This article is a contribution from our content partner, Kyriba

Treasury teams are managing more fraud vectors than at any point in recent memory. The surprising part isn’t the number of threats. It’s that every one of them finds the same way in.

AI-powered fraud is accelerating across payment operations. Geopolitical instability is raising the stakes for financial infrastructure. Kyriba’s 2026 CFO survey reflects both pressures: security and fraud prevention ranks as a top priority, while 81% of CFOs say they are concerned about political instability and conflict. The weaknesses being tested are operational: inconsistent payment controls, siloed data, limited visibility, and too much reliance on manual review were not built for the current environment.

The threat environment has outpaced traditional payment controls

AI-powered fraud and geopolitical cyber risk are not abstract concerns for treasury teams. They are active, accelerating pressures that traditional payment controls were never designed to handle.

Why AI payment fraud is outpacing traditional defenses

CFOs and treasurers know AI payment fraud is real. The harder issue is whether their controls can keep up. AI-powered attack methods are evolving faster than human-based controls can respond. That’s the mismatch. Fraud has scaled up with machine-speed tools. Too many defenses still depend on human review.

AI-powered attacks are dangerous because they combine speed, believability, and scale. Impersonation attempts are more convincing. Timing is better calibrated to exploit gaps in approval workflows. Phishing is harder to catch because the obvious red flags are gone.

The treasury teams most vulnerable to AI fraud are not the ones with the oldest technology. They’re the ones who upgraded five years ago and stopped. Fraud evolves. Static controls don’t.

Geopolitical unrest raises the cyber stakes further

The pressure on payment infrastructure does not come from fraud alone. U.S. banks and financial firms are operating under heightened alert as Iran-related cyber risk has intensified. Recent conflicts, including Russia/Ukraine and Hamas/Israel, have also generated elevated cyber threats directed at financial institutions. Waiting for a confirmed attack at the payment layer before strengthening controls is not a risk management strategy. It is a recovery plan.

While AI fraud and geopolitical cyber risk may look like different problems, they expose identical structural weaknesses. Those weaknesses are operational blind spots that make fraud and systemic disruption harder to catch and harder to contain.

Why reactive controls no longer work

Reactive review was designed for a slower payment environment, where fraud was easier to recognize and finance teams had time to intervene. AI-powered fraud breaks that model. Attacks are timed to exploit approval gaps, vendor impersonation can pass human review, and by the time a callback or email confirmation happens, the window may already be closed.

Callback phishing surged 500% in Q4 2025. The attack works because 48% of organizations still rely on callbacks and email confirmations to validate vendor bank account information. Fraudsters are exploiting the very control designed to stop them. That gap is not a technology limitation. It’s a design choice fraudsters have learned to exploit.

Adding more manual steps to a broken model doesn’t fix it. It just slows down the inevitable failure.

What proactive payment fraud prevention actually looks like

The shift from reactive to proactive is about moving control upstream, into the payment flow itself, so that risk is assessed before authorization rather than investigated after the fact.

In practice, a proactive control framework rests on three capabilities that most treasury teams are still building toward.

1. Pre-payment validation and continuous beneficiary verification. Vendor payment fraud often surfaces after the initial relationship is established: when a bank account is updated between payment cycles, when the first payment goes to a newly registered account for an existing vendor, or when a change is imported from an ERP without independent verification. Validating account ownership once at setup is not enough. Recurring validation against account ownership records and sanctions lists, before every outgoing payment, is what closes the gap. Organizations still relying on callbacks and email confirmations to verify those changes are operating with a control fraud has already learned to defeat.
2. Real-time payment screening and connected visibility. Fragmented systems create blind spots, and blind spots are where fraud hides. Treasury teams need a unified view across banks, ERPs, and payment workflows so that anomaly detection can actually work. An AI model flagging unusual payment behavior cannot do its job if it is only seeing part of the picture. When payment data flows in real time across the full ecosystem, controls can screen for policy exceptions, behavioral anomalies, and high-risk patterns before funds leave the organization.
3. Centralized controls. Human judgment will always have a role in payment operations. Where that judgment is applied, and whether it is supported by good data and clear policy, determines whether controls hold under pressure. The risk is controls that exist in silos: treasury payments running through proper approval workflows in the TMS, supplier payments coming out of the ERP without the same controls applied. Same policy on paper; different enforcement in practice. Controls embedded in workflows and applied consistently across every payment type, regardless of origin, reduce the reliance on any single person making the right call at the right moment. When a payment is flagged, the response should be structured, not improvised.

