Why your business needs an in-house Bank today
This article is written by Nomentia If you’re managing 200+ bank accounts across 12 countries with a spreadsheet and goodwill, you’re not alone. But you are doing it wrong. You’re losing control. And you know it. Every late close, every FX surprise, every “where’s the cash?” email from your CFO is a symptom of a system that’s outgrown itself. Treasury teams are burning hours reconciling internal transfers, chasing balances, and paying transaction fees to banks just to move money between their own entities. Pretending it’s normal. Pretend that treasury has to be complex. That intercompany flows must be messy. That setting up banking for a new subsidiary must take months. It doesn’t. It shouldn’t. You wouldn’t run finance without a general ledger. Why are you still running treasury without an internal bank? Meet Janne Tuunanen With over a decade of experience at Nomentia, Janne Tuunanen has worked closely with companies across industries to solve complex treasury challenges. He shares his insights on what it takes to build a solid business case for implementing an in-house bank. What is an in-house bank, really? The in-house bank is the fix most companies know about but haven’t acted on. Why? Because it sounds big, and no one has time for big. But not doing it is already costing you in speed, visibility, and money. Instead of relying on dozens of external banks and manual processes, an in-house bank lets you control the movement of money across your group. With an IHB, you can: The result? Fewer accounts, fewer fees, cleaner intercompany flows, and real-time visibility into global cash. The best part? It’s measurable, and it’s next. The treasurer’s wake-up call Meet Johan, a treasurer who thought he had things under control. Johan manages treasury for a €500 million turnover manufacturing group with operations in eight countries. On paper, things look fine. Cash is flowing. Payrolls are met. No one is panicking. But underneath, things look a little different. The company has 250 external bank accounts spread across 14 banks. Every month, Johan’s team spends two weeks consolidating balances. The month-end close takes three days, and that’s on a good month. Intercompany loans are tracked in spreadsheets. No one has a clear view of the group’s cash position until it’s too late. Then the audit lands. The FX report shows €60,000 in preventable losses over the past year. All due to poor internal netting and suboptimal currency rates. It’s not a surprise. Johan knew they were exposed. But now the CFO knows too. That same week, a new acquisition in Spain stalls because treasury can’t open local accounts fast enough. Local teams are wiring money manually. Risk is spiking, and Johan’s phone won’t stop ringing. He finally sits down and maps it out. Too many accounts. Too many banks. Too many internal transfers that cost real money. He adds up the fees, the staff hours, the hidden losses. It’s not sustainable. Things need to change. Building the business case: A clear ROI It’s easy to assume an in-house bank is only worth the trouble for the big players. That’s exactly what Johan thought, too, until he did the math. Johan started mapping the chaos onto a spreadsheet: bank accounts, transaction volumes, fees, staff hours, and FX losses. What begins as a gut feeling turns into a clear financial case. And the numbers speak for themselves: Category Before IHB After IHB Savings / Gains External bank accounts 250 90 160 fewer accounts Monthly costs per account €5 €5 Annual costs €15,000 €5,400 €9,600 Weekly transactions 6,000 6,000 Internal transactions processed via banks Yes No €60,000 saved Transaction costs per item €0.20 €0.20 – Treasury headcount needs Increasing – FTE for admin €30,000 saved FX handled via banks Yes Internal pricing €30,000 saved Hedging effectiveness Fragmented Centralized €30,000 Year-one costs (setup + solution) €70,000 Total one-year savings €159,600 Net year-one gain €89,600 Monthly net gain ~€13,000 Beyond ROI: Strategic impact of In-house bank Twelve months after implementing the in-house bank, Johan’s treasury looks nothing like it did before. Month-end close, once a painful three-day scramble, now takes less than a day. The team no longer chases balances or reconciles intercompany positions. Instead, it’s all visible in real time. What used to be manual, fragmented, and reactive is now automated, centralized, and calm. When the company acquired a new subsidiary in Poland, treasury had banking in place within hours. No waiting for local accounts. No compliance bottlenecks. Payments were live on day one. The internal FX desk, once an operational headache, now runs like a miniature profit center offering better-than-bank rates to group entities and locking in spreads the company used to pay to third parties. But the biggest change? Strategic speed. With cash visibility across entities, better hedging tools, and a unified payments layer, the business can now move quickly, no matter whether it’s a new market, a major deal, or a shift in capital structure. The in-house bank didn’t just bring savings but changed how fast the company can think and act. If you’re considering it, you probably need it Most companies