Treasury complexity is quietly tying up working capital

Corporate finance teams are grappling with growing complexity in how money moves through their organisations, according to a new joint Treasury Report from Adyen and Boston Consulting Group. Based on research with nearly 300 CFOs and corporate treasurers across North America and Europe, the study finds that fragmented banking and payment structures are eroding cash visibility, increasing operational burden and muting returns on working capital.

The scale of that fragmentation is striking. The average enterprise manages between five and six banking relationships and more than 40 separate bank accounts. On top of this sits a payments ecosystem involving an average of 12 different providers, split evenly between pay-ins and pay-outs. Rather than supporting flexibility, the report suggests this sprawl is trapping liquidity and driving up working capital requirements, limiting the ability to earn returns on surplus balances or deploy cash more dynamically.

Nearly one in four businesses say they struggle to optimise liquidity and working capital as a result. Data fragmentation sits at the heart of the issue, with 48% of CFOs identifying data-driven liquidity visibility and forecasting as their single biggest challenge. The operational risks that flow from this are also material. Control over approvals, execution and reconciliation across multiple systems is ranked as the most critical risk facing treasury teams, while 18% of CFOs say the speed of incoming and outgoing payments is their biggest challenge today.

The burden is not only financial but also organisational. Treasury teams report spending 10% of their time simply visualising accounts, 13% managing bank relationships and more than 20% handling pay-ins and pay-outs. According to the report, this leaves limited capacity for higher-value activities such as forecasting, scenario analysis or supporting strategic decision-making.

“Treasurers are moving beyond optimising liquidity in isolation. They’re optimising the entire receivable-to-payable flow with customer experience at the centre. This shift will shape the next generation of finance,” said Ethan Tandowsky.

Against this backdrop, the research points to a clear shift in intent. While respondents accept that multiple providers may still be required, 74% say they would prefer more integrated money management solutions covering the full cash lifecycle. Among those seeking integration, 88% expect to consolidate services with fewer providers than they use today.

For finance professionals, the prize is not just simplification but strategic leverage. The report argues that unifying money movement can reduce fees, release trapped liquidity and improve control, while also creating the foundations for faster growth and better customer experiences. As businesses scale, the flow of funds increasingly determines how quickly they can enter new markets, price dynamically or manage risk across geographies.

Taken together, the findings suggest that corporate treasury is approaching a turning point. The underlying building blocks for change are already in place, from modern payment rails to more capable technology platforms. The challenge now is organisational: whether finance leaders are prepared to simplify their operating models and push for deeper integration across their money movement infrastructure.

Commenting on the findings, Laurent Descout, CEO and co-founder of Neo, said that complexity often accumulates unintentionally as companies expand into new markets and payment models. He noted that many finance teams still rely on systems never designed to deliver a unified view of cash across banks and geographies, leaving them focused on moving and reconciling money rather than understanding it. The opportunity, he added, lies in using modern technology to simplify the underlying infrastructure and give CFOs clearer, real-time insight into their cash positions.

 

GTreasury’s Ripple rebrand goes live

Ripple has formally reintroduced the treasury management system it acquired through its purchase of GTreasury, unveiling the platform under a new name: Ripple Treasury, powered by GTreasury. The launch marks the first major repositioning of the GTreasury product since the acquisition and signals Ripple’s intention to extend the platform beyond traditional cash and liquidity management into areas linked to digital assets and blockchain-based settlement. For existing GTreasury customers, the rebrand suggests continuity of the underlying treasury management system, alongside a roadmap that increasingly incorporates Ripple’s digital payments infrastructure.

Ripple argues that corporate treasury teams are under growing pressure as settlement cycles, FX risk and liquidity fragmentation become harder to manage across global operations. In the announcement, the company highlights familiar pain points for treasurers, including multi-day cross-border settlements, trapped liquidity in overseas pre-funding accounts, limited visibility over payment status and the operational burden of managing traditional cash alongside emerging digital assets.

