Corporate treasurers are taking on a more strategic role as global headwinds force finance teams to focus on real-time insights, risk resilience and operational agility, according to PwC’s 2025 Global Treasury Survey. The study, based on responses from 350 senior treasury professionals, highlights a growing shift in priorities as treasurers adapt to inflation, interest rate uncertainty, FX volatility and geopolitical disruption. Central to this evolution is the push for cash efficiency, enhanced financial risk management, and increasing adoption of AI, APIs and managed services.

While the remit of treasury continues to expand, many teams still face structural limitations in technology, data quality and forecasting accuracy. Leaders are responding with integrated, connected models designed not just to protect value, but to actively shape business strategy.

Cash efficiency becomes a strategic imperative

Cash and liquidity management now tops the agenda for both CFOs and treasurers, outpacing even funding structure and financial risk. Treasury teams are under pressure to optimise banking architecture, improve forecasting and unlock trapped cash across jurisdictions.

Among companies with more than US$10bn in annual revenue, 67% have adopted in-house banks, 60% use payment factories, and 50% have implemented payments-on-behalf-of (POBO) models. These centralised approaches allow for better control, reduced cost and tighter alignment with business operations.

Yet even at this level, forecasting remains a persistent challenge. Manual processes are still widely used: 38% of large corporates and 52% of mid-sized firms (US$1bn-US$10bn revenue) rely on manual data collection and consolidation for cash forecasts. This correlates with low satisfaction scores, with an average of just 2.9 out of 5 for those using manual methods, compared with 3.3 among system-based users.

The primary obstacles to better forecasting are poor data quality (cited by 76%), lack of effective tools (53%) and limited incentives for business unit participation (46%). AI is increasingly seen as a solution. Leading teams are embedding automation and analytics to improve forecasting accuracy, strengthen financial planning and improve internal guidance.

In this context, treasury is moving beyond cost control to influence capital deployment and strategic decisions. As interest rate volatility and capital constraints persist, the ability to access and optimise cash in real time is fast becoming a source of competitive advantage.

FX exposure dominates the risk agenda

The survey confirms that FX risk remains the most pressing concern for treasury teams, cited by 83% of respondents. This is ahead of interest rate risk (72%) and commodity price exposure (39%). Many companies face increasingly complex exposure profiles across currencies, geographies and procurement models.

While 79% of respondents now apply cash flow hedge accounting, up from 74% in the 2023 survey, the process of capturing and managing exposure is still fragmented. Just 57% use a treasury management system (TMS), while 36% rely on manual tools and 21% use in-house systems. Only 12% reported using a specialist third-party risk platform.

Ownership of FX risk is also mixed. Half of the organisations surveyed said risk was held at country level, while 35% reported a hybrid model with centralised purchasing functions. The structure often depends on internal governance, procurement models and tax strategy, but the effect is the same: treasury teams must manage exposure across multiple sources with limited visibility.

Cyber risk also continues to rise, with 81% of treasurers implementing or planning cybersecurity enhancements. As digital tools proliferate and data becomes more decentralised, treasury is under growing pressure to treat cybersecurity as a direct financial risk, not just an IT issue.

To respond effectively, treasurers are adopting more integrated approaches that combine forecasting, exposure visibility and hedge management. In one example cited in the report, a global medical technology firm consolidated data from multiple ERP systems into a data lake, trained an AI model to predict FX exposure by entity and currency, and layered this with real-time dashboarding to guide hedging decisions.

AI gains ground, but maturity remains low

Adoption of artificial intelligence is growing fast, with 74% of treasury teams either using or planning to expand use of AI. Predictive analytics (64%) and machine learning (71%) are the top focus areas, particularly in forecasting, fraud detection and exposure visibility.

Yet AI maturity across treasury remains relatively low. Only 26% of respondents said their capabilities were moderately or very mature. A further 42% are piloting use cases, while 32% are in early stages of implementation.

Key barriers include data quality, limited availability of skilled staff, and the lack of a long-term strategy. Notably, only 8% of respondents are actively hiring for AI-specific treasury roles. Instead, 54% rely on self-learning, while enterprise training (30%) and external programmes (17%) are less widely used.

Looking ahead, 56% plan to develop AI capabilities through a combination of internal and external resources, while 28% intend to build entirely in-house. Success will depend on linking technology to tangible outcomes such as improving forecast accuracy, reducing fraud risk and increasing working capital efficiency, rather than chasing innovation for its own sake.

Tech stack fragmentation holds back visibility

Despite 94% of respondents now using a TMS, full integration remains elusive. Many companies still rely on offline or homegrown tools for key tasks such as long-term cash forecasting (31%), short-term forecasting (22%), treasury reporting (20%) and financial risk management (16%).

Satisfaction levels reflect this fragmentation. TMS satisfaction scores for short-term forecasting and bank fee analysis were both middling, at 3.4 and 3.5 out of 5 respectively, suggesting that core systems often require supplementation with third-party tools or bespoke solutions.

Connectivity is another priority. API use is expected to grow significantly, with 65% of organisations planning to expand API usage in the coming years. APIs are enabling real-time integration across ERP systems, TMS platforms and banks, allowing for faster decisions and improved cash visibility.

While Swift remains a dominant messaging network, many firms use hybrid models that combine host-to-host links, EBICS and cloud-native interfaces. The common goal is to optimise cost and control while maintaining flexibility across systems.

The best-performing treasury ecosystems share similar traits: modular, interoperable systems, seamless ERP-TMS-bank connectivity, scalable architecture, embedded analytics and strong global support models. But challenges remain. Budget constraints (70%), limited internal skills (56%) and partner integration issues (40%) are cited as the biggest obstacles to progress.

Managed services gain ground as treasury modernises

Faced with rising complexity and leaner headcounts, treasury teams are increasingly looking to managed services to scale operations and free up capacity for strategic work. This approach goes beyond traditional shared service centres by combining domain expertise, technology platforms and process transformation.

Core treasury activities such as cash management, reconciliation and bank account administration are being co-sourced to managed service providers, while treasury retains control of strategy, policy and oversight.

Popular areas for managed service deployment include electronic bank account management (eBAM), POBO and ROBO models, and payment fraud controls. In-house bank administration and cash positioning are also frequently targeted, with many organisations citing improved service-level agreements, better internal controls and 24/7 coverage as key benefits.

Survey data shows mixed satisfaction with traditional shared service centres: 48% rated the quality of indirect resources at 3 out of 5 or lower, and 37% gave similar scores for resource quantity. This suggests appetite for a revised model is growing.

Crucially, successful use of managed services requires strong vendor governance, clear KPIs and alignment with broader business goals. Treasury must act not only as a process owner, but as a strategic orchestrator of internal and external networks.

Treasury as architect of enterprise value

PwC’s 2025 Global Treasury Survey paints a clear picture of a treasury function in transition: from transactional custodian to strategic enabler. Both CFOs and treasurers are aligned in their top priorities of cash, capital structure, risk and working capital, but treasurers are now also expected to lead on banking connectivity, digital innovation and internal business partnerships.

Adoption of in-house banks and POBO models is expanding, but 40% of respondents are still not using a centralised payments structure. Meanwhile, 36% still manage FX exposure manually. This is a signal that significant opportunity remains to modernise core processes.

The roadmap is clear. Treasurers must embed digital capabilities, adopt integrated frameworks and invest in skills and strategy. In doing so, treasury will not only enhance control and resilience, but also help steer the business through uncertainty and towards long-term value creation.