6 treasury management trends for 2025

Treasurers are bracing for a transformative year in 2025 as economic uncertainties and technological advancements reshape the financial landscape. Nomentia, a treasury solutions firm, has identified six key trends redefining treasury management in the coming year.

Amid persistent economic volatility and geopolitical strife, liquidity management and cash flow forecasting are regaining prominence. With erratic cash flows and cautious lending from banks and capital markets, companies can no longer afford to take liquidity for granted - a reality underscored by a surge in corporate insolvencies in 2024.

Treasurers are prioritising robust liquidity planning to buffer against unexpected market disruptions. However, fragmented data sources hinder accurate cash flow forecasting, forcing many companies into labour-intensive data consolidation and exposing them to forecasting errors.

Disjointed systems continue to plague treasury departments, making data consolidation arduous and increasing the risk of errors and fraud. Centralising payment transactions through unified payment hubs can enhance visibility, streamline approvals, and bolster anti-fraud measures.

Standardisation efforts will also gain urgency as the migration deadline for ISO 20022 payment formats looms in November 2025. While banks currently offer format conversions, early adopters can gain a competitive edge by future-proofing systems and enhancing cross-border payment efficiency.

Real-time data access through APIs will become even more critical as economic uncertainties persist. APIs enable seamless, automated data exchange among treasury management systems, banks, and internal financial platforms. Despite ongoing challenges in API standardisation, real-time data visibility is essential for accurate liquidity planning, timely decision-making, and fraud prevention.

APIs also support real-time payments, an area poised for growth. Starting January 2025, financial providers in the eurozone must support instant payment receipts, with sending obligations following in October. Equal pricing for instant and traditional SEPA credit transfers may accelerate adoption.

AI’s potential in treasury management extends beyond hype, particularly in cash flow forecasting and FX management. Advanced algorithms promise more accurate predictions and higher forecasting frequency. However, only a few large corporations have capitalised on AI’s potential. Many firms lack the clean, historical data needed for AI-driven liquidity planning. To unlock AI’s capabilities, companies must first address system fragmentation and establish standardised treasury processes.

As fraudsters increasingly leverage AI to exploit system vulnerabilities, treasurers must stay ahead with advanced security measures. AI-powered phishing schemes, deepfake CEO calls, and synthetic identities are becoming more sophisticated.

Companies should bolster defences through standardised approval processes, automated payment controls, and stringent four-eyes principles. With real-time payments gaining traction, pre-payment security checks will be indispensable.

While interest in cryptocurrencies has waned among treasurers, CBDCs remain a focal point. Unlike decentralised and unregulated cryptocurrencies, CBDCs are issued and overseen by central banks, offering legal certainty. The European Central Bank’s digital euro project, now in a two-year preparatory phase, could revolutionise payments by enabling instant, direct transfers without intermediaries. Though initially aimed at individuals, CBDCs may eventually reshape corporate payments by cutting transaction costs and eliminating currency conversion.

As 2025 approaches, treasurers face a dual challenge: navigating persistent economic headwinds while embracing technological advancements. Those who adapt swiftly may find opportunity in uncertainty, turning today’s challenges into tomorrow’s strategic gains.

 

Google Cloud and Swift pioneer AI and federated learning tech to combat fraud

Conventional fraud detection methods have difficulty keeping up with increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics. Existing systems often rely on individual institutions' limited data, which hinders the detection of intricate schemes that span multiple banks and jurisdictions. 

To better combat fraud in cross-border payments, Swift, the global provider of secure financial messaging services, is working with Google Cloud to develop anti-fraud technologies that use advanced AI and federated learning.  

In the first half of 2025, Swift plans to roll out a sandbox with synthetic data to prototype learning from historical fraud, working with 12 global financial institutions, with Google Cloud as a strategic partner. This initiative builds on Swift’s existing Payment Controls Service (PCS) and follows a successful pilot with financial institutions across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.

Google Cloud is collaborating with Swift — along with technology partners including Rhino Health and Capgemini — to develop a secure, privacy-preserving solution for financial institutions to combat fraud. This innovative approach uses federated learning techniques, combined with privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), to enable collaborative intelligence without compromising proprietary data. Rhino Health will develop and deliver the core federated learning platform, and Capgemini will manage the implementation and integration of the solution.