Three steps CFOs should take to strengthen payment fraud prevention now

The best-positioned organizations will not necessarily be the ones with the most sophisticated technology. They will be the ones that close the most obvious gaps first.

Start with an honest assessment of where manual validation still lives in your organization. Map every point in your payment process where a human is the primary control. Ask whether that control can operate at the speed and scale the current threat environment requires. The answer in most organizations will reveal more exposure than expected.

Connect payment data across treasury, AP, procurement, and IT. Payment fraud does not respect organizational boundaries, and neither does cyber risk. The fragmentation that makes treasury operations harder to manage also makes them easier to exploit. Shared visibility across payment initiation, approval, and bank connectivity is a fraud prevention requirement, and CFOs are positioned to drive it.

Treat payment resilience as a treasury strategy priority, not a compliance checkbox. Some CFOs still delegate payment fraud entirely to IT or compliance and call it risk management. At the speed the threat environment is moving, that is not delegation. It is abdication. The decisions about where to invest, which controls to prioritize, and how to sequence the work belong at the treasury leadership level.

More pressure, no more excuses

The pressures on treasury payment operations are not going to simplify. AI-powered fraud is accelerating. Geopolitical instability adds risk to the infrastructure payments depend on. And the pace of change in how money moves means the window for catching a fraudulent transaction keeps shrinking.

The organizations that build proactive, connected payment controls now are not just reducing fraud risk. They are building the operational foundation that modern treasury requires regardless of what the threat environment does next. Reactive cleanup is expensive. Proactive control is strategy.

In the months to come, the CFOs who acted now will be managing faster payment operations with measurably lower fraud losses. The ones who waited will be explaining to their boards why a preventable incident cost them a quarter’s worth of margin.

Read more from Kyriba

• Innovative approaches to working capital optimization
• From risk to resilience: why bank connectivity is now a CFO mandate
• Why working capital matters more than ever
• A call to action for banks in the AI age
• The Economics of Liquidity: Why CFOs Must Regularly Monitor and Coordinate with Their Treasurer
• Why your risk management system might be sabotaging your business
• Cash Forecasting: Your Blueprint for Liquidity Performance
• How to Tackle Troublesome Tariffs with 5 Savvy Working Capital Solutions
• TreasurySpring Announces Launch of a Public API and Partnership with Kyriba

Join our Treasury Community

Treasury Masterminds is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics related to treasury management, including cash management, foreign exchange management, and payments. To register and connect with Treasury professionals, click the button below.

This article is a contribution from our content partner, Kyriba

Working capital is the lifeblood of any successful business, but optimizing it in today’s volatile environment requires more than just best practices. It demands innovation, collaboration, and real-time intelligence.

If you caught our first post, you know that amid economic uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, rising inflation, and shifting consumer demands, working capital has become a lifeline for resilient businesses. We explored why optimizing working capital is crucial in today’s unpredictable landscape and shared foundational strategies for getting started.

In this follow-up, we move from the “why” to the “how,” highlighting innovative approaches and smart moves companies are using right now to optimize working capital, overcome bottlenecks, and drive business growth.

Identifying and eliminating inefficiencies

Before you can fully optimize working capital, you need to uncover hidden bottlenecks that are slowing you down. Supply chain volatility, fluctuating shipping rates, and outdated processes can disrupt cash flow and limit flexibility.

Common bottlenecks include:

• Manual payment processes that create delays and inefficiencies.
• Fragmented invoice systems that lead to late or early payments.
• Limited visibility into real-time cash positions across business entities.

The Solution? High-performing businesses are leveraging automation and real-time tools to minimize these challenges. By automating payment workflows, digitizing invoice approvals, and using cash visibility platforms, these companies are freeing up trapped cash, reducing friction, and streamlining their cash conversion cycles.

Leveraging data analytics for timely insights

In an era of rapid change, intuition is not enough, but neither are manual systems or siloed processes that often lead to disconnected, delayed decision-making. Many organizations still operate with limited visibility into their supply chains, leaving them vulnerable to costly disruptions and concentration risk.

