Commercial Banking.

Hiring intentions improved for the first time in three months. The share of firms planning to increase headcount rose two points to 55%, while those expecting reductions fell three points to 14%. Firms planning recruitment cited strengthening demand and the need to expand capacity.

Investment appetite weakened slightly, with the proportion of businesses open to investment opportunities falling three points to 34%. Training remained the top priority, cited by 41%, followed by technology at 39% and AI at 31%.

Manufacturers recorded the sharpest sector decline, with confidence down 10 points to 33%, compared with a 12-month average of 46%. Retail confidence fell eight points to 45%, while construction rose two points to 46% and services held steady at 45%.

 

UK banks develop voluntary digital verification service

Banks and building societies are working with UK Finance on a voluntary digital verification service that would allow customers to prove personal details through their banking apps. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Group and Santander are supporting the project, which is aimed at reducing repeated identity checks across online services. UK Finance said the service could be used to verify details such as name, age or address, with information shared securely with a third party only after explicit customer consent.

The project has completed proof-of-concept work using synthetic data to test technical, legal and operational requirements. A live pilot in a controlled real-world environment is planned in the coming months, with Select ID leading technical design and delivery.

Jana Mackintosh, managing director, payments and innovation at UK Finance, said the sector was “ideally placed to deliver a secure and trusted digital verification service”, using already verified information shared only with customer consent.

Potential use cases include online purchases, age and identity checks on digital platforms, property transactions and online account opening. The service is intended to remove the need for customers to provide documents such as passports or utility bills each time they confirm a specific detail.

UK Finance said any future service would be voluntary, with customers controlling what data is shared, when and with whom. It aims to reduce fraud linked to fake accounts, scams and synthetic identities, while helping businesses verify customers more reliably.

The initiative is separate from the government’s digital identity work, but UK Finance said it is aligned with the UK digital verification services trust framework. It is focused on private sector commercial and retail uses rather than public sector services.

UK Finance is seeking expressions of interest from organisations that may want to join future pilot activity, including retailers, digital platforms and businesses looking to streamline online verification.

 

Crédit Agricole CIB launches ESG trade finance platform

Crédit Agricole CIB has launched an ESG-linked trade finance platform in Asia Pacific that uses transaction data to assess sustainability performance across suppliers, products and trade flows. The bank says Smart Platform Assisted SustainablE, or SPASE, is designed to give corporates a more auditable view of ESG performance within trade finance portfolios. The platform uses AI to convert raw transaction data into aggregated dashboards, allowing companies to review sustainability metrics at transaction level rather than relying only on separate supplier-by-supplier assessments.

Crédit Agricole CIB said manual ESG assessment remains a bottleneck in sustainable trade finance, with reviews often proving time-consuming and resource-intensive for companies with large supplier networks. The bank argues that linking sustainability analysis more closely to trade data could help corporates identify areas for improvement across their value chains.

SPASE has been piloted in Asia Pacific with the Hong Kong-based regional sourcing hub of a global industrial services company. Crédit Agricole CIB plans to introduce the platform progressively across the region.

The launch reflects rising demand for more data-led approaches to sustainable trade finance, particularly as companies face greater scrutiny over supply chain transparency. By assessing ESG performance across actual trade flows, the platform could help companies compare suppliers, monitor changes over time and support decisions on financing, procurement and portfolio allocation.

The bank also expects suppliers to have a commercial incentive to improve their ESG performance if higher scores lead to stronger business opportunities. The broader test will be whether transaction-level data can make sustainable trade finance easier to scale without adding further reporting complexity for corporates.

 

Kinexys adds five Asia-Pacific currencies to blockchain accounts

Kinexys by J.P. Morgan has added five Asia-Pacific currencies to its Blockchain Deposit Account network, extending the service to Australian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen, renminbi and Singapore dollar accounts.

The expansion means financial institutions and multinational companies can move money and execute on-chain FX between those currencies and existing euro, sterling and US dollar rails. J.P. Morgan said the wider currency set would extend settlement windows beyond traditional market cut-off times and improve liquidity efficiency across global operations.

Clients will also be able to use programmable payments across the expanded currency pairs, linking payment execution more directly to treasury and liquidity processes. The development reflects growing bank interest in blockchain-based infrastructure for cross-border payments, particularly where companies need to move liquidity across regions and time zones.

Payoneer is among the first clients to use the Australian dollar-denominated account, applying it to 24/7 cross-border settlement. JERA Global Markets, a utility-backed energy trader, is the first client to use the yen-denominated account for intragroup treasury flows and liquidity management.

Kinexys sits within J.P. Morgan Payments and has processed more than $4 trillion in transaction volume since inception, with average daily transactions exceeding $7bn. The addition of Asia-Pacific currencies broadens its use beyond the existing euro, sterling and dollar base, giving clients more scope to manage internal funding, settlement and FX activity outside conventional banking hours.

