J.P. Morgan Payments

Mapping global shifts

5 minute read
 

Regional Trends Watch

Our annual trends report details key trends for treasury and corporate finance professionals to track right now. While these developments apply across the globe, they will play out differently in specific regions, nuanced by local technological, economic and social contexts. Understanding these regional trends is important for anyone preparing for the payments landscape of tomorrow.

Here’s a rundown of five.

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Middle East
Global trend:  Proactive working capital management
Reinventing Treasury
Treasury transformation in the Middle East is gathering pace thanks to strategic initiatives such as Saudi Vision 2030 and We the UAE 2031. This has led to the region embracing new ideas and major improvements in working capital management. In addition to being at the forefront of broad technological trends—such as real-time treasury, artificial intelligence and payment factories—the Middle East is spearheading ideas such as in-house banking, where a central entity takes control of all of a company’s money-related functions. Companies in the region are also setting up treasury hubs that centralize financial operations across local markets. This improves cash visibility, enabling treasury teams to proactively manage working capital across multiple countries.1
Latin America
Global trend:  Proactive working capital management
Innovation in supply chain finance
Due to a combination of high interest rates, inflation and foreign exchange variation, there is a pressing need to find new and effective ways to manage supply chain finance in Latin America. One area that has promise is accounts receivable solutions, which allow companies to offer discounts to customers in return for the earlier settlement of invoices. By reducing working capital lead times, companies can free up cash and mitigate risks, such as sudden currency fluctuations, or harness the opportunities that come with high interest rates.
Latin America
Global trend: Building the skills of tomorrow
Private companies plug the AI skills gap
The push for greater digitalization, including the integration of advanced AI tools, is driving the need for more technical talent in treasury. Yet this is proving to be especially challenging in Latin America, with 32% of companies reporting a skills and expertise shortage in AI, according to a recent IBM survey.2 The main reasons for the talent gap are the rapid evolution of technology and a lack of investment in education for fields like machine learning, digital work skills, AI and cybersecurity. Encouragingly, a number of private companies in Latin America are now developing their own AI onboarding programs to train new hires.3
Europe
Global trend:  Realizing value from faster payments
SEPA becomes a competitive battleground
By October 2025, all European Union banks will have a mandate to send and receive SEPA Instant Payments. These euro-denominated payments must be settled in 10 seconds and available 24/7.4 However, there are concerns that many European banks will struggle to meet these deadlines—not least because they have legacy infrastructure that cannot support 24/7 payments, and the necessary upgrades are too complex to be completed in time. Those banks that are ahead of the curve and are able to meet the regulatory requirements should be able to carve out a sizable strategic advantage.
APAC
Global trend: Realizing value from faster payments
Asia Is now the world’s RTP powerhouse
Asia Pacific has cemented its position as the world’s largest market for real-time payments5 (RTP), with a quarter of all transactions in the region now using RTP rails. The next stage of development is to increase integration between the different RTP schemes. Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are in the process of building a regional RTP network, based on standardized QR codes that citizens from any of these countries can use when visiting the others.

SOURCES: WWW.JPMORGAN.COM/PAYMENTS-UNBOUND/SOURCES

ILLUSTRATION: MANUEL BORTOLETTI