With $1.7 trillion tied up in inefficient supply chains, CFOs are making liquidity a core strategy.
There’s $1.7 trillion of working capital sitting on the balance sheets of the largest U.S. companies: not locked in failed investments or delayed acquisitions, but trapped in slow receivables, excess inventory, and payment structures designed for a different economic environment.
That money hasn’t disappeared. It remains tied up in processes that no longer reflect how companies manage risk, liquidity, or supply chains.
For many CFOs, the largest untapped source of liquidity is the cash already embedded in operations. Yet organizations often struggle to unlock it because treasury, procurement, operations, and suppliers continue to pursue different objectives using disconnected systems and metrics.
J.P. Morgan estimates that hundreds of billions of dollars remain trapped in working capital across large corporations, while consultant The Hackett Group places the opportunity loss at some $1.7 trillion.
The culprits include receivables that take too long to convert to cash, inventory accumulated as protection against uncertainty, supplier payment structures that fail to balance liquidity across the value chain, and cash reserves that remain underutilized because companies lack the visibility to deploy them effectively.
For years, these inefficiencies were manageable. Low interest rates, predictable supply chains, and abundant liquidity reduced the urgency to rethink working capital. Treasury managed liquidity, procurement negotiated payment terms, sales focused on collections, and financial institutions provided financing within established relationships.
Today’s environment demands a different approach.
Higher interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty, higher tariffs, supply chain disruptions, and persistent margin pressure have elevated working capital from a finance function to a strategic business priority. Yet many organizations continue to manage liquidity using operating models designed for a different era.
According to Deloitte’s Q1 2026 CFO Signals survey, siloed organizations and outdated technology remain among the largest internal barriers to cost management. Boston Consulting Group has noted that extending payment terms alone often merely shifts financing costs along the supply chain rather than improving overall efficiency.
The challenge is therefore broader than financing. It is about coordination.
Working capital decisions increasingly require treasury, procurement, operations, finance, and suppliers to operate from the same information and align around shared objectives. Without that alignment, companies often optimize individual functions while reducing efficiency across the broader organization.
Reflecting these realities, investors have changed their expectations. Following several years of tighter capital markets, boards increasingly emphasize cash-flow resilience, capital discipline, and operational efficiency alongside growth. Liquidity has become a competitive advantage rather than simply a financial metric.
Companies are responding in different ways. Many are investing in better forecasting and real-time cash visibility. Others are modernizing treasury infrastructure, digitizing receivables and payables, expanding supply chain finance programs, or adopting data-driven tools that improve coordination across functions. Financial institutions are evolving their offerings through broader funding networks, automation, and digital onboarding capabilities.
No single approach will solve the challenge for every organization. What appears increasingly clear, however, is that fragmented processes and limited transparency are becoming more expensive. As supply chains grow more complex and financing conditions remain uncertain, organizations require greater visibility into where liquidity resides, how quickly it can move, and how financing decisions affect every participant across the value chain.
The International Finance Corporation and the World Bank have consistently highlighted digital infrastructure as a key enabler for expanding access to supply chain finance, particularly among smaller suppliers that have historically remained outside traditional financing programs. The objective is not technology for its own sake, but the creation of more efficient, scalable financial ecosystems.
The U.S. has one of the world’s deepest capital markets. Yet many companies continue to face unnecessary constraints in moving liquidity through their supply chains.
The next phase of working capital management, then, will likely depend less on access to capital — which remains abundant — and more on the ability to connect information, participants, and decision-making across increasingly complex commercial networks.
Organizations that succeed will be those that treat working capital not as a quarterly reporting metric but as an enterprise-wide capability that strengthens resilience, improves capital allocation, and creates flexibility in periods of uncertainty.
***
Gustavo Muller is CEO and co-founder of Monkey, a financial solutions marketplace. He has more than two decades of experience in financial markets, having held senior positions at Citibank, XP Investimentos, and as co-founder of Fisher Venture Builder.
The European Central Bank (ECB) took the digital euro project into its next operational stage on Tuesday by naming 36 payment service providers to help test the future currency in a large-scale pilot programme beginning in the second half of 2027.