“This exploration will help the community validate whether federated learning technology can help financial institutions stay one step ahead of bad actors through sharing of fraud labels, and in turn enabling them to provide an enhanced cross-border payments experience to their customers,” commented Rachel Levi, head of artificial intelligence, Swift.

 

Nextracker earns 2024 Adam Smith Award for efficient treasury transformation

GTreasury has announced that its customer, Nextracker, has been named a Highly Commended Winner in Treasury Today’s 2024 Adam Smith Awards, the annual industry benchmark for corporate treasury achievement.

Nextracker, a provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions, was honoured in Treasury Today’s Harnessing the Power of Technology category. Working with PwC as its implementation partner, Nextracker selected GTreasury as its digital treasury platform after separating from the multinational manufacturing company Flex in late 2023.

“With nine months to fully stand up a new treasury platform and processes, we had to be confident in the decisions we were making,” said Ilkim Saracel, Director, Assistant Treasurer at Nextracker. “The results exceeded our expectations. We were able to build a mature treasury practice - that adds significant value across our treasury, finance, and business teams - in just six months. With GTreasury’s scalability and solutions, we achieved our goal with just a small internal treasury group and are well-positioned to support company growth moving forward.”

With GTreasury’s platform, Nextracker has a fully-centralised solution that streamlines workflows for treasury, accounts payable, collections, accounting, and other departments across the business. The system facilitates Nextracker’s cash visibility, payments, FX, debt and interest tracking, and book-to-bank reconciliation with seamless automation. The especially fast-moving treasury transformation project resulted in significant cost savings, increased automation of previously-manual processes, and improved visibility across the company’s global operations.

 

IFC and HSBC partner to boost trade flows in emerging markets

IFC and HSBC have announced the signing of a $1bn risk-sharing facility designed to help banks in emerging markets increase their lending to support trade. The pair will equally share the risk on a portfolio of trade-related assets, valued at up to $1bn, held by emerging-market banks in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The facility has been set up under IFC’s Global Trade Liquidity Program (GTLP), which was established to address the growing trade finance gap in emerging markets.

“Trade finance is the fuel that powers the global economic engine,” said Aditya Gahlaut, Co-Head of Global Trade Solutions, Asia Pacific at HSBC. “Our partnership with IFC will help ensure that trade finance gets to where it is needed, that funding is directed to a segment crucial to job creation and economic growth in many emerging markets. Reducing the trade finance gap and improving access to finance will be central to fostering growth and sustainability across Asia and the region’s supply chains.”

Global trade has increased over the last three decades, growing by an average of 5% a year. However, demand for trade finance far outpaces supply, especially in emerging markets, with the global trade finance gap last estimated at $2.5 trillion. In response, IFC has been increasing its trade finance support through programs like the GTLP and with key partners.

“Trade finance drives growth and economic development in emerging markets,” added Mohamed Gouled, IFC’s Vice President of Industries. “This facility is designed to improve the flow of trade and enable businesses to create jobs and improve livelihoods.”

 

EBA Clearing launches SEPA-wide VOP solution

EBA Clearing has announced the launch of its SEPA-wide VOP solution. The solution supports payment service providers (PSPs) in offering Verification of Payee services to their customers that fulfil the requirements of the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) and of the VOP Scheme developed by the European Payments Council (EPC). 

With this delivery, EBA Clearing provides the 5,000 PSPs that are connected to its RT1 and STEP2 Services with a comprehensive pan-European solution, which is designed to build SEPA-wide reach for Verification of Payee.

Developed with the support of fraud experts from its multinational user community, the solution leverages building blocks of the Company’s Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection (FPAD) functionality. FPAD went live in March 2024 and is an integral part of the pan-European retail payment systems STEP2 and RT1. FPAD provides the users of both services with a wide range of real-time fraud prevention and detection tools based on anomalies and fraud patterns identified at network level.

EBA Clearing’s VOP solution offers different options to take advantage of the wide-ranging Verification of Payee capabilities of FPAD, both on the requesting and the responding sides. This will allow PSPs to adapt their VOP approaches over time, ensuring full pan-European reach. Using the FPAD functionality for VOP also enables PSPs to address risk considerations and limit friction for end users, in addition to fulfilling compliance requirements.