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What to Watch in 2025. Welcome back! NeuGroup Insights is kicking off 2025 with a look at some of the key treasury and finance themes NeuGroup founder and CEO Joseph Neu will be watching closely this year. It’s no surprise to those of us who know him that Joseph’s list is weighted toward technology that is transforming treasury and bringing the future of finance forward.
But in keeping with our belief that technology exists to serve societies and help individuals thrive, his first entry concerns the people NeuGroup exists to serve: our members. Here, then, are a half dozen top themes for 2025:
- Role expansions. "I will be watching how the various roles of our members continue to expand and what impact the finance professionals in these expanded roles will have on the overall performance of their organizations."
- AI and the tech stack. "I’ll be tracking the impact of so-called AI agents and layers on the tech tools and software employed by treasury. How will the morphing of SaaS solutions play out in the tech stacks of treasury and the rest of the Office of the CFO? If the treasury management system is no longer the principal database for treasury, for example, will companies need a comprehensive TMS anymore?"
- Dashboard evolution. "How will dashboards that are automated using data repositories evolve in line with the changes outlined above, starting with AI-empowered prompts and conversational engagement?"
- America First implications. "How will the America First priorities of Trump 2.0 impact the global financial system and how multinational corporations support their businesses globally, especially regarding cross-border flows and traditional frameworks deployed to manage them?"
- SG&A transformations. "Amid those policy priorities, how will transformation projects respond to continue to scale SG&A functions and adapt them to real-time transaction and data flows?"
- Banking as a Service. "Will BaaS evolve to benefit treasurers? Traditional banks and asset managers will increasingly support the fintech solutions more agile firms create. I’ll be watching, for example, blockchains with stablecoins as well as the pools of private capital that are supplementing their own capital/capital raising efforts."
Looking forward, looking back. This week’s email also looks forward by looking back at 2024 and 10 of the best posts produced by NeuGroup Insights, including a podcast exploring the benefits of bringing tech experts on to treasury teams. Indeed, like Joseph’s list, this one features a healthy dose of content exploring how NeuGroup members are making use of technology—and what some want from AI.
- There are also stories on more tech companies paying dividends, what high-potential treasury talent wants to learn, investing corporate cash, a different approach to buying insurance and more.
Sign up for this email here, and subscribe to the Strategic Finance Lab podcast on Apple or Spotify.
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TIS helped BMS treasury standardize and automate forecasting. The treasurer wants AI to make the tool even better.
Bristol Myers Squibb treasurer Sandra Ramos-Alves loves automation and is a self-described "strong believer" in tapping the expertise of fintechs whose solutions can help BMS transform treasury. TIS is one of those fintechs and its CashOptix tool—which includes cash forecasting capabilities—has enabled BMS to produce an aligned view of cash flow from one source of truth used by everyone across the globe.
- Ms. Ramos-Alves says the TIS implementation is a fundamental part of a broader transformation that began in 2021 focusing on people, processes and technology during which the BMS treasury team has embraced automation and tackled more than 50 projects.
- "This is just one of the many things that we’re working on in terms of the evolution of treasury and building a treasury of the future—TIS is just part of the solution for us," she said at a recent session of NeuGroup for Life Sciences Treasurers.
To read the full story, please click here.
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Bechtel’s Dan Degagne and fintech specialist Shayly Nguyen share treasury’s approach to integrating tech in treasury.
Breaking down traditional barriers between finance and technology teams is transforming the way treasury departments tackle digital transformation initiatives. At Bechtel Corporation, assistant treasurer Dan Degagne embraced this approach by recruiting fintech expert Shayly Nguyen from the company’s IT team to join treasury, significantly enhancing efficiency and productivity.
- In the latest Strategic Finance Lab podcast you can listen to now on Apple and Spotify, NeuGroup’s Justin Jones speaks with Mr. Degagne and Ms. Nguyen about how hiring someone with a technology background—rather than experience in finance—has improved treasury’s day-to-day operations through increased automation.
Hiring for tech, teaching finance. "We had a lot of tech initiatives we wanted to implement," Mr. Degagne explains. "But they just kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed because some of these things, especially in a large organization, are really complex to deploy and implement."
- That’s where Ms. Nguyen came in. After being struck by her drive and resourcefulness when collaborating on an internal IT project, Mr. Degagne realized that her passion for technology, coupled with a growing interest in finance, made her an ideal fit for his team.
