The roles of chief financial officers and treasurers are being redefined in a volatile environment where decisions must be made faster and with greater precision.
Finance leaders today face a deluge of data from disparate systems, markets and geographies. The challenge is not only interpreting that flood but transforming it into actionable recommendations that can guide the enterprise.
Bank of America is aiming to meet that need with its latest CashPro App enhancement, Capital Markets Insights, announced Monday (Sept. 29). By embedding artificial intelligence (AI) tools into its widely used digital banking platform, the bank is extending its reach from treasury operations deeper into the capital markets decisions that underpin corporate finance strategy.
Tom Durkin, global head of product for CashPro in Global Payment Solutions at Bank of America, said the focus has been on working backward from client pain points.
“There’s a lot that the finance organization holistically has to understand,” he told PYMNTS in tandem with the launch. “They look for … more insights and recommendations … but they’re also looking for that in a secure place. Security’s very top of mind for CFO and treasurers.”
A Mobile Platform Clients Already Trust
CashPro is already a fixture in the daily lives of corporate finance teams, used by more than 40,000 clients worldwide to manage treasury, trade and credit operations. Its mobile version has become a trusted touch point.
“We were delivering capabilities for payment approval,” Durkin said. “We hit $1 trillion on the app last year … so the usage of the app in the treasurer’s life has significantly increased.”
That high baseline of trust is why Bank of America has chosen to expand its functionality, Durkin said. The new module consolidates market statistics, issuance activity and secondary bond pricing data into a single interface. Previously, treasurers would have had to assemble those inputs through emails, phone calls or multiple third-party channels.
AI at the Core
At the heart of the new release is the AI-driven Trade Evaluation Driver (TED), which processes macro variables to create an objective score that indicates market conditions for new investment grade issuance. But Durkin said the use of AI extends across the treasury landscape.
“I have not met a treasurer that does not want efficiency in automation,” he said. “There is huge pressure on finding those different ways … whether it’s reports, feeding data into the client’s ERP system to improve reconciliation … it’s all about efficiency and automation, and that’s how … any AI solution we will look at [is] from the client’s lens in terms of driving a benefit.”
Forecasting has also been reshaped by AI.
“That’s a critical component in terms of the treasurer daily function in terms of understanding cash position,” such as scenario analysis, he said.
From Cost Center to Strategic Lever
Foreign exchange provides one illustration of how insights can transform operations into strategy. The markets are volatile, and benefits can be gleaned from pinpointing and guaranteeing conversions, Durkin said. Historically viewed as a cost center, FX management can now be used as a strategic tool, mitigating risks and unlocking efficiencies that contribute directly to the bottom line.
Treasurers’ responsibilities are expanding.
“The role is moving from a daily function in terms of what I would call transactional to a strategic one,” Durkin said. “That’s where we see an opportunity for CashPro in terms of delivering more personalized, proactive, predictive insights so that the treasurers are able to harness data and make recommendations to the CFO.”
Security Insights as a Differentiator
Security is a daily necessity and a strategic priority, Durkin said. With the new functionality, treasurers can verify whether their organizations have the right approvals, fraud protections and security preferences in place.
“One thing that we’re very excited about are our security insights within CashPro,” he said. “The ability to go into the platform and see whether … you have the right level of approvals for certain transactions over a certain dollar amount. Do you have all the appropriate fraud protection options that your bank may be offering? Those are examples in the broader security space where the opportunity to take advantage needs to be ‘now.’”
This integration of proactive recommendations, internal checks and peer comparisons underscores Bank of America’s positioning of CashPro as a tool and a service channel.
“We’ve got the CashPro platform recommending, providing insights, and then you’ve got our relationship team,” Durkin said. “It’s the best of high tech, high touch.”
Elevating the CFO and Treasurer
Ultimately, the significance of Capital Markets Insights lies in how it elevates the finance function. Treasurers are no longer only guardians of liquidity; they are becoming advisers on growth opportunities and capital strategy.
“The treasurer’s holding the digital assets of the company … and also setting the stage for where the growth opportunity lies, [such as] ‘What is the next potential acquisition? How do we fund that acquisition?’” Durkin said. “That’s a combination of better discipline around short-term forecasting and long-term optimization of working capital.”
As AI-driven insights scale, the CFO’s office is positioned as a strategic partner to the enterprise, armed with predictive tools and secure data flows that were once unimaginable.
Source: https://www.pymnts.com/