Treasury Teams Shift to Mobile Platforms to Manage Real-Time Cash

The days of treating digital adoption like a point solution are over for treasury teams. Instead, digital transformation increasingly signals a deeper structural shift in how companies, and particularly their CFOs, can manage enterprise money, risk and decision-making.

On Wednesday (April 8), for example, Bank of America reported in an interview with PYMNTS that corporate clients using its CashPro mobile app were approving an average of $38,000 in payments every second, with usage climbing 20% year over year.

This transition reflects a broader recalibration of corporate operations. The acceleration of payment rails, the proliferation of instant settlement systems and the growing complexity of global liquidity management have collectively forced treasury teams to operate more like trading desks than accounting departments.

Against this backdrop, the rise of mobile treasury is about survival in a world where delays can exact measurable financial and strategic costs. As decision cycles compress from days to minutes, the ability to approve payments, monitor cash positions and respond to risk events from anywhere becomes not just convenient, but increasingly essential.

Read also: Can Your Treasury Function Put Money to Work Immediately?

A New Tempo for Corporate Finance

The appeal of mobile in treasury is straightforward: it aligns with the new tempo of financial operations. When liquidity positions can change in real time and high-value payments require immediate authorization, waiting for desktop access introduces friction that organizations can no longer afford.

“They’re under pressure to move faster, but often their internal tools haven’t kept pace,” Jennifer Sanctis, managing director of CashPro at Bank of America, told PYMNTS about treasury teams, pointing to fragmented systems and delayed insight into cash positions. “Speed without visibility creates risk and visibility without speed creates bottlenecks.”

Yet framing mobile as “the future of treasury” may risk oversimplifying a deeper shift. Mobile is not redefining treasury on its own; it is emerging as the most visible surface of a broader re-architecture. The real transformation may lie beneath it in data infrastructure, decision intelligence and control systems.

After all, at its core, modern treasury management depends on four interlocking components: data, intelligence, control and interface.

The data layer aggregates real-time information across accounts, geographies and counterparties, providing a unified view of liquidity. The intelligence layer applies analytics and, increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI), to forecast cash flows, identify anomalies and recommend actions. The control layer governs permissions, approvals and risk parameters, ensuring that decisions align with policy and compliance requirements.

Finally, the interface layer, where mobile resides, presents this information and enables user interaction.

PYMNTS and Visa research has shown that cash-flow certainty is closely linked to confidence in growth. When finance leaders can trust their liquidity position, they are more willing to invest, extend supplier terms and accelerate payroll or vendor payments without fear of shortfalls.

See also: CFOs Become the Source of Truth as Data Sprawls Across B2B

The Desk-Free Treasury Function

The phrase “desk-free” has typically been associated with frontline or field-based workers. Its application to treasury underscores how fundamentally the role is evolving. Finance leaders are no longer confined to offices or even fixed working hours. Instead, they are expected to respond to financial events in real time, regardless of location.

In a July interview with PYMNTS, Albert Acevedo, head of banking and treasury services at Priority, described how treasury operations are being reshaped by faster settlement.

“We are definitely seeing an increase in the velocity of both money movement and decision making,” Acevedo told PYMNTS, noting that treasury teams are being forced to operate at the speed of instant commerce.

This shift has practical implications. A CFO traveling across time zones can approve a critical supplier payment instantly rather than waiting for a morning review. A treasury manager can respond to a sudden liquidity need triggered by market movements without logging into a desktop system. The ability to act immediately reduces friction and, more importantly, reduces risk.

But desk-free does not mean less controlled. In fact, the opposite is often true. Mobile treasury platforms are being designed with embedded controls, multi-factor authentication and audit trails that ensure governance standards are maintained even as access becomes more flexible. The challenge is not maintaining control but redefining how control is exercised in an always-on environment.

In the end, the evolution of treasury is less about devices and more about decisions. Mobile may change how those decisions are made, but the future will be determined by who, and what, guides them.