Treasury Trends for 2026: Building Smarter, Faster and More Resilient Treasury Functions
Written by Patrick KunzFounder/Board member, Treasury Masterminds When considering the treasury trends of 2026, the Treasury has never been more visible than it is heading into 2026. Markets remain unpredictable, supply chains twitch at the slightest disturbance, regulation swells like a badly managed ERP project, and CFOs want clarity in places where clarity is… optimistic. Treasury isn’t simply managing cash anymore. It’s shaping how organisations stay resilient, react quickly and plan confidently. The coming year will bring a set of trends that will define how modern treasuries operate and what constitutes “good” practice. 1. Liquidity Becomes a Strategic Infrastructure Layer The old idea that liquidity structures exist purely to “sweep surplus cash” is gone. In 2026, liquidity architecture becomes core financial infrastructure. Companies are redesigning their setup to deliver: Treasurers who treat liquidity as a design discipline rather than an administrative task will outpace competitors, especially in multi-market environments. 2. Treasury Trends of 2026: Forecasting Finally Grows Up Treasury forecasting has often been a mix of spreadsheets, instinct, and quiet despair. Not anymore.Volatility makes precision non-negotiable, and 2026 pushes organisations toward: The treasurer’s role evolves from “reporting variance” to “guiding business decisions.” 3. Technology Goes Modular Treasury systems are moving from monolithic giants to ecosystem architectures.Instead of ripping out and replacing entire landscapes, companies are layering: This modular approach reduces implementation pain, speeds up deployment and finally gives treasurers what they’ve been asking for: flexibility. 4. Treasury Trends of 2026: AI Moves Out of the Experiment Phase If 2024–25 were about pilots, 2026 is about production.AI becomes part of day-to-day treasury operations with use cases like: It’s less about replacing treasurers and more about reducing the work nobody wants to do, so teams can focus on strategy instead of digital housekeeping. 5. Banking Relationships Shrink and Intensify Treasuries are trimming their banking panels to improve pricing, streamline KYC, and reduce operational drag. At the same time, relationships with core partners are becoming deeper and more data-driven. However, regulatory realities mean that even with fewer banks, complexity doesn’t magically disappear. Treasurers will need sharper governance frameworks and better documentation to avoid falling behind. 6. The Talent Gap Becomes Impossible to Ignore Demand for treasury expertise keeps rising faster than supply.Technology accelerates. Regulation expands. Teams stay small. 2026 forces companies to rethink how they resource treasury: Treasury is becoming a hybrid model: lean internal teams supported by specialised external capability. 7. Treasury Steps Fully Into Its Strategic Role This is the big shift. Treasury’s voice is now required early, not as an afterthought.Whether it’s FX strategy, pricing, supplier terms, investment decisions or scenario planning, treasury is being asked to influence—not just execute. Companies that elevate treasury as a strategic advisor will navigate volatility far better than those who treat it as a reporting function. Treasury Trends of 2026: The Year Treasury Builds What’s Next The strongest treasuries next year won’t be the ones with the biggest tech stack or the most complex policies. They’ll be the ones that master simplicity, integration and clarity. A Note from Treasury Masterminds Treasury is changing quickly, but the best insights rarely come from vendor brochures or generic trend reports. They come from real treasurers sharing what works, what breaks, and what they’d do differently next time. That’s exactly what we’re building at Treasury Masterminds: a place to share practical knowledge, lessons learned, and real-world treasury stories. If there’s a topic you’d like us to cover in 2026, or if you have an article idea you want to contribute (solo or co-written), send it our way. The best content is the content that treasury people actually recognise as true. Also Read Join our Treasury Community Treasury Mastermind 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 to get more information. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
Franklin
How to build a business case for a payment hub?