According to the ECB, the participants were selected from more than 50 applicants across the euro area and will work alongside the ECB and 19 of the euro area’s national central banks, excluding Bulgaria and Malta, during a 12-month testing exercise.
The pilot is intended to assess the digital euro’s technical infrastructure, operational processes and user experience, allowing person-to-person and person-to-business payments to be tested in both online and offline environments, before any decision is taken on issuing the currency.
The announcement moves the digital euro closer to practical testing with consumers, merchants and payment providers, making it one of the project’s most significant milestones since the ECB launched its preparation phase in late 2023.
The selected providers include traditional banks, digital banks and payment companies, with several of Europe’s largest financial institutions among those taking part, including Deutsche Bank, UniCredit, Revolut, Adyen and Stripe.
ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said the level of interest demonstrated that the payments industry was ready to help shape the project’s next phase.
“The strong market interest in the pilot shows the private sector’s readiness to engage actively and quickly advance with the digital euro project to strengthen the European payments landscape,” Cipollone stated.
“We look forward to deeper engagement as we work with and learn alongside European payment service providers in developing a secure, efficient and inclusive digital euro,” Cipollone concluded.
The pilot comes as negotiations continue between the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission on legislation that would establish the legal basis for a digital euro.
The ECB has consistently maintained that it cannot issue the currency unless the legislation is adopted by EU lawmakers.
Current planning foresees formal approval in 2027, followed by completion of the pilot and a possible public launch in 2029, although those timelines remain dependent on the legislative process.
The digital euro would be available free of charge to consumers through supervised payment providers and the ECB has repeatedly sought to counter concerns that it could lead to the disappearance of physical money or weaken privacy protections.
In the current plan for the launch, the digital euro would not pay interest and holdings would likely be capped to avoid significant outflows from commercial bank deposits.
Speaking to Euronews exclusively last week, ECB President Christine Lagarde welcomed the European Parliament’s decision to begin negotiations on the legislation and reiterated that the digital is intended to complement, rather than replace, cash.
“Cash and the digital euro will both be legal tender, which means that nowhere in Europe can someone say, ‘Sorry, I’m not taking your banknotes’,” Lagarde told The Europe Conversation with Maria Tadeo, reaffirming that cash would remain a permanent feature of Europe’s monetary system.
The digital euro is also designed to reduce Europe’s dependence on international payment providers and strengthen the bloc’s strategic autonomy in payments.
Lagarde also told Euronews that the project is about reinforcing Europe’s economic sovereignty as much as modernising payments, pointing to the bloc’s continued reliance on foreign-owned payment networks.
“We depend predominantly on US, but also sometimes Chinese, networks to organise payments. We need to have a European solution because we want to be sovereign at home,” Lagarde stated.
THEY survived Geordie Shore together for more than a decade, weathering explosive rows, chaotic nights out and everything that came with reality TV fame. When Nathan Henry first walked into the house in 2015 and bravely opened up about his sexuality, Scotty T was one of the first castmates to embrace him into the group.
Which is why friends tell The Sun they are “absolutely sickened” to see Scotty accused of turning on the very community he once publicly stood beside, leaving Nathan feeling “blindsided”.
Their friendship became one of the constants of the MTV series, surviving cast shake-ups, years away from the cameras and countless personal milestones.
But after more than a decade of standing side by side, those closest to Nathan say the pair’s bitter public clash is about far more than a handful of tweets – it’s watching someone he trusted seem to turn his back on the community Nathan has spent years proudly representing.
The fallout unravelled after Scotty, 37, posted a string of controversial messages about Pride celebrations in London that many accused of being openly homophobic, causing backlash online.
He wrote: “If you’re ever a parent – and you took your child to the Pride event in London… You should have your kids taken off you. Simple.”
He continued: “Forcing them to see some of the state I’ve seen, and the stands with merch about being horny and ‘f*** me’. What sort of disgusting animal even does that to their child.”
One source close to Nathan told The Sun: “We’re absolutely sickened that Scotty has lashed out at the gay community. They’ve been friends for so many years and gone through so much together. Referring to parents who bring their children to Pride events as ‘animals’ is heartbreaking.