To read the full story, please click here.
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A majority of tech firms in NeuGroup’s Capital Structure Survey pay dividends and more are considering the move.
Fast-growing technology companies historically pumped profits back into the business to fuel more expansion. Most shunned paying dividends to shareholders, a use of capital seen as a sign of slowing growth. But the tide started turning in 2024 for Big Tech, with Google parent Alphabet, Facebook parent Meta and Salesforce all initiating dividend payouts.
- "We landed on a modest dividend and for us that opened new tools for returning capital," said one NeuGroup member at a company that initiated a dividend this year after what they said was "a long journey."
- Smaller tech companies are taking notice. A member of NeuGroup for Tech Treasurers said, "We’re taking a fresh look at our share buyback strategy, but with mega-techs recently issuing dividends, that’s worth the conversation."
NeuGroup’s Capital Structure Survey—conducted in mid-2024 and sponsored by Standard Chartered—reveals it’s a conversation that has already taken place at a majority of tech firms. As the chart above shows, more than half (53%) of the respondents pay dividends. (That aligns closely with the S&P 500 Index, where 54% of all information technology companies pay dividends.)
To read the full story, please click here.
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As NeuGroup members unite to lobby banks, digital signer portals from Citi and J.P. Morgan create buzz.
Frustration with the inefficiencies of tracking and updating signers on bank accounts has pushed some members of NeuGroup for Global Cash and Banking to form a subgroup to present a united front in asking banks for digital solutions and standards that will provide real-time visibility to signer data (Step 1) and, ideally, make it possible for that data to flow directly into treasury management systems (TMSs) and other corporate databases (Step 2).
- "How can we collectively tell the banks we’re done waiting for this to get handled over the next 10 years, and to put the resources to it?" one member asked during a December session. "I’d rather have banks focus on that in the near future, rather than talk about AI."
- The good news is that some banks, including Citi and J.P. Morgan, are in different stages of offering digital signer portals and platforms to corporates. Members participating in rollouts of these solutions are sharing information on their capabilities and the experience of working with the banks to improve the offerings.
- NeuGroup is committed to facilitating dialogue between banks and corporates to address this and other issues with electronic bank account management (eBAM). Existing NeuGroup members who are interested in participating or getting more information can reach out to peer group leader Julie Zawacki-Lucci via email.
To read the full story, please click here.
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In one year, GE HealthCare achieved a treasury transformation, reducing the tech stack and onboarding a new team.
When GE HealthCare was tasked with spinning off from GE, the treasury team saw an opportunity to create a new organization constructed with a "fit-for-purpose" approach that included rebuilding the technology stack with off-the-shelf solutions that accomplish specific tasks—rather than the far-reaching, customized tech tools used pre-spin-off.
- In 12 months, GE HealthCare implemented nine new technology systems—down from 36 legacy solutions—and won an Adam Smith Award for Best Treasury Transformation Project. The spin was completed in January 2023.
- At a NeuGroup treasurers symposium sponsored by FIS, global treasury operations leader Aditi Agarwal, accompanied by assistant treasurer Peter Claus-Landi—two former employees of GE Capital who helped build treasury at the new company—dove into the keys to success and achieving both efficiency and effectiveness.
- "If you want to predict the future, you need to create it, and we created our future for ourselves," Ms. Agarwal said. "We aimed to build something that wasn’t a Ferrari but not a minivan either—just fit for purpose."
To read the full story, please click here.
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Feeling pressure to cut costs, FX leaders are leveraging tools to determine which currency pairs to hedge and when.
Reducing the cost of FX hedging requires a multifaceted approach that integrates technology, data analytics and collaboration across various business functions. With the right strategy and tools, companies can mitigate risks effectively while reducing expenses in an increasingly volatile global marketplace.
- At last month’s summit meeting of NeuGroup for Foreign Exchange sponsored by Chatham Financial, FX managers emphasized the need for hedge optimization tools like ChathamDirect and AtlasFX to streamline hedging processes and improve decision-making.
- "Tech helps you get smarter and make better decisions, whether it’s reducing VaR (value at risk) or netting exposures," Chatham Financial’s Greg Deveney said in the meeting. "Using models and having a really good grasp on data is super important."
To read the full story, please click here.
