Real Time Payments, Settlements

The pace of change in technology and market infrastructure is accelerating, driven by the shift toward an always-on financial ecosystem that never shuts down for weekends or holidays. Soon, securities will be bought and sold, trade finance executed, and risk managed continuously every day. For organizations and their treasurers, this demands more than a simple upgrade. Real fiscal changes are needed to maintain momentum.

As payments and settlements change in real time, liquidity can increase at any time of the day. This creates new demands on the treasury function: it increases timing risks, increases the cost of idle cash and forces faster decisions.

At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic AI are raising both expectations and capabilities around automation, accountability and intelligent execution, accelerating the move away from traditional treasury operating models.

Treasury teams don’t need to make changes overnight. But there are clear benefits to building a foundation for intraday liquidity management today. Doing so helps organizations connect with emerging trends 24/7/365, helping them optimize liquidity, manage risk and capture new opportunities.

Why the legacy end-of-day treasury model must change

Historically, treasury management has revolved around highly structured daily processes as payments occurred through checks, Automated Clearing House (ACH), and other batch-based systems. Liquidity management was therefore designed based on predictable settlement windows, cut-off times and end-of-day optimization.

In a typical cycle, securities were settled in the morning, payroll and supplier payments were made throughout the day, and excess cash flowed between accounts to cover shortfalls or maximize investment opportunities. By the close of business, treasury teams sought a defined status: collections accounts at zero, accounts payable funded, investments maximum and overdraft minimum.

This model persisted for decades even among large multinational companies operating across multiple institutions, currencies and jurisdictions. Although the complexity varied, the underlying philosophy remained the same as the payment systems themselves operated within fixed business-day cycles. So treasury teams focused on end-of-day positions rather than continuous intraday visibility.

These models are now beginning to change – and in a world where money can move at any time, treasurers need greater visibility into the state and flow of liquidity throughout the day. In response, real-time cash forecasting is increasingly becoming a fundamental treasury capability, enabling organizations to anticipate liquidity needs, optimize funding and investment decisions, and maintain control as cash positions evolve in real-time.

Intraday liquidity management has become important

Several factors are increasing the need for continuous liquidity management. Most important is the gradual expansion of operating hours in both payments and capital markets, which has increased the need for companies to monitor, forecast and mobilize liquidity throughout the day.

This change creates new timing risks and operational challenges for treasury teams. Even organizations operating on traditional infrastructure can receive or send funds outside of normal treasury hours, as the real-time payments rail continues to operate on weekends and holidays.

For example, a company receiving funds over the weekend may find that liquidity remains idle until Monday morning if there are no automated liquidity structures or rules. Equally, if the situation is not continuously monitored, unexpected intraday payment activity can create funding gaps, overdraft requirements or operational challenges. In addition to the direct costs of intraday overdrafts, insufficient liquidity can result in delays or failures in payments, potentially disrupting suppliers, customers and broader supply-chain activity.

In parallel, regulators and central banks are placing greater emphasis on intraday liquidity risk – encouraging banks to manage balance-sheet resources more efficiently and, in some cases, pass the associated costs on to customers.

Building infrastructure for sustainable treasury

In practice, the transition to continuous liquidity management is complex and requires access to faster payment rails. Treasury management systems (TMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms and liquidity structures must evolve to provide greater real-time visibility and automation.

Compounding the challenge, organizations do not want treasury operations to be staffed continuously outside of normal business hours. This means that application programming interfaces (APIs), automated sweeps and rules-based liquidity structures are becoming fundamental banking capabilities.

The next logical extension is agentic AI, where AI-powered agents analyze information, make intelligent decisions and act autonomously, helping organizations manage increasing complexity without round-the-clock human oversight.

As treasury operations become more automated, new forms of digital currency could further enhance these capabilities. For example, tokenized deposits, smart contracts and digital payments infrastructure can enable a more programmable approach to real-time treasury and liquidity management.

However, these changes are unlikely to occur through wholesale replacement of existing infrastructure. Traditional models, 24/7/365 environments and emerging digital asset infrastructures are expected to co-exist for an extended period – reflecting the different pace of modernization of organizations. Treasury operating models will therefore become more hybrid, requiring companies to seamlessly manage liquidity, payments and risk across multiple environments. Interoperability, in turn, will become important.

Therefore, for financial institutions, the challenge extends beyond enabling always-on payments to helping customers operate across multiple liquidity environments with an integrated view of cash, risk and funding. This requires interoperable infrastructure that connects traditional treasury models with real-time payments rails and emerging digital capabilities.

BNY’s approach recognizes this need: supporting the traditional treasury operating model while remaining connected to existing infrastructure, building technology for real-time payments and settlements, intraday liquidity management and token payment capabilities. The aim is not to force change to any one model, but to help customers drive change with greater flexibility, visibility and continuity.

From reporting to operational strategy

The implication is not immediate revolution, but gradual evolution. The priority for treasury teams is to begin building the foundations that will enable them to materialize these developments.

The benefits are obvious: organizations that can more accurately forecast cash positions, automate liquidity movements and optimize funding decisions, reduce inactive balances, reduce funding costs and operate with smaller liquidity buffers. Those who start developing these capabilities today will not only reap these benefits sooner, but will also be better positioned to seize the opportunities created by a more connected, always-on financial ecosystem. Read more about the rapid shift toward intraday forecasting and liquidity management in BNY’s new e-book Payments Without Pause: The Journey to a 24/7/365 Treasury and Working Capital Ecosystem.