This article is written by Nomentia
With complex global operations, decentralized ways of working across treasury, finance, and accounting, a lack of process automation, and security concerns on the rise, you may be considering a payment hub for your enterprise. When juggling multiple priorities and all the operational tasks already stretching your organization, the implementation project may seem dreadful.
It’s not a secret: Setting up a payment hub can be heavy-duty. Depending on the complexity of the case (number of entities enrolled, in which countries you roll it out, how many banks and bank accounts you have, whether you connect multiple ERPs, etc.), it may take anywhere from several days to several years. Nevertheless, if it’s done right, the payment hub can have significant business impacts—not just in improving ways of working but also in realizing cost savings.
To explain how to set up a global payment hub on an enterprise scale, we will go through the main challenges, the project team and its setup, ways of working, lessons learned from our customers, and the benefits and business impact after the successful implementation.
All payment hub projects are different. While we have been working on small projects where we only connect one ERP and a few banks, and it only takes days to a few weeks, we have also been delivering large-scale projects for enterprises that could take even as long as one to two years of commitment. Whenever we undertake a massive project, both parties understand that it’s a long commitment and, therefore, a forward-looking project plan is essential.
The challenges of implementing a payment hub are unique for each organization, but in our example, we will focus on the complex, enterprise-scale implementations where clients were dedicated to creating a payment factory within their organization. Keep reading even if you are implementing a less complicated solution, as the article gives some great insights for planning any payment hub implementation.
Many Nomentia clients have undertaken massive payment hub projects with operations in over 100 countries. Even just operating in tens of countries has its challenges. If you must implement the payment solution in countries with strict legislation, like China or India, having a good implementation partner with experience is an advantage.
Why do global operations make implementation complicated? One reason is integrating ERPs, financial systems, and banks. The other reason is more abstract: people generally don’t like change.
It’s not unusual for local entities to have their own operational procedures; the process can also often be highly manual, if not entirely manual. In some cases, an integration between the internal system and the bank, like an ERP, may exist to execute payments automatically. Still, on a group level, you may have very little visibility on this. In addition to having localized operational procedures and local systems, each country and entity may have its own banking partner. Later on, we will discuss how working with many banks can complicate implementation.
Moving away from the current ways of working comes as a big shock for many, even though you are trying to implement improvements that can benefit everyone. If you want to implement an immediately successful project, you must involve all necessary stakeholders in managing the change and getting the essential project-planning information.
Based on our first challenge, you may have already guessed the next one: A scattered system landscape can make the implementation project complex. If you have acquired new units from different regions, it’s possible that instead of running the business on one central ERP system, you have several ones used locally. Payment files may also be generated in other systems. If system consolidation is not currently possible, you should at least connect all source systems to the selected payment hub, allowing the payment files to be automatically forwarded to the correct bank.
Having a scattered system landscape naturally poses a few challenges:
In an enterprise-scale project where tens of entities are involved, having good change management practices, ways of communication, and clear guidelines will set you up for success.
The new payment hub will impact how hundreds of people work daily; at worst, moving from manual processes or local ways of working to a centralized, automated approach could be something people may even fear or be concerned about.
Communicating how your operations will change positively when you introduce the new processes will help people perform their jobs well and make them feel involved in the project from day one. Your colleagues can also be great allies when you need to understand how to work with different banks globally.
Choosing your team is the most essential part of the project! You don’t need a big team, but you should include people who understand your financial processes, how they work now, and how they should work when you automate them.
Also, involve an excellent project manager to communicate with the payment hub provider, keep the project on track, and hold people accountable for the progress.
Having one or two IT resources can also be helpful throughout the project. As you deal with integrations, although the payment hub vendor usually takes care of most of the integration work, your IT team members will still need to help the vendor, participate in the end-to-end testing process, handle master data management, and provide all the necessary technical details.
It’s also a good idea to clearly outline the ways of working for your project team. Identify the core team, the communication channels for sending each other instant messages and following the progress, your meeting cadence, and where you will share information with the larger group.
‘Not all banks are the ‘same’—this is some of the best advice for when you start a payment hub project. Before you even begin, you must have a list of the banks you will need to connect with, and your local employees should be able to help point out the unique challenges with each (e.g., if the bank would not accept standard payment file formats and you would need to convert the file your ERP generates).
The list will also help you identify the best ways to connect with the banks, whether you create direct connections, use SWIFT, or have specific local connection requirements.
In your implementation plan, schedule plenty of time for setting up the bank connections. It is usually more challenging than creating connections with ERPs; in the case of the ERP, your IT team can control the pace. With banks, many factors are out of your hands, and sometimes, all you can do is wait or comply with the requests from the bank.
