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This article is written by our partner, MillTech
Managing FX risk is like maintaining your car’s engine. You can skip the annual service and oil changes if everything seems fine, but eventually, a breakdown is inevitable. By the time the warning lights come on, the damage is already costly.
Just like with an engine, proactively managing FX risk keeps things running smoothly and prevents expensive, last-minute repairs. A well-thought-out FX risk management strategy is like traction control on a slippery surface, helping to maintain control and direction as market conditions shift. Without it, companies risk spinning out of control when currency volatility hits.
In this blog, we will delve into recent risk management trends and key strategies for managing FX risks in 2026. In an era of heightened uncertainty, the ability to steer through volatility isn’t just a nice-to have — it’s a necessity for survival and growth.
FX risk management is a comprehensive strategy employed by businesses to protect their profitability and mitigate potential financial losses caused by adverse currency fluctuations. For corporations dealing with multiple currencies, inadequate FX risk management can significantly affect key financial metrics, such as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), ultimately compromising profitability and financial stability.
Corporate treasurers and CFO’s can manage FX risk effectively by leveraging a range of strategies, including financial hedging tools, to safeguard their financial positions against unfavourable exchange rate movements caused by currency volatility:
FX forwards are over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, which means they are traded directly between two liquidity partners and can therefore be customised around mutual requirements.
Currency forward contracts allow a business to buy or sell an agreed amount of an asset on a future date, at a price determined today. By locking in an exchange rate for the future, businesses can protect their bottom lines against currency volatility.
FX options are financial derivatives traded over-the-counter (OTC) or, less commonly, on exchanges. They grant the holder the right, but not the obligation, to exchange a specified amount of one currency for another at a predetermined exchange rate (strike price) on or before a specified expiration date, depending on the type of option.
FX option contracts allow businesses to mitigate downside risk while preserving some upside potential. These contracts often carry high premiums due to the option to exit the trade, which is not reimbursed if the trade is not settled.
FX Swaps are Over-The-Counter (OTC) derivatives used by two counterparties to manage their currency exposures. In an FX Swap, the parties agree to swap a specified notional principal amount in one currency for an equivalent in another currency at the current spot rate. This setup enables the counterparties to hedge against currency risk by securing exchange rates for future transactions.
An FX Swap normally involves two transactions: an immediate exchange of currencies via a spot transaction followed by a reverse exchange using an forward transaction a later predetermined date.
Natural hedging is a strategy businesses use to minimise financial risk by offsetting potential losses with corresponding gains. This approach involves aligning cash flows, assets, or liabilities in the same foreign currency to reduce exposure to exchange rate fluctuations.
Unlike financial hedging, which relies on external instruments like forward contracts or options, natural hedging is an internal risk management technique that does not involve additional costs or reliance on financial markets. By carefully managing operations, such as sourcing materials locally or matching foreign currency loans with international revenues, businesses can effectively reduce their exposure to exchange rate risks while maintaining operational efficiency.
Netting simplifies foreign exchange management by consolidating multiple currency transactions into fewer, streamlined transactions. This approach reduces complexity, helps to minimise costs, and is often used within businesses or between subsidiaries to manage and align FX exposures more effectively.
Offsetting takes a different approach to managing FX risk. It involves creating a counter-position to an existing currency exposure, typically by entering into a transaction that offsets potential losses from adverse currency fluctuations, ensuring financial stability amidst market changes.
In FX risk management, maintaining counterparty diversity is key to reducing credit risk and enhancing resilience. By working with a range of financial institutions, corporates can mitigate exposure to single-party failures, like the collapse of Credit Suisse, and better hedge against market volatility.
Counterparty diversity also promotes competitive pricing, enhanced access to market data, and informed decision-making. Corporates should perform thorough due diligence on counterparties, regularly reviewing their stability and performance to adapt to evolving market conditions.