A recent CFO Brew article on supply chain visibility highlights just how little awareness some companies have of their third-tier and indirect suppliers, and how this lack of insight can expose them to risks that may not surface until months after an event. Without robust, real-time data, businesses are forced to make “feel-good decisions” that simply don’t work in today’s fast moving, interconnected world.

Leading organizations are moving beyond intuition and manual processes by turning to advanced data analytics and technologies that provide deep, actionable visibility across their supply chains. By harnessing big data and predictive analytics, companies can:

• Forecast cash positions with greater accuracy
• Identify patterns in supplier and customer behavior
• Pinpoint opportunities to renegotiate terms or optimize payment schedules

But visibility alone isn’t enough. The real differentiator for leading organizations is the ability to rapidly and decisively move from insight to action. Forward-thinking finance teams aren’t just identifying cash positions or spotting inefficiencies; they’re empowered to act on those insights in real time. That means having the tools to seamlessly leverage idle cash through payables strategies, accelerate receivables when needed, or dynamically adjust working capital allocations as market conditions shift.

Platforms that combine full cash visibility with integrated action, such as enabling payables financing, receivables financing, and dynamic discounting unlock a new level of working capital agility.This holistic approach ensures that finance leaders aren’t just observers of data, but active participants in shaping outcomes. It’s this marriage of intelligence and execution that’s setting new benchmarks for resilience and growth in today’s market.

Collaboration across teams boosts efficiency

Optimizing working capital is no longer just a treasury responsibility. The most successful companies treat it as a cross-functional challenge, requiring close collaboration between treasury, supply chain, and procurement teams. For example, when tariffs and trade policies shift, procurement must work hand-in-hand with treasury to anticipate the impact on payables and inventory levels.

Here’s how collaboration can make a difference:

1. Aligning procurement and payment terms to support supplier health while optimizing DPO (Days Payable Outstanding).
2. Synchronizing inventory management with cash flow forecasting to avoid overstocking and underutilization of funds.
3. Joint scenario planning to prepare for supply chain shocks and market volatility.

This integrated approach ensures that every dollar invested in inventory, payables, or receivables is working as hard as possible for the business.

Rethinking innovation in working capital strategies

True innovation in working capital optimization isn’t just about adopting the latest tools—it’s about fundamentally reimagining how people, processes, and platforms connect to unlock value. Today’s most successful organizations no longer treat treasury, procurement, and supply chain as separate, siloed functions. Instead, they are building integrated ecosystems where data flows freely, decisions are collaborative, and action can happen in real time.

From my experience, organizations leading the way are:

• Replacing manual workflows with intelligent automation to accelerate the cash conversion cycle
• Using real-time data to drive smarter, faster decisions about where, when, and how to move cash
• Creating shared KPIs between finance and operational teams, ensuring working capital decisions support broader business goals
• Adopting agile technology platforms that adapt to market shifts and scale with growth

The real breakthrough comes when companies move beyond visibility alone and empower teams to act on insights, turning working capital from a static metric into a dynamic lever for resilience and growth. Innovative CFOs and treasurers are partnering with platforms that offer unified visibility across cash, payments, and working capital, creating real-time command centers for liquidity performance.

In summary, working capital optimization is about more than incremental improvements. It means rethinking how teams connect, how data is harnessed, and how technology is deployed to enable rapid, confident decision-making. By identifying bottlenecks, fostering collaboration, and embracing real-time analytics, organizations can unlock new cash flow and build lasting resilience.

Read more from Kyriba

• AI payment fraud and a shifting threat landscape: why CFOs need proactive payment controls
• From risk to resilience: why bank connectivity is now a CFO mandate
• Why working capital matters more than ever
• A call to action for banks in the AI age
• The Economics of Liquidity: Why CFOs Must Regularly Monitor and Coordinate with Their Treasurer
• Why your risk management system might be sabotaging your business
• Cash Forecasting: Your Blueprint for Liquidity Performance
• How to Tackle Troublesome Tariffs with 5 Savvy Working Capital Solutions
• TreasurySpring Announces Launch of a Public API and Partnership with Kyriba
• Navigating the ISO 20022 Migration
• Optimize Your Cash Forecasting with AI

Join our Treasury Community

Treasury Masterminds is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics related to treasury management, including cash management, foreign exchange management, and payments. To register and connect with Treasury professionals, click the button below.