It’s tempting to create a very tight project timeline. In a recent survey, our client said smart time management positively impacted their implementation project.
‘Be wise and flexible; you can avoid delays in the projects, and you will have the flexibility to realize quick wins during the project, like adding different types of payments.’
Of course, delivering the project as soon as possible is still a priority, but leave room for surprises (e.g., when you deal with longer timelines than expected with the banks) and time for experimenting; maybe you will be able to realize a few unexpected features during the implementation project. Solution consultants from vendors will normally guide you almost effortlessly when you can implement a feature, even if you haven’t planned it before.
Companies come to us with different reasons why they would like to implement a payment factory. A very common theme is automation – in some cases, we are taking the client from 100% manual processes to almost 100% automation. (You can’t always avoid manual payments, but it’s still possible to process them through the payment factory, and that’s what manual payment templates are for.)
In many cases, having more control over outgoing payment processes is the main priority. The group wants more control over all payments, and centralization is the theme we need to focus on. The opposite can also be true, though: In one case, our client wanted to implement a payment factory but without centralization. They wanted to use one tool for all of their entities but still allow them some freedom in executing their payments.
Another emerging theme is, of course, security and compliance. As fraud increases, CISOs/CIOs often push the Treasury Department to implement a payment factory. Thus, most major providers offer two capabilities vital for the CISO office: fraud detection (often utilizing AI or a rule-based engine) and audit trails for every transaction.
Regardless of your priorities, you will most likely realize some of the following business impacts:
Even if you are not going for a centralized approach, you will have a tool that all global users can use to execute payments. If your goal is centralization, having a payment hub between your banks and systems will standardize the process and improve productivity in all units.
A scattered system landscape can become expensive for an enterprise. By integrating all ERP systems and financial software into the payment hub, you can achieve complete automation. The payment hub can fetch payment files from the different systems and send them to the correct bank. Depending on the size of the project, clients have reported that integrating all their IT systems where payment files are located can result in hundreds of thousands of savings.
Managing bank accounts takes time and effort. As a positive outcome, most of our clients are closing bank accounts and, thus, realizing savings from tens of thousands to over one hundred thousand euros.
A standardized way of working equals compliance. Adding audit trails, security measures like MFA, and the six-eyes principle are just the basics. Forward-thinking teams are investing in automated fraud detection and erroneous payment prevention to reduce the chances of payment fraud and errors that have increased over the last few years.
While reducing the number of FTEs should not be the project’s ultimate goal, at least you won’t be hiring people to do mundane manual tasks, and your workforce can focus on more critical projects, like forecasting future cash flows. This will also transform the role of your department within the organization. You will be able to take the department from an operational role to that of a strategic advisor if that’s your priority.
Implementing a payment hub on a global scale in tens of countries for tens of subsidiaries and hundreds of users is a large undertaking. It will require excellent project and time management and an exceptionally dedicated team. Establish a common goal initially, and make sure everyone knows their role and why the project matters. Also, for the implementation to succeed, you must choose the right supplier. The payment hub supplier should provide a payment hub with all the functionality you need to manage your payments. Still, in addition, they should be able to support you with IT integration, bank connections, project management, and communication. Working with a payment hub provider that fits your team well is very important because you will spend a lot of time together in weekly meetings. Choosing the best partner may involve more than just finding the best technology.
The best approach ultimately depends on your organization and requirements. Some clients start with creating a payment factory, knowing they will continue the project and create an in-house bank and moving away from working with hundreds or thousands of bank accounts, using internal accounts instead, implementing a POBO and COBO approach, and even managing intercompany loans in an in-house bank.
Some may want to implement something other than an in-house bank, and they can manage their cash flows very well with just a payment factory and add liquidity management to complement the service and forecast your company’s cash balances based on accurate data from the payment hub.
Whatever your approach is, setting up a payment hub can be a significant change for the better if you are not yet automating your payments on a global scale.
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 [HERE] or fill out the form below to get more information.
By Alexander von Schirmeister,
CEO at Nomentia
A bank portal still works. The ERP still produces data. A spreadsheet still calculates a forecast. A payment approval workflow still moves from one person to the next. Reports still reach the CFO, even if they arrive later than expected. From the outside, treasury appears to function. Inside the process, finance teams know exactly how much effort is required to keep that appearance of control intact.
Modern treasury cannot rely on disconnected systems because the questions it needs to answer are no longer isolated. Cash visibility depends on bank data, account structures, ERP information, payments in progress, forecast inputs, intercompany flows, financing activities, and exposures. Liquidity planning depends on operational data from the business, but also on treasury assumptions, market conditions, working capital movements, and funding plans. Risk management depends on reliable exposure data, but also on trade execution, hedge documentation, limits, reporting, and accounting. If each part of this picture sits in a different place, the treasury team becomes the integration layer.