The central claim behind Ripple Treasury is that bringing digital asset infrastructure into an established treasury management system could help address some of those frictions. According to Ripple, the platform is designed to allow treasurers to view and manage traditional bank balances and digital asset positions through a single interface, using APIs to connect to both conventional banks and digital asset platforms.

Ripple also says the platform is intended to support near-real-time settlement for certain payment flows, including cross-border transactions settled using stablecoins such as RLUSD. In those cases, Ripple argues that FX exposure could be reduced by converting currencies only at the point of destination, rather than holding positions during multi-day settlement windows. These capabilities, however, remain dependent on corridor availability, regulatory treatment and counterpart participation, rather than being universally applicable.

Another area Ripple highlights is liquidity usage outside standard banking hours. The company claims Ripple Treasury is designed to give treasurers access to tokenised money market funds and short-term liquidity tools that operate beyond traditional cut-off times, potentially allowing idle balances to be deployed over weekends or overnight. As with settlement, these features reflect Ripple’s product direction rather than outcomes already demonstrated at scale across the corporate market.

For corporate treasurers, the launch is less about immediate transformation and more about signalling how treasury technology providers are repositioning themselves for a market where digital assets, tokenisation and real-time payments are becoming harder to ignore. Ripple is effectively betting that treasurers will want optionality: the ability to experiment with digital settlement and investment instruments without abandoning established treasury controls, audit processes and governance frameworks.

The rebranding also clarifies Ripple’s longer-term ambitions following the GTreasury acquisition. Rather than operating GTreasury as a standalone treasury system, Ripple is positioning it as a control layer through which corporates could access both traditional banking infrastructure and new payment rails.

Whether that vision translates into widespread adoption will depend on regulatory clarity, bank participation and corporates’ appetite to change long-established treasury processes. For now, Ripple Treasury represents an attempt to bridge two worlds that treasury teams have historically managed separately, and a sign that treasury platforms are preparing for a more hybrid financial landscape.

 

AI and digital finance raise new financial stability risks, BIS warns

Artificial intelligence and digital finance are reshaping financial markets at speed, offering efficiency gains while also intensifying familiar financial stability risks, according to Tao Zhang, chief representative for Asia and the Pacific at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Speaking at International Financial Week in Hong Kong, Zhang said that technologies such as AI, tokenisation and distributed ledger infrastructure are changing how transactions are executed, how liquidity is managed and how shocks propagate through the financial system. While these developments promise lower costs and more integrated markets, they also raise challenges for central banks tasked with safeguarding stability.

AI is now being deployed across the financial sector, from credit underwriting and fraud detection to risk management and back-office automation. Recent advances in generative AI have further expanded its use into customer interaction, internal analysis and even supervisory processes. Digital finance, meanwhile, is accelerating the shift towards tokenised assets, allowing securities, deposits and other financial claims to be represented and transferred digitally.

These innovations, Zhang argued, affect financial stability through three main channels: market functioning and liquidity, operational resilience, and the amplification of stress.

On market dynamics, he warned that faster trading and settlement could exacerbate volatility in periods of stress. “In normal conditions, these features can improve efficiency,” he said. “But in periods of stress, faster trading and faster-moving claims can strain liquidity, amplify volatility and contribute to disorderly market conditions.”

Operational risk is another area of concern. AI systems and digital finance infrastructures often depend on a small number of cloud providers, data vendors and technology platforms, creating new concentrations of risk. Disruptions, cyber incidents or failures at these nodes could have system-wide consequences, particularly as tokenised finance relies on shared protocols and platforms.

A third risk lies in how stress spreads across institutions and markets. The widespread use of similar AI models or data inputs can lead firms to react to shocks in the same way, increasing correlations in behaviour. At the same time, tokenised platforms may introduce complex interdependencies that allow shocks to travel faster across markets and jurisdictions.

