Roderick Mackenzie (ICD): Key Benchmarks for Treasury’s 2025 Investment & Liquidity Plans
Since 2018, Institutional Cash Distributors (ICD) has annually surveyed hundreds of treasury and finance professionals - primarily in North America and Europe - to better understand their liquidity and investment strategies, priorities, and perspectives.
In Q1 2025, nearly 125 respondents participated in our research, providing a wealth of feedback on how treasury professionals are currently navigating the complexities of a rapidly evolving financial landscape. Several of the most prominent highlights from this year’s research are highlighted below
What are Treasurer’s Most Concerned About in 2025?
This year, corporate treasurers are clearly viewing geopolitical conflicts as a major source of ongoing risk and concern. In total, 37% of respondents indicated they were highly concerned about geopolitical issues, with another 55% moderately concerned (92% total). In addition, 87% and 83% of respondents indicated their concern over interest rate and recession risks. On the opposite end, very few respondents listed any major concerns regarding supply chain or duration-related risk.As a follow-up “free response” question, two additional points of frustration for treasury stemmed from cash forecasting and technology / AI hurdles. On the forecasting side, inaccurate data, legacy workflows, and volatile markets have continued to hinder many teams from achieving true forecasting success. In addition, given the rapid pace of innovation in AI and technology over the past few years, as well as the heavy emphasis being placed on automation and AI adoption by company leadership, treasury is finding it difficult to adjust their processes accordingly.
What are Corporate Treasury’s Current Investment Plans for 2025?
In the U.S., 9 out of every 10 respondents plans to invest in government-focused money market funds during 2025. In total, there were seven categories of products – including T-Bills, Bank Deposits, and various MMF options – where more than 1/3rd of U.S. respondents planned to invest. There were also nearly 12 categories where 10%+ of respondents who are not currently invested, plan to do so by the year’s end. Among the top risers in this regard are Short Duration Bond Funds, Commercial Paper, and Time Deposits. In Europe and the UK, the dominance of MMF products is less pronounced, but still significant. In total, offshore prime MMF funds comprised the largest share of usage at 60%, followed closely by Time Deposits at 56%. Looking at the largest gains, short duration bond funds, ESG products, Repos, and EU government bills have seen a dramatic rise in interest from practitioners for 2025. On the low end of the spectrum, cryptocurrency adoption amongst corporate treasury is still quite low, despite growing interest by individual consumers and other business sectors.
What are Treasury’s Current Technology & AI Adoption Plans?
Nearly 1 in 3 corporate treasury respondents are actively undergoing a treasury technology project (29%), with another 13% expecting to begin a treasury tech project during the 2025 calendar year. Alternatively, 58% of respondents had no tech projects planned or currently underway. In addition, nearly 1 in 5 respondents (18%) are planning to implement a TMS or switch their existing TMS during the 2025 calendar year. Compared to 2023-24, these results show a slight decline in the number of firms actively undergoing new technology projects. When asked about AI deployment within liquidity management, nearly two-thirds of respondents highlighted financial reporting and cash forecasting as the most high-impact areas of focus. Given that cash forecasting remains one of the most functionally challenging areas for finance and treasury professionals in this year’s survey, it makes sense that practitioners would expect AI to help them optimize and refine the forecasting process – for which data aggregation and financial reporting would also play key roles.
For More Information
For extended commentary and analysis on the above points, as well as additional data and information regarding treasury’s 2025 investment, liquidity, and technology priorities, download the full results of ICD’s 2025 survey.