Key technical issues for Treasurers
Are you up to date with treasury matters?
As well as regular meetings with policymakers, trade bodies and industry experts, the Policy & Technical team uses its network of treasurers to make sure it is aware of key issues that treasurers should be aware of. In addition to ad hoc feedback from this network, the team also meets with an advisory panel on a quarterly basis.
So what did we hear in April 2026?
1. Business risks / resilience
The ongoing geopolitical crisis is creating more challenges due to the impact on business strategy as well as causing volatility in financial markets.
For example, companies may now be under-hedged or over-hedged depending on what’s happening to their sales, costs and supply chain, in addition to needing to be more flexible and prepared to access financial markets (e.g. for borrowing) opportunistically
2. Regulatory developments
• KYC remains a concern for most corporates. Treasury organisations have been engaging with the European Commission and the FCA to produce rules that are more proportionate and efficient
• IFRS 18 will become applicable from 1 January 2027. It sets new rules on the classification of treasury related income and expenditure such as FX gains and losses and derivative results. More guidance here
• Rating agencies and auditors are looking at supply chain financing programmes and applying judgment in classifying liabilities as bank debt or accounts payable
• In February 2024 the FRC published the final version of the UK Corporate Governance Code. The Code came into effect 1 January 2025 and Provision 29 came into effect at the start of 2026. It requires boards make an annual declaration as to the effectiveness of all material controls as at the balance sheet date – this may apply to the treasury function
3. Sustainability
• New transition finance guidelines have been announced Transition Finance Guidelines
• Major UK banks are directing sustainability expertise and capital towards SMEs
4. Funding
• In line with the remarks of Sarah Breeden – Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, the there is some concern over the private credit market. If the market has a downturn, it could affect the capacity of banks to lend – especially those that have exposure to this segment
• Funding markets remain open with margins continuing to be competitive and Q1 issuance breaking records
• High yield market had a pause in issuance but is now back ’open’
• LSEG converted £1.4bn of sterling denominated notes to Plain Vanilla Listed Bonds (aka “retail bonds”) allowing a wider range of investors to access eligible corporate bonds. The first transaction of its type following the publication of the Public Offers Admissions to Trading Regime at the start of the year (Lloyds supports LSEG with the UK’s first Plain Vanilla Listed Bond conversion)
5. Cash Management
• Cash forecasting remains a key issue for treasurers. With recent conferences highlighting stablecoins, tokenisation, and the role of AI, traditional topics like ISO standards seem less prominent – but it’s vital to get the basics right
6. Technology
• Some organisations are building in-house AI capabilities rather than relying on external vendors. Others are moving away from their TMS and using their ERP, APIs and AI to build their own solution, but consensus remains that for (non-AI) technology, a SaaS type solution is preferable for most organisations
• Effective AI deployment depends on high-quality data and the importance of guardrails/ an ecosystem that ensures AI systems interpret data correctly and avoid errors or hallucinations (ontology) cannot be over-emphasised
• There was some discussion over whether AI will result in the reshoring of certain activities – one to watch
7. Talent
• The challenge to identify and recruit talent to treasury teams is an ongoing issue. Not just those with ‘traditional’ treasury expertise but growing numbers of treasury teams are recruiting an AI specialist to their ranks. (The ACT, in conjunction with Zanders, runs a specialised course on AI for the treasury community AI for Corporate Treasury | ACT Learning )
We always welcome comments (technical@treasurers.org) or directly to any of the P&T team
