Treasury leaders are waking up to a new reality: the pace of money has changed.
Cash no longer moves on a predictable 9-to-5 schedule and waiting even a few hours for visibility can mean missed investment opportunities, strained supplier relationships, or unexpected liquidity shortfalls. Add to that today’s volatile interest rate environment, rising geopolitical tensions, and supply chain shocks, and the need for real-time treasury becomes mission critical.
As J.P. Morgan wrote in a recent article, How Real-Time Treasury Drives Corporate Loyalty, treasurers now see real-time liquidity management as a “must-have” to navigate uncertainty and unlock growth. The question is how fast organizations will make the leap to real-time tools.
Why Real-Time Treasury Is Now Essential
In the past, treasury teams could afford to rely on batch reports, static forecasts, and manual reconciliations. But in 2025, delays equal risk. PwC’s 2025 Global Treasury Survey confirms that leading organizations are actively investing in real-time treasury capabilities to strengthen resilience and optimize working capital. Key drivers fueling the move to real-time treasury include:
- Global payment modernization. Instant payment schemes are being rolled out across the globe, from FedNow in the United States to SEPA Instant in Europe. Treasurers who fail to adapt risk longer settlement times compared to competitors, potentially damaging supplier relationships. By embedding instant payment rails, organizations can not only settle faster but also unlock new business models that depend on immediate liquidity.
- APIs replacing files. Traditional batch files can take hours, or even days, to update treasury systems with bank data. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) remove that lag, feeding treasurers up-to-the-second balances and transaction details. This speed ensures companies can make funding decisions in the moment rather than at the end of the day, and it dramatically reduces manual errors that expose the company to fraud and compliance issues.
- AI-powered forecasting. Predictive analytics have transformed forecasting from a backward-looking exercise into a proactive strategy tool. By analyzing thousands of data points, from seasonal cash flows to macroeconomic indicators, artificial intelligence (AI) forecasting tools can predict future cash surpluses or shortfalls with greater accuracy. Treasury and finance leaders gain time to respond with strategic moves like short-term investments or rebalancing debt portfolios, rather than reacting after the fact.
APIs: The Backbone of Real-Time Treasury
Nomentia calls APIs the backbone of modern treasury because they remove the blind spots caused by delayed or incomplete data. Instead of logging into multiple banking portals or waiting for file uploads, treasurers can access consolidated, real-time data across banks and regions.
Benefits of API treasury connectivity include:
- Immediate cash visibility. Treasurers no longer must guess their true cash position. APIs deliver real-time balances from every bank account, every region, in one place. This helps prevent unnecessary borrowing and ensures idle cash can be invested at the right moment.
- Automated workflows. APIs connect systems seamlessly, enabling straight-through processing of payments, reconciliations, and reporting. With repetitive tasks eliminated, treasury staff can redirect time toward value-added analysis and strategic initiatives.
- Improved data quality. Real-time API connections reduce reconciliation discrepancies and eliminate manual rekeying errors. That confidence in the data leads to better decisions, stronger internal reporting, and improved alignment with CFOs and boards.
Instant Payments: Speed and Control
Fyorin emphasizes that instant payments are more than a consumer convenience – they are a corporate treasury game changer. Instant payments empower organizations to accelerate working capital cycles, improve supplier trust, and support just-in-time liquidity management.
Treasurers using instant payments benefit from:
- Stronger supplier relationships, thanks to on-demand settlements. Suppliers who are paid instantly are more likely to prioritize your business, offer favorable terms, or provide better service. This advantage can be critical in industries facing tight supply chains.
- Reduced reliance on costly short-term credit, as liquidity is optimized in real-time. By accelerating inbound and outbound flows, treasurers can close funding gaps without tapping expensive credit lines, freeing up capital for more productive uses.
- Enhanced fraud detection controls, with enriched data traveling with payments. Instant payment schemes often include more structured data fields, giving treasurers greater insights. This makes anomalies easier to flag, improving compliance and risk management.
AI-Driven Forecasting: From Rear-View to Predictive
AI-driven forecasting is redefining treasury management by turning hindsight into foresight. Instead of building forecasts in spreadsheets based on historical averages, treasury teams now leverage machine learning models that improve with every data cycle. Benefits of AI forecasting include:
- Anticipating cash shortfalls before they occur. AI models can detect subtle shifts in accounts receivables or accounts payables patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. Treasurers gain valuable lead time to arrange financing or renegotiate supplier terms.
- Optimizing investment of idle balances. AI not only predicts when and where cash is needed but also recommends how to deploy excess liquidity. This ensures surplus cash consistently works harder through short-term investments or deposits.
- Protecting against market shocks. AI forecasting tools can simulate the impact of rate hikes, geopolitical events, or commodity price swings. Treasurers can prepare contingency plans, turning uncertainty into an opportunity for stronger risk management.
How Treasurers Are Putting It All Together
Real-time treasury isn’t just about adding new technology here or there. It’s about transforming the entire operating model. The most progressive treasury teams are weaving APIs, instant payments, and AI forecasting into a cohesive strategy that centralizes control, streamlines operations, and strengthens global oversight. By combining modern technologies with proven treasury infrastructure, these teams are redefining what it means to manage liquidity effectively.
Tools and strategies treasurers are deploying include:
- Payment factories. By routing payments through a single hub, treasury and finance leaders achieve stronger compliance, improved standardization, and better economies of scale. This reduces banking costs while tightening controls across the enterprise.
- Virtual accounts. Virtual accounts allow treasury and finance leaders to create sub-accounts for specific regions, business units, or functions without opening new bank accounts. This improves transparency, simplifies cash pooling, and accelerates month-end closing.
- Predictive analytics dashboards. Dashboards powered by APIs and AI give treasury and finance leaders early warning of risks, such as sudden FX exposures or unexpected cash drains, and uncover opportunities to reinvest idle balances or renegotiate terms.
The Bottom Line
Real-time treasury is a strategic imperative. APIs deliver the connectivity, instant payments provide the speed, and AI forecasting offers the intelligence that treasurers need to thrive in an unpredictable economy. Treasurers who embrace this trifecta are positioning themselves as leaders who safeguard liquidity and drive growth, resilience, and competitive advantage for their organization.