“Nathan was blindsided given how supportive Scotty was to him in the past and it has really struck him.”
For Nathan the comments were deeply personal.
After all, this was the same Scotty who had stood beside him when he came out on Geordie Shore and built one of the show’s most genuine friendships.
Which is exactly why, pals say, Nathan decided he couldn’t let the comments pass without saying something publicly.
He wrote: “I think you should delete this… I don’t know if this is you or management but it stinks of hypocrisy just saying.”
Scotty replied that he loved Nathan “to bits” but doubled down on his position, insisting children should not be exposed to explicit displays at Pride events.
He later added: “Can us straight people have a month where we walk about with our cock and balls out?”
And in another post wrote: “Be gay, bi, gender fluid, camp, manly, whatever the f*** you want – just don’t force it into everyone else’s faces. Especially children.”
But those close to Nathan say the comments left him stunned because Scotty had relied on him to help promote his own OnlyFans account.
Our insider told us: “Scotty was desperately begging Nathan to take those pictures to promote his OnlyFans. He used him to make cash.”
The source said that only made Scotty’s public comments feel even more hypocritical to Nathan, prompting him to hit back publicly.
Nathan, not letting his behaviour slide, responded again but this time on his Instagram.
He shared an old photograph which Scotty himself had asked him to take in order to help promote his OnlyFans account – pointing to what he believed was a glaring contradiction between Scotty’s past behaviour and his current narrative.
Alongside it he wrote: “B***h I know you lying when you asked me to take this and used it to promote your OF implying gay s**t. The math ain’t mathing.”
Those close to Nathan said he couldn’t sit back without saying anything.
One pal said: “He couldn’t understand the contradiction between what Scotty had asked of him in the past and what he was now saying publicly.”
For fans who have followed Geordie Shore over the past decade, the public fallout marks a remarkable turn for two castmates whose friendship appeared to survive almost everything the show threw at them.
When Nathan first joined the series, he initially came out as bisexual before later identifying as gay. Scotty was among those who publicly accepted him, and the pair went on to film multiple series together, including the recent reunion seasons and the milestone Thailand trip that marked Scotty’s return to the franchise.
Away from the cameras, however, life has taken both men in very different directions.
Nathan, now 35, has largely stepped away from the party-boy image that first made him famous. He recently revealed he has been in a private relationship for three years and has deliberately kept it away from the spotlight.
He also opened his life to viewers in an emotional four-part MTV documentary alongside his father Glen, who is living with terminal cancer. The series explored family, illness and LGBTQ+ acceptance within Caribbean culture, earning widespread praise for its honesty.
Scotty’s recent years, meanwhile, have been considerably more turbulent.
Best known for starring on Geordie Shore between 2012 and 2019 before winning Celebrity Big Brother, he has faced a series of financial and legal difficulties since leaving the show.
Earlier this year, court proceedings heard that he now earns money through club appearances and OnlyFans after admitting an offence relating to unlawful financial promotions on Instagram. During the hearing, it was also stated that he received financial support from his mother, while he had previously been declared bankrupt after his company went into liquidation.
Last October, Scotty announced he had become a father, describing his baby son as “the most important thing” in his life.
Whether the pair can repair more than ten years of friendship now remains to be seen.
But friends fear this will cause a big obstacle in their future.
One pal said: “Nathan feels like someone who supported him and his life for so many years has changed his views so much.
“It feels like an attack on the community he’s proud to be part of. That’s why this has hurt so much.”
The Sun has contacted reps for Nathan and Scotty T for comment.
Dikuch/iStock via Getty Images
Scorpio Tankers (STNG) down 2.1% in Tuesday’s trading as Bank of America double-downgrades shares to Underperform from Buy with a $78 price target, lowered from $100, saying product tanker rates remain historically strong but are now in a post-peak pullback.
Prosus delivers strong FY26 results: Ecosystem profits soar 84% as free cash flow hits record $1.5B
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HOLIDAYS to Dubai are back on track. The UK Foreign Office last week scrapped the advice against all but essential travel to the UAE, as well as nearby destinations such as Qatar and Bahrain.