Corporate governance is integral to the effectiveness of FX risk management. Robust governance structures ensure that FX risk management practices are aligned with the corporation’s overall strategic objectives and comply with regulatory requirements. This alignment not only safeguards the business against currency volatility but also enhances stakeholder trust and confidence in its financial management practices.
Developing a comprehensive FX risk management policy enables corporations to address FX risks systematically. Such a policy should clearly define the organisation’s risk appetite and incorporate a structured framework for ongoing risk assessment and management reviews. This framework should include regular stress testing and scenario analysis to assess the potential impact of market fluctuations on currency exposure.
To support these efforts, integrating advanced financial management software can facilitate real-time monitoring of exchange rates, automate reporting, and enhance decision-making capabilities, saving a business valuable time.
Our recent FX reports indicate that 76% of UK and 82% of North American corporates are employing hedging strategies to manage currency risk, despite facing higher costs and stricter lending criteria over the past year.
Geopolitical tensions have notably influenced FX risk management in both the UK and North America. In the UK, 53% of businesses aim to lengthen their hedge duration due to global uncertainties. North America was responding even more strongly coming up to the US election, with 66% of firms planning to extend their hedge durations and 29% looking to increase their hedge ratios.
Manual and outdated FX processes can significantly hinder business efficiency. As a result, firms are increasingly shifting away from traditional providers and legacy infrastructure, replacing them with tech-enabled solutions.
Our research found that all UK and US corporate finance leaders polled (100%) are exploring artificial intelligence (AI) in some form. The main area for potential AI application is FX risk management, with 46% of North American and 43% of UK corporations concentrating on this field.
The genie is well and truly out of the bottle with generative AI and any organisation not thinking about how this technology can enhance their offering risks being left behind. It’s clear from the findings that CFOs realise that in today’s fast-paced digital landscape, embracing AI-driven innovation is no longer optional but essential for staying competitive.
Sam Hunt, CTO at MillTech.
FX is one of the largest and most liquid markets in the world, but also one of the most complex. Setting up and onboarding new FX counterparties, centralising price discovery and navigating the post-execution phase often have their own complications and can be a huge administrative burden for some corporates, eating up much-needed time and resources. In fact, 29% of UK respondents said they use outsourcing as it provides greater scalability and flexibility in operations.
Following episodes like the , many market principles and regulations were introduced, such as the FX Global Code of Conduct and MiFID II, to avoid crises like this again. Whilst beneficial to the ecosystem, these rules and regulations require a lot of work in order to be met. This is why 29% of UK respondents say that they use outsourcing for risk management and compliance purposes.
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.
By Alex Cannon
50 senior treasury ads from one EMEA search in October 2026, coded for every skill and system they name. Not a market survey.
I spend most of my time on the vendor side of treasury tech, reading what software companies say a treasury team needs. I wanted to swap the lens and see what people doing the hiring actually are writing down.
So I read 50 senior treasury job ads within Europe to see if anything interesting popped up.
Three things came out of it:
Before we get to the tech, here are jobs to be done stated in the ads:
| Skill | Ads |
|---|---|
| Cash flow forecasting | 35 |
| FX and hedging | 35 |
| Bank relationship management | 32 |
| Daily cash positioning | 23 |
| Interest rate risk | 23 |
| KYC and bank account administration | 22 |
| Board and investor reporting | 22 |
| Intercompany funding | 20 |
| Debt facilities and covenants | 19 |
| M&A treasury integration | 19 |
| Cash pooling | 18 |
| Working capital | 16 |
| Trade finance and guarantees | 10 |
| ALM and regulatory liquidity | 7 |
| Debt capital markets | 5 |
Forecasting at the top is the least surprising row in the table. It is also the part of treasury with a dozen vendors chasing it, so the supply side and the demand side agree on at least one thing.
That is the work that needs to be done. Now lets move onto the tech that is supposed to assist.
AI appears in 9 of the 50 ads.
Of the nine, eight ask for it and two hand it over as a tool on arrival.
