Payments innovation is driving the future of treasury
As the SEA digital economy accelerates, treasury teams are adopting new technologies to simplify payments, enhance liquidity and support business growth.
Originally published in The Business Times.
Across Southeast Asia (SEA), the shift towards digital payments has reached a new phase. While consumer-facing sectors were early movers, the business-to-business (B2B) landscape is now seeing rapid transformation. Corporate treasury functions, once viewed largely as support function roles, are evolving into strategic partners that drive growth, aided by new technologies.
At the centre of this shift is the drive towards real-time, transparent and embedded payment experiences. In markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, regulators have raised transaction thresholds on real-time payment schemes, opening doors for more B2B usage. Businesses now expect the same seamlessness they experience in consumer apps – whether that means faster settlement, easier reconciliation or embedded financial tools within their platforms.
Treasury functions are adapting quickly. Tools such as application programming interfaces (APIs) now allow treasury teams to achieve real-time visibility into cash positions, make just-in-time payments, and automate liquidity management.
Beyond finance and treasury, new-age technologies are finding their ways into sales, marketing and distribution functions. For example, Standard Chartered recently partnered Castrol to digitise its incentive payouts for the customers. Using QR code-enabled transactions, Castrol was able to deliver instant insurance policies free of charge to motorcyclists who purchase select Castrol products in Indonesia and Malaysia. This paperless initiative reached a large number of bikers, enhancing customer loyalty and supporting a traditionally underbanked and underserved group.
Digitising supply chains
Another area gaining traction is the digitisation of trade and supply chain finance. Traditional document exchange is being replaced by digital supply chain platforms such as Demica and Taulia, which help companies access multiple banks for trade financing, compare quotes, and manage credit more efficiently. In Singapore, SGTraDex – a public-private data infrastructure – further supports this ecosystem by streamlining data exchange across the trade and logistics value chain.
Standard Chartered has taken a client-led approach to working with these supply chain platforms, embedding its capabilities within the ecosystem the client chooses. This flexibility enables treasury teams to access financing options and banking services directly within the tools they already use. It also allows corporates to tap into a broader pool of financial institutions, creating a more competitive and transparent financing landscape.
Powering trade with AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another key enabler in today’s supply chains. Increasingly, treasury and finance teams are exploring how AI can enhance cash flow forecasting, detect fraud, optimise liquidity, and manage counterparty risk. Companies with a 24/7 treasury model – where funds arrive at any hour of the day via instant payments – are beginning to use AI to automate decisions such as overnight investments or payment instructions. While adoption is still in early stages, the potential for AI to leverage institutional data and improve decision-making cannot be disregarded.
As the industry shifts towards real-time treasury, the underlying data infrastructure is also improving. The impending introduction of ISO 20022, a global standard for electronic data exchange between financial institutions and corporate clients, will significantly enhance the quality of payment data. With richer remittance information and structured formats, corporates will be able to further automate reconciliation processes and reduce errors.
Treasury management systems and enterprise resource planning tools are already incorporating this standard to prepare for its rollout in later 2025. The widespread adoption of ISO20022 also means richer and cleaner data will be available for large language models and broader machine learning algorithms to be trained on.
Streamlining payments with blockchain
Blockchain is another area where practical applications are starting to emerge. Standard Chartered recently partnered with Ant International to complete the first blockchain-based SGD and HKD intra-group settlements via Ant’s Whale platform. This marks a step forward in enabling “always-on” treasury operations for multinational corporates. The Whale platform uses blockchain, encryption and AI to streamline liquidity movements between global accounts.
We have also invested in Partior, a blockchain-based interbank clearing and settlement network founded by Temasek, DBS and JPMorgan. Through Partior, Standard Chartered has completed euro-denominated cross-border transactions between Hong Kong and Singapore. These partnerships reflect our broader commitment to reshaping the infrastructure of cross-border payments.
Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in digital solutions and infrastructure to support the evolving business needs of our customers. Earlier this year, for instance, we launched SC PrismFX, a cross-currency transactional FX suite. It provides corporate and institutional clients with automated FX services in over 130 currencies across 40 markets, offering consistent pricing, transparency, and seamless integration into their payment processes.
As treasurers take on more strategic roles, our goal is to help them navigate complexity by focusing on their core challenges, whether it’s improving cash visibility, reducing friction in payments, or enabling faster access to working capital. By working closely with clients through co-creation and human-centred design, we can identify the right technologies for their specific needs and deliver meaningful outcomes. Digital transformation is no longer limited to customer interfaces or front-end innovation, but now spans the entire value chain. The future of treasury is real-time, data-rich, and more interconnected than ever. At Standard Chartered, we are committed to helping our clients move toward this future with confidence.
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