The AFP Payments Guide series examines payments-related topics that are developed via interviews with treasury professionals. Presented as quarterly case studies with practical applications and tools to help you make informed decisions about key payment services.
Revisiting Your Payments Strategy
Underwritten by PNC
The AFP Payments Guide: Revisiting Your Payments Strategy, underwritten by PNC, examines how how organizations can modernize their payments approach in a rapidly evolving landscape. It highlights key trends like real-time payments and digital innovation, while outlining how treasury and finance teams can improve efficiency, reduce risk, strengthen compliance and better manage cash flow as they prepare for the future of payments.
This Guide:
- Provides a clear framework to assess your current payments strategy and identify improvement opportunities
- Offers guidance on modernizing processes with digital, automated and real-time solutions
- Provides insight on strengthening fraud prevention and compliance in response to evolving risks and regulations
- Outlines how to choose the right payment methods based on cost, speed and risk
- Prepares you for future changes by highlighting emerging trends and technologies in payments
What’s Inside the Guide
The Changing Payments Landscape
Explore the major shifts transforming corporate payments, including the continued decline of paper checks, the rapid growth of digital and real-time payment rails such as RTP and FedNow, and the expansion of treasury technologies like APIs and ERP integrations. Learn how richer data standards like ISO 20022 and real-time processing are reshaping how payments are initiated, tracked and managed.
Why it Matters
Treasury teams now have more choices than ever and understanding these trends is critical to selecting the right payment methods based on cost, speed, reach and risk.
Updating Your Payments Strategy
Modernizing a payments strategy requires organizations to take a structured, proactive approach. It involves responding to evolving regulatory expectations while addressing operational challenges like manual processes, inefficiencies and data inaccuracies. At the same time, organizations must define clear objectives that guide improvements in efficiency, control and scalability, ensuring their payments framework can adapt to changing business and technology demands.
Why it Matters
A proactive update ensures compliance, improves efficiency and positions organizations to adopt new payment methods while minimizing disruption and risk.
Revisiting Your Payments Strategy for Fraud Resilience, Transformation and New Rails
Aug 19 | 3-4:00 PM ET
1.2 CTP/CCM, FPAC or CPE Credits
Implementing an Updated Payments Strategy
Executing a modern payments strategy requires clear, practical steps. Organizations must implement secure payee onboarding, select the right payment methods and embed strong controls such as segregation of duties. At the same time, leveraging fraud prevention tools and aligning internal teams with external partners helps ensure payments are efficient, secure and scalable.
Why it Matters
Execution is where strategies succeed or fail. Strong processes and controls ensure accuracy, reduce fraud risk and drive adoption across the organization.
Anticipating Future Changes
A look ahead to emerging developments in the payments ecosystem, including stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and blockchain-based payment innovations. Learn how these technologies could reshape areas like cross-border payments, automation and liquidity management.
Why it Matters
The payments landscape will continue evolving. Organizations that stay informed and adaptable can capitalize on innovation and avoid being left behind.
Who Should Use This Guide?
- Treasury Leaders and Managers - needing to modernize payment strategies, balance risk and efficiency and align payments with broader liquidity and working capital goals.
- Cash and Liquidity Managers looking to improve timing, certainty and transparency of payments to better manage cash positioning and working capital.
- Chief Financial Officers/CFOs for more visibility into cash flow, cost optimization and risk exposure, while ensuring payments support overall financial strategy and business growth.
- Accounts Payable (AP) Teams wanting to streamline payment processes, reduce manual work and errors and transition from checks to more efficient digital payment methods.
- Accounts Receivable (AR) Teams seeking faster collections, improved reconciliation and better customer payment experiences through modern payment options.