Zhang emphasised that these risks are not entirely new, but that technology is changing their scale and speed. “Technological change associated with AI and digital finance may increase the intensity, speed and complexity of the flow of these financial stability risks,” he said, making them harder for authorities to identify and manage.

For central banks, this compression of time and increase in complexity presents a challenge. Faster decision-making and settlement can reduce the window for intervention, while opaque AI models and cross-border digital infrastructures can obscure where risks are building.

Against this backdrop, Zhang highlighted the importance of governance and international cooperation. As AI services and tokenised finance increasingly operate across borders, fragmented regulatory approaches risk creating gaps and inconsistencies. He argued that clearer governance frameworks around accountability, risk management and third-party dependencies will be essential if innovation is to scale safely.

The BIS, he said, plays a coordinating role by providing a forum for central banks to share analysis, develop common understanding and align approaches, including through its Innovation Hub and collaboration with bodies such as the Financial Stability Board.

Zhang concluded that the task for policymakers is not to resist technological change, but to ensure that regulatory and governance frameworks evolve alongside it. “The challenge is not to resist innovation,” he said, “but to understand how it changes the nature and transmission of risks, and to ensure that governance frameworks remain fit for purpose.”

 

UK lenders commit £11bn to support exporters and business growth

UK businesses are set to benefit from an £11bn lending commitment from five of the country’s largest banks, aimed at supporting investment, international expansion and export growth. The package represents one of the largest collective moves by the UK banking sector in more than a decade and is intended to improve access to finance for small and mid-sized companies.

The agreement was finalised at a government-convened roundtable in Westminster involving senior executives from NatWest, HSBC UK, Barclays, Lloyds and Santander, alongside ministers and representatives from UK Export Finance. Collectively, the five banks serve around half of all British businesses.

The lending will be provided from the banks’ own balance sheets and is designed to give smaller firms a clearer route to funding as they look to scale, invest and enter overseas markets. A key feature of the initiative is the role of UK Export Finance, which will guarantee up to 80% of eligible loans issued under the programme. For working capital facilities of up to £10m, banks will be able to apply UKEF’s guarantee automatically, reducing friction in the approval process.

Alongside financing, businesses will also have access to advisory support through banks’ relationship managers and UKEF’s regional export finance teams. This support is intended to help companies navigate international markets, manage risk and make use of trade finance tools as they expand beyond the UK.

The initiative sits within a broader government push to support economic growth through exports and small business investment. Measures already underway include efforts to improve access to finance, address late payment practices and reduce regulatory barriers that can constrain growth. The lending package is positioned as a practical mechanism to translate these policy ambitions into increased funding capacity for exporters.

For finance leaders at smaller firms, the programme could improve access to guaranteed working capital at a time when geopolitical uncertainty and higher costs continue to weigh on international trade. By combining bank balance sheet lending with government-backed guarantees, the scheme aims to lower risk for lenders while widening the pool of businesses able to finance overseas growth.

 

Why 2026 could be a standout year for markets and M&A

Financial markets and global economic conditions are entering 2026 on a relatively strong footing, according to David Solomon, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs. Speaking on the bank’s Exchanges podcast, Solomon pointed to a combination of fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and investment momentum that he believes is supportive of risk assets and growth.

Solomon characterised the current macroeconomic backdrop as broadly constructive, drawing parallels with the start of 2025. He highlighted ongoing fiscal support, expectations of further interest rate cuts and a more permissive regulatory environment as key pillars underpinning market confidence. “The macro setup is pretty good for risk assets and for markets,” he said, adding that a confluence of policy measures is creating conditions for continued expansion.

Central to that outlook is the scale of capital investment underway, particularly linked to AI infrastructure. Solomon described this as a “huge capital investment boom”, arguing that it is reinforcing growth prospects across sectors. He also noted that additional fiscal measures coming into effect this year could extend stimulus, particularly as political focus turns towards household costs ahead of midterm elections in the US.

