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Firms are boosting growth with strategic working capital management
In today’s volatile, fast-digitizing global economy, finance leaders across the CEMEA region are harnessing a powerful driver of growth: strategic working capital management.
By Shahebaz Khan Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions for Visa, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA).
Access the full report here
The latest 2025-2026 Visa Working Capital Index tracked financial behavior among more than 1,300 chief financial officers and treasurers from 23 countries. The index shows the region’s forward-thinking growth corporates - mid-sized firms with annual revenues between $50 million and $1 billion – are leading this momentum and driving much of the region’s private sector expansion. The findings reveal a sharp uptick in efficiency and innovation. The report shows working capital index score in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) rose to 55 from 53 last year, placing it among the strongest globally, on par with North America and Europe. These firms cut cash flow uncertainty by over 60% year-over-year (falling from 20 to 7), as firms embrace smarter forecasting, advanced payment optimization, and AI-driven modeling, now adopted by 59% of corporates. Firms unlocked an average of $22.5 million in savings through improved working capital practices, with a significant 61% of these savings reinvested into cash reserves, signaling a commitment to long-term financial stability.
Disclaimer: The Reuters news staff had no role in the production of this content. It was created by Reuters Plus, the brand marketing studio of Reuters. To work with Reuters Plus, contact us here.
Turning liquidity into competitive advantage
Once seen as a back-office function, working capital management is now a strategic engine for agility, profitability, and differentiation. Diverse sectors like Fleet & Mobility, Agriculture, Construction and Retail, are leading the efficiency drive, and are proving that dynamic capital management can fuel performance across even the most complex supply chains.
The Visa Working Capital Index also highlights the growing role of corporate cards as a powerful enabler of growth. On average, growth corporates in CEMEA lose 3.6% of annual revenue (around $20 million) due to late customer payments. To close this gap, 45% have turned to card acceptance to speed up cash flow and streamline reconciliation. The advantages lie in faster settlement (46.7%) and enhanced tracking (47.6%), providing critical real-time visibility and control. From a payables perspective, 48.5% of chief financial officers and treasurers use commercial cards to streamline workflows, 46.5% to strengthen approval controls, and 38.6% to minimize operational burden, underscoring the increasing strategic importance of card-based payments in financial operations. Looking ahead, nearly all surveyed organizations (99.1%) plan to adopt new working capital solutions in the coming year, with 68.6% planning to adopt flexible, card-enabled tools, such as virtual and commercial cards.
Commercial cards driving ecosystem efficiency
As the CEMEA region continues its trajectory of economic expansion, strategic working capital management will be vital for sustaining momentum, transforming liquidity from a constraint into a competitive advantage. To turn these insights into meaningful action, businesses and financial institutions across the CEMEA region can benchmark their performance, refine their working capital strategies, and strengthen collaboration across their value chain. The full findings of the Visa Working Capital Index 2025–2026 offer deeper guidance for organizations seeking to build greater resilience and competitive advantage.
A region built for resilient growth
The Visa Working Capital Index 2025-2026
As technological advancements redefine how value is exchanged, stablecoins have emerged as a key enabler for faster, more inclusive digital transactions. We’re seeing traditional financial services and crypto-based solutions beginning to converge, and at Visa, we see significant potential in the use of stablecoins to enhance the financial ecosystem by enabling digital programmable money. Consumers and businesses across the globe see their 4.8 billion Visa credentials and the nearly 14 billion digital Visa tokens as the best way to pay and be paid by everyone, everywhere. Our stack delivers magical payments experiences, and we are constantly investing to make it the most cutting-edge, secure and convenient way to pay. The vast majority of consumers and businesses will continue to pay in fiat currency and enjoy the benefits of their Visa credentials. The same can be true for stablecoin powered solutions that connect to the Visa stack. For a subset of use cases, including in emerging markets, stablecoins still represent an important opportunity.
Fast, Efficient, and Borderless Payments:
Visa:
Stablecoins represent an opportunity to usher in the next age of digital programmable money and Visa is committed to supporting this evolution.
