After years of navigating volatility, from geopolitical tensions to supply-chain swings and interest-rate uncertainty, CFOs and treasury leaders enter 2026 with a sharper mandate: build resilience while unlocking liquidity for growth.
The past twelve months showed that working capital discipline is no longer a defensive measure. It is becoming one of the most strategic levers CFOs have to strengthen supplier ecosystems, fund innovation, and protect margins in a cooling global economy.
2026 will amplify that trend.
Below, we examine the economic signals shaping treasury agendas, the operational challenges expected to define the year, and how leading corporates are preparing.
Inflation across the Euro-area is expected to continue declining into 2026, with headline rates projected to approach the 2% target and underlying pressures gradually easing. Still, the underlying cost pressures on goods, energy, and logistics remain elevated. Euro-zone banks have tightened credit standards for firms several times this year, as reported by the ECB, reflecting rising economic risk. Rate reductions are anticipated, but the path downward is slower than many corporates had hoped. At the same time:
For CFOs, the implication is clear: liquidity planning must assume uneven conditions, not a return to pre-2020 normalcy.
In conversations with corporates across European markets, several priorities have emerged as defining factors. Working capital is becoming increasingly important due to challenges in the supply chain, cash generation requirements, investment needs for transformation, uncertainty from ongoing crises, changes in tariffs and rates, and the financial health of customers and suppliers. The 2026 CFO Agenda from Gartner found that 46% of CFOs see optimizing working capital and improving free cash flow as one of their top five urgent actions, while 12% see it as their most pressing priority.
Corporate leverage has little room to grow. Treasurers are focused on extracting internal liquidity from receivables, payables, and inventory rather than adding financial liabilities.
Receivables and payables programs are expected to expand globally, with more companies shifting from single-bank arrangements to marketplace-based models to secure deeper liquidity and more stable pricing.
Concentration risk is at the center of treasury discussions. Relying on a single lender or funding source is increasingly seen as operationally risky and strategically limiting. CFOs increasingly see diversified liquidity as a governance issue, not just a pricing advantage.
Platforms offering a competitive, multi-investor ecosystem allow corporates to balance cost, diversification, and financing security.
Treasury faces major talent constraints despite more responsibilities and a more strategic role within the corporate’s organization. CFOs are prioritizing automation and intelligence tools that facilitate faster and smarter processes: improving invoice accuracy, streamlining dispute resolution, accelerating dunning, aligning invoice approvals with payment cycles to avoid early payments, and harmonizing payment runs. This operational foundation enables more structural and strategic working capital financing solutions that have scaling impact via financing platforms.
2026 will also be the year many corporates begin consolidating fragmented working-capital tools into unified platforms, reducing reliance on manual workflows and siloed reporting.
CFOs now recognize that extending payment terms without providing liquidity support can introduce systemic risk. IFC data shows the global funding shortfall for small and mid-sized suppliers now exceeds $5.7 trillion, reinforcing how difficult it is for the mid-tier of most supply chains to access affordable working capital. This has elevated several topics in treasury conversations: increasing supplier adoption of SCF programs, ensuring access to financing across jurisdictions, improving pricing transparency, and incorporating ESG-aligned lending models.
Collectively, these elements are shaping a more deliberate and long-term approach to supplier resilience and partnership.
As new sustainability disclosure requirements move into effect, treasury functions are increasingly asked to quantify how financing decisions support measurable environmental and social performance across their supply chains.
The new mandatory ESRS disclosure requirements force companies to report material sustainability-related risks, including supplier dependency, supplier financial fragility, payment practices, procurement terms, and exposure to regional or geopolitical disruptions. Under ESRS, companies must disclose average payment terms, late-payment behavior, how payment practices affect suppliers (especially SMEs), and how the company mitigates supplier financial risks.
CFOs must now strengthen supplier financing programs, use multi-funder platforms to reduce funding concentration risk, and ensure payment-term strategies do not harm suppliers. They need to provide liquidity pathways across the supply chain, integrate working capital into ESG and sustainability reporting, and improve forecasting and visibility across tiers.
ESG-linked SCF structures continue to gain traction not as marketing initiatives, but as measurable frameworks tied to supplier performance.
Treasury teams are increasingly turning to marketplace-based solutions to address four persistent challenges:
In 2026, the shift toward platform models will accelerate as more CFOs seek long-term optionality rather than fixed, inflexible financing structures. There are already early conversations surrounding the need for these solutions.
“We’re in a phase of investment and transformation, but leverage has its limits. Thus, the SPS program has proven to be a key strategic instrument for optimizing cash steering – without adding financial debt. Platforms that combine automation with multi-bank access, such as CRX Markets, are becoming essential infrastructure for us.”
— Daniel Fahr, CFO, QuickPack Haushalt + Hygiene GmbH
“The CRX Receivables Select diversifies our funding base, strengthens liquidity, and reduces operational complexity. It is an important component in building a resilient and future-ready financing framework for ZF LIFETEC.”
— Henriette Lamb, Head of Corporate Finance, ZF LIFETEC
“In a challenging global environment, liquidity has become essential for both suppliers and buyers to safeguard financial resilience. Supply Chain Finance is not only about optimising working capital – it is about liquidity, flexibility, and effective risk control. Through our payables programme, we have turned working capital into a strategic source of internal funding and stability. By choosing a multi‑bank SCF marketplace model, we have gained the flexibility and funding depth that traditional arrangements simply cannot match.”
— Andreas Hofmann, Treasury Analyst Finance, BRP-Rotax
After five years of unpredictable markets, CFOs are entering 2026 with a clearer picture of what resilience requires:
Working capital finance is becoming a core mechanism for achieving those goals.
Whether 2026 brings moderate expansion or continued uncertainty, companies with flexible, multi-funder financing structures and the technology to run them efficiently will be positioned to adapt to whatever comes next.
CRX Markets supports treasury teams navigating these priorities. Our independent marketplace connects corporates to 50+ financing partners, offering the liquidity depth, competitive pricing, and operational scalability that single-bank programs cannot match. Built for the complexity of global supply chains.
If you’re evaluating your working capital strategy for 2026, contact us to discuss how a marketplace model could fit your requirements.
