Beyond resilience: Turning volatility into action in treasury

9 minute read

Disruption is reaching treasury from every direction. Geopolitical uncertainty, real-time finance, fraud risk and AI are reshaping expectations around how quickly treasury teams can understand events, maintain control and help businesses make decisions.

In discussions with corporate treasury and financial institution leaders at Bank of America client events in Singapore, a consistent message emerged: Resilience alone is no longer enough. Organisations are rethinking operating models, strengthening data foundations and building deeper partnerships to respond faster to an increasingly unpredictable environment.

According to Winnie Chen, Head of Global Payments Solutions APAC at Bank of America, treasury’s role is being fundamentally redefined. “Payment and treasury management has become the strategic infrastructure. The era of payments being the back-office execution function is over,” she says.

That shift reflects the growing interconnection between liquidity, balance sheet management, supply chain resilience, compliance, fraud prevention and disruption planning. A weakness in one area can quickly affect another, making treasury a key coordinator across the business.

Treasury teams face a complex backdrop of technology-driven growth, energy pressures, tariff uncertainty and market volatility. These forces influence day-to-day decisions around working capital, liquidity management and hedging strategies.

Peter Guenthardt, Head of APAC Global Corporate and Investment Banking at Bank of America, summarizes the challenge: “Volatility and uncertainty are the new normal. As a treasurer or a CFO, you must remain incredibly nimble.”

That agility requires more than broad strategic plans. Treasury teams need clear priorities, predefined triggers, appropriate liquidity buffers and hedging strategies that can be adjusted as conditions change.

Speed is difficult to achieve when treasury infrastructure is fragmented. Disconnected ERP systems, banking portals, treasury management systems and local processes often create delays and reconciliation challenges, limiting visibility into cash positions, exposures and obligations.

Many organisations are finding that progress comes not from adding more technology but from simplifying the basics. Standardised processes, streamlined banking relationships and stronger governance often provide greater value than introducing additional tools.

These foundations have become even more important as AI adoption accelerates. While AI can improve analysis, reporting and pattern recognition, it depends entirely on accurate and well-governed data. Without that foundation, AI may simply reveal problems more quickly rather than solve them.

As CFOs involve treasury earlier in major business initiatives, success increasingly depends on leadership and collaboration skills as much as technical expertise. Treasury leaders are expected to turn information into recommendations and action. Treasurers must move beyond purely transactional and technical responsibilities and develop project management and change management skills.

The importance of collaboration becomes particularly clear during periods of organisational change. Effective communication and strong relationships are often what make initiatives successful. When people are genuinely working together as a team, the likelihood of success rises.

Strong relationships also need to exist before they are urgently required. Matthew Davies, Head of Global Payments Solutions for EMEA at Bank of America, notes, “What differentiates a good team is having pre-wired relationships across the organisation.”

Trade finance remains one of the largest opportunities for innovation as organisations work to replace fragmented paper-based processes with digital ecosystems. Progress depends on better connectivity, trusted data and practical solutions that improve outcomes rather than waiting for perfect standardisation.

One example from Bank of America involved rebuilding an open-account payment process around APIs, rules engines and collaboration tools. The result significantly accelerated invoice processing. Duncan Lodge, Global Head of Supply Chain Finance and EMEA Head of Trade at Bank of America, explains, “We’ve seen invoice approval times go from weeks to seconds.”

Financial institutions face similar challenges in payments and settlement, where multiple technologies are developing simultaneously. Rich Clow, Head of Payments Innovation at Bank of America, says, “You’re going to see a mix by industry and risk appetite. It’ll be the right tool for the job.”

AI is following a similar path. The conversation has shifted from proving whether AI works and identifying use cases in pockets, to a focus on scaling AI operationally and defining the operating model the organisation needs.

Future readiness cannot be achieved alone. Treasury data, digital trade, payment infrastructure and AI create value only when organisations can work together effectively. “Financial institution clients are our partners, not just clients,” adds Chen.

Ultimately, the organisations that succeed will be those that connect the right data, people and partners quickly enough to make informed decisions and take action. For today’s treasury teams, moving beyond resilience means transforming complexity into coordinated execution, innovation and action.