What the eight ask for varies so widely that the variation is the finding.
The two that hand it over are more specific about the equipment than about the skill.
One lists it as a benefit — “Everyone has a Claude subscription on us and access to other premium tools”
The other wants judgment as the requirement: “We want people who experiment without waiting for permission, push AI beyond the obvious, know when to trust it, and when to question it.”
For me the one thing that stood out is that when a task is named at all, it is the assembly layer (analysis, reporting, process) improvement. Nothing in these ads points AI at the actual jobs to be done in the ad like bank relationship work, KYC or account administration.
The expectation is on the treasurer to uncover best use cases, which honestly makes sense as they are the experts in their field.
AI is asked for in nine ads. A programming language is asked for in two.
| Tech skill | Ads |
|---|---|
| Implementation or roll-out experience | 29 |
| Automation and process improvement | 23 |
| TMS named or referenced | 22 |
| Excel | 20 |
| ERP | 16 |
| AI | 9 |
| Bank connectivity | 9 |
| Dashboards | 6 |
| System selection or RFP | 4 |
| Python, SQL or BI | 2 |
Four readings of that table.
1. The spreadsheet and the system are asked for together.
Excel appears in 20 ads, a TMS in 22 and both in 11 of them. One ad asks for strong Excel in its requirements list, then puts “Replacing manual spreadsheet processes with something that survives your holiday” in the responsibilities. Both are written down. Both are presumably meant.
2. The ERP is the only thing named by brand.
SAP is named in 9 ads, more than every treasury system in the sample combined. Eight ads name a treasury system at all, and only one TMS is named more than once. Of the 63 vendors I have profiled, six appear anywhere in 50 senior treasury ads. TMS experience is asked for as a generic, transferable skill. ERP experience is asked for as a product.
3. The plumbing has no vocabulary here.
Nine ads mention bank connectivity in any form, with SWIFT, SEPA and APIs appearing in four each. No ad in the sample names ISO 20022, camt, MT940, EBICS, host-to-host, a payment factory or a virtual account. The work gets described instead as growth arriving across a lot of bank accounts.
4. You are hired to run the system, not to pick it.
Implementation or roll-out language appears in 29 ads. Selection, evaluation or RFP language appears in 4. The vendor decision sits above the level being recruited, which is worth knowing before taking a job to own the treasury stack.
Job ads don’t say what actually get solved, but they are an interesting benchmark into the expectation of today’s treasurer.
I’m curious how the first 90 days has changed for a new hire senior treasurer with all the tech that is now available.
Do you go in guns blazing trying to completely modernize an old stack, or do you start by getting a lay of the land and slowly chipping away at the time consuming tasks.
I feel it’s the latter.
I think what hiring teams are trying to avoid is the complacent treasurer.
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 Kantox
The relationship between Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers has evolved far beyond traditional financial stewardship. For multinational enterprises managing raw materials across continents, subsidiary operations in diverse markets, and complex multi-currency transactions, this partnership has become the cornerstone of global financial strategy.
Recent data reveals a fundamental shift in C-suite dynamics. According to Deloitte’s Q4 2024 CFO Signals survey, CFO confidence has surged dramatically, with finance chiefs showing marked optimism as they head into 2025. This confidence reflects not just economic sentiment, but the elevated strategic role CFOs now occupy.
The 2024 Global CFO & CIO Survey demonstrates this transformation quantitatively: nearly half of CFOs (49%) believe their improved relationship was the reason for improved business outcomes. For treasury managers overseeing global operations, this data underscores a critical insight: relationship quality directly impacts financial performance.
What drives this correlation between executive relationships and business outcomes? For multinational organisations, the answer lies in complex financial orchestration. When CFOs and CEOs maintain aligned perspectives on currency risk, subsidiary performance, and international cash flow optimisation, companies achieve superior results across multiple performance metrics.
