Adam Smith Awards

Open to any corporate treasury team that has made an outstanding contribution to its organisation over the past 12-18 months, this award recognises teams that have truly blazed a trail. Winning solutions could be the achievement of the treasury team alone – or they could be a broader team effort involving different disciplines, such as tax, legal, accounting, supply chain logistics and procurement. Crucially, this award will showcase your team’s achievements – whether you’ve completed a treasury transformation, integrated a new acquisition, delivered a suite of projects, navigated a crisis or moved the needle on diversity and inclusion. Treasury Today’s Top Treasury Team is our most coveted award – so whether your team comprises five people or more than 50, tell us what you have achieved.

This category recognises best in class solutions that address challenges relating to cash management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, liquidity or working capital. We’re interested in hearing about simple yet outstanding solutions that encompass a single country, currency and bank, as well as sophisticated multi-country, multi-currency solutions involving numerous banking partners. Winning solutions could range from cash visibility initiatives to virtual card programmes. Have you established a payment or collection factory, or a solution that supports an in-house bank or shared service centre? Have you harnessed APIs effectively, or adopted an innovative approach to cash flow forecasting? If so, this is the category for you.

This category covers both physical and notional cash pooling solutions, from single currency solutions to global, multi-currency arrangements. This is your chance to share how you’ve harnessed industry best practice or addressed a particular challenge in a creative or innovative way. Does your solution use a ‘follow the sun’ or ‘against the sun’ strategy across time zones? How are intercompany loans handled and how is interest reallocation addressed? Tell us what makes your cash pooling arrangement stand out.

This category includes any solution implemented, or in the process of being implemented, which addresses foreign exchange. The winning solution could be a single transaction carried out to fund an acquisition. Or it could be a suite of transactions, a complete change to your FX strategy or policy, a hedging programme, or a new FX requirement due to dealing with a new client or supplier. Have you entered new markets or managed currency volatility in an innovative way? If so, tell us about your achievements.

Many corporates are exploring alternative sources of funding when refinancing or diversifying their funding sources. Have you taken an innovative approach when reviewing your funding mix or financing an acquisition? Has your company accessed the debt capital markets, or issued commercial paper, medium term notes or bonds? Perhaps you have considered securitisation, crowd funding, peer-to-peer, the private placement market, or blue/green finance. From single transactions to overarching debt strategies, this category is open to all types of funding.

This category is open to any company that has embarked on a treasury-related solution in Europe, and/or the Middle East and/or Africa (EMEA). Solutions may encompass a single country or multiple countries across the region. Perhaps the jurisdiction(s) you cover are particularly challenging – so explain why and how you have addressed these challenges. Or perhaps you have established a regional treasury centre (RTC) to manage your EMEA operations and drive best practice across the region. Whatever the scope of your project, tell us how you’ve driven best practice and harnessed innovation in EMEA.

This category is open to any company that has implemented – or is currently implementing – a treasury-related solution in The Americas, including the Caribbean. Solutions may encompass a single country or multiple countries. Perhaps the jurisdiction(s) you cover are particularly challenging – so explain why and how you have addressed such challenges. Or perhaps you have established a regional treasury centre (RTC) to manage your operations in The Americas and drive best practice across the region. Whatever the scope of your project, tell us how you’ve driven best practice and harnessed innovation in The Americas.

Incorporating short, medium and long-term investment solutions, this category showcases how organisations have optimised and/or diversified their investment portfolios. How have you addressed the trade-off between yield, liquidity, cash preservation and counterparty risk? Have you explored alternative investment vehicles? How have you leveraged the current interest rate environment, and have you had to consider new regulations in the world of money market funds (MMFs)? Perhaps you have also considered ESG factors when investing. Tell us about your investment strategy and solution.

This category recognises the growing importance of initial public offerings (IPOs), and the role corporate treasury plays when the decision is made to go public. Preparation is key, so how did you engage regulators, credit agencies, exchanges, lawyers, research analysts, bankers and investors? Did you reach the valuation you targeted, and was the transaction oversubscribed? Did you conduct a roadshow? Which exchange(s) did you choose to list on and why? How have you addressed reporting, accounting and disclosure? How long did the IPO take from decision to listing and live trading? Tell us your story.