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A NeuGroup survey reveals younger professionals want core treasury skills and most learn from on-the-job experience.
As treasury professionals look to enhance their impact, core skills that drive strategic value are in high demand. While formal training programs are limited, many team members are finding success through hands-on experience, mentorship and cross-functional projects.
- In a new survey, members of NeuGroup for High Potentials—which brings together early career and developing finance leaders—say the top skills they’re aiming to sharpen are cash flow forecasting, FX risk management and financial risk management (see chart below).
- "Many early career treasury professionals are trying to build a strong foundation of technical skills and develop an expertise that allows them to impact important metrics for the company and ultimately position themselves to progress to strategic roles in the organization," said NeuGroup’s Kyle Bockus, who leads the group.
To read the full story, please click here.
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Using an ERM framework for insurance transformed one company’s decision-making and coverage strategies.
Faced with rising premiums and pressure to optimize costs, one NeuGroup member refocused his team’s insurance strategy around the company’s framework for enterprise risk management (ERM). That enabled more thoughtful, data-driven decisions about spending and coverage. The key objective, the member said, shifted from "Do we need this policy?" to "Is it worth the cost?"
- "ERM helped us understand where to allocate resources," the member said in a recent meeting of NeuGroup for Insurance and Risk. "Now we can calculate the return on investment for decisions like buying property insurance or installing sprinklers, run a sensitivity analysis, and figure out where these actions should rank compared to other investments in the company."
To read the full story, please click here.
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A sampling of sentiments about short-term cash investments as yields respond to Fed rate cut.
The Federal Reserve’s 50-basis-point rate cut last week is generating plenty of buzz among treasury teams responsible for investing excess cash who have made the most of short-term rates topping 5% following years of yields near zero. The beginning of rate cuts raises the question for some cash investment managers of when to start extending duration.
- More context: After the Fed started raising rates in 2022, an inverted yield curve meant it didn’t pay to take on additional risk by extending the duration of fixed-income portfolios. That’s why most corporations opted to stay very short.
- "Organizations have remained heavily invested in ultrashort, highly liquid investments," Matt Thomas, who leads NeuGroup for Cash Investments, told us last week. "They’ve been prepared to start to shift holdings for the past six to nine months."
- But some investors didn’t wait. In taking the pulse of NeuGroup members in the wake of the Fed’s first rate cut in five years, NeuGroup Insights encountered a member who took a different tact, one he says has paid off.
To read the full story, please click here.
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Fewer capital injections and intercompany loans to subs, more frequent dividends, and local borrowing helps ring-fence risk and reduce interdependency in markets where corporates face restricted currencies and geopolitical threats. Partnering with global banks with deep knowledge of each country’s regulations and risks can pay off.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict that erupted in 2022 shocked treasury and finance leaders into a heightened awareness of geopolitical risk, a shock compounded by the aftereffects of a pandemic that had exposed overreliance by corporations on global supply chains running through China. War in the Middle East and rising tensions between the U.S. and China over the past year have only added to the pressure on financial risk managers to seek new ways to mitigate threats that are almost impossible to forecast.
"The problem with geopolitical risk is there’s no way to predict what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen and what the reaction is going to be," a member of NeuGroup for Mega-Cap Treasurers said recently. "So, it’s completely random, arbitrary and unpredictable. It’s probably the hardest thing that we’re dealing with."
To read the full story, please click here.
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Our bank treasury group will explore how the Federal Reserve’s Discount Window—a liquidity option that provides banks access to short-term loans—can be integrated into funding strategies. Tom Fitzpatrick, VP at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, will discuss the window's role in contingency plans, operational processes and the new Discount Window Direct application.
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Lyft CFO Erin Brewer will join representatives from Matthews South for a fireside chat on using an advisor for convertible debt issuance and hedging. The session will explore key strategies for optimizing preparation and execution, from evaluating funding alternatives to timing the market, mitigating dilution and managing banking relationships.
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In this joint session of NeuGroup for Growth-Tech Treasurers and NeuGroup for Technology Advancement, members will discuss the range of treasury management system options available, weighing the value-for-money of ERP treasury modules, full TMS platforms and so-called TMS Lite solutions that require a lighter lift. The discussion will cover key decision criteria, system capabilities and members’ recent experiences with vendors and solutions—including Kyriba, S4Hana modules, GTreasury and more.
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