While the overall tone was positive, Solomon acknowledged that geopolitical uncertainty remains a material risk. He pointed to recent tensions linked to trade policy and developments in Europe as sources of potential volatility. “Those kinds of things are going to create uncertainty,” he said, warning that geopolitical shocks can prompt pauses or market pullbacks even when underlying conditions are supportive.

Despite those risks, Solomon expects corporate activity to remain robust, particularly in mergers and acquisitions. He suggested that, barring a major exogenous shock, 2026 could surpass last year’s already strong dealmaking environment. “I think 2026 will be an even better dealmaking year,” he said, adding that current client activity and transaction pipelines point to sustained momentum.

He also struck an optimistic note on initial public offerings, indicating that conditions are gradually improving. According to Solomon, private equity-backed companies are beginning to close valuation gaps that have delayed exits since the post-pandemic period, while some large private firms are increasingly reassessing the appeal of public markets. Although he stopped short of predicting a return to the record issuance levels seen in 2021, Solomon said the trend seen through 2025 suggests a continued recovery in equity capital markets activity.

 

MTR prices record AU$2bn inaugural green bond

Public transport operator MTR Corporation has priced its inaugural Australian dollar green bond, raising a total of AU$2bn in what it says is the largest corporate green bond ever issued in the Australian market. The transaction, priced on 22 January 2026, comprised two senior unsecured tranches of AU$1bn each, with maturities of five and 12 years. The five-year tranche was priced with a coupon of 4.886%, while the 12-year tranche carried a coupon of 5.582%. The notes are rated AA+ by S&P and Aa3 by Moody’s.

According to the company, the deal attracted strong demand from domestic and international investors, generating a combined order book of AU$12.5bn and resulting in oversubscription of more than six times. The size of the order book makes it the largest ever achieved for an Australian dollar corporate bond issuance.

Proceeds from the transaction will be allocated to eligible green projects under MTR’s Sustainable Finance Framework. These include initiatives intended to deliver environmental benefits and support the company’s longer-term sustainability objectives. The bonds were issued in Regulation S format under MTR’s existing AU$5bn debt issuance programme.

The issuance marks MTR’s first green bond in the Australian dollar market and forms part of a broader strategy to diversify its funding sources. The company has operated in Australia since 2009 and currently runs rail franchises and metro systems in Melbourne and Sydney.

Michael Fitzgerald, finance director of MTR Corporation, said the transaction was intended to strengthen the group’s funding flexibility while supporting its capital investment programme. “The issuance of our inaugural Australian dollar green bonds is the next step in our efforts to maintain a highly diversified funding base,” he said, adding that the strong investor response reflected confidence in MTR’s financial position and long-term strategy. Fitzgerald also noted that the deal helped deepen Asian issuer participation in the Australian dollar market.

The dual-tranche structure allowed MTR to extend its maturity profile, with the longer-dated 12-year tranche offering access to investors seeking duration in high-quality green assets. Market participants noted that demand came from a wide range of institutional investors, including insurers, pension funds, asset managers and sovereign-linked institutions.

ANZ, Deutsche Bank, MUFG and UBS acted as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners on the deal, with ANZ appointed as ESG coordinator.

 

Mastercard targets agentic AI adoption for enterprises

Mastercard has launched a new set of services aimed at helping enterprises prepare for wider adoption of agentic AI across payments, commerce and operational workflows. The new Agent Suite is designed to support businesses as they build, test and deploy AI agents that can execute tasks autonomously within defined guardrails. The offering combines technical tooling with advisory support, drawing on Mastercard’s payments infrastructure, data capabilities and global consulting network.

The move reflects growing expectations that agentic AI will move rapidly from experimentation into production. According to industry forecasts cited by Mastercard, around a third of enterprise software applications are expected to incorporate agentic AI by 2028, with a significant share of customer interactions and internal processes supported by AI agents by the end of the decade.

Mastercard’s approach is positioned around readiness rather than full automation. The Agent Suite is intended to help organisations integrate agents into existing systems in a controlled way, with an emphasis on configurability, testing and ongoing governance. Enterprises will be able to design fit-for-purpose agents aligned to their own operating models, rather than adopting pre-defined use cases.