And with hotels and attractions itching to welcome us once more, there are some great bargains to be had right now. Whether you’ve got bags of cash to spend or are hunting for ways to make your dosh go further, we’ve got you covered.
FROM beach club deals, through to discounted 5* “business lunches”, a classy trip can be yours but without the cost — if you know where to look.
One of the biggest expenses on a visit to the UAE city can be at the ever-popular beach clubs.
Expect to drop hundreds of dirhams once you’ve paid for entry, loungers, food and drink.
Yet one of the newest on the block is also one of the most affordable — the Casablanca.
As part of landmark resort Atlantis, the club is a bargain, so long as you time your visit for a weekday.
Paying around £24 per person for a sun lounger, you can still enjoy the pool and beach without having to spend a fortune.
My hours were happily spent with a few Prosecco foam cocktails and truffle fries while enjoying the party atmosphere, thanks to the upbeat dance music being pumped out.
Dips in the pool were followed by lolling on the beach swing, before sunning myself to dry off on my striped lounger.
Want to go higher? When it comes to a rooftop pool, Aura can’t be beaten, taking the title of the world’s tallest 360-degree infinity pool.
But if you love the views and aren’t fussed about the pool, try their lounge breakfast package.
For a fraction of the price of using the pool, you get a breakfast and two drinks.
I might have stayed dry, but I got those influencer-style shots posing next to the water without the cost. From the miso eggs benedict to pomegranate juices, I promise it’s worth the early start.
For more of the high life, also drop in at Ce La Vi. The famous bar has some of the best views of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
But you’ll be joining the locals if you visit at lunch rather than dinner — and will stay in your budget, too.
Dinners can see a main course alone costing £30. Yet the three-course lunch set menu will set you back just £28, including a glass of wine.
But while Dubai is certainly a foodie city, the real flavour of the place is to be found in the street markets.
Head to the Grand Souk, where you’ll find breads stuffed with cheese or Nutella for £1.22, or Iranian falooda — a sorbet-like dessert made of thin rice noodles and syrup — for £1.
You’ll certainly need some energy for going shopping afterwards, with streets of spices and gold jewellery (Dubai is home to the world’s biggest gold ring — 21-carat, and weighing 59kg).
And after all that, your well- deserved rest will not tip your budget over the edge — Brits will be pleased to spot the famous purple signage of Premier Inn, there being seven across Dubai.
Yet these are pimped-up Premier Inns, with gyms and rooftop pools — as well as the familiar Costa outlet in the lobby.
And who knew they’d be even cheaper than the UK, with rooms for as little as £21 a night during the off-season? That means you could spend a week in Dubai for under £150 — half the price of one night at the Atlantis.
Otherwise there’s Rove, the UAE’s own budget hotel chain.
Slightly pricier at £44, it has a bit more to it, from ice-cream trucks to beach- bar happy hours.
So don’t believe the rumours that Dubai has to be expensive.
Live the high life — often literally — and still come home with some change to spare.
IN my opinion, upgrading your hotel generally comes with a multitude of benefits that extend way beyond just a swankier room.
The Palm — so named because of its fronds of sand jutting out into the sea that resemble the leaves of a palm tree — is one of the most desirable areas to stay in but you can get the same luxury for a fraction of the price elsewhere.
Book one of the 5* resorts that sit at the bottom of its branch, along Mina Seyahi beach.
The 5* Westin is a sprawling resort that features several pools and seemingly more sun loungers than there are rooms.
With a whopping ten restaurants on site, you don’t even need to leave the resort.
Kids have use of all the fun-packed waterslides at neighbouring hotel Le Meridien, while parents can kick back in the adults-only area where there is a constant supply of mellow music and freshly shaken cocktails.
Adults after a more sophisticated atmosphere, however, will likely prefer the trendy 5* W Hotel, home to bold bedrooms and the sky-high Attiko restaurant (for those aged 21 and over).
The menu of Asian-fusion bites is designed for sharing — try the spicy tuna taco topped with avocado and yuzu and the crispy scallop, served in its shell.
These are dished up alongside cocktails that are as jaw-dropping as the views of twinkling hotels at night.
It’s safe to say fancy food isn’t in short supply in Dubai. In fact, this Middle Eastern city is now catching up with some of the world’s most celebrated foodie destinations — competing with the likes of Tokyo and Paris.
