The Future of Treasury Payments: Real-Time, API-Led, Interoperable

Treasury has always been about precision, ensuring funds move accurately, on time, and in compliance with global standards. But in a digital-first world, the very infrastructure of payments is transforming.

From real-time payment rails to API-led connectivity and interoperability initiatives like SWIFT gpi and ISO 20022, the payments landscape is shifting faster than ever. For buy-side firms, these changes offer new ways to streamline operations, enhance liquidity visibility, and reduce settlement risk. At the same time, they expose the limits of legacy, siloed systems.

Treasury leaders must ask: Are we ready for payment workflows defined by speed, connectivity, and standardization?

The Shift to Real-Time Payments

Around the world, real-time payment (RTP) networks are rapidly becoming the new normal. From FedNow in the U.S. to Faster Payments in the U.K., UPI in India, and TIPS in Europe, financial markets are laying down rails that allow money to move instantly, 24/7.

For treasury teams, this represents both a breakthrough and a disruption:

– Continuous Liquidity Management: Firms can no longer rely on end-of-day reconciliations or batch settlements. Treasury must forecast cash positions on a rolling, real-time basis.

– Evolving Operational Workflows: Approvals, reconciliations, and validations need to keep pace with instant settlement cycles. Manual processes can’t keep up in a 24/7 environment.

– Lag Risk: If counterparties are on real-time rails but a fund is not, payment mismatches and liquidity blind spots will increase.

The key takeaway: Real-time payments bring agility—but only for firms prepared to rewire workflows accordingly.

APIs: The Connectivity Backbone

APIs are redefining how treasury connects with custodians, fund administrators, and banking partners. While firms previously relied on batch file transfers and overnight SWIFT messages, APIs now enable real-time integration across systems.

For buy-side firms, API-led connectivity offers several advantages:

– Instant Access to Balances and Transactions: Treasury teams can see available cash and pending flows in real time.

– Straight-Through Processing: APIs allow trade and payment instructions to move seamlessly among OMS, TMS, custodians, and banks, reducing manual handoffs and human errors.

– Simplified Reconciliation: Automated, API-fed reconciliations eliminate hours of manual comparisons across siloed files.

– Scalability: API-first architectures make it easier to integrate new counterparties or systems without lengthy implementation cycles.

In short, APIs enable treasury to become not just faster but more connected and adaptive.

Interoperability: SWIFT gpi, ISO 20022, and Beyond

At the same time, global payments are being reshaped by interoperability initiatives designed to create consistency and transparency across markets.

– SWIFT gpi improves cross-border payment speed and tracking, enabling treasury teams to follow funds in-flight much like a package delivery.

– ISO 20022 introduces a common, data-rich messaging format, standardizing payment communications worldwide and improving reconciliation.

– Emerging digital rails, including blockchain-based settlement networks and tokenized assets, signal future possibilities for faster, programmable payments.

For asset managers operating across jurisdictions, these initiatives are not optional. They are essential to reducing friction, ensuring compliance, and maintaining confidence with global counterparties.

The Risk of Fragmented Payment Infrastructures

Despite these innovations, many buy-side firms are still using legacy, fragmented systems. FX payments, securities settlements, and cash wires are often processed by different platforms and teams.

The consequences are significant:

– Duplicated counterparty records leading to mismatches and failed settlements
– Manual reconciliations across custodians and administrators consume valuable time
– Workflow breaks between OMS, TMS, and payment gateways are increasing operational risk.
– Blind spots in liquidity occur as siloed systems prevent a consolidated, real-time view of cash.

As payments accelerate and infrastructures modernize, these gaps will only widen, exposing firms to even higher costs, delays, and settlement risk.

How IVP Can Help Firms Adapt

IVP Cash Management is purpose-built to meet the demands of this new era. Designed for the buy-side, it unifies payments, securities, and FX settlements into a single, streamlined platform.

Key differentiators include:

– Real-time and API-enabled: Direct API integrations with banks and custodians allow real-time visibility and seamless connectivity

– SWIFT and ISO 20022 ready: Full support for current and future global standards ensures firms remain compliant and interoperable

– Payments-in-flight visibility: Treasury teams can monitor settlement status across counterparties and geographies in real time

– Validated SSI golden record: A single source of truth eliminates mismatches and reduces settlement failures

– Straight-through processing (STP): End-to-end automation across asset classes reduces manual handoffs and operational risk

– Mobile approvals: Secure, on-the-go authorization ensures treasury operations don’t stall

Rewiring Treasury for a Digital-First Ecosystem

Payments are moving faster, becoming more connected and increasingly standardized. For buy-side treasury teams, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity.

Firms that thrive will be those that embrace real-time payments, API connectivity, and interoperability standards not as isolated upgrades, but as part of a holistic transformation of settlement workflows.

With IVP Cash Management, asset managers can confidently rewire the treasury function, breaking free from silos and positioning payments as a strategic enabler of efficiency, resilience, and competitive advantage.