Working Capital Is for Growth, Not Gaps, Visa Finds

This has been an unusual year, one that has rewarded companies ready to move quickly on unexpected opportunities.

As 2025 moves toward its fourth quarter, there’s an enthusiasm for what comes next, Darren Parslow, global head of Visa Commercial Solutions, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

Over the past three years, Visa has commissioned PYMNTS Intelligence to measure the efficiency of working capital for a business sector Visa calls growth corporates. These are the firms with revenues of between $50 million and $1 billion. The research provides a roadmap for issuers and their growth corporate customers to align on working capital options and use cases to help enterprise clients survive and thrive.

“There was a real mind shift in this year’s survey results,” Parslow said of the 2025-2026 Growth Corporates Working Capital Index. “We saw a switch from a more defensive protection mode to more proactive growth-enabled modes.”

This represented the adaptive chief financial officers who managed to tap working capital to turn market volatility into an opportunity for their businesses.

Network Effects and Supply Chain Trust

Study findings indicated that 64% of respondents now use working capital opportunistically for unplanned growth, up from previous years. The study found that 27% of respondents treat working capital as a strategic lever rather than an emergency backstop for cash flow gaps.

“Companies are increasingly using either payables platforms and managing their suppliers on that network or receivables platforms and managing their buyers, but they’re integrating that network together onto systems [in] ways that reduce uncertainty,” Parslow said.

Those integrations, with Visa’s own platforms and issuers, speed up payment or receiving, with better predictability around the capital flows, he said.

Efficiency scores emphasized the point. Working capital efficiency index scores were 11% higher than in 2023, with even historically underperforming firms showing 25% gains. The Working Capital Index measures efficiency against a buyer’s ability to pay their suppliers, a key measure of business health and supplier ecosystem viability. The average index score, on a scale of 0 to 100, was 55 in 2025, with top performers scoring 74.

Three drivers contributed to the improved efficiency, Parslow said. The first was artificial intelligence.

“Almost 6 out of 10 of our growth corporate respondents use either generative AI or agentic AI today,” he said.

Second, integrated payables and receivables systems “allow [them] to make the decisions faster with better data,” he said.

Corporate Cards Take Center Stage

Third, the adaptive CFOs paid invoices earlier in the past year than they did in previous surveys. That gives issuers an opening. Virtual corporate cards have become an essential tool to align buyers and suppliers.

“We were very happy to see the increase in the use of virtual cards,” Parslow said.

Companies deploying virtual cards at three times the rate of last year saved an average of $19 million, about 4% of sales. Those using AI in tandem saved even more.

The findings showed that CFOs and treasurers were not simply tightening belts, he said. They were using digital solutions to free cash and seize growth opportunities. Many were also exploring hybrid financing that combined corporate cards with supply chain finance programs, giving CFOs more levers to smooth liquidity across volatile markets.

Issuer Opportunities and AI Adoption

These developments pointed the way forward for issuers.

“Banks need to understand that speed and flexibility used to be nice-to-haves [but now] are table stakes,” Parslow said, responding to the gap between bank working capital solutions and CFO and treasurer needs. “Access to data and using data in a predictive way and potentially, and most commonly now with AI included, is something that [banks] need to get on board with pretty quickly.”

Parslow said he sees an opportunity for banks to diversify their working capital portfolios to include “on-demand” solutions such as virtual cards.

“Whether that’s cards or other data-driven finance tools, getting predictive forecasting and data in front of [growth corporates] becomes information for them to look … at the entire picture,” he said.

AI and the Changing CFO Office

AI is reshaping the CFO’s office, Parslow said.

“I think it’s already changing it,” he said. “It’s allowed that aggregation of data mixed with predictive AI and agentic AI to really provide good information.”

Beyond automating tasks, AI is beginning to forecast demand and recommend financing moves in real time, enabling CFOs to pivot as conditions shift, a capability Parslow called “a genuine competitive edge.”

Issuers need new benchmarks, he said.

“I do think every issuer and Visa and our competitors needs to espouse KPIs around AI, around providing better data with our financing products to enable that CFO or treasurer to make better decisions,” he said.

He also pointed to user experience.

“KPIs around digital UI and UX are still imperative,” he said.

Why This Matters Now

The Growth Corporates Index showed the shift was broad. Gains were not confined to top performers. Even laggards were moving forward, suggesting that digital tools and practices were providing the much-needed cash visibility necessary to drive better financial outcomes for their businesses.

What emerged from the 2025-2026 index is a picture of finance leaders in motion. Growth corporates are no longer waiting for conditions to stabilize. They are acting, using AI to see further, virtual cards to pay faster and integrated platforms to predict liquidity. They are demonstrating that working capital is not just a cushion against volatility but a lever for seizing growth.

Issuers that can deliver speed, data and measurable outcomes have an opening to become indispensable partners. Those that cannot risk being left behind.

For banks and issuers willing to step up, there is an opportunity, Parslow said. Growth corporates are ready to run, and they are looking for partners that can match their pace.

For banks and issuers ready to deliver on that brief, the index is the roadmap and the reason to move now.

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PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster is one of the world’s leading experts in payments innovation and the digital economy, advising multinational companies and sitting on boards of emerging AI, HealthTech and real-time payments firms. In 2009, she founded PYMNTS.com, a top media platform covering innovation in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Webster is also the author of the NEXT newsletter and a co-founder of Market Platform Dynamics, specializing in driving and monetizing innovation across industries.

Darren Parslow is the global head of Visa Commercial Solutions, which partners with financial institutions and FinTechs to support businesses of all sizes across a variety of verticals.