Key Takeaways:

  • Adyen, a Dutch fintech company, announced on Thursday a new tool aimed at unifying corporate collections, payments, and liquidity management on a single platform, addressing the fragmented banking systems and the need for faster money movement faced by finance teams.
  • The company said its new product, Intelligent Money Movement, is designed for businesses handling large-scale, complex transactions, including insurers, retail marketplaces, online travel agencies, and mobility and delivery platforms. Early adopters include Etsy and Expedia Group.
  • "Over the past few years, the CFO's office has had to deal with rapid changes and uncertainty driven by AI adoption and the economic environment," said Ethan Tandowsky, CFO of Adyen, in a press release. "Making treasury more agile can deliver real value to the business and its operations."

Deep Dive:

The move comes as finance operations at global companies remain "stubbornly complex," according to the press release, with the average treasury team managing a fragmented mix of banks and payment service providers.

According to research jointly published by Adyen and Boston Consulting Group in January, companies typically work with 5 to 6 primary banks, manage more than 40 bank accounts, and use about 12 collection and payment service providers.

Adrian Davis, Managing Director of Financial Services and Insurance at Adyen, said this can lead to funds being trapped in disconnected systems.

"This fragmented mix of banking service providers severely hampers liquidity," he said in an interview.

This complexity often accumulates over time as companies expand into new markets or inherit systems through mergers and acquisitions. Meanwhile, expectations for instant payments are adding new pressure on finance teams.

"There is an expectation to pay and get paid instantly, without any hassle," Davis said.

As this trend continues, payment speed will increasingly become a competitive differentiator in certain industries, Davis said. This is especially true in sectors like insurance, where slow payouts can be seen as poor customer experience.

Davis also noted that some companies are beginning to view faster payments as a value-added service that can be monetized.

Customers "may consider it worth paying an extra fee to get cash earlier," he said. "So we see that many modern digital companies are actually treating payments as a profit center."