A roadmap of innovation and resilience to shape tomorrow’s treasury

Navigating change through innovation and resilience

Corporates worldwide continue to grapple with complexity and uncertainty stemming from today’s dynamic macro landscape, geopolitical shifts, unpredictable tariffs, fluctuating interest rate regimes and a generally hard-to-predict future. The impact on treasurers is far-reaching, such as limited access to capital, volatility in FX and earnings and uncertain outlook.

Finding answers is easier said than done. The challenges and risks treasuries face weigh heavily on how they can effectively manage their core responsibilities – cash flow maintenance across multiple currencies: FX hedging, forecasting, investment decisions, strategic planning and month-end closing.

The solution lies in innovation and resilience, which are key to achieving goals, and managing both financial and non-financial risks across cross-border payments, transactional FX, working capital optimisation as well as a digital-driven treasury future.

For many, embracing technology is the way forward. More specifically, Winnie Chen, head of Global Payments Solutions in APAC for Bank of America (BofA), suggests artificial intelligence (AI)-driven forecasting to gain full visibility of cashflows, as well as adoption of innovative payments and FX solutions to enhance working capital efficiency are crucial.

Bringing innovation to cross-border corporate payments: making real-time a reality

The crux of the solution is pioneering a change. And payments is an important part of this. Treasurers are seeking ways to enhance the efficiency and speed of cross-border payments, building on the 70-plus countries where instant payments are already a norm domestically.

“Cross-border payment volumes are growing, and customers expect their cross-border payments to mirror domestic experiences,” says Avalon Ingram, head of payments for Swift in APAC. “As a natural next step on our instant and frictionless payment journey, there’s a need to uplift the end-customer experience.”

This isn’t a new goal. For the past five years, the G20's objectives have been to make cross-border payments cheaper, faster, more transparent and more accessible, by focusing on improving payment infrastructure interoperability, creating efficient legal and regulatory frameworks, and enhancing data exchange.

Yet, momentum started growing only now. At a global level, objectives such as Project Nexus, spearheaded by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), involves linking various instant payment system networks together to foster an inclusive payment infrastructure and prevent fragmentation with the help of collaboration.

Project mBridge is another example of collaboration, again involving BIS, along with several central banks – including those in Hong Kong, Thailand, China, the UAE and Saudi Arabia – to link different central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as a way to solve pain points in cross-border payments.

Ultimately, Swift is focused on understanding how to reduce friction during the end-to-end transaction process, with a special focus on the last mile. This comes down to speed and traceability.

“We aim to improve speed by reducing friction within the transaction journey,” adds Ingram. “An efficient exception-handling process and the use of the correct data and validation will allow a smooth payment experience.”

Meanwhile, enabling better traceability through core Swift services can be achieved by allowing cross-border payments to be sent faster with visibility along the chain. “Tracking capabilities enhance the end customer experience,” she says.

There are also alternative rails and technologies. For example, the mid-2025 signing of the GENIUS Act has created a framework for the issuance and oversight of stablecoins.

Further, adds Sid Gupta, Global Payments Solutions APAC head of FIG, at BofA, non-traditional rails are also being assessed for scalability and risks. “Partnerships between schemes, banks and non-banks will deliver frictionless payments over time,” he explains.

In short, interoperability is vital to break down fragmented silos and focus on the client value-add. In particular, says Daniel Stanton, treasury product executive, Global Payments Solutions at BofA, leveraging integration opportunities with fintechs and non-bank players yields the ability to innovate and drive scale. “New and interesting use cases can be unlocked through the development of instant payments.”

Advancing treasury with emerging technologies

Capitalising on new tools and technology is fuelling transformation of APAC treasuries. They are incorporating automation and real-time analytics to enhance cash resilience, innovative liquidity management and mitigate trade risk.

According to Kuai Yee Loh, head of the HP treasury center in APJ & EMEA, this is also a key to develop the kind of real, measurable and accurate systems and digital solutions to manage unexpected events, strategically plan for business-critical expansions and support business teams.

