Right here, right now:
The rise of real-time treasury

^{Rob Hale}^{, Co-Head Global Markets, Lloyds Banking Group}
^{Peter Left}^{, Head of Digital Assets, Lloyds Banking Group}
08 September 2026

_{08 September 2026 Corporate & Institutional}

Right here, right now:
The rise of real-time treasury

^{Real-time treasury}^|^{AI and investment decisions}^|^{Commodities risk}^|^{Ratings advantage}

While corporates, financial institutions and asset managers manage billions of pounds of liquidity, collateral and investments across numerous accounts, currencies and jurisdictions, many treasury activities are dependent on fragmented systems, delayed information and manual processes. Rob Hale, Co-Head Global Markets, Lloyds Corporate & Institutional and, Peter Left, Head of Digital Assets, Lloyds Banking Group, explore how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) looks set to play a role in the emergence of real-time treasury.

Peter Left,

Head of Digital Assets,
Lloyds Banking Group

Rob Hale,

Co-Head Global Markets,
Lloyds Corporate & Institutional

^{Real-time treasury}^|^{AI and investment decisions}^|^{Commodities risk}^|^{Ratings advantage}

Last year we examined how the financial services industry could be transformed¹ by tokenisation and digital assets. In the intervening time, the technology has evolved and many of the key building blocks are already in place.

It’s already having an impact on wholesale cross-border payments – Lloyds recently completed three cross-border tokenised deposit transactions² across Swiss francs, euros and sterling – and it could begin delivering benefits to the corporate world soon. While adoption remains at an early stage, interest is gaining momentum.

In late August, the Government announced its intention to give the Bank of England a new responsibility to support innovation in payment systems and emerging forms of digital money – another indication of the growing policy focus on enabling digital finance to develop safely in the UK³.

Against this backdrop, corporate treasury functions may need to begin considering what a real-time and programmable financial environment could mean for liquidity management, investment operations and risk control.

Treasury teams are not concerned about technological adoption, and they are not seeking distributed ledgers, digital wallets, or smart contracts for their own sake. But as these technologies begin to offer routes to these practical outcomes, they could soon see broader uptake. The result is an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how treasury operates, creating a real-time, programmable treasury environment where money, assets and controls can interact automatically.

_¹_{Expanding Horizons}_²_{Lloyds completes Project Agorá deposit transactions -}
_{Lloyds Banking Group plc}_³_{Ministers tell Bank of England to boost innovation in digital currencies}

The emergence of the real-time treasury environment brings together continuous data, instant or near-instant settlement, programmable contracts and intelligent decision support. Rather than managing activities at discrete points in the day, treasury teams can increasingly define financial objectives and policies, then use technology to monitor, recommend and execute approved actions within clear governance and control frameworks.

Joining the dots

Historically, treasury has operated on a model of gathering information from banks, custodians, investment managers and internal systems before decision making. Not only can this approach cause delays – by the time information has been analysed, market conditions may have changed – but it also separates information from action. A treasurer may be able to see a position, but still depends on multiple systems, approvals and cut-off times to move cash, execute foreign exchange or invest surplus liquidity.

DLT provides a shared, near real-time record of assets, obligations and ownership. More importantly, it enables treasury policies, legal agreements and risk controls to be programmable and digitally represented, creating a more efficient treasury operating model in which governance is strengthened. This creates a closed loop: data identifies the position, intelligence determines the response, controls validate the action and digital infrastructure provides settlement and an auditable record.

^{Real-time treasury}^|^{AI and investment decisions}^|^{Commodities risk}^|^{Ratings advantage}

While treasury teams are not seeking distributed ledgers, digital wallets or smart contracts for their own sake, the technologies could offer an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how treasury operates.”

Rob Hale,
Co-Head Global Markets,
Lloyds Corporate & Institutional

What does this model offer in practical terms? Here are three use cases that could offer value to corporate treasurers.

^{Real-time treasury}^|^{AI and investment decisions}^|^{Commodities risk}^|^{Ratings advantage}

Real-time liquidity and internal treasury

Treasury teams remain reliant on periodic reviews and manual decision-making to maintain liquidity, manage counterparty exposure and optimise excess cash. In a real-time treasury environment, balances and expected flows could be monitored continuously. Subject to legal, tax, regulatory and policy constraints, treasury rules could identify surplus and deficit positions, recommend or initiate approved transfers, and support ongoing cash management. The same framework could coordinate funding, foreign exchange and investment decisions, using expected receivables, payables and market activity to act before shortfalls or surpluses emerge. The result is lower idle cash, improved liquidity availability, earlier deployment of surplus funds and more consistent adherence to treasury policy. Rather than replacing treasury professionals, it enables them to focus on strategy, risk management and capital allocation.