don’t realize how inefficient their treasury operations are until the costs become visible. If you’re even thinking about an in-house bank, it’s worth asking yourself a few direct questions: These aren’t just operational questions. They point to whether your finance function is built to support scale, speed, and strategic decision-making. If your answers make you uncomfortable, you’re already overdue for an in-house bank. Why you’re (probably) ready for an in-house bank Treasury complexity doesn’t scale well, and most companies are already feeling it. Too many accounts. Too many fees. Too much time spent on things that should be automatic. If your finance team is still chasing balances, reconciling internal transactions manually, or waiting weeks to set up banking for a new entity, you’re not behind. You’re exposed. An in-house bank isn’t a luxury. It’s infrastructure. It gives you the tools…
Franklin
Familiar Treasury Stories – One Missed Payment, One Bad Rate, One Expensive Lesson
This article is written by Palm In a multinational environment, treasury teams often operate across dozens of entities, selling in multiple currencies, sourcing materials globally, and managing constant flows between accounts. The role is simple on paper: ensure the organisation always has the right amount of the right currency, in the right account, at the right time, without paying more than necessary. In practice? Exchange rates shift unpredictably, large payments can surface in forecasts at the last minute, and reconciling ERP data with bank statements can take hours. The challenge is to build an FX strategy that reduces risk, speeds up forecasting, and builds trust in every decision. Why FX Is More Than Just the Rate FX touches nearly every aspect of treasury work: Two main priorities drive the strategy: Without timely, transparent forecasts, both are harder to achieve. The “Wait and See” Trap For many treasury teams, the default FX approach is simple: wait until a payment is due, then make the trade. On the surface, it feels safe, no early conversions, no unnecessary exposure. But in volatile markets, that “safe” approach can be the most dangerous. Picture this: it’s Thursday afternoon, and the team is preparing to fund a large supplier payment. The forecast shows the payment comfortably covered. But overnight, the currency shifts sharply. By Friday morning, the cost to make that same payment has jumped by six figures. The problem wasn’t just the market move, it was that the team didn’t see it coming. With ERP data extractions taking hours and reconciliations lagging behind, the forecast was always one step too slow. The result? Missed opportunities to lock in favourable rates and a costly reminder that timing in FX is everything. The Overtrading Problem At the other end of the spectrum lies the overtrading trap. Determined to avoid nasty surprises, some teams adopt a “trade early and trade often” philosophy. On paper, it keeps liquidity in the right currency and reduces last-minute scrambles. In practice, it can quietly drain value from the business. Frequent conversions rack up bank fees, increase operational workload, and add complexity to cash positioning. Without a quick, reliable way to compare trading scenario, like the difference between weekly and monthly trades, teams are left making decisions in the dark. It’s a little like checking the weather every hour and changing your outfit each time, you’re busy, but you’re not necessarily better prepared. The Hedging Dilemma Hedging is supposed to be the safety net, a way to protect against unfavourable moves and bring predictability to planning. But a hedge is only as effective as the forecast it’s based on. Without early visibility into large, unbooked payments or the flexibility to adjust forecasts for sudden, high-impact events like tax payments or unexpected supplier requests, hedges can miss their mark. Instead of locking in savings, the team can end up over-hedged, under-hedged, or committed to rates that no longer make sense. It’s not that hedging doesn’t work, it’s that hedging without foresight is like buying insurance for the wrong house. You’re paying for protection, but it’s not where you need it most. From Reaction to Precision A shift from reactive processes to precision forecasting means: → Faster reconciliation through bank statement ingestion and quick ERP syncs.→ Early payment detection for large, unbooked transactions.→ Transparency via clear breakdowns of data sources and explainable machine learning assumptions.→ Variance analysis to explain deviations and build trust.→ Better visibility with improved forecast visualisations and embeddable dashboards.→ Proactive alerts for overdrafts, threshold breaches, and currency surpluses.→ Reduced manual burden with batch uploads (coming) and quick manual one-offs. The Impact of Forward-Looking FX Within months, teams adopting this approach have seen: Markets will always move. But with a forecasting process that’s fast, transparent, and trusted, treasury teams can act at the right time, in the right way, consistently. Also Read Join our Treasury Community 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. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.