Seven Payments Principles for Treasury in 2025 and Beyond

Vendors expect instant payments. Employees count on timely payments and reimbursements. Meanwhile, regulations are continually changing. Patric Leone, Product Owner, Connectivity, at Fides Treasury Services, discusses seven payment principles treasurers need to apply to meet modern treasury demands and focus on what really matters — the continuing health and future of the business.

Keeping Up with Modern Treasury Trends

Making a payment used to be simple. Now, it’s a daily exercise in compliance, technology, and risk management, and it’s vital that treasurers have the right policies, processes, safeguards, and technology partners in place.

The advent of ISO 20022, real-time payments, purpose codes, AI-driven automation, and digital identity frameworks are all pushing even seasoned treasury professionals to adapt.

Significant regulatory changes are also underway. Verification of Payee (VoP) in Europe will help prevent payment fraud and errors. The mandatory use of structured address data for international payments will enhance anti-money laundering and sanctions screening.

There’s a lot to learn, and a lot of potential for innovation. But in the pursuit of progress, foundational safeguards like secure connectivity and process integrity are often deprioritized.

Seven Treasury Payments Principles

To simplify the process, treasurers can apply the following seven principles to achieve a solid framework for security, compliance, and risk management:

• Balance Self-Service and Centralized Control
  Flexible, self-service sign-off frameworks are valuable for organizations of every size, from small and midsized companies to multinational enterprises. Even if you choose to streamline routine payments, applying a systemwide maximum payout helps maintain strategic oversite and governance across teams, geographies, and business units.
• Implement Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC)
  Whether you are connecting to banks and processing payments through an ERP, TMS, bank portal, or connectivity provider like Fides, role-based permissions ensure compliance, from over-limit approvals by senior staff to restricting BIC and Swift configurations to technical experts.
• Regularly Revalidate Access Rights
  Dynamic global teams demand flexible access models, but also are subject to more frequent organizational and responsibility changes. You should regularly review and update the granular user roles, such as administrators and signers for account setup and approval-only profiles, that you set up as part of your RBAC strategy.
• Keep on Top of Sanctions Screening
  Sanctions lists are constantly evolving, especially in today’s volatile geopolitical climate. To reduce risk and ensure compliance, every payment must be screened every time with no exceptions.
• Use Allow Lists
  Adding accounts to an “allow list” ensures only trusted recipients are paid. To reduce risk of error or fraud, security can be handled via the “four-eyes principle” within a treasury aggregation platform or coded into an ERP or TMS.
• Don’t Rely on AI Alone
  The market is buzzing with new AI-based fraud prevention tools. While these tools have promise to help streamline workflows, we aren’t yet at a point where AI can (or should) operate without a human in the loop.
• Partner with a Connectivity Provider
  Secure, intelligent, and scalable connectivity is not just a technical requirement. It’s the foundation of modern treasury. Look for a connectivity provider with experience across multiple connectivity channels and extensive implementations. A track record of reliability, auditability, and high customer service ratings is a must. In addition to technical know-how, your connectivity partner should act as an expert advisor, including providing guidance on banks, tools like ERPs and TMSs, and treasury trends to help you adapt to change today and in future.

Building a Resilient Treasury

The key strength of treasury is in resilience: protecting the business against risk while enabling growth. Treasury leaders may be experiencing more pressure than ever before — but that also means there are more opportunities to add value. By following key principles designed to ensure secure and compliant payments and working with trusted partners to help implement the right framework and processes, treasurers are establishing a platform for success.