How UK Treasurers Can Navigate a Narrow Window of Opportunity
Published: September 11, 2025
Financial confidence among UK businesses is trending against the norm, notes Edgar Randall, Managing Director, UK, Dun & Bradstreet. What does this mean for UK treasurers?
In an environment marked by trade tensions, tariff uncertainties, and regulatory pressures, businesses globally are operating in an increasingly volatile environment. Our Global Business Optimism Insight Report (Q3 2025) shows that 28 out of 32 tracked economies entered the current quarter with low levels of optimism – the lowest point since late 2023.
Against this backdrop, UK businesses are defying the trend, with notable gains in financial confidence (+23.7%), investment confidence (+7.4%), and supply chain continuity (+19.7%). This resilience signals more than just short-term optimism. It reflects a strategic window for UK treasurers to act decisively in rebalancing financial strategies and shoring up future competitiveness.
Optimising liquidity and borrowing strategies
With financial conditions easing, treasurers are entering a more favourable, yet still complex, liquidity environment. Declining interest rates are reviving confidence and opening new opportunities to reassess borrowing strategies, optimise cash positions, and unlock value from the balance sheet.
Our UK Financial Confidence Index surged by more than 23% quarter-over-quarter – the largest increase globally. This upswing reflects not only improved access to capital but also a modest reduction in borrowing costs, with rates for SME loans falling from a 2024 peak of 7.8% to 6.8% in April 2025. While interest rates remain above pre-pandemic levels, the downward trend gives treasury teams the chance to proactively refinance debt, optimise working capital, and reassess funding structures.
UK treasurers should view this as an opportunity to strengthen balance sheets and explore alternative financing arrangements. Strategies such as layered debt maturity profiles, flexible credit lines, and greater use of short-term instruments can enhance financial agility. At the same time, the deployment of dynamic liquidity tools, paired with real-time financial risk analytics, can help treasury teams navigate the still-elevated rate environment while capturing cost-saving opportunities and improving resilience.
Aligning capital allocation with investment momentum
Effective capital allocation remains key to growth and risk management. Treasury teams must ensure funding supports areas of highest return and long-term value. This means more than simply tracking investment trends; it requires funding strategies that align with areas of demonstrable growth and resilience.
Industries such as transportation and metals manufacturing are showing strong capital expenditure expectations. Notably, 91% of transportation and storage firms expect increased M&A activity in Q3, while 79% of metal manufacturers plan to boost capital spending, bolstered by government intervention to secure long-term domestic production.
Treasurers supporting or exposed to these industries should ensure treasury strategy aligns accordingly. Whether through improved forecasting, capital modelling, or intercompany financing adjustments, treasury must enable long-term investment in high-potential areas.
De-risking amid global trade volatility
Trade fragmentation and shifting tariffs demand more from treasury than reactive risk management. For example, optimism among automotive exporters has dropped from 75% to 44% quarter-over-quarter following tariff hikes. These shifts ripple through liquidity, forecasting accuracy, and cost structures.
Treasurers can play a strategic role by collaborating closely with procurement and operations to ensure supply chain vulnerabilities are financially transparent and mitigated in line with broader corporate objectives. By embedding trade risk intelligence into treasury reporting, firms can better anticipate disruptions and turn volatility into a strategic advantage.
Navigating the evolving ESG and regulatory environment
As ESG and regulatory expectations rise, UK treasurers must do more than react – they must lead. At the heart of this shift lies data. Building robust, transparent data frameworks is essential for accurate ESG reporting and smarter decision-making.
Frameworks such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) now require detailed, auditable declarations. Treasury functions must collaborate with sustainability and finance teams to source, validate, and monitor relevant ESG data across the enterprise. These data-driven insights are vital for modelling ESG-linked funding scenarios, treasurers assessing climate-related financial risks, and engage credibly with stakeholders on sustainability-linked instruments.
By embedding ESG considerations into core treasury operations and treating data as a strategic asset, treasurers can drive both resilience and long-term value creation in a shifting regulatory environment.
The role of data in treasury strategies
UK businesses are navigating a fast-changing, volatile environment. For treasury leaders, the challenge is not only to manage immediate risks but to move decisively, translating today’s cautious optimism into long-term strategic advantage.
Data-led decision-making, supported by scenario planning that considers macroeconomic, geopolitical, and sustainability factors will give treasurers a sharper edge in identifying risk early and deploying capital effectively. The most resilient treasury functions will be those underpinned by integrated technologies and data analytics, capable of providing visibility across credit risk, working capital, liquidity positions, and supplier performance.
To stay ahead, treasury leaders must prioritise agility over certainty. That means using the current momentum to strengthen risk buffers, unlock capital for future investments, and embed resilience into financial planning frameworks. Those who act now will not only protect their organisations from emerging shocks but position them to lead through the next phase of economic transition.