Best payments liquidity management platforms for enterprises

According to Adyen and BCG's joint treasury report, the average global enterprise:

• Works with five to six primary banks.

• Maintains over 40 bank accounts. 

• Relies on 12 separate pay-in and payout providers. 

Not surprisingly, treasury teams spend more than 20% of their time managing the movement of funds between these systems and 48% of CFOs cite transparency and accurate liquidity projection as a top challenge.

The underlying issue is that the systems handling each stage of this lifecycle were largely built to work in isolation. To address this, you’ll want a provider that can help you: 

• Reduce pre-financing requirements.

• Eliminate unnecessary intercompany transfers.

• Give treasury teams real-time visibility across all entities, currencies, and markets.

• Improve settlement speed and working capital efficiency.

Adyen

Adyen is a global financial technology company that holds its own banking licences in the US, UK, and Europe (one of a small number of fintechs with that infrastructure in place). Those licences give it direct connections to payment rails and card schemes, which means fewer intermediaries in any fund flow and faster settlement times as a result. The entire technology stack is built in-house, so payments, liquidity management, and payouts share the same data and settlement logic.

That infrastructure is what underpins Intelligent Money Movement, Adyen's solution for global enterprises connecting payments, liquidity, and payouts on a single platform.

Businesses using Adyen Intelligent Money Movement include Etsy, Expedia Group, and Vinted.

“Unifying our funds flow on a single platform is a key driver for VintedPay's scalability. By managing pay-ins and pay-outs through the same infrastructure, we've simplified our operations and gained the stability needed to expand our financial services.” Modestas Tursa, VP of Payments, Vinted

Adyen's payments and liquidity features

• Payments:

  • Local acquiring in 27+ markets.

  • 200+ payment methods, 150+ currencies.

  • Adyen Uplift applies machine learning to improve conversion and reduce fraud costs.

• Liquidity:

  • Adyen provides a real-time view of funds across all entities, markets, and currencies in one place.

  • Businesses can use incoming pay-ins to directly fund outgoing payouts across currencies.

  • Reduces the need for pre-financing and intercompany transfers.

• Payouts:

  • Transfers to 190+ countries.

  • 24/7 processing in the US, EU, and UK.

  • No cut-off times or weekend restrictions in those markets.

• Card issuing:

  • Issue physical and virtual branded cards with dynamic spend controls and real-time authorisations.

  • Funds acquired through Adyen can be made instantly available on issued cards without sitting in transit (relevant for enterprises managing expense or supplier payment flows).

Key Takeaway: Adyen is the most integrated option for enterprises that want payments, liquidity, and payouts to function as a single system. The owned banking infrastructure and in-house stack are the differentiating factors versus assembled or bank-led solutions.

Stripe

Stripe Treasury provides a business financial account with access to multi-currency storage, local accounts, and FX conversion. Key capabilities include:

• Store funds in multiple currencies.

• Open local accounts in 100+ countries.

• Convert currencies at mid-market rates.

• Hold dollar-backed stablecoin balances and spend across 100+ countries.

For platforms, Stripe Treasury for Platforms is an API-based embedded finance product that lets you offer financial accounts, ACH and wire transfers, and card issuance to connected merchants. FDIC pass-through insurance eligibility covers balances up to $250k per account (US; funds held at Fifth Third Bank N.A.).

Note: Stripe doesn't hold its own banking licences and relies on bank partners to provide these services.

Airwallex

Airwallex's Global Treasury product is built for platforms that want to pass treasury capabilities through to their own connected accounts. It includes:

• Global collections: Programmatic account creation in 70+ countries.

• Multi-currency storage: FX conversion at interbank rates.

• Payouts: 200+ countries across 60+ currencies.

• Airwallex Yield: Earn returns on idle cash through money market funds, available in the US, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the EEA; assets under administration exceed $1 billion globally.

Modern Treasury

Modern Treasury combines multi-rail money movement, compliance tooling, and double-entry ledgering in a single API. Key features include:

• Payment rails: ACH, RTP, FedNow, wire transfers, push-to-card, and stablecoins (SWIFT forthcoming).

