“The findings suggest that treasury departments that master these interconnected challenges will enhance operational efficiency and deliver significant strategic value through improved decision-making capabilities and financial resilience in a dynamic global environment,” according to the report, which is based on monthly Datos Insights’ Corporate Treasury Council discussions with representatives from large and mid-size corporations in the US and Europe.

Cash is still king for most corporates, taking priority over yield, according to Enrico Camerinelli, Strategic Advisor at Datos Insights and author of the report.

“As one treasurer said, ‘I’m not going to get fired if I don’t make extra basis points, but I can risk my career if I don’t have the cash needed for my company’,” says Camerinelli. “As such, the main concerns are security, convenience, liquidity and then yield.”

He believes the treasurer is becoming more like the wealth manager of their company. “At the end of the day, they need to have real-time cash visibility and make the best use of the money that the company puts under their responsibility,” he adds.

Working with IT

Treasurers are evolving into sophisticated strategic partners within their organisations, particularly with IT. “As the treasurer becomes more strategic, they need to take more responsibility for the IT investments they ask for,” Camerinelli says. “If there is a technology solution to consider, treasurers will have to convince the IT department that it won’t require a lot of resources to implement. As such, treasurers are increasingly becoming technology experts.”

Most treasurers at mid-sized to large corporates aren’t looking to implement a full treasury management system (TMS), which may be costly and over-engineered in terms of functionality. While some treasuries may consider a treasury module from enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs), such as SAP or Oracle, the piece often missing is the banking integration layer.

“Treasurers are looking for a way to integrate with the multiple banking systems, as open banking, especially in Europe, is becoming the norm,” he says. “Through open banking application programming interfaces (APIs), it’s possible to have access to all the banking positions of the specific corporate user.”

Treasury-as-a-service solutions are becoming more popular, which presents an opportunity for financial institutions, says Camerinelli. “If a bank provided treasury functions embedded in an ‘as-a-service’ fashion, treasurers could use the applications and features that matter to them, without having the risk of getting something which is over-engineered and spending more than what they need,” he explains.

An embedded solution has the added benefit that it overcomes IT resource constraints, as it’s relatively simple to integrate a bank’s API into the company’s ERP system, according to Camerinelli.

AI deployment

Deploying AI and generative AI (GenAI), which promises unprecedented analytical capabilities, also requires much cross-functional collaboration. As the report states: “AI in treasury requires navigating regulations, privacy concerns and organisational readiness, while balancing innovation with compliance requirements.”

However, to receive the attention AI deployment needs from IT will take a strong business case based on specific use cases, such as cash flow forecasting, cross-border payments and currency conversion.

“IT will be asking how easy is it to implement it? How long would it take and how much would it cost? Because they know that if it takes a long time to integrate and manually set up connections, the cost will be too prohibitive even if the business case is there,” says Camerinelli.

Resiliency under pressure

Technology is also helping treasurers develop resilient funding models, as it removes many manual processes to free up time for treasurers to act more like asset managers or have deeper discussions with banks about capital markets strategies.

“Treasurers are saving time on the transactional side to increase their knowledge and be more effective in allocating assets to improve the results of the company,” according to Camerinelli. “It’s all about ensuring that the money is on hand when needed, as well as making the best use of excess cash.”

For financial institutions, the report offers actionable insights to help treasury executives navigate this complex landscape. Its suggestions include:

• Develop sophisticated liquidity stress-testing tools and advisory services to help treasurers recalibrate cash buffers.

• Provide treasurers with customisable hedging strategies that adapt to market conditions and specific exposure profiles.

• Invest in API-first treasury service platforms that enable modular integration with client systems.

• Structure banking relationship models that encourage innovation and calculated risk-taking within appropriate control frameworks.