The arrival of real-time, 24/7 payment capabilities is one of the most transformative shifts for treasurers in decades. Recognising the growing importance of payments, in 2025 we introduced a new category to celebrate the treasury teams leading the way in innovating and transforming payments. This is your opportunity to tell us your payments story, whether you’ve navigated complex regulations, taken advantage of ISO 20022, mitigated payment fraud, or integrated game-changing technology like embedded payments or AI.

This category is for solutions relating to any aspect of risk management in the corporate treasury arena. Have you changed the way you manage insurance, foreign exchange risk, counterparty risk, commodity risk, interest rate risk, cyber risk or supply chain risk? Does currency volatility open your eyes to new risk management concerns and are you rethinking your hedging strategy? Are you monitoring risks such as sovereign risk, weather risk, employee risk or perhaps even reputational risk? Tell us about your innovative approach to risk management.

In recognition that companies don’t need to be Fortune/FTSE 100 companies or major multinationals to participate in the Adam Smith Awards, this is a new category for 2026. Any treasury solution implemented by an SME or MME qualifies here. Perhaps you have achieved a lot with a small team and/or a small budget – if so, tell us your story.

For the purposes of defining a SME/MME the following criteria will apply:

• ●  Small SME: under 50 employees, with an annual turnover of less than US$10m.

• ●  Medium-sized SME: under 250 employees, with an annual turnover of less than US$50m.

• ●  Mid-market enterprise (MME): 100 to 1,000 employees, with an annual turnover of US$50m – US$1bn.

This category includes trade and supply chain solutions of all kinds, from letters of credit and supply chain finance to paperless trade solutions. Have you embraced electronic documentation? Are you using blockchain to improve your process? Have you reviewed your supply chain in response to new trade tariffs, or taken steps to improve the sustainability of your supply chain? Have you taken an innovative approach to trade in an emerging market? If so, we want to hear your story.

Sustainability is a key issue for us all – so what has your treasury done to address environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues? Solutions could include sustainable funds, green/blue bonds, impact investing, active ownership and credits for sustainable projects. Finance related to climate change/CO2 emissions also qualifies in this category, as do investment strategies incorporating ESG factors. Perhaps you’ve introduced key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure ESG, or your approach to ESG/CSR has had a positive impact on your credit rating. Or maybe you’ve addressed sustainability in your supply chain strategy. Share your story with us.

This category recognises the efforts of companies that have embarked upon an ambitious transformation of their treasury functions. Perhaps your company needed to replace outdated technology with cutting-edge tools, integrate a newly acquired company, or transform the way things have been done for decades. Tell us what prompted you to embark on your transformation journey, how you determined your chosen end point, and how you’ve demonstrated best practice and innovation along the way.

To acknowledge the growing importance of AI, we have introduced a new category to capture any solution within the corporate treasury environment where AI is the key component. Is your organisation using AI to automate repetitive tasks, provide predictive insights and enable a more strategic function? Has AI improved your cash flow forecasting, enhanced risk management (including fraud detection) or freed up your team for higher-value tasks? Perhaps you’re using AI to improve automation and efficiency, enhance repetitive tasks or support informed decisions. Tell us your AI story.

This category has been part of the Adam Smith Awards for several years now. This year, our judges look to capture any treasury solutions where the use of innovative technology is central. Have you re-engineered your processes with digitisation as a key enabler, or transformed your treasury function by harnessing innovative technology? From big data and APIs to digital currencies and distributed ledger technologies, tell us how your company is using new technology in an innovative way. Winning solutions could have been developed in-house, or in collaboration with a fintech or bank. They could involve the innovative use of a treasury management system (TMS) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system – or they could showcase the targeted use of a simple technology solution or emerging digital solution(s). Tell us your story.

This category recognises talent coming through the corporate treasury ranks. Have you excelled in a professional qualification? Are you a future Regional/Group Treasurer, Finance Director or CFO? While this category may fit a junior person, later arrivals to the world of corporate treasury are also invited to enter. Nominate yourself or shine a light on someone you think fits this category.

Have you made a real difference to your organisation? We want to hear from corporate treasurers that have demonstrated real innovation, achievement and leadership, while acting as an inspiration to others in their organisations. Perhaps you’ve overcome real adversity, had a career-changing experience, or gone above and beyond to develop junior members of your team. Or perhaps you would like to nominate someone you know is a role model to other treasury professionals.

While this category is not open for nominations, this discretionary award is given to submissions worthy of particular attention, that demonstrate something extraordinary and unique in their implementation. It is not awarded every year.