Economic uncertainty is reshaping the role of corporate treasury, driving a shift from support function to strategic powerhouse as companies face persistent inflation, interest rate volatility and geopolitical tension. 

According to John Stevens, senior vice president and global head of capital markets, financial institutions and working capital at Kyriba, treasurers must now operate with anticipatory precision rather than reactive caution.

Stevens was quoted by The Irish News as saying that treasury teams are under constant pressure to scenario plan and anticipate shocks in an increasingly interconnected global environment. 

“CFOs and treasurers can no longer afford to react; they need to anticipate,” he warned, emphasising that liquidity management has become a 24/7 discipline.

He outlined three non-negotiable rules for navigating today’s funding landscape. 

First, diversification must form the foundation of any debt strategy. Treasurers, he noted, should avoid dependence on a single source of financing and instead spread exposure across banks, capital markets and private placements. 

Second, he urged treasurers to remain opportunistic, executing quickly when pricing conditions become favourable. Third, Stevens said debt duration must be handled dynamically, guided by real-time visibility into the full financing portfolio.

However, he argued that many organisations remain hindered by data fragmentation. Treasury data often sits in disparate bank systems, enterprise resource planning platforms and legacy treasury tools, creating what he called “liquidity gridlock.” 

Stevens said a modern cloud-based liquidity performance platform using real-time APIs can provide a single source of truth, transforming raw data into actionable intelligence.

He cited one case in which a major health insurer held a $4 billion operational cash buffer due to limited visibility. 

With enhanced liquidity tools, the organisation reduced idle cash by 90 per cent, unlocking $9 billion in investable liquidity and generating $155 million in additional investment returns.

“The financial impact of solving this can be staggering,” he said.

Stevens also highlighted three levers of what Kyriba calls “active liquidity.” The first is mobilising and centralising cash through improved forecasting, cash pooling and in-house banking. 

The second is activating working capital programmes such as payables finance, dynamic discounting and receivables finance to accelerate the cash conversion cycle. The third involves optimising risk and yield through refined hedging, rebalanced investment strategies and targeted debt reduction.

Looking ahead, Stevens said the next stage of treasury transformation will be driven by the convergence of real-time payments, AI-powered predictive analytics and emerging digital asset technologies, including stablecoins and tokenisation. 

Together, he said, these capabilities will create the “real-time treasury,” enabling liquidity decisions to be made instantly across global operations.

Stevens concluded that the overarching priority for the coming year is absolute visibility. 

Achieving real-time insight across all entities, currencies and systems, he said, is the single change that enables every other strategic improvement. Without it, treasury decisions remain constrained; with it, finance leaders can future-proof their balance sheets against whatever uncertainty comes next.