April 8, 2025 — A push by large U.S. companies to closely link internal treasury systems to bank platforms is helping create a new digital corporate banking ecosystem tailored to an era of digital commerce and real-time payments.
Historically, large U.S. companies have viewed technology mainly as a supplement to lending, cash management and other core functions provided by their corporate banks. In fact, some of them saw the banks benefitting much more than themselves when assessing the net efficiency gains triggered by bank-induced digital transformation of the bank-firm relationship. Conversely, for much of the last decade, several banks expressed frustration that companies were putting so little value on and consequently investment in innovation.
As it takes at least two to tango when trying to bring the full benefits of digital transformation to bank-firm relationships, banks were, unsurprisingly, not seeing the level of increased client satisfaction and increased business from clients that they hoped for. This is beginning to change, for two main reasons.
First, the rapid digitization of commerce and payments is causing treasury departments at large U.S. companies to elevate technology and connectivity to a top priority. Second, companies have now experienced much more sizable real benefits for themselves from the technology tools provided by their banks. This is giving them an incentive to put in the effort that is needed to integrate more closely with bank systems and to make more use of new tools developed by their banks – while banks have learned to emphasize much more than in the past on client-specific connectivity and implementation. Together, these trends are pushing the U.S. corporate banking industry toward a new, digital iteration.
“It appears that companies have decided now is the time,” says Dr. Tobias Miarka, Head of Corporate Banking at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and co-author of U.S. corporate banking: A new digital ecosystem emerges. “As companies rush to modernize cash and liquidity management, payments and other processes, they are embracing digital tools provided by their banks. The changes they are making will significantly alter the way they run their treasury operations and how they manage relationships with their banks.”
Focus on Connectivity
More than two-thirds of the companies participating in a recent Crisil Coalition Greenwich U.S. Large Corporate Banking study cite digital banking capabilities as a key criterion for choosing a bank for cash management services, an increase of 10 percentage points from 2023. More than 40% of companies say working to upgrade connectivity to banking providers ranks as a key priority for 2025.
“Companies are finding that corporate banks have already deployed extensive platforms to facilitate the shift to digital payments and transactions, so many are becoming laser-focused on upgrading connectivity to bank platforms to achieve rapid, and even-real time data-sharing and transaction times,” says Matthew Noujaim, Senior Consultant at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and report co-author.
U.S. corporate banking: A new digital ecosystem emerges presents insights on digital innovation, business priorities for the next 12 months and how industry consolidation is affecting relationships between U.S. companies and their banks.