The Michelin Guide for Dubai features 117 restaurants for 2026.
Last year, Avatara, in Dubai Hills, became the first vegetarian Indian restaurant in the world to earn a Michelin star. And having sampled all 17 delicately crafted courses on its flavour-packed tasting menu, I can see why it’s ranked so highly.
The experience is wonderfully theatrical, and the plates could be considered works of art, not just the meals — decorated with edible flowers, rich sauces and billowing dry ice.
It costs around £150pp for the tasting menu, but my word, you’ll leave satisfied and full to the brim. But while Avatara may have the wow factor for serious foodies, those who prefer more of an experiential dinner should book a Lady Nara cruise.
This fancy wooden vessel runs breakfast and dinner sailings at various times of day, but the most spectacular has to be at night when Dubai’s glowing skyscrapers are fully lit.
We sailed between various landmarks while tucking into a feast cooked up in the kitchen below deck. Hors d’oeuvres were followed by huge bowls of fresh leaves and artichokes topped with shaved Parmesan, and hearty meats served in zingy sauces, while gentle music hummed in the background.
If fine dining isn’t your thing but you still want to push the boat out a bit, you can always spend that hard-earned dosh on a flight upgrade instead.
Emirates is the official airline of Dubai and is currently the only one offering direct flights from the UK. It launched a fourth daily flight between Dubai and Gatwick at the start of this year, giving travellers even greater flexibility.
The experience in Emirates business-class cabins is as flashy as Dubai itself, thanks to the doting crew, as well as the on-board cocktail bar — where you can while away the eight or so hours on board sipping on martinis made at 38,000ft.
GETTING THERE: Direct flights from Heathrow to Dubai with Emirates cost from £680 return in economy or £3,600 return in business class. See emirates.com.
STAYING THERE: Rooms at Premier Inn Dubai Al Jaddaf Hotel are from £38.57 (AED 187) including breakfast. See premierinn.com.
Rooms at Rove La Mer cost from £63 (AED 305) per night, including breakfast. See rovehotels.com.
Rooms at The Westin Mina Seyahi are from £163 (AED 839) per night, including breakfast. See marriott.com.
Rooms at the W Hotel Mina Seyahi cost from £148 (AED 718), including breakfast. See marriott.com.
BAG MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: Aura Sky pool’s full-day pool access is from £117 but breakfast lounge access is just £25. See auraskypool.com.
Ce La Vi restaurant: a three-course evening dinner costs from £129, but a three-course “business lunch” is from £28. See dxb.celavi.com.
Casablanca beach club: cabana with private pool costs from £1,317 (£263pp), whereas a midweek sun lounger costs £50 (redeemable on food and drink). See atlantis.com.
OTHER SAVING HACKS: Be sure to pick up your free 24-hour SIM cards with 10GB at Dubai immigration.
You can bag dining and experience discounts at more than 600 venues with your Emirates boarding pass, including spas and retailers.
See emirates.com/english/experience/my-emirates-pass.
Ladies’ nights across the city have unlimited alcohol for free. See dubainight.com/news/dubai-free-ladies-night.
A $60B tech acquisition marks the aggressive start of SpaceX’s post-IPO capital strategy.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — more commonly known as SpaceX — is not letting proceeds from the largest initial public offering in history sit on the launchpad, and piquing the Street’s curiosity on its cash management strategy.
The day after its IPO trades settled, the company, which added approximately $75 billion to its roughly $15.85 billion pre-IPO cash position, announced plans to acquire AI coding company Cursor in a $60 billion all-stock deal that is expected to close in the third quarter, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
SpaceX first announced it had secured the right to buy Cursor in April but held off due to its upcoming IPO, Bloomberg News reported.
The company did not respond to a request for comment.
The rocket-launch, connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), and social media company’s IPO placed it in the top 10 U.S.-listed companies by market capitalization, roughly $2.1 trillion. It also placed it fifth among the U.S. companies with the largest cash positions. It trails only behind Berkshire Hathaway Inc. ($397.38 billion), Amazon.com Inc. ($145.97 billion), Alphabet Inc. ($126.84 billion), and Interactive Brokers Group Inc. ($100.39 billion), according to TradingView data.