That integration work rarely surfaces. It lives in copy-and-paste routines, manual file checks, email reminders, reconciliation notes, spreadsheet tabs, and individual memory. It is also where most treasury management challenges quietly begin.
Disconnected systems create time loss because data has to be gathered before it can be analysed. They create duplicated work because teams maintain local trackers even when central tools exist. They weaken cash visibility because the latest view may depend on which bank file has arrived or which entity has responded. They weaken controls because exceptions are harder to identify when workflows are not connected.
The CFO does not usually see the process friction. The CFO sees the answer. If the answer is late, inconsistent, or hard to explain, confidence falls. Senior leadership needs reliable responses to simple but high-stakes questions: How much liquidity is available? Which cash flows are expected? Where is working capital tied up? Are internal payments efficient? Which exposures are material? Are guarantees, hedges, and commitments under control? These questions cannot be answered well when the data behind them has to be rebuilt every time.
The 2026 Nomentia Treasury and Cash Management report highlights that many treasury teams are in a transitional phase. They have moved beyond purely manual treasury, but still rely on multiple systems and partial automation. The pattern is familiar: the organisation has invested in technology, yet treasury still spends too much time reconciling information and validating reports. The issue is not that systems are missing. The issue is that they are not connected enough to support the pace of decision-making.
Disconnected systems are especially risky in three areas.
The first is visibility. If cash positions, transactions, forecasts, and payment statuses are not consolidated, treasury may see parts of the picture but miss the direction of movement. A balance report can show where cash is today, but it does not explain whether the position is temporary, restricted, exposed, or needed elsewhere in the group. Visibility without context can create false comfort.
The second is control. Treasury policies often look clear on paper, but control depends on how processes actually run. Who can approve a payment? Which entities have followed the forecast process? Which exposures have been validated? Which guarantee is close to expiry? Which hedge relationship needs attention? When workflows are disconnected, control becomes dependent on manual follow-up. That may work when volumes are low, but it becomes unreliable as banks, entities, instruments, and reporting expectations increase.
The third is decision speed. In volatile markets, delayed answers are not neutral. A late forecast can affect funding decisions. A delayed exposure view can affect hedge timing. A slow payment status check can affect supplier confidence. A late view of guarantees or credit line usage can affect working capital decisions. Treasury does not need real-time data for every decision, but it does need enough connected information to avoid making decisions with yesterday’s understanding.
A modern treasury management system should not be judged only by feature breadth. The more important question is how well it reduces the gaps between systems, data, workflow, and reporting. A strong setup connects bank information, ERP data, payment processes, cash forecasting, risk workflows, analytics, and audit trails into a reliable operating model. That does not mean every company needs every module at once. It means the architecture should support growth without forcing the team to rebuild its processes every time complexity increases.
Most people researching a TMS today will start with a web search or ask Copilot, Gemini, or ChatGPT. The answer they get back is usually a feature list. That’s not wrong, but it’s incomplete. A good treasury management system helps finance teams centralise cash, payments, forecasting, risk, controls, and reporting so they can make better liquidity and financial risk decisions with trusted data. Features are how it gets there. That’s the distinction worth keeping in mind when evaluating whether your current setup is still fit for purpose.
The path away from disconnected systems does not always require a large replacement project. In many organisations, the better approach is to identify the most painful manual bridges first. Where does treasury re-enter data? Where does the team wait for local input? Where do reports need manual explanation? Where are approvals outside the system? Where is the same number calculated in different ways? These questions show where fragmentation is creating the most business risk.
Connected systems create reliable answers. They reduce the manual work behind cash visibility, improve the quality of cash flow forecasting, and support stronger controls and compliance. They help the CFO understand not only what the numbers are, but what they mean for liquidity, risk, and action. Disconnected systems may still function. But they make treasury work harder than it should, and confident decisions harder than they need to be.
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 written by TreasuryCube
In an increasingly complex financial environment, In-House Banks (IHBs) have emerged as a strategic imperative for corporations seeking enhanced cash visibility, optimized liquidity, and streamlined intercompany transactions. Drawing insights from a recent presentation by experts at Citi and seasoned treasurers, let’s explore what makes an IHB not just an option, but a cornerstone of modern treasury management.
An IHB is a centralized internal financial entity that manages cash, investments, foreign exchange exposures, and intercompany lending on behalf of corporate subsidiaries. Acting as a “virtual bank” for the organization, it reduces the volume of external banking transactions and provides critical advantages in cash management, governance, and compliance.