The suite is expected to become available in the second quarter of 2026 and will sit alongside Mastercard’s existing AI-enabled services, which span fraud prevention, payments optimisation, data analytics and customer engagement. It also builds on the company’s wider standards and security frameworks, with agent development designed to incorporate privacy controls and responsible AI principles from the outset.

Initial use cases are expected to focus on areas where decision support and execution intersect. For banks, this includes using agents to support product discovery and personalised offers, while allowing institutions to test different scenarios and measure outcomes. For merchants, early applications centre on conversational commerce, with agents configured around inventory levels, pricing rules and brand guidelines to support customer interactions across channels.

The launch also connects with Mastercard’s broader agentic ecosystem. Agent Suite complements earlier initiatives such as Agent Pay, which focuses on enabling trusted transactions initiated by AI agents, and the Developers Agent Toolkit, aimed at lowering barriers for third-party developers. In parallel, Mastercard has introduced a dedicated agentic commerce track within its Start Path programme to support early-stage companies building in this space.

The announcement signals a more structured phase of agentic AI adoption, moving beyond pilots toward embedded capabilities tied to payments, customer engagement and operational decision-making. Rather than positioning agentic AI as a standalone technology shift, Mastercard is framing it as an extension of existing digital infrastructure, with execution, security and governance treated as core design requirements rather than afterthoughts.

 

UK peers launch inquiry into stablecoin regulation

The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has launched a new inquiry into the growth of stablecoins and how they should be regulated in the UK, as policymakers assess their implications for financial stability, monetary policy and consumer protection.

The inquiry will examine how the global stablecoin market has evolved since 2014 and how the UK’s ecosystem compares with developments in the US and the EU. A particular focus will be on the outlook for sterling-denominated stablecoins, including who is using them, for what purposes, and whether existing UK regulations are constraining or shaping their adoption.

Peers are also seeking evidence on the broader economic and financial implications of stablecoin growth. This includes potential opportunities for innovation in payments and financial services, alongside risks related to financial crime, consumer harm and disruption to traditional banking models. The committee will consider whether the increasing use of stablecoins could affect the transmission of monetary policy or alter the role of established financial intermediaries.

The inquiry will assess how the expansion of stablecoins may impact the statutory objectives of the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, including price stability, financial stability, market integrity, consumer protection and competition. It will also explore how the UK’s proposed regulatory frameworks compare with approaches taken in other major jurisdictions, notably the US and the EU, and whether international alignment is achievable.

As part of this work, the committee will scrutinise the proposed stablecoin regimes being developed by the Bank of England and the FCA, asking whether they strike an appropriate balance between enabling innovation and managing systemic and non-systemic risks.

The committee has invited written submissions from industry participants, policymakers, academics and other stakeholders with expertise or interest in stablecoins. The deadline for evidence is 23:59 on Wednesday 11 March 2026.

 

Same Day ACH drives record payment volumes in 2025

The ACH Network in the US recorded another year of strong growth in 2025, with rising adoption of Same Day ACH and continued momentum in business-to-business payments pushing both volumes and values to new highs. Full-year ACH volumes reached 35.2bn payments, almost 5% higher than in 2024. The value of those payments rose nearly 8% year on year to US$93 trillion, reflecting broader use of the network for higher-value transactions as well as everyday payments.

Several records were set during the year. December 2025 delivered the highest monthly volume on record, with 3.22bn payments processed, alongside a peak of 172.1m Same Day ACH transactions in a single month. In November, the network also recorded its highest ever average daily volume, at 151m payments per day.

Same Day ACH continued to be a major contributor to overall growth. In total, 1.4bn Same Day ACH payments were processed during 2025, valued at US$3.9 trillion. That represents increases of 16.7% by volume and 21.4% by value compared with the previous year. Daily volumes averaged 5.8m transactions across the year, rising to 7.8m per day in December.