The company has not detailed whether it plans to use the newfound capital to fund growth, reduce risk, repay debt, or preserve option value. With a $2.1 trillion market cap and near-guarantee to be included in the marquee stock indices, does it truly matter?
“What SpaceX does with cash and its capital structure are rounding errors in its valuation,” Aswath Damodaran, of New York University’s Stern School of Business, told Global Finance.
However, the treasury still has an important part to play, said John Graham, finance professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
“There are examples of companies that grew too fast,” he said. “They were on a positive trajectory with their strategies, but did not manage their cash appropriately and went bankrupt.”
Graham noted that he was not privy to SpaceX’s capital allocation plans, but typically sees two typical uses for IPO proceeds, depending on the company’s maturity.
Startups often use their newfound cash to fuel their drive to profitability while keeping the lights on. Profitable companies tend to use their windfalls to let founders, early investors, and employees cash out a bit.
“Both of those are probably happening in this case, just on a larger scale,” he said.
Investors can view SpaceX as a mixture of mature and startup business lines. The company’s Starlink satellite-based Internet connectivity unit is currently the only unit generating profits on roughly $11.39 billion in revenue, according to its prospectus.
Whether that, combined with its IPO proceeds, is enough to subsidize its AI and other businesses remains to be seen, and raises a broader question about how SpaceX and the ‘Elon Premium’ will test the market’s logic.
“As things stand today, investors are essentially buying a company whose core business is launching satellites, which remains its largest source of revenue,” said Ismael García Puente, Deputy Director of Investment Strategy at Spanish investment manager Mapfre AM. “Its technology and AI-related businesses are still operating at a loss. We need to see how these segments evolve before we can assess their long-term profitability.”
Contact the author: rdaly@gfmag.com
Earnings Call Insights: Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Q3 2026
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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Nearly a year after the assassination of a Minnesota legislative leader, lawmakers across the U.S. have worked to fortify security in state capitols and improve safeguards when officials are in their communities.
The changes have followed a rise in political violence nationwide that included the stunning assassination last June of Rep. Melissa Hortman, the top Democratic leader in the Minnesota House, and the September killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was speaking at a college in Utah.
In Minnesota, most doors at the state Capitol are now locked, and people entering must go through weapons detectors. People entering the visitors’ galleries to watch floor debates must go through a second set of detectors.
“It’s important for us to be able to not have our government fall apart if our legislators are under threat,” said Minnesota Rep. Julie Green, a Democrat who sits directly across the aisle from Hortman’s old desk, which remains empty except for fresh roses, her portrait and a speaker’s gavel. “It’s a complicated, complex, very emotional issue, as you can imagine.”
In addition to the killings of Hortman and Kirk, violence targeting political figures in the U.S. in the last few years has included an arson attack last year at the home of Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; an assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in 2024; and a hammer attack on the husband of Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at their California home in 2022.
Twenty-five states, including Minnesota, now formally allow candidates to use campaign funds for personal security. Most made the change after the killings of Kirk and Hortman. Eleven states have laws permitting it, while others have approved it through rules or other mechanisms, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and the VoteMama Foundation.
This year alone, Alabama, Oregon, Nebraska and Utah enacted laws allowing campaign funds for security. Bills to legalize it are pending in about a dozen other states.
It’s not just happening at the state level. Security spending for congressional and presidential campaigns has jumped fivefold over the past decade. Federal political committees spent more than $40 million on expenses labeled as security during the 2023-24 campaign cycle, according to an April report from the nonpartisan Public Service Alliance.
Metal detectors — one of the most visible signs of concerns about political violence — were installed at Alaska’s Capitol last year. Democratic Rep. Sara Hannan said the change was due to “increased risk of violence in our public institutions.” Lawmakers approved them before Hortman was killed.
But some states have balked at making it harder to access the halls of power. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican who knew Hortman, resisted efforts to install metal detectors in his state, saying he didn’t want to “fortify” the Capitol. Wisconsin’s is one of 11 state capitols that don’t have metal detectors, a state audit found.