Consider the strategic complexity facing today’s financial leaders:
The traditional model of visionary CEO paired with detail-oriented CFO remains powerful, but requires sophisticated enhancement for global operations. Modern effective partnerships integrate what Deloitte research identifies as complementary character types: guardian, pioneer, driver, and integrator. Significantly, almost 75% of effective partnerships include one driver.
For multinational treasury management, this translates into specific operational advantages:
The Strategic CFO Approach: Rather than simply complementing CEO vision, the modern CFO must anticipate global financial challenges. When raw material costs fluctuate in emerging markets, or when subsidiary performance varies due to currency movements, the CFO’s analytical framework must provide strategic context, not just financial reporting.
Case Study Application: Consider a technology company sourcing components from Southeast Asia while serving European markets. The CFO’s complementary role involves not just reporting currency impacts, but developing hedging strategies that enable the CEO’s market expansion objectives. This requires understanding operational dynamics, not just financial metrics.
Treasury Management Integration: Finance chiefs can enhance their strategic positioning by developing expertise in:
Trust between CEO and CFO transcends personal relationships—it represents operational reliability across complex global financial systems. When CEOs sign annual accounts, they rely on CFO assurance regarding subsidiary consolidation, foreign exchange position accuracy, and international compliance frameworks.
The stakes are particularly high for multinational operations. 42% of CEOs express optimism about the global economy, suggesting increased willingness to pursue international expansion. However, this optimism must be supported by robust financial infrastructure.
Treasury-Specific Trust Indicators:
Building CEO Confidence: CFOs can establish trust through demonstrable competence in:
Risk Management Excellence: When evaluating acquisition opportunities in foreign markets, CEOs depend on CFO analysis of currency risks, regulatory complexities, and integration challenges. This dependency requires CFOs to develop expertise beyond traditional financial analysis.
The most sophisticated CEO-CFO partnerships integrate treasury management perspectives into core strategic planning. Rather than treating international financial management as operational support, leading organisations position treasury insights as strategic intelligence.
Strategic Coordination Framework: Board reporting becomes the ultimate test of CEO-CFO alignment. When presenting international expansion plans, both executives must demonstrate coherent understanding of:
Treasury-Driven Strategic Insights: Modern CFOs contribute strategic value by translating complex international financial dynamics into actionable business intelligence. This includes:
Recent survey data highlights technology’s role in strengthening CEO-CFO partnerships. 42% of finance leaders believe technology partnerships contribute to improved business results. For treasury management, technology represents both opportunity and imperative.
Modern Treasury Technology Stack:
Strategic Technology Integration: Leading finance organisations leverage technology not just for operational efficiency, but for strategic advantage. When CFOs can provide CEOs with real-time visibility into global cash positions, currency exposures, and subsidiary performance, strategic decision-making accelerates dramatically.
Looking ahead, successful CEO-CFO partnerships will be distinguished by their ability to navigate increasing global complexity. 47% of CFOs indicate their organisations intend to change benefits or transfer costs to manage employee expenses in 2025, suggesting continued focus on operational optimisation.
Strategic Imperatives for 2025:
Treasury Management Evolution: The most successful partnerships will position treasury management as a strategic capability, not just an operational function. This requires CFOs to develop expertise in:
For treasury managers and CFOs operating in global markets, the CEO-CFO partnership represents far more than internal collaboration—it embodies the strategic financial leadership essential for international business success. Companies that master this relationship gain competitive advantages in market expansion, risk management, and operational efficiency.
The data demonstrates clear correlation between executive partnership quality and business performance. For multinational organisations managing complex treasury operations, this relationship becomes the foundation for strategic financial management across currencies, jurisdictions, and markets.
Success requires moving beyond traditional complementary roles toward integrated strategic partnership, where treasury management insights inform core business decisions, and where global financial expertise enables international business expansion.
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.