This article is a contribution from our content partner, Kyriba

In a landscape where financial operations are as vulnerable to digital disruption as they are to economic shocks, secure bank connectivity is becoming a new pillar of corporate resilience. As CFOs shoulder broader responsibilities in safeguarding both assets and reputation, the risk of outdated connectivity now rivals traditional market risks.

Security and privacy are no longer back-office concerns—they are central to boardroom strategy. In fact, 76% of CFOs now rank them ahead of inflation and market volatility, signaling a major pivot in finance leadership priorities.

State of the market: Risk radar for CFOs

The financial landscape is changing rapidly, and so are the threats. According to recent industry data, nearly 90% of U.S. companies faced payment fraud attempts in 2025, with AI-powered scams like deepfakes fueling a staggering 118% year-over-year increase. Manual verification methods and disconnected bank processes are no longer sufficient barriers against these sophisticated attacks.

Meanwhile, regulatory scrutiny is intensifying. New mandates around transparency, sanctions, and real-time reporting are raising the stakes for compliance. Organizations relying on outdated, fragmented connectivity risk not only operational disruption, but also reputational damage and costly penalties.

But it’s not just about risk. The ability to move money confidently, forecast liquidity accurately, and respond quickly to market events is now a defining factor in corporate resilience. Forward-looking CFOs are seizing this moment to transform their foundations, turning secure bank connectivity into a driver of agility and growth.

While CFOs are increasingly aware of these external threats, many are overlooking a critical vulnerability much closer to home: their own bank connectivity infrastructure.

Even as CFOs fortify defenses against external fraud and regulatory scrutiny, a more insidious risk often goes unnoticed within their own operations. Many organizations still rely on:

• Custom-built bank interfaces
• Siloed, point-to-point connections
• Manual bank processes and reconciliations

While most discussions around cybersecurity focus on external threats such as cyberattacks or data breaches, CFOs often overlook another critical risk vector within their own operations: outdated and fragmented bank connectivity processes.

Maintaining legacy bank connections is no longer just an IT headache—it’s an existential risk for the modern CFO. What once seemed like a technical detail now shapes the organization’s exposure to fraud, compliance penalties, and operational disruption.

Here’s why: Manual, fragmented processes are ripe for exploitation by today’s sophisticated threat actors. Internal gaps and disconnected systems make it easier for fraudulent transactions to go unnoticed, introduce compliance failures, and create operational delays, especially during periods of market or geopolitical stress. CFOs can no longer afford to treat fraud as an isolated event. Robust, real-time validation and compliance tools are now essential weapons in the treasury arsenal.

• Compliance gaps: Regulations such as PSD2, global sanctions, and local mandates require airtight transparency and traceability. Outdated connectivity exposes companies to audit failures and fines.
• Operational delays: In times of geopolitical crisis or market turbulence, slow or disrupted bank connections can halt payments, freeze liquidity, and damage business continuity.

The good news? Forward-thinking CFOs are recognizing that modernizing bank connectivity isn’t just about risk mitigation—it’s about transformation.

The strategic advantage of modern bank connectivity

Upgrading connectivity is not just about plugging security holes. Modern, unified connectivity delivers:

• Faster payment execution and settlement: Real-time, automated flows mean money moves at the speed of business.
• Improved liquidity visibility: A global, consolidated view across all accounts and banks.
• Reliable cash positioning and forecasting: No more manual workarounds or spreadsheet guesswork.

In a world of volatile FX, rising rates, and political risk, these advantages are not just operational, they’re strategic.

This is where a strategic approach to connectivity becomes essential. Rather than continuing to patch legacy systems, leading organizations are embracing a fundamentally different model.

How BCaaS reduces complexity and builds confidence

Bank-Connectivity-as-a-Service (BCaaS) is designed to address these risks and inefficiencies head-on. BCaaS isn’t just a technical upgrade; it’s a strategic move that allows CFOs to future-proof their organizations against rapidly evolving threats.