Minnesota lawmakers are also considering creating a special unit within the State Patrol, which oversees Capitol security, that would provide protection for legislators, the state attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, and Supreme Court justices.
One lead author is Democratic Sen. John Hoffman, who survived being shot nine times the night Hortman was killed. Prosecutors say the gunman, disguised as a police officer, began his rampage by shooting Hoffman and his wife, then stopped at the residences of two other lawmakers who weren’t home. He then went to Hortman’s home, where he killed the representative and her husband, and wounded their dog so severely that he had to be euthanized.
At a hearing Tuesday, Hoffman called his measure “a necessary response” that would “keep elected officials and Supreme Court justices safe and dedicate the resources necessary and hopefully stop future tragedies from happening.”
Numerous states have also taken action to protect lawmakers’ personal information. North Dakota lawmakers on Wednesday discussed a bill draft for next year that would make confidential the home addresses of candidates and public officials upon request.
The NCSL in February created a $1.5-million fund to reimburse legislatures for expenses related to lawmakers’ personal safety and security while they’re away from their statehouses. More than 30 states have applied or are preparing to, NCSL spokesperson Katie Ziegler said.
Karnowski and Bauer write for the Associated Press. Bauer reported from Madison, Wis. AP writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this report.
The advent of autonomous treasury has ignited a competitive push, complete with aggressive industry targets. Not all companies will want to proceed at the same speed.
The shift to an autonomous treasury is reshaping the world of corporate finance, driven by new strategies and technologies—from self-healing cash forecasts to AI-driven liquidity engines—that are replacing legacy systems and maximizing yield.
To fully realize the potential, corporate finance leaders are strategically investing in the key areas that will accelerate the transition. The next phase of autonomous treasury will be defined by three investment-focus areas, says Sayantan Chakraborty, head of Digital Payments at Fiserv. “Treasurers don’t lack visibility anymore; they lack widgets that can act on that visibility in real time,” he says. “The gap isn’t analytics. It’s execution.”
Although agentic AI can forecast cash positions and draft funding instructions, Chakraborty notes, current corporate infrastructure often runs in batch mode. The first essential missing link is comprehensive, real-time cash positioning, second, it’s combined with rule-based, just-in-time money movement across multiple payment rails—including instant and traditional—and third, integration of new features like tokenized deposits and programmable payments.
The technological journey still requires human expertise, however. And Chakraborty advises building around legacy ERP systems rather than waiting for a complete modernization.
“Think of it as an AI-powered autopilot added to an older cockpit,” he says. “Policies are enforced, actions are executed, and audit trails are preserved without forcing a full-core replacement on day one, under the watchful eyes of a trained cockpit and cabin crew.”
The era of multi-year, big-bang upgrades is over, Chakraborty argues. Instead, the best course is to implement a lightweight, 24/7 automation layer to handle real-time balances, rules, and payments.
As instant payment rails and real-time reporting become more widespread, Chakraborty predicts the current practice of pre-funding accounts before cut-offs will become obsolete. Instead, “agentic AI will push treasury from once-a-day instructions to continuous, just-in-time funding: as soon as execution matches intent across all rails.”
This shift will impact float, causing idle-balance float to decrease and driving banks to focus their earnings on 24/7 clearing services, intraday credit, and real-time liquidity.
Siemens, a leader in autonomous treasury, adopted J.P. Morgan’s programmable payment feature (formerly Onyx, now Kinexys) in late 2023. Siemens shifted to advanced programmable payments using the blockchain-based ledger, JPM Coin. This allows their bank accounts to autonomously manage cash and execute transactions based on pre-defined rules. Addressing the inefficiency of idle pre-funded balances, Siemens implemented a just-in-time mechanism. Funds are only moved into a specific account the moment a payment is due. If a balance drops below a set threshold, the system autonomously sweeps funds from a central cash pool, enabling Siemens to operate with near-zero balances in local accounts.
“In my experience, the biggest challenge is not technology, but the mindset shift in finance and treasury,” states Heiko Nix, global head of Cash Management and Payments, Siemens. “For almost every technical problem, there is a solution. But simplifying entrenched processes and changing how people think about treasury and its role takes significantly more time and effort. In practice, you do not need to convince everyone at once, what matters is building sufficient momentum across the organization to enable real transformation.”