Business payments were a key driver of this expansion. B2B volumes grew by almost 10% in 2025, reaching close to 8.1bn payments. Within that, healthcare claim payments from insurers to medical and dental providers approached 548m transactions, up 7.3% year on year, underlining the continued shift away from paper-based processes in sectors with high payment volumes.

Commenting on the B2B figures, Jane Larimer, president and chief executive of Nacha, said the data reflected a sustained move away from cheques across the economy. “Both of those statistics point to businesses large and small turning their backs on checks, a trend that only continues to grow. Whether it’s a neighbourhood dentist’s office or a multinational corporation, no business should be sending or receiving cheques in 2026.”

Momentum carried into the final quarter of the year. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the ACH Network processed 9.1bn payments worth US$24.4 trillion, increases of 5.1% by volume and 8.9% by value compared with the same period a year earlier.

 

Treasury Prime expands bank network as embedded finance activity grows

Treasury Prime has added i3 Bank and Coastal to its bank network, extending an ecosystem that now includes more than 20 financial institutions supporting embedded finance programmes. The latest additions are positioned as part of a broader push to scale network-based models for embedded banking, as banks look for ways to participate in fintech partnerships without taking on disproportionate operational or compliance complexity. Treasury Prime says further network updates are planned later this year.

i3 Bank has joined the network with the aim of expanding its fintech client base and accelerating new partnership opportunities. Through Treasury Prime’s platform, the bank is expected to use data-driven tools to identify and assess fintech partners that align with its risk appetite and strategic priorities. The approach is designed to give the bank greater flexibility in pursuing deposit growth and fee-based revenue through targeted fintech relationships, while retaining oversight of programme design and controls.

Coastal’s participation is focused on supporting more advanced embedded banking use cases, including virtual accounts and flexible account structures that are increasingly in demand among fintechs. By joining the network, Coastal is seeking to broaden its pipeline of potential partners while maintaining governance and risk frameworks as programmes scale.

Taken together, the additions highlight a shift in how banks are approaching embedded finance. Rather than relying on one-off integrations, network models are increasingly being used to streamline partner discovery, onboarding and ongoing management. For banks, this can reduce duplication of effort across multiple fintech relationships, while for fintechs it can shorten the time required to secure a regulated banking partner.

Treasury Prime’s network is supported by its AI Marketplace, which connects banks with a large pool of fintechs seeking sponsorship and infrastructure support. According to the company, the marketplace currently includes more than 3,600 fintechs, reflecting continued interest in embedded finance across payments, lending and account-based products.

 

Nuvei and WEX team up on virtual cards for travel payments

Nuvei has partnered with WEX to make WEX’s virtual card technology available across Nuvei’s global merchant network, with a particular focus on the travel sector. Under the agreement, travel merchants using Nuvei’s platform, including online travel agencies, airlines and hospitality providers, gain access to virtual card payments for supplier settlement. The integration is designed to help merchants manage complex supplier networks more efficiently by automating card issuance and embedding controls directly into the payment process.

Virtual cards are already widely used in travel, where businesses often need to reconcile large volumes of supplier payments across multiple geographies and currencies. By digitising these flows, merchants can reduce manual processing and improve visibility over when and how suppliers are paid. For marketplaces and intermediaries, this can also simplify reconciliation between customer pay-ins and supplier pay-outs.

The partnership comes as access to credit tightens in many markets, putting greater pressure on working capital management. Nuvei and WEX say the integration allows travel merchants to fund supplier payments directly from incoming settlement flows, rather than relying on external credit facilities. In practice, this links receivables more closely to payables, which may help reduce dependence on short-term borrowing and improve liquidity planning.

For suppliers, virtual cards can offer faster and more predictable payments, while also reducing exposure to fraud through single-use credentials and predefined spending limits. Acquirers and payment service providers, meanwhile, gain clearer insight into end-to-end payment flows, supporting operational oversight and risk management.