Importantly, an IHB is not a regional treasury center, shared service center, re-invoicing hub, or physical licensed bank. It’s a bespoke solution that integrates deeply with corporate finance operations.
An IHB addresses several core challenges that treasurers face:
Real-world IHB implementations, like those led by Brook Ballard at Oceaneering, showcase the tangible benefits:
Intercompany netting further reduces payment transactions, bank fees, and FX costs by consolidating cross-border intercompany settlements.
While beneficial for many, IHBs are particularly advantageous for:
At TreasuryCube, we recognize that the modern treasury is not just about managing cash, it’s about unlocking strategic value. An effective IHB is a critical tool to help achieve that vision, especially when supported by integrated technology, skilled people, and proactive governance.
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 written by our partner, FIS
The reality of payment fraud has shifted from a question of whether an attack will occur to a growing likelihood of when and how it will occur.
For finance and treasury leaders, the strategies that provided a sense of security a few years ago may be insufficient against a new breed of sophisticated and relentless criminals. A 2024 survey from the Association for Financial Professionals underscored this reality, revealing that a staggering 79% of organizations were victims of payment fraud attacks or attempts.
This is not a distant risk: It’s an active, daily threat that demands a fundamental change in an institution’s defensive posture. The traditional, reactive approach – detecting and responding to fraud after it occurs – is, in many cases, no longer a viable strategy. The time has come to build a proactive defense.
Today’s fraudsters are often not lone actors but organized, well-funded operations that use advanced technology and psychological tactics. They study organizational structures, identify process gaps and exploit the path of least resistance.
Business email compromise remains a dominant method, where criminals impersonate executives or vendors with alarming authenticity to redirect funds. We’re also seeing the rise of AI-powered deep fakes, where a trusted voice on a conference call can be convincingly spoofed to authorize a fraudulent transfer.
These criminals understand that the entire payment lifecycle, from the initial onboarding of a vendor to the final reconciliation, presents a landscape of opportunity. They target the seams in your processes, exploiting the very human desire for efficiency and speed. This “disharmony,” a term coined by a FIS® and Oxford Economics study, captures the friction between the drive for growth and the drag of persistent security threats.
According to the study, 75% of C-suite executives identify fraud as a critical challenge.
How can organizations overcome the evolving threat of fraud? The answer lies in shifting from a fragmented, manual and reactive stance to an integrated, automated and proactive one.
A truly effective defense begins by fortifying the most common entry points. The vendor master file, for instance, is the heart of the payables process and a prime target. A single fraudulent change to a supplier’s bank details can lead to catastrophic losses before anyone realizes an error has occurred.
Overcoming this type of threat typically requires more than just diligence: It often demands a standardized, technology-enforced process. It includes implementing out-of-band verification, such as a phone call to a preverified contact, for any change to payment instructions. It means moving beyond trust and implementing strict, automated validation protocols.
As transaction volumes grow, manual reviews can become an impossible bottleneck, creating the very noise that criminals use to hide their illicit activities. This is where modern solutions like AI-assisted anomaly detection become increasingly indispensable.
Unlike static, rule-based systems that can only catch what they are programmed to look for, AI and machine learning establish a baseline of “normal” payment behavior for each vendor and transaction type. These systems operate in real time, analyzing payments for subtle deviations in amount, frequency or timing that would be difficult for the human eye to detect. When an anomaly is detected, the payment is automatically flagged for investigation before it leaves the organization. This preemptive capability is a game changer.
Organizations can achieve a greater level of control by consolidating their payment flows through a centralized payment hub. Instead of managing disparate security protocols across multiple ERPs and bank portals, a payment hub provides a more unified point of visibility and control.
A payment hub enables the consistent application of security policies, approval workflows and fraud detection analytics across the entire enterprise. It standardizes an institution’s defense, creating a fortress rather than a series of disconnected fences. A payment hub integrated with a third-party account validation service provides another critical layer, confirming that a beneficiary’s name matches their account information before a payment is ever initiated.
Reduce fraud risk and strengthen controls with FIS Payment Hub – Enterprise Edition
The path forward for finance and treasury leaders requires a strategic pivot. It means recognizing that fraud prevention is not merely a compliance checkbox but a strategic enabler of business resilience and growth.
Building a proactive defense involves a holistic approach that integrates advanced technology, standardized processes and a culture of vigilant verification. By embracing AI-driven monitoring, centralizing payment operations and empowering employees with specialized training, you can transform your security posture from reactive to preemptive.
This shift does not just mitigate risk: It builds the confidence and operational integrity necessary to thrive in a complex financial world.
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.
