Summary and comments on the 2025 Global Treasury Survey of PwC - What should we take away from this informative survey?

The PwC global survey is always interesting to discover, as it gives the “LA” on the evolution of treasury and the issues and challenges ahead. That's why I wanted to come back to these results. For more details, I prefer to refer you to the PwC website. However, I would like to summarize and comment on them. (source: PwC global treasury survey 2025 – www.pwc.com)

Strategic Evolution of Treasury

Treasury's role is rapidly expanding from a traditional, transactional function to a highly strategic, data-driven, and innovative partner within organizations. Key drivers behind this transformation include economic volatility, interest rate and inflation uncertainty, regulatory changes, and renewed global trade tensions. Leading treasury teams now focus on being both the guardians of assets and delivering actionable business insights that generate sustainable financial value. I keep thinking the Treasurers remains also the Chief Financial Risk Officers, and with new technologies they can play a higher role and generate even more value.

Top Trends and Statistics

• Cash Efficiency and Real-Time Management 67% of large organizations (over $10 billion revenue) have adopted in-house banks, with increasing use of payment factories (60%) and payment-on-behalf-of (50%) models for consolidated, efficient cash flow. Centralization is obviously key and payment factories the ultimate stage of efficiency and control. Virtual accounts, real-time payments, and receipts on behalf-of (ROBO) are on the rise to better align cash flow with business activity and improve visibility. They simplify and facilitate the payment factories functioning and automated reconciliations. Forecasting remains challenging: 38% of the largest companies and 52% of mid-sized companies still manually gather forecasting data, leading to average satisfaction ratings (2.9 out of 5) and highlighting the importance of AI-powered forecasting for greater accuracy and efficiency. In my opinion, it remains the most important challenges and many MNC’s have headroom for enhancement.

• Financial Risk Management Amid Volatility 83% cite FX risk as their top concern, followed by interest rate (72%) and commodity price risk (39%). Despite they are classic risks, they remain top ones. Here again, there is headroom for automation and CMA solutions should be generalized among MNC’s. I still do not understand why they are so slow to adopt such solutions. 79% now use cash flow hedge accounting, up from 74% last year, but many still struggle with fragmented and manual risk management processes. No one can contest the lacks in term of reporting of TMSs. For FX CMA solutions can help or additional solutions, such as ETFs. Cyber risk is top of mind: 81% have implemented or plan to implement cybersecurity enhancements given treasury's growing use of digital tools and increasing exposure to payment fraud and ransomware. The fraud risks (internal or external) remain high on the challenge list of treasurers.

• AI and Digital Transformation 74% are expanding or using AI, especially in machine learning (71%) and predictive analytics (64%), with applications across liquidity, exposure management, and accounting. AI agents are coming and will fast change the function and upgrade treasury role within finance, if well mastered. Despite widespread interest, only 26% consider their AI capabilities mature; most are piloting or in early development. It is coming slowly but surely. Skills shortage is a major barrier: Over half (54%) rely on self-learning; few are hiring directly for AI in treasury. The new hard skills required are not often found among treasurers and new generations. It is time to differently hire in treasury.

• Technology Ecosystem and API Adoption An overwhelming 94% use a Treasury Management System (TMS), but actual integration and satisfaction vary, with many supplementing with third-party or in-house systems for vital activities like short-term forecasting or reporting. TMSs are usually not covering all needs. They impose to use other additional solutions for currency management automation, for bank connectivity (often), for cash-flow forecasting, for dashboarding enhancement, etc… 65% plan to expand use of APIs, enabling real-time connectivity between ERPs, TMS, and banking platforms, and supporting scalable, modular digital architecture. API’s are offering (especially in Europe with PSD2 and PSD3 coming) a huge range of opportunities and useful reports. Organizations benefit most from modular, interoperable systems built for analytics, seamless global support, and strong ERP-TMS-bank integration. The STP everywhere and with all key IT tools is essential to enhance treasury management ad further digitalize the organization.

• Managed Services as a New Operating Model Managed services are seen as a lever for scalability, cost efficiency, and freeing up treasury to focus on strategic planning. Centralization enables to deliver managed services and share services via the treasury centre. Key areas moving to managed solutions include electronic bank account management (eBAM), payment models (POBO/ROBO), and fraud controls. Things are slowly improving but not at the speed we could expect. Success depends on robust vendor management, outcome-based KPIs, and aligning these services with broader business strategies. The key element resides in the choice of tools (combination of different tools as no one can provide everything – see www.treasurymap.com for more details).

Key Takeaways for Treasury Leaders

• Cash is Core: A "cash first" mindset, with forecasting accuracy and real-time visibility, is vital for competitiveness.

• Integrated (Financial) Risk Management: Move from fragmented, manual risk processes to cross-functional frameworks that link forecasting, hedging, and exposure management.

• AI as an Enabler: Investment in AI talent and tools must focus on actionable business outcomes—forecasting accuracy, optimized working capital, and enhanced risk management. AI agents will certainly revolutionize treasurer’s day-to-day life.

• Digital Ecosystem: The future treasury is modular, API-driven, and centred on real-time data integration across platforms. This modularity is a good news, but it complexifies treasurer’s life.

• Resilience through Managed Services: Treat managed services as a strategic enabler—not mere outsourcing—to build agility, scale, and digital capability. The hyper-specialization of the treasury centre is essential to justify TP strategies, to enable efficiency and to master expertise at GT level.

Conclusion

Treasury organizations that invest in forecasting accuracy, real-time integration, AI capabilities, and scalable managed services are best positioned to drive enterprise value and strategic resilience in a turbulent global landscape. The evolution of treasury is clear—from a transactional custodian to a strategic value architect guiding financial strategy, risk mitigation, and operational agility. It is time to move and to embark on the treasury digital transformation to generate value. The leading treasury organizations are building more connected operating models,  positioned not just to safeguard assets but also to deliver actionable insights and sustainable financial outcomes.

Francois Masquelier, Chair of ATEL (based on PwC global treasury survey) – August 2025