“With an understanding of what technology is available, and what it can and cannot do, treasury teams will be empowered orchestrators,” she adds.

Bank of America’s CashPro platform is a case in point. It leverages AI-driven analytics, automation and application programming interfaces (APIs) to enhance cash resilience, predict liquidity gaps and integrate real-time data.

“This unified view of global liquidity supports FX hedging, automates compliance and optimises working capital across diverse regulations,” explains Olivier Anceau, BofA’s, Global Payments Solutions APAC head of specialised product sales.

It’s an example of how the bank partners with its clients to deliver tailored solutions that transform complexity into opportunity through seamless liquidity management.

Supply chain finance (SCF) solutions are also playing an increasingly important role for treasurers. With disruptions to trade flows now a commonplace, and geopolitical tension not expected to ease any time soon, pricing volatility and business costs continue to spike.

In response, smart contracts, API connectivity and light onboarding offer flexible financing and rapid deployment in order to strengthen supply chains.

“Digitising documents – especially transport and negotiable instruments – drives trade transformation, supported by fintech collaboration,” says George Fong, Global Payments Solutions APAC head of trade and SCF, at BofA. “Embedded finance integrates seamlessly with clients’ ERP systems to enable easier adoption.”

Managing risks while staying resilient

Among other risks, treasurers face a rapid rise in cyber and fraud risks, especially account takeovers and credential harvesting. These are driven by geopolitical factors and emerging technologies, including AI and soon quantum computing.

Reflecting the pace at which protection is needed, CashPro released five fraud prevention updates between July and September 2025, given the need to combat emerging account takeover fraud trends. Having the resources and systems to keep up and tackle these threats is beyond most treasuries.

According to Phil Carmalt, Global Payments Solutions APAC head of treasury product at BofA, resilience can be added by enhancing payment approvals profiles, enabling real-time alerts and enforcing multi-factor authentication across users.

This is where corporates need to find the right balance between core treasury priorities and cyber resiliency. In particular, four strategies can help treasurers focus on high-impact actions that deliver robust security with manageable effort. Put simply, it is about adopting the 80/20 principle.

• Leverage trusted financial institutions – Leverage partners who proactively monitor fraud trends and implement protective measures.
   
• Identify and eliminate vulnerabilities – Use a maker-checker process to increase oversight and reduce risk.
   
• Guard the front door – Implement strong authentication (2FA), QR code sign-ins and biometric access. Regularly review user access.
   
• Implement proactive alerts – Monitor unusual activity in accounts and user behavior to trace fraud quickly.

More broadly, treasurers can also build additional lines of defense by training staff on what to look out for with deepfakes. Glitches in videos or unusual pauses, for instance, should be enough of a red flag to raise questions that lead individuals to stop and think, before validating the request via another channel.

Making cybercrime even more difficult to tackle is the double-edged sword of advancements in AI and new payments rails. Yet feedback from BofA’s CashPro boards worldwide drives innovation to counter this. As a result, the bank’s AI-powered fraud alerts and CashPro Security Insights help clients identify and reduce vulnerabilities.

“Our technology investments are client-driven in multiple contexts reflecting a long-standing strategy to enhance client experiences through innovation,” says Greg Kavanaugh, global head of product, Global Payments Solutions at BofA. “Our roadmap includes global account validation and other tools designed to stay ahead of evolving threats,” he adds.

Moving forward

Treasurers can navigate change by blending innovation (AI, real-time payments and SCF) with resilience (cybersecurity, partnerships). Start small: pilot one technology in a single market. Partner with banks and fintechs to scale solutions and achieve measurable outcomes. As HP’s Loh notes: “Treasurers who embrace technology as orchestrators will turn complexity into opportunity.”

Stay tuned - Videos interviews with finance & treasury leaders on key treasury trends will be added soon. 

• Video 1: Volatility in the macro landscape is reshaping APAC’s treasury and financial teams
• Video 2: Driving innovation in real-time cross-border corporate payments
• Video 3: Transforming treasury operation with emerging technologies 
• Video 4: APAC treasuries staying resilient amid accelerating digital disruptions & growing cyber threats