• Compliance tooling: KYC, KYB, AML monitoring, and counterparty screening.

• Sub-account structure: Programmatic creation of sub-accounts, each with a unique routing and account number (directly relevant for marketplaces and lenders needing per-customer fund segregation).

J.P. Morgan Payments

J.P. Morgan Payments is the payments division of J.P. Morgan. It processes over $10 trillion in payments daily, sends payments in 120 currencies across 200+ countries and territories, and receives in 40+. Features include:

• Connected Cash: Real-time liquidity positioning, cash flow forecasting, multi-currency management, and integration with ERP and TMS systems.

• Virtual Account Management: Create virtual netting structures within a single physical account, reducing reliance on multiple bank accounts while improving cash visibility.

• Kinexys / JPM Coin: A USD deposit token built on Ethereum L2, enabling near-real-time cross-border settlement and programmable payment execution for enterprises requiring blockchain-based settlement.

The right platform depends on the nature of your treasury complexity, and specifically, which parts of the money movement lifecycle you need to bring together. Here's some guidance based on specific criteria.

End-to-end integration across payments, liquidity, and payouts

When each stage of the money movement lifecycle runs on a separate system, funds sit idle between handoffs. Authorisation happens in one place, settlement in another, and liquidity visibility only appears once everything has cleared. For enterprises where this is the primary challenge, look for:

• A platform built as a unified system rather than assembled from acquired components and third-party integrations. For example, Adyen's payments, liquidity, and payout capabilities run on a single technology stack.

• In-house infrastructure and owned banking licences, so data and settlement logic don't need to move between systems before they can be acted on. Adyen holds its own banking licences in the US, UK, and Europe, giving it direct control over settlement logic across those markets.

• Direct connections to payment rails and card schemes, reducing the number of intermediaries in any fund flow. Adyen's owned infrastructure connects directly to payment rails and card schemes, which removes several intermediary steps that typically slow down fund movement.

• Real-time visibility across entities, currencies, and markets in a single place. Adyen gives treasury teams a real-time view of funds across all entities, markets, and currencies from one dashboard.

Embedded finance for connected merchants

If you're a SaaS platform that wants to offer financial products to your own users, you'll need more than a payments integration. The underlying infrastructure needs to support the full financial account lifecycle. Look for:

• API-first architecture with developer tooling that supports rapid integration. Adyen's platform is built around an API-first architecture designed to support fast, flexible integration for platform businesses.

• The ability to create and manage financial accounts for sub-users programmatically. Adyen for Platforms allows businesses to create and manage financial accounts for their connected merchants programmatically.

• Card issuance capabilities, including physical and virtual options. Adyen supports both physical and virtual card issuance, with dynamic spend controls and real-time authorisations built into the same infrastructure.

Regulated client money segregation

For businesses with a regulatory obligation to segregate client funds, such as investment brokers or insurers handling policyholder money, look for:

• A provider with credit institution status, not just a PSP, so that funds can be held within a regulated client money structure from point of receipt. Adyen's credit institution status allows client funds to sit within a regulated structure from the moment they're received, rather than passing through an intermediary PSP first.

• Gross settlement capabilities that reduce the transit window significantly, shrinking the prudential segregation reserve required. Adyen's gross settlement model narrows the transit window considerably, which in turn reduces the size of the prudential segregation reserve firms need to hold.

• A single platform covering both card acquiring and client money account management, removing the reconciliation complexity of maintaining two separate providers. Adyen brings card acquiring and client money account management onto one platform, eliminating the reconciliation work that comes with running two separate providers.

• Banking licences in the relevant jurisdictions to ensure the regulatory structure holds across all operating markets. Adyen's banking licences across the US, UK, and Europe help ensure the regulatory structure holds consistently across an enterprise's operating markets.

For most large global enterprises managing complex fund flows across multiple markets, the clearest gains come from consolidating onto a platform with owned infrastructure rather than coordinating a stack of tools that each handle one stage of the lifecycle.

If you'd like to explore how we can help you with your payments and liquidity management, get in touch.