Programmable payments and certainty of settlement

Beyond speed, corporates want certainty that funds have moved as intended, agreed conditions have been met and settlement will not create an unexpected exposure. Programmable payment arrangements could release funds automatically when agreed conditions are met. Where obligations can be coordinated digitally, payment and settlement could occur simultaneously, reducing settlement risk. The same infrastructure could support instant internal payments and intercompany arrangements, with approvals, limits, terms and reconciliation data embedded within the transaction. For corporates, this could improve supplier and customer experience, reduce reconciliation effort and disputes, and provide richer transaction data. It may also support trade, working capital and supply chain finance by aligning payment, financing and risk management.

Treasury intelligence

Treasury teams spend significant time gathering data and analysing positions. The greater opportunity is to connect forecasting and decision support directly to execution. A unified data layer could combine balances and payments with expected cash flows from enterprise resource planning systems, trade activity, and market positions. Treasury teams could compare forecast and actual outcomes continuously, identify anomalies and update decisions during the day.

Over time, treasury teams may increasingly define objectives rather than individual actions, such as minimum liquidity levels, counterparty and concentration limits, permitted instruments and return objectives. AI could monitor positions, explain projected surpluses or shortfalls, recommend actions and coordinate approved execution across payments, foreign exchange, investment and funding. Treasury professionals would remain accountable for strategy, policy and governance, while routine execution becomes increasingly intelligent and policy-driven.

^{Real-time treasury}^|^{AI and investment decisions}^|^{Commodities risk}^|^{Ratings advantage}

Tomorrow, today

The foundations of real-time treasury are already emerging and practical use cases are being explored. The technology could allow businesses to bring together digital money, digital assets and programmable financial services, embedding them directly into the channels they already use. This could allow treasury teams to access digital asset services alongside their existing banking activities.

Organisations may be able to benefit from instant settlement and programmable transactions through the use of a digital wallet, which can be funded using tokenised deposits, combining the familiarity and security of traditional bank deposits with the benefits of DLT. This could enable treasury teams to execute real-time foreign exchange, invest surplus balances into tokenised money market funds and make global wallet-to-wallet payments. The wallet won’t replace applications, banks and service providers, but instead it will act as a connective layer, bringing together information and services from their bank and other partners into a single, intelligent experience.

By creating a unified environment for liquidity, investments, financing options and risk exposures, treasury teams may be able to move beyond simply viewing financial positions, to automated coordination and execution across their ecosystem. Connected applications, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), risk management and financing platforms, could potentially write agreed contracts, obligations and instructions directly to digital wallets, enabling workflows to be initiated, monitored and settled automatically between counterparties. Treasury policies encoded as smart contracts could determine which actions proceed autonomously and which require review, creating a framework that combines automation with governance.

By creating a unified view of available liquidity, investments, financing options and risk exposures, treasury teams can make better informed decisions and achieve the best execution across their financial resources.”

Peter Left,
Head of Digital Assets,
Lloyds Banking Group

Always on

The future of real-time treasury is one in which treasury policies, controls and governance frameworks become increasingly embedded within the financial infrastructure itself.

By combining programmable money, digital assets and intelligent automation, organisations have the opportunity to improve liquidity efficiency, strengthen risk management and reduce operational complexity, while maintaining the oversight, accountability and control that remain central to a well-governed treasury function. Ultimately, the rise of real-time treasury represents an opportunity for organisations to achieve greater certainty, control and efficiency over their financial resources. The periodic management of treasury could soon give way to the continuous orchestration of financial outcomes.

^{Real-time treasury}^|^{AI and investment decisions}^|^{Commodities risk}^|^{Ratings advantage}

Which of the following real-time treasury
capabilities would deliver the greatest value
to your organisation?

Real-time liquidity management
Greater certainty of settlement and programmable payments
Enhanced forecasting and treasury decision support
Faster access to investments, funding and FX solutions
Automated liquidity policy compliance
Writing controls directly into a digital wallet

_{Responses will aggregated anonymously and used to inform future insights.}