This article is written by Liquiditas
Running a business in today’s world can be tough, especially when there are so many challenges that can disrupt the supply chain and impact the flow of cash. These challenges can come in many forms, from natural disasters and extreme weather conditions to rising energy costs and political tensions. To make things even more complicated, there’s a growing push to make trade more environmentally friendly.
When these disruptions happen, businesses can face some serious consequences, like lost sales, damage to their reputation, and even the risk of going bankrupt. Traditional financing solutions, such as bank loans, can be slow and restrictive, leaving businesses vulnerable to unexpected challenges.
That’s where supply chain finance comes in.
This innovative approach to financing allows businesses to access funding based on the value of their unpaid invoices. By leveraging the creditworthiness of their buyers, suppliers can receive early payment, enabling them to cover their expenses and invest in their growth. This, in turn, helps to improve the liquidity of the supply chain and reduce the risk of disruptions.
Despite the expectation that the supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will decrease, businesses continue their supply chain resilience and diversification efforts. To navigate the challenges that lie ahead, it is crucial for businesses to remain vigilant and adaptable. By embracing technology and innovation, companies can improve their supply chain visibility, optimize inventory management, and enhance their overall efficiency.
Supply chain finance (SCF), also known as reverse factoring, is a financial solution that has gained significant traction in recent years. This involves a company paying its suppliers through a third-party financial institution, which allows the suppliers to receive payment earlier than their agreed-upon payment terms. In this blog, we will explore the impact of supply chain finance on global trade.
Supply chain finance can provide access to finance for suppliers who may otherwise have difficulty obtaining financing due to factors such as a lack of credit history or collateral. This can help reduce financial exclusion and increase participation in global trade.
Supply chain finance can help businesses navigate the complexity of cross-border trade by providing access to financing and expertise. This can help businesses manage the regulatory and compliance requirements of different jurisdictions, and to build relationships with local suppliers and partners.
Supply chain finance can also help businesses improve their cash flow. By paying their suppliers through a third-party financial institution, companies can delay their own payments, freeing up cash that can be used for other purposes, such as investing in new products or expanding into new markets. This can be particularly beneficial for businesses that are looking to grow but may not have access to significant financial resources.
One of the key benefits of supply chain finance is that it can help businesses expand into new markets. By providing suppliers with early payment, companies can establish a more reliable and stable supply chain, which is critical for businesses looking to expand their operations. This can be particularly beneficial in markets where the supply chain is less established, as it can help businesses build relationships with new suppliers and ensure that they have the resources necessary to support their operations. In this way, supply chain finance contributes to global economic growth and development.
Supply chain finance requires collaboration between buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions, which can help build stronger relationships and trust between supply chain partners. This can lead to increased collaboration and innovation in global trade.
Supply chain finance programs not only help businesses manage cash flow and improve supplier relationships but also mitigate financial and supply chain risks. By leveraging third-party financial institutions, companies can transfer the risk of delayed payments and improve transparency in their supply chains, boosting efficiency and competitiveness in global trade. This has the potential to enable businesses to expand into new markets, enhance their supply chain resilience, and contribute to sustainable economic growth.
With the help of digital technology platforms, supply chain finance can act as a catalyst for the transition to green trade. By providing financing options that are tailored to the needs of the supply chain, businesses can more easily invest in sustainable practices such as renewable energy and waste reduction. This can support the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices and help build a more resilient and sustainable global trading system.
In conclusion, supply chain finance is transforming the way businesses operate, offering a flexible and innovative solution to the challenges of global trade. SCF enables businesses to enter new markets, establish relationships with local suppliers and partners, and manage the complexities of cross-border trade by providing access to financing and expertise. As a result, SCF contributes to global economic growth and development by creating jobs, fostering innovation, and improving the well-being of local communities.
As we look ahead to the future of global trade, it is clear that supply chain finance will continue to play an important role. Its ability to boost access to finance and reduce financial and supply chain risks makes it a strategy that businesses should consider when looking to expand their operations and build more stable and profitable supply chains.