AI creates a strategic opportunity, argues John Stevens, senior vice president, global head of Capital Markets, Financial Institutions & Working Capital at Kyriba.
“AI can transform working capital management from a retrospective reporting function into a forward-looking control tower,” he says. “Instead of focusing on past events, you can optimize for the future in real time. This is because tasks that previously required manual, analog effort, or demanded analysts to spend long hours consolidating reports, can now occur instantaneously. This real-time capability allows for significantly more sensible and timely decision-making.”
Companies still need to work closely with vendors to build AI safely, he cautions: “We don’t see a single out-of-the-box ‘autonomous’ product replacing the diversity of treasury needs.” The future will be “composable,” he predicts, although it is important to be precise about what this means.
While Kyriba App Studio serves as an extensibility layer for building bespoke integrations and workflows on the Kyriba platform, Stevens stresses that it is not an agent-building toolkit. The agentic AI layer is TAI, which provides Kyriba-developed agents with “a clear human in the loop posture.”
Using a third-party model doesn’t automatically make an AI tool less intelligent and using only in house-models doesn’t automatically make it more intelligent, he argues.
“In treasury, the deciding factor is whether the AI can be used safely and consistently in a regulated environment,” Stevens says. TAI isn’t positioned to avoid external LLMs. “We use a leading external model [Anthropic’s Claude] within a controlled, governed deployment. The difference is the wrapper around the model: strict limits on what data it can access, clear rules on what it’s allowed to do, and a full audit trail of activity.”
Practically, that means the AI can help generate insights—summaries, explanations, flag anomalies, scenario narratives—while anything that could affect payments, liquidity, or risk stays under platform controls, approvals, and policy-driven workflows.
“So it’s not a binary choice between open and sovereign,” he notes. “Some organizations will require sovereign options for policy or jurisdiction reasons, but most regulated treasuries are looking for governed AI: strong models, used in a way that is secure, auditable, and designed for real operational control.”
The potential benefits to treasury have ignited a competitive push for autonomy, complete with aggressive industry targets and a race for “fully autonomous” platforms.
HighRadius recently updated its agentic AI platform with the goal of achieving over 90% automation for the Office of the CFO by 2027. The initiative involves deploying AI agents across six product suites and 20 products within accounts receivable, payables, treasury, close, and consolidation. The release of 186 agentic AI agents, announced last February, moves HighRadius closer to the “fully autonomous platform vision” it first announced in 2019, with cash application and cash forecasting already demonstrating 90% touchless automation.
HighRadius prioritizes “measurable value creation,” which it validates with clients through mutually agreed success criteria (MASC). This value is delivered via automated agents, aiming for 90%-plus automation, and assisted agents, designed to triple user effectiveness.
CEO Sashi Narahari views agentic AI as an interim step toward HighRadius’s goal of ensuring that all its products are “fully autonomous”—defined as 90%-plus touchless end-to-end process—by 2027. Narahari stresses the critical nature of this goal, to the point that failing to achieve it would lead to the company’s demise.
What about mid-tier banks that may not want to jump to a comprehensive transformation? For them, Chakraborty advises that a single, reliable orchestration endpoint is better than many disparate APIs.
“Essential to this is a real time balance plus payment execution API,” he says “exposing positions, limits, and instant movement through a single, resilient interface. That’s what lets AI driven treasury systems act as agents, not just analysts.” Integrating such a process with tokenized deposit movement is also beneficial where possible, he adds.
That said, the journey toward the autonomous treasury, spearheaded by pioneering companies like Siemens and driven by the rapid evolution of agentic AI, is fundamentally redefining corporate finance.
The shift is not merely about incremental efficiency gains but is coming to be seen as a strategic imperative for maximizing yield, securing real-time liquidity, and moving beyond the constraints of legacy systems. Corporate treasurers who are embracing the transition are attracted by a promised tactical roadmap to a future-proofed role. For the financial institutions that serve them, autonomous treasury is an urgent call to align their offerings with a new era of continuous, intelligent, and just-in-time financial control.
