CFO Optimism Will Fuel Demand for Working Capital

The business environment may be volatile, but CFOs are signaling confidence about the months ahead. That renewed sense of optimism, highlighted in new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, comes at a pivotal moment as PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa prepare to release new findings on growth corporates and how they are using working capital to seize opportunities.

Working capital is often the difference between an opportunity identified and an opportunity realized. For growth-oriented companies, access to liquidity can be the bridge that connects optimism with tangible business results. The latest readings suggest CFOs are increasingly willing to put that capital to work.

Optimism on the Rise

The CFO Survey, released Sept. 24, in joint findings with the Fed Banks and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business reported that “the outlook for the U.S. economy among financial decision-makers improved somewhat in the third quarter of 2025, as uncertainty declined. While tariffs remain a pressing concern, the fall in uncertainty has been an important factor in lifting confidence.”

Uncertainty, which had been the second-highest concern earlier in the year, fell to seventh in the latest survey. That decline has allowed CFOs to refocus on growth, even as trade policy and inflation remain risks.

The responses from the CFOs found that firms projecting tariff impacts tended to be less optimistic overall. Still, the broader trend points toward a rebound in expectations. Those unconcerned about tariffs projected higher GDP growth of 2% compared to 1.6% among firms worried about tariffs. Similarly, firms less burdened by trade concerns forecast stronger revenue and employment growth into 2025.

That divergence underscores how sensitive outlooks remain to external costs, but it also reveals a consistent appetite to prepare for expansion. The share of firms that increased spending in the past three months grew to 40.9%, up from 36.3% in the previous quarter.

That is where working capital solutions come into focus. For CFOs, optimism alone is not sufficient. Turning positive forecasts into real-world expansion requires liquidity buffers that allow for investment, hiring and the absorption of cost shocks.

Looking Toward Liquidity

In a PYMNTS interview that also ran Wednesday, Darren Parslow, global head of Visa Commercial Solutions, explained the mindset shift around how companies are thinking about working capital. “We’re seeing that CFOs want to use working capital more strategically,” he told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

“They are viewing it less as a safety net and more as a tool to drive growth.” Much more will be revealed with the next edition of the Working Capital Index, which tracks how corporates are using advanced tools to optimize cash flow.

For banks and FinTechs serving growth corporates — generally firms with revenues between $50 million and $1 billion — this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is removing friction: Too often, access to external working capital still requires manual steps, opaque pricing, or fragmented user experiences across payables, receivables and treasury systems.

The opportunity is to close that gap with solutions that clear invoices faster, stretch payable terms without straining suppliers, and provide real-time visibility into cash positions. Those are precisely the features CFOs lean on when they are preparing to invest in sales capacity, new products or geographic expansion.

The CFO survey from the central bank strengthens the case for building those capabilities now. That can mean earlier invoice payments to secure supply, dynamic discounts that fatten margins, or standing up virtual card programs that give business units controlled, auditable spending power without sacrificing central visibility.

Each of those choices relies on ready access to working capital. And each one is easier to execute when banks and platforms arm CFOs with data, decisioning and rails that work together. The strategic use of liquidity is becoming a defining feature of the growth corporate playbook. Optimism provides the fuel, but working capital is the engine that drives execution.