Strategic Treasury

More Than a Seat at the Table

Strategy is arguably one of the most overused words in the treasury sphere. Yet behind the label lies a more interesting story about influence, connectivity, and the growing expectation that treasury should assist organisations as they proactively navigate uncertainty rather than simply respond to it.

The phrase ‘strategic treasury’ has become increasingly common, often attached to conversations around AI, automation, real-time payments, and digital transformation. Yet while the language has become familiar, the reality is often harder to pin down.

Treasury’s core responsibilities have not changed beyond recognition: liquidity, funding, risk, and payments all still matter. What has changed is the environment in which those responsibilities are being carried out, particularly in APAC, where volatility, market fragmentation, and cross-border complexity are increasing the demands on treasury.

This was the central theme of a recent conversation with Olivier Anceau, Head of Specialised Product Sales, APAC, and Baris Kalay, Head of Corporate Sales, APAC, both from Bank of America’s Global Payment Solutions business.

Their view is that treasury’s fundamentals have not changed, but their significance has increased as companies navigate volatility, higher funding costs, supply chain disruption, changing payment models, and more complex operating structures.

“The biggest changes are around time and anticipation,” said Anceau. “Decisions are expected to be made faster in very volatile conditions, and treasurers must provide earlier visibility, more accurate forecasting and clear, decision-ready options to their CFOs.”

That phrase – ‘decision-ready options’ – gets closer to the reality of treasury’s changing role than most of the broader language around strategy. Rather than simply reporting on what has already happened, the function is being asked to help the business understand what may happen next, what choices are available, and what the financial consequences of those choices might be.

A sharper focus

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated that shift by making treasury’s value more visible across the organisation. Liquidity visibility, funding access, scenario planning, and stress testing quickly became board-level priorities.

“That experience accelerated the perception that treasury is a strategic partner, not just a control function,” noted Anceau. “It brought treasury closer to the CFO, and in many cases to the CEO, and those expectations have carried forward.”

Visibility remains important and execution remains essential, but neither is sufficient on its own. Organisations want treasury to connect information across cash, risk, funding, payments, and working capital, then translate it into insight the business can actually use.

When operational becomes strategic

A key theme is how far the boundary between operational and strategic activity has blurred.

• How a company collects and pays affects working capital, operational efficiency and cost.
• The ability to invoice and settle in local currency can mitigate FX risk while strengthening supplier relationships.
• Account rationalisation may sound administrative, but it has direct implications for liquidity visibility, funding efficiency, and the effectiveness of centralisation structures.

“In practice, operational items can be very strategic,” said Kalay. Payments offer the clearest example. Once assessed through the lens of efficiency, reliability, and control, expectations have broadened considerably as customers demand speed, transparency, choice, and seamless cross-border settlement, while suppliers increasingly value predictability and local currency options.

“Payments are not just moving money from A to B anymore,” added Kalay. “They are now part of the customer experience. Clients expect instant settlement, new checkout and payment options, and seamless cross-border settlement.”

“Treasury sits somewhere between execution and influencing,” observed Anceau, “but the outcomes it drives are becoming much more visible and impactful across the organisation.”

Asia’s complexity creates opportunities

Few regions illustrate this more clearly than Asia Pacific, where innovation and fragmentation often sit side by side. The region is home to some of the world’s most advanced domestic payment infrastructures and is seeing continued progress in cross-border connectivity, including initiatives such as Project Nexus. At the same time, treasury teams must navigate multiple currencies, regulatory frameworks, documentation requirements, local clearing systems, and capital controls.

“The pace of change in Asia is amazing,” stated Anceau, who has spent 15 years working across markets in the region. “While fragmentation makes execution more complex, it also creates more opportunities for treasury to play a critical and strategic role.”

Complexity does not automatically elevate treasury, but it does make strong treasury practices more visible. Trapped cash is a practical example. Despite advances in technology and connectivity, many companies continue to face significant challenges moving liquidity efficiently across borders.

Many of treasury’s most valuable contributions still involve solving practical challenges affect cost, resilience, agility, and the business’s ability to deploy capital effectively.

Innovation still depends on trust

The same point applies to technology. AI, APIs, predictive analytics, real-time data, and payments innovation are all changing what companies expect from treasury. The direction of travel is clear: more automation, faster insight, better forecasting, richer data, and more connected systems. Yet in treasury, innovation must always be balanced with control, resilience, and trust.

Many treasury teams are exploring how new tools can improve forecasting, liquidity management, payment efficiency, and fraud prevention. But the bar for adoption remains rightly high.

“Technology is moving rapidly, but adoption is moving more slowly in treasury,” observed Anceau. “Trust is built over time, not overnight.” Controls, governance, reliability, and regulatory alignment must always be robust. Treasury’s role is neither to chase every development at the frontier of innovation nor to act as a brake on progress, but to understand where new capabilities can create measurable value and what is required to make adoption sustainable.

Designing flows, not managing silos

When asked what distinguishes the strongest treasury functions, both Anceau and Kalay returned to connectivity across flows, systems, data, and people.

“Strong treasury functions do the basics exceptionally well,” Kalay pointed out. “They look at flows and operations end to end. They don’t treat payments, FX, and working capital separately – they design them together.” A payment decision can affect FX exposure. A collection strategy can influence working capital. A data initiative can improve forecasting across the business. These are not coincidences; they are design choices.

For Anceau, this is also a question of mandate. “Leading treasury functions tend to have clear sponsorship from the CFO and permission to contribute to decision-making, not merely to execute decisions made elsewhere. They also treat data as a strategic asset, recognising that structured, reliable information will form the foundation for future capabilities, including AI.”

Technical expertise may open the door, but influence depends on the ability to communicate clearly, interpret information in context and build trust with stakeholders who may not think in treasury terms. “Organisations need people who not only have the skills to interpret data, but can also engage effectively with the business and drive change,” Anceau added. “Otherwise, it’s very challenging to move treasury beyond execution.”

The next measure of influence

Looking ahead, both experts expect treasury’s influence to continue expanding – not simply because the function will adopt more technology, but because it will be better placed to improve outcomes that matter.

Kalay notes that M&A is one area where treasury’s role is set to grow, from funding availability and execution of transfers on completion day to policy harmonisation, supplier payment terms, and TMS and ERP integration. “These are not peripheral matters,” he cautioned. “They can determine whether a deal’s strategic logic is ever translated into operational reality.”

Beyond any single growth area, Anceau sees three factors that will determine whether treasury functions realise their broader strategic potential: data discipline, operating model clarity and – crucially – how success is measured. Without clear KPIs, the language of strategy becomes subjective. “Treasurers need a clear mandate to influence decisions, not just execute them,” he stressed. “It’s a push and pull – treasurers also have to get themselves out there, connect within their organisation, and sometimes volunteer to influence.”

When treasury is measured on forecast accuracy, liquidity efficiency, cost of funds, and working capital performance, its contribution becomes tangible. Strategy stops being a label and becomes something that can be evidenced.

“Treasury becomes strategic when it consistently improves outcomes,” said Anceau, “especially in uncertain environments.”

Perhaps that is the clearest definition on offer – not a new discipline, not a technology agenda, and not a title bestowed by the organisation, but the ability to use treasury’s traditional strengths in ways that help the business make better decisions, navigate uncertainty, and build resilience.

The seat at the table may already be there. But the opportunity now is to make full use of it.