A Week in Treasury: Don’t Look for the Obvious – Subtle Changes are Ahead

Published: October 13, 2026

In his first regular column, TMI CEO Robin Page offers his take on developments in the world of treasury over the past few days. This week, he touches on the launch of SAP Pay, digital money in Singapore, and repo market reform.

A few topics have caught my eye this week, so I thought I would share some brief observations from a TMI perspective.

The first was SAP’s launch of SAP Pay. On the surface, it is another payments announcement. But if payments can increasingly be made, tracked, and reconciled inside the ERP itself, that feels quite significant. For treasurers, I imagine the questions will be less about the technology headline and more about control, approvals, bank choice, data ownership, and who is responsible if something goes wrong.

India also caught my eye. The Reserve Bank of India has introduced changes that appear likely to increase the cost of some corporate FX hedging. I won’t pretend to know the finer points of rupee derivatives, but it does feel like a reminder that treasury risk management can be changed swiftly by regulation. What looked like a sensible hedge one week can become more expensive or more complicated the next.

Liquidity remains another interesting area. US MMFs are now close to $8tr., which sounds like an extraordinary wall of cash. But some of the commentary suggests the picture is not quite as simple as “there is plenty of liquidity everywhere”. Treasury bill issuance, shorter fund maturities, and year-end funding pressures all seem worth watching.

Singapore continues to be focusing on digital money. The Monetary Authority of Singapore appears to be taking a practical approach, looking at how wholesale CBDC, tokenised deposits, and regulated stablecoins might work alongside each other. That feels more useful than trying to predict one winner. For corporate treasury, the real question is probably which of these tools will eventually make payments, liquidity or settlement genuinely better.

I also noticed the growing debate around repo market reform and central clearing. This may sound quite technical, but it matters because repo sits underneath much short-term liquidity and secured cash investment. Alterations here can eventually show up in pricing, access, and collateral management.

So, my takeaway this week is fairly simple: treasury infrastructure is changing quickly, but not always in a dramatic or obvious way. Some of the most significant shifts are happening inside existing systems, regulations, and market plumbing.