This article is written by Nomentia Every morning, global treasury teams brace for impact. Payments are scattered across dozens of banks, each with its own portal, passwords, and approval process. One region still faxes payment instructions. Another logs in manually to multiple platforms just to confirm cash positions. No central visibility and no control. Just chaos. The ERP systems. Disconnected. Verifying balances? A manual marathon. The team logs into bank portals one by one, piecing together cash positions across hundreds of accounts. One number is always out of sync. Is it an error? A missing transaction? A delayed payment? Who knows. Meanwhile, costs keep climbing. Bank fees for every account. IT support for every new bank connection. A payment approval takes hours instead of minutes. A simple reconciliation? Days. Then, the near disaster. A single fraudulent payment—disguised among thousands—almost slipped through. Millions nearly lost. A last-minute catch saved the company. This time. The CFO asks: How did this happen? The real question is: Why did it not happened sooner? So, how could you manage this better as a treasury or finance team? Advice from an expert: Daniel Neubauer With over 3 years as a Senior Solution Manager at Nomentia, Daniel Neubauer is a highly experienced professional in the field of financial process automation. His expertise spans multiple areas, including accounts payable (AP), cash management, payments, collections, and document management processes. Daniel’s extensive background in automating and optimizing financial operations makes him an authority on the integration of automated systems in reconciliation. The overwhelmed Treasurer Lena used to love her job. She became a treasurer because she liked solving problems and making things run smoothly. But now, she spends her days fighting fires, as payments keep growing: more countries, more currencies, more urgency. But her team? Same size. Same tools. The bank fees pile up. Every new account means another charge. Another set of approvals. Another login to be sorted out. Regulations tighten and KYC rules demand endless paperwork. A rejected payment because of sanctions in one country triggers a compliance review in another. She’s expected to keep up, but without the systems to do it. Worst of all? She has no real control. The company’s payment landscape is a patchwork of different banks, portals, and regional processes. By the time she sees a problem, it’s already too late. She’s raised the alarm more than once. The risks are clear. The costs are rising. But leadership isn’t listening. Because as long as payments go through, who cares how the job gets done? How to improve your payments set-up? No one questions a system that seems to work. As long as vendors get paid and cash is in the bank, leadership moves on to bigger things. But behind the scenes, Treasury and Accounts Payables are juggling a number of systems built over years and long ago. Acquisitions brought new banks, new accounts, new systems—never fully integrated. Regional teams found their own ways to handle payments. Now, no two processes look the same. It’s inefficient. It’s expensive. It’s a risk. One missed sanction check, and a critical payment is lost for good. A forgotten account in an acquired bank becomes an open door for fraud. A failed payment delays a critical shipment. When something finally breaks, it won’t be small. Treasurers see the cracks before anyone else. But until disaster strikes, no one listens. The misstep: Treasurers selling themselves short Some treasurers see the problem but hesitate to push for change. As this will add to the workload. So, they stay in the weeds. Approving payments. Chasing down errors. Logging into bank portals like it’s still 2009. A great year, but some time ago already. But treasury isn’t about pushing buttons. It’s about managing risk. It’s about optimizing cash. It’s about driving efficiency. A treasurer who fights for a smarter, more controlled payment process is ensuring they can spend their time on more value-adding tasks. They’re proving just how valuable they really are. How to win over the CFO with a rock-solid business case? Step 1: Speak numbers & ROI Decisions at the top come down to costs, risks, and returns, so translating impact into numbers. Want buy-in? Show the math. Estimate savings, calculate ROI, and prove that a payment hub pays for itself. Step 2: Put a spotlight on compliance and risk reduction Regulators don’t care if the treasury is overwhelmed. A missed sanction check that causes payment to be frozen or a fraudulent transaction can cost millions. A payment hub: CFOs don’t like surprises. A payment hub makes sure treasury or accounts payable isn’t the next one. Gaining control: The treasurer’s new reality Lena used to spend her days fighting fires. Too many payments, too many banks, too little control. She saw the risks, the waste, the inefficiencies—but no one listened. Because as long as payments went through, who cared how messy the process was? Now? They listen. But Lena’s job isn’t done. It’s different. Instead of chasing payments, she’s using real-time data to make better funding and liquidity decisions. She’s managing risk proactively and protecting the company from fraud and operational blind spots. She’s driving strategy and helping leadership decide which banks to work with, where to centralize payments, and how to reduce costs without increasing risk. She didn’t automate herself out of a job. She automated the noise so she could finally do the work that matters. The real question is: Are you ready for the work that comes after the approval? Winning the CFO’s buy-in was the first step. Implementing the payment hub was the second. But real transformation doesn’t stop at go-live. Lena’s team isn’t just processing payments faster. They’ve redefined how treasury operates. The biggest shift? Treasury is no longer stuck in execution mode. They’re leading. So, ask yourself: Are you ready to stop fighting fires and start building something better? More Posts from Nomentia Join our Treasury Community Treasury Mastermind is a community of professionals working in treasury management or those interested in learning more about various topics…