Visa’s Commitment to Stablecoin Innovation
Stablecoins present a valuable opportunity to improve the efficiency of financial backend systems. While customer-facing innovations in payments have accelerated, the settlement layer needs to catch up. Visa is actively working to integrate stablecoin technology—beginning with USDC—into our global network and treasury operations. In 2023, Visa became one of the first major payments networks to settle transactions in stablecoin when we piloted enabling clients to fulfill their settlement obligations in USDC. We have settled more than $250 million to date in stablecoin volume that has been settled through Visa across participating clients. Building on this success, Visa is expanding its stablecoin settlement solution to select issuers and acquirers in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) region, enabling USD cross-border transactions through blockchain technology. This initiative helps reduce settlement costs, enhances liquidity management, and can support 365-day settlements, including weekends and holidays.
1. Modernizing Settlement Infrastructure
Visa has long played a central role in global money movement. With Visa Direct, we’ve enabled real-time transfers between individuals, businesses, and financial accounts. Now, by incorporating stablecoins into this infrastructure, we can further enhance the speed, efficiency, and liquidity of cross-border payments. We recently announced a partnership with Yellow Card, a leading pan-African fintech, to explore stablecoin use cases and opportunities across markets where Yellow Card is licensed to operate to help streamline treasury operations and enhance liquidity management. The partnership is intended to test integration opportunities with Visa Direct to further investigate and expand cross-border payment options.
2. Transforming Cross-Border Transactions
Looking ahead, we envision stablecoins enabling smart, programmable financial tools that serve both institutions and individuals. Stablecoins are supporting applications like automated lending, where smart contracts handle collateral management and trigger instant loan disbursements. To help financial institutions bring such innovations to life, we launched the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform—a solution that allows banks to mint, manage, and transact stablecoins securely. As we move forward, Visa plans to serve as a key infrastructure partner, helping banks replace outdated processes with digital-first capabilities.
3. Empowering Programmable Digital Payments
By Godfrey Sullivan, Senior Vice President, Head of Product and Solutions for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa.
Visa’s network supports the integration of stablecoins through card-linked solutions that facilitate smooth conversion between fiat and digital currencies. Since 2020, we have facilitated almost $95 billion in purchases of crypto currencies and over $25 billion in cryptocurrency spending — together, that’s more than $100 billion of flows. We’re now focused on broadening access to stablecoin-linked cards, partnering with enablers like Bridge and Baanx to launch new programs and bring these offerings to more users worldwide.
4. Building Bridges Between Cards and Stablecoins
With our unparalleled global network—spanning more than 150 million merchant locations and over 14,500 financial institutions —Visa is uniquely positioned to help scale stablecoin innovation. We act as a neutral connector, linking new blockchain-based platforms and players with the traditional financial ecosystem to ensure broad, equitable access to next-generation payment solutions. As we look at 2026, we believe that any institution involved in moving money will need a strategy for stablecoins. Visa is committed to supporting this evolution, offering our expertise and trusted infrastructure to help partners navigate the shift and build the future of global payments—faster, smarter, and more open than ever.
Learn more about Visa here
Today, we’re applying stablecoin capabilities in four main areas:
As technological advancements redefine how value is exchanged, stablecoins have emerged as a key enabler for faster, more inclusive digital transactions. We’re seeing traditional financial services and crypto-based solutions beginning to converge, and at Visa, we see significant potential in the use of stablecoins to enhance the financial ecosystem by enabling digital programmable money. Consumers and businesses across the globe see their 4.8 billion Visa credentials and the nearly 14 billion digital Visa tokens as the best way to pay and be paid by everyone, everywhere. Our stack delivers magical payments experiences, and we are constantly investing to make it the most cutting-edge, secure and convenient way to pay. The vast majority of consumers and businesses will continue to pay in fiat currency and enjoy the benefits of their Visa credentials. The same can be true for stablecoin powered solutions that connect to the Visa stack. For a subset of use cases, including in emerging markets, stablecoins still represent an important opportunity. Today, we’re applying stablecoin capabilities in four main areas:
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