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.
This article is a contribution from our partner, Embat
In today’s ‘digital’ world, the role of the CFO extends far beyond the financial management of the company, taking on increasingly strategic functions, where active analytical management of data allows the CFO to obtain information that serves to ‘feed back’ into the innovation process and, in this way, drive the sustainable growth of the organisation.
This is how finance is interrelated in a direct way with business, therefore, with the company’s strategy, where the CFO is in charge of driving growth inside the organisation, identifying opportunities, as well as anticipating the challenges that lie ahead.
The evolution of the role can not be explained without considering the technological advances, where a good use of the different existing solutions, combined with their knowledge of the business and its associated risks, incorporates a differential factor to their figure, which is still what distinguishes it from the other areas of the company.
We can say that technology remains their greatest ‘ally’, and even more so if we refer to data analytics management that allows them to identify trends, opportunities and business risks, that otherwise would be very difficult to detect.
The same applies to the possibility of recognising inefficient tasks or processes and thus achieving potential cost and time savings, which, by the way, goes beyond the scope of the financial area and reaches all areas of the organisation.
In this way, the ability to convert huge volumes of data into valuable insights for the organisation, it facilitates and allows better decision making and even more so when we it comes to strategic issues.
Thus, the adoption of new technologies, not only improves any type of forecasting, but also it optimises the work, positioning the organisations before a sustainable growth over time.
It is worth noting that for a true business transformation to take place, incorporating new technologies is a necessary but not sufficient condition, as what is important is that they are aligned with the company’s strategic objectives.
But we should not only consider the technological aspect, because one of the principal functions of the CFO, is still creating a cultural organisation that promotes innovation and creativity.
In this context, a treasury management platform allows the CFO to make decisions with a better understanding of the company’s real financial capacity. It is not just a matter of automating, but of having a solid base of information – structured, updated and accessible – to help them assess whether an initiative can be sustained over time, how it aligns with liquidity forecasts and what implications it has on the rest of the financial structure. Thus, cash management ceases to be an isolated exercise and becomes a natural part of the strategic decision-making process linked to innovation.
At the same time, its functions include managing the risk associated with each of the innovation projects to be carried out, enhancing their return, as well as mitigating the occurrence of possible losses.
This new reality implies for the CFO the incorporation of new knowledge, where it is no longer necessary to know ‘a lot of little’ (finance), but rather ‘a little of a lot’, which requires them to be aware of the latest technological trends, in order to be able to take advantage of those solutions that improve efficiency in the organisation, as well as decision-making.
Effectively combining innovation with strategic technology solutions has therefore become a key function of the CFO, where their expertise becomes relevant in the decisions to be taken in today’s rapidly changing business environment.
This is why it must be prepared to adjust plans quickly to changes as they occur, where the capacity of pivoting strategically in the face of a new ‘road map’ requires vision, precise information and the capacity to adopt new decisions without the loss of time.
In short, efficient data analytics management can drive innovation and thus improve the organisation’s strategic decision-making, enabling the CFO to ‘transform’ their function from a traditionally reactive perspective to a fully proactive one, focused on creating sustainable value over time.
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 Treasury4
Generative AI is drawing attention across finance, but its value in treasury depends on structure, not experimentation. This isn’t like cooking, where you can throw in extra seasoning or swap ingredients and still call it dinner. AI in treasury is more like baking. The outcome depends on the right ingredients, measured precisely, added in the right order, and processed under the right conditions. Get it wrong, and you don’t get insight—you get a sunken cake.
To get concrete results, AI needs structure. It needs clear labels, consistent definitions, and the full story behind every transaction. Without that foundation, even the smartest models start guessing, and instead of sharper insight, you’re stuck cleaning up a mess that was supposed to save you time.
Here are the three biggest reasons AI needs structure to deliver real results—and after that, you’ll get a practical, step-by-step manual for setting it up inside your own organization.