 

Pay.UK eases liquidity model for Faster Payments

Pay.UK has introduced a more flexible liquidity model for Faster Payments, allowing direct settling payment service providers to propose their own Net Sender Cap rather than holding fixed pre-funding levels. The change is designed to reduce one of the barriers to direct participation for non-bank and non-traditional payment providers. Pay.UK said it should lower pre-funding requirements and give firms more control over how they manage liquidity while retaining central safeguards.

Direct participation in Faster Payments has grown from 26 organisations in 2018 to 47, as access has widened beyond traditional banks. The revised model is intended to make participation more practical for firms with different payment flows, risk profiles and liquidity needs.

Under the previous approach, direct settling participants had to hold prescribed Minimum Net Sender Cap and Peak Contingency Value amounts in their Bank of England Pre-Funding Account. The new model allows participants to propose their own cap, with compensating controls managed by Pay.UK. Firms can still follow the existing prescribed values.

David Morris, chief operating officer at Pay.UK, said: “This is an important step forward in making Faster Payments more accessible, and flexible. It gives participants greater control over their liquidity by lowering barriers to entry without compromising the robust controls that underpin confidence in the system.”

Pay.UK said the change should improve liquidity utilisation across the Faster Payments ecosystem and help participants manage real-time gross settlement account balances more efficiently. The model may be particularly relevant for non-bank providers, where the cost of trapped or underused liquidity can affect the economics of direct access.

The update reflects the wider diversification of the UK payments market, as real-time payment systems handle more participants and business models while maintaining settlement discipline and resilience.

 

TransferMate adds cross-border payments to onPhase platform

TransferMate and onPhase have partnered to add cross-border payment capabilities to the onPhase finance and operations platform, extending international payment options for customers in North America and other markets. The agreement will allow onPhase customers to make international payments through an integrated workflow, using TransferMate’s payments infrastructure.

The companies said the partnership responds to customer demand for cross-border capabilities, particularly in North America, while also supporting users in EMEA markets. onPhase provides accounts payable automation, payments, document management, online forms and workflow automation. By embedding TransferMate through an API integration, the platform will extend workflows from invoice processing to international payment execution for customers with overseas suppliers and vendors.

The integration is intended to reduce reliance on separate payment providers and manual workarounds, while keeping payment controls and financial data within the onPhase platform. TransferMate will act as onPhase’s exclusive partner for cross-border payments, complementing its domestic payment capabilities.

TransferMate’s infrastructure allows businesses to pay, receive, store and hedge foreign exchange through one service. The company said its regulated payments infrastructure covers 100 licences globally.

The partnership expands onPhase’s finance and operations offering as customers seek to manage more supplier payments across borders. It also gives TransferMate another embedded route into spend management and financial operations software, where cross-border payment capability is increasingly being built directly into the platforms used by finance teams.

 

Contractor Plus embeds Finix payments for field service firms

Contractor Plus has partnered with payment processor Finix to launch an embedded payments service for contractors and field service businesses. The service, Contractor Plus Pay, allows users to accept payments, manage billing and access funds inside the Contractor Plus platform rather than relying on separate external systems. Contractor Plus says its platform is used by more than 57,000 contractors.

The integration supports recurring billing, progress payments, card fee management and instant payouts. Those features are aimed at businesses that need to bill customers across different stages of a job, collect deposits or move cash more quickly after work is completed.

Contractor Plus said the launch followed a search for a payments provider that could support the payment needs of contractors and homeowners. Since introducing the service, the company said it has eliminated payment-related complaints from users and has seen more merchants willing to move away from traditional providers.

The partnership reflects a wider move towards embedded payments in vertical software platforms, where billing, collections and reconciliation are being built into the systems businesses already use to manage work. For smaller field service firms, that can reduce manual follow-up, improve visibility over receivables and limit the need to switch between job management and payment tools.

Finix and Contractor Plus plan to add further capabilities, including subcontractor collaboration and contractor-to-contractor payments. Those additions would extend the platform’s payment functions beyond customer billing and into the wider network of contractors involved in construction and field service work.

 

DebtBook adds AI insights to public finance TMS

DebtBook has launched an AI intelligence layer inside its Treasury Management System, giving government and non-profit finance teams a consolidated view of cash, debt and investments. The product, called Insights, is designed to replace separate module checks with a daily briefing, dashboard and top-line KPI cards. DebtBook said the system highlights areas that may need attention, including excess cash, upcoming debt payments, reinvestment opportunities and unhedged rate exposure.

Insights is being paired with Marty, an AI analyst that lets users ask questions in plain language about their own financial data. Example queries include consolidated cash positions across banks or bonds that are callable within the next year. Responses link back to relevant views inside the application.

The launch reflects growing interest in AI tools that can support treasury analysis without generating financial figures independently. DebtBook said numbers in Insights are calculated directly from customer data rather than produced by AI, with answers carrying as-of dates and links to the underlying application views.

That design is particularly relevant for public sector finance teams, where auditability, traceability and confidence in source data are central to decision-making. The AI layer is positioned as a way to pull information together and explain movements, while leaving judgement and final decisions with finance professionals.

Insights is starting to roll out to DebtBook TMS customers. Further features, including expanded daily briefings and portfolio memos, are planned in the coming weeks.