James Richardson, Global Head of Solutions, Bottomline
Business and finance leaders are navigating a tricky landscape. In today’s environment of trade tensions, inflationary pressure, and looming recession risk, businesses may see cash inflows ebb, working capital tighten, and foreign exchange (FX) volatility erode value unexpectedly.
Successfully managing risk in the face of these economic headwinds, particularly risk that involves payments and liquidity, demands more than legacy controls. Businesses need dynamic, flexible, responsive risk frameworks that have forward-looking analysis, live, real-time monitoring, and swift remediation all working in tandem.
But how does a business build that into its operations? And how can leaders ensure that resilience lasts for the long term?
Digitise and automate treasury operations
Automating and reimagining a function as central as treasury goes beyond designated point solutions for reconciliation or compliance – it means unifying cash management, forecasting, and risk oversight within a single, automated platform. Treasury automation can help protect against market ups and downs by ensuring teams have access to all relevant financial data in one platform.
By aggregating real-time balances and business transaction data into intuitive dashboards, teams can eliminate manual consolidation and free up the hours they currently spend chasing spreadsheets from various systems.
Next-generation treasury tools can also harness AI and machine learning to surface trends, stress-test scenarios, and simulate ‘what if’ conditions, such as supplier cost hikes or sudden FX swings, so that finance leaders can visualise potential impacts on their cash position. Treasury teams can set automated alerts for threshold breaches, ensuring any deviation from expected cash flow triggers an immediate review and solution.
Although rolling out new technology can seem counterintuitive when budgets tighten, the payoff is clear: instant visibility into cash movements, improved liquidity planning, and faster decisions that guard against surprises.
Embed operational resilience at every level
Today’s payment solutions are deeply interlinked – and so are the risks. From shifting regulations to sophisticated cyber-threats, businesses need to stay compliant, manage responsibilities properly, and always keep a close eye on core operations. Such vigilance means establishing cross-functional risk committees, maintaining up-to-date incident response playbooks, and automating compliance checks. Regular resilience drills, where teams simulate system outages or data breaches, ensure that policies are battle-tested and employees know their roles under pressure.
Additionally, aligning risk programmes with anticipated government policies, such as industrial strategies or mandates, can strengthen a business’s risk stance. By mapping risk architecture to government innovation goals, organisations can unlock grants and R&D support while keeping their payments platforms compliant and agile. This might involve working with legal teams to interpret new regulations or partnering with tech vendors for built-in updates.
Fortify fraud defences end-to-end
With fraud constituting a significant portion of corporate crime, emerging legislation such as the UK’s new ‘Failure to Prevent Fraud’ offence raises the stakes for financial accountability. Under these new rules, some businesses might face criminal liability if they can’t demonstrate strong anti-fraud measures.
To meet these obligations, businesses must shift from reactive checks to proactive, integrated fraud management. This involves centralising payment workflows, accelerating invoice and settlement processes, and rolling out real-time monitoring in high-risk areas – particularly payment gateways and customer-facing applications.
Techniques such as behavioural analytics can flag unusual transaction patterns, such as sudden increases in payment volumes, and prompt instant verification checks. By breaking down silos across finance, IT, and compliance functions, organisations can detect suspicious patterns earlier, respond swiftly, and reduce their exposure. Continuous staff training ensures that every team member acts as a frontline defender.
Cultivate a culture of risk awareness
Innovative technology and clear processes are vital, but employees remain a business’s strongest asset. Creating a risk-aware culture starts with clear communication. This includes regular updates from finance leadership, easy-to-access risk training, and incentives for teams who identify and escalate potential threats. Building risk considerations into daily workflows ensures employees stay vigilant, and gathering feedback from end users can surface hidden pain points in the payments process, offering opportunities to tighten controls or streamline steps.
Effective risk management in payments is no longer about set-in-stone policies; it’s a continuous and organisation-wide commitment. When treasury teams automate data collection, they gain the foresight to anticipate cash pressures. When operational resilience is built into every system, businesses can withstand disruptions. When fraud defences are woven through every transaction, businesses remain protected against threats. By embracing these pillars, organisations can transform their payments infrastructure from a vulnerability into a strategic asset.