Treasury data comes with layers. Bank feeds, ERP entries, entity structures, signer roles, everything has context, and that context matters. AI tools can be powerful, but only when the data gives them something to work with.
This starts with structure. Transactions need to be labeled in a way that reflects how your team actually operates. Not just raw debits and credits, but business activity tied to purpose. A payroll run. A tax payment. A merchant refund. These mean something, and they impact the bigger picture.
When the data carries that definition, AI is far more reliable because forecasts are easier to explain, variances point to real issues, and day-to-day decisions get the support they deserve.
Your goal is to automate more, get better answers from the data you already have—and that starts with how it’s structured.
Categorization is what gives your data shape. It starts by mapping every transaction to its cash flow classification: operating, investing, or financing. That high-level structure lays the groundwork for everything else.
From there, you can apply more detail. Transactions might be tied to a specific business unit, legal entity, funding source, payment method, or geography. The more context you add, the more useful your data becomes. Instead of a flat list of debits and credits, you get a clear, structured view that AI can actually learn from.
This is how a model starts to recognize the difference between a payroll run and a one-off vendor refund. Both could hit the same account, but they behave differently, carry different risks, and tell different stories about your cash flow.
Accurate forecasting depends on how well the data reflects the reality of your cash movement. For AI to deliver meaningful results, it needs inputs that carry both financial logic and business context.
The most effective models rely on:
With this structure in place, AI can recognize timing shifts, surface seasonal trends, and predict short-term cash needs with clarity. Payment data from platforms like Stripe, for example, becomes a reliable input for forecasting settlement timing or tracking cash position changes across accounts and business units.
This kind of detail makes forecasts useful day to day, not just in monthly planning cycles.
AI won’t work without the right foundation. That starts with how your data is structured, connected, and maintained. Follow these steps to build a data environment that actually delivers insight when you add AI on top.
Objective: Clean, consistent, and complete records across systems.
Objective: Ensure your data moves automatically between key platforms.
Objective: Give your team real-time access to the data they need to make decisions.
Objective: Maintain a clean, consistent data environment over time.
Getting your data AI-ready might sound like a big lift, but it’s absolutely doable and it’s worth it. The more structure and clarity you build into your data now, the easier everything becomes later. Forecasts improve. Reports run faster and decisions get the support they deserve.
The steps we outlined are a starting point. Keep it simple. Start with one area, get it clean and connected, then move on to the next. And if you hit a snag or want to talk through how to apply this to your own setup, we’re here.
AI doesn’t have to be complicated. It just needs the right foundation, and you’ve got everything you need to start building it.
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.
In this webinar with FIS, treasury experts explore how teams can move beyond fragmented data and multiple dashboards to create trusted, connected information that supports better decision-making, exception-based management, and smarter use of AI.
In this 45-minute live fireside chat, Treasury Masterminds brings together two experienced UK treasury consultants to explore what successful treasury transformation looks like in practice, where organisations commonly go wrong, and how to decide where external expertise and technology can genuinely add value.
In this 45-minute live session, Treasury Masterminds and SisID explore how Verification of Payee works in real treasury environments, where it delivers the most value, and where stronger processes are still required. This is not a discussion about regulation alone. It’s a practical conversation about payment controls, fraud prevention, and the realities of implementing VoP within corporate treasury.
We are excited to sit down with Emma West, the driving force behind one of the world’s most influential finance events—EuroFinance.
Emma’s career spans prestigious names like the Financial Times and The The Economist Group, but her path to becoming a leader in the treasury and payments space is as fascinating as the events she curates.
Join us for a special episode of the Treasury Masterminds podcast featuring Meticulous Tendai Dube, a seasoned treasury professional who has led teams across Africa and the Middle East.
Join us for a fresh take on treasury with Pavlos Panagitsas, Junior Treasury Analyst at Avramar, ESG enthusiast, and founder of ESG news platform ESGenre.