• Unified, secure architecture: A single, secure architecture for bank connectivity eliminates silos and fragmented processes, removing operational drag and reducing fraud exposure across the enterprise.
• Proactive risk and compliance management: Integrated security and compliance controls ensure the organization stays ahead of emerging threats and regulatory demands, freeing CFOs from the distraction of constant tactical firefighting.
• Empowered treasury and finance teams: With standardized, automated processes, treasury and finance teams can shift their focus from manual tasks to analysis and strategic decision-making, strengthening the organization’s financial agility.
• Real-time fraud defense: Automated bank validation and real-time monitoring transform fraud prevention from a reactive chore into a strategic advantage, enabling the business to safeguard payments at the speed required by today’s threat landscape.
• Scalable growth and global resilience: A modern connectivity platform unlocks expansion into new markets and supports growth initiatives, without adding complexity or risk, providing agility and confidence in volatile times.

The question isn’t whether to modernize bank connectivity, but how quickly you can make the transition. Here’s what industry leaders are prioritizing:

What leading CFOs are doing now

CFOs leveraging centralized, managed bank connectivity and automated payment validation are better positioned to:

• Respond quickly to market shocks: Real-time insights and controls enable agile action.
• Scale into new markets without delays: Standardized, secure connectivity means faster expansion.
• Strengthen defenses: Integrated fraud detection, compliance, and audit trails reduce risk on all fronts.

To build resilience and stay ahead of fast-evolving risks, CFOs should:

• Assess bank connectivity as critically as balance-sheet risk: Map every touchpoint between your organization and its banks, and quantify the financial and operational exposure if those connections fail.
• Accelerate the shift to automation: Replace manual processes with real-time, integrated solutions that eliminate human error and strengthen fraud defenses.
• Choose strategic partners, not just technology vendors: Align with providers who continuously adapt to regulatory changes and emerging threats, ensuring long-term confidence and compliance.
• Elevate connectivity to a leadership conversation: Ensure treasury and finance teams are trained to act on real-time alerts, and make secure bank connectivity a standing item in board-level risk discussions.

Where is bank connectivity headed?

Looking ahead to the next 12–24 months, the role of bank connectivity will only intensify:

• Increased regulatory scrutiny: Expect new regulations to demand greater transparency, real-time reporting, and more robust controls, making manual or fragmented connections a liability.
• Acceleration of automation & AI: CFOs will shift from reactive fraud detection to proactive, AI-driven prevention. Automated bank validation and real-time monitoring will become industry norms.
• Board-level visibility: Bank connectivity will move from a technical detail to a board-level discussion, directly linked to risk management, growth, and competitive advantage.
• Global standardization: Organizations will seek unified, standardized connectivity across regions and banks to facilitate expansion and ensure resilience during market shocks.

In the coming year, CFOs who proactively modernize their bank connectivity will set a new standard for agility and resilience, transforming financial operations from a point of vulnerability into a source of strategic strength.

Why secure bank connectivity is a strategic imperative

Today’s CFOs are balancing increasing financial complexity with digital risk mitigation. With secure connectivity and automated fraud validation, CFOs can unlock new opportunities for growth, stability, and agility in an unpredictable landscape.

In the end, risk is inevitable, but resilience is a choice. By transforming fragmented bank connections into a unified, secure foundation, CFOs can turn their greatest vulnerabilities into their most powerful assets. The organizations that invest in future-proof connectivity today will be the ones that lead with confidence, and emerge stronger, no matter what tomorrow brings.

Investing in secure connectivity and future-proof fraud prevention isn’t just about protecting assets. It’s about enabling growth, agility, and peace of mind in an unpredictable world.

Read more from Kyriba

• Innovative approaches to working capital optimization
• Why working capital matters more than ever
• A call to action for banks in the AI age
• The Economics of Liquidity: Why CFOs Must Regularly Monitor and Coordinate with Their Treasurer
• Why your risk management system might be sabotaging your business
• Cash Forecasting: Your Blueprint for Liquidity Performance
• How to Tackle Troublesome Tariffs with 5 Savvy Working Capital Solutions
• TreasurySpring Announces Launch of a Public API and Partnership with Kyriba
• Navigating the ISO 20022 Migration
• Optimize Your Cash Forecasting with AI
• Decoding the Impact of ChatGPT for Treasury
• Optimize Your Cash Forecasting with AI

Join our Treasury Community

Treasury Mastermind is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics related to treasury management, including cash management, foreign exchange management, and payments. To register and connect with Treasury professionals, click [HERE] or fill out the form below to get more information.