In our latest conversation, we spoke with Michael Cloherty, Payments & Risk Expert at Trustpair in the U.S., about how regulation, technology, and security are redefining the future of payments. Drawing on his experience supporting treasury and finance teams, Michael shares how real-time payments, AI, and new frameworks like Nacha are shaping priorities for 2026. He highlights the growing need for resilience, stronger fraud prevention, and smarter collaboration across departments to keep pace with change.
Read on for key insights and practical advice to help treasury leaders prepare for the next era of payments. For more insights, download the full Kyriba & Trustpair payment report!
Payment trends key takeaways:
- Real-time payments, system consolidation, and new regulations are reshaping treasury operations, pushing teams toward modernization and tighter controls.
- AI-driven fraud risks are rising, from deepfakes to tampered invoices, making centralized, secure banking data and strong verification processes essential.
- AI also brings major benefits, automating manual checks, spotting anomalies instantly, and strengthening fraud detection across payment workflows.
- Treasury teams must simplify and modernize their tech stack, ensure cross-department collaboration, and prepare for Nacha and global regulatory shifts to stay protected and scalable.
1. Could you please start by introducing yourself and your role at Trustpair and your experience in Payments ?
I’m Michael Cloherty, Payments & Risk Expert at Trustpair in the U.S. I lead our go-to-market team and oversee our commercial strategy in the region.
2. The payment landscape is changing very fast. What major trends are you seeing right now that you think will shape treasury operations in 2026?
There are a few things happening. We’re seeing new regulations come into play, and real-time payments continue to be a key driver for organizations and for the client experience. There’s also a consolidation of systems, along with new tools becoming available that treasury teams are looking to take advantage of next year.
Many are already planning projects that will help them improve how they manage their cash, liquidity, and overall payment operations.
3. Real-time payments are becoming the norm worldwide. In your experience, how are companies adapting to this new expectation for instant movement of money, and what challenges does it create behind the scenes?
To break that into two parts – most companies are adapting by consolidating their systems and adopting modern applications that can handle real-time payments. They’re working closely with their banks to understand and use the new offerings available, whether that’s access to real-time payment rails or the ability to send payments from legacy systems using new API technology.
In terms of challenges, payment files are still coming from multiple systems before they reach a centralized application like a payment hub. That creates complexity. Another big question is where compliance and fraud checks should occur in this faster environment. Real-time payments are a great concept, but security has to be part of the process. Treasury teams are actively working on this today – putting the right structures in place to ensure payments can move faster without compromising control or compliance.
4. When it comes to maintaining these security checks, what new risks are emerging, especially with the rise of AI-driven schemes?
There are still major challenges around where payment data is stored and how securely it’s managed. A key question for organizations is: where do we input, store, and update our banking information? By that, I mean the bank account data used for payments to suppliers, vendors, or clients.
When you have multiple systems and dispersed data across different applications, it becomes difficult to control. Different people may have access to different tools, which increases exposure. That’s why it’s essential to centralize this data in a secure location, lock it down, and make sure access rights are granted only to authorized users within the organization.
Looking at AI, the risks are increasing every year with the rise of new generative tools that are freely available online. We’re seeing more cases of business email compromise, fake calls, and even video deepfakes. These threats are becoming part of our clients’ daily reality. Treasury and finance teams need to take the time to verify, is this the right document, the right person, the right individual that should be paid? That level of verification is becoming absolutely critical.
5. How do you think AI will reshape payment processes in the coming years?
I think AI is going to continue to be a risk when we look at how easily anyone can now tamper with an invoice, send a fake video, or pretend to be the CFO to try and execute a quick payment.
But if we look at the benefits and how it could revolutionize the treasury, there’s also a lot of opportunity. We can leverage AI to take on some of the manual, repetitive tasks and support automation for more mundane processes. For example, in monitoring transaction amounts, if AI can quickly analyze that we’ve always paid a client half a million dollars, but today it’s three million, it should be able to identify and question that difference right away.
AI can also detect unique behaviors or analyze documents that the human eye might not catch. For instance, identifying if a document has been tampered with or forged. So, while AI does present risks because it’s accessible to anyone, the benefit is that with the right controls, security, and integration into your tools, it can actually make your day-to-day work much more efficient.
6. With the upcoming Nachaframework, how do you think companies should prepare for it, and how is it changing the payment landscape?
If we look at any new framework like VOP or Nacha, it’s really giving us two things. On one hand, it provides access to additional data. For example, organizations like Trustpair can use this to obtain enhanced verification-of-payee data, which helps strengthen the datasets we validate against.
The other aspect is process. If we look at some of the Nacha requirements, they’re pushing companies to evaluate what they’re doing operationally to mitigate payment fraud. Do they have a defined process in place? Are their teams properly trained on both the tools and procedures needed to prevent payment fraud? Are they using a specific methodology, tool, or solution to help automate this?
These frameworks encourage structure and consistency. They help reduce fraud exposure while giving corporations the time and flexibility to put the right systems and processes in place to meet these challenges effectively.
7. Cross-border payments and transactions remain quite challenging for organizations. How do you see them progressing by 2026?
I think companies will continue to expand internationally, whether that’s through new client acquisitions or new business operations. Treasury teams already operate globally most of the time, and that means constantly working with new countries, new banks, and new regulatory challenges.
It’s really about understanding what’s required of them and making sure they have the right systems in place, from their internal platforms to integrations with fraud tools — all the way through to when the payment reaches the bank or any intermediary banks along the way.
Thankfully, there are more and more companies within the ecosystem helping them manage these shifts, both in 2026 and beyond.
8. As we look ahead, what should treasury teams focus on to prepare for these upcoming changes and challenges?
I think it’s about trying to find the right tools and not overextending themselves by using multiple different applications. It’s really about narrowing down the tools that can handle your functional needs and your financial needs but also making sure they can scale as you grow. Can they handle the volumes you have now, as well as what you’ll have in the future?
And then, how are these tools being used? When you’re rolling out a new solution, whether it’s a treasury tool or a payment fraud prevention platform – does everybody know how to use it? Is everybody trained on it? And does it fit into the day-to-day workload that a treasury team will have?
Simplifying is key. The user experience, the interface, the look and feel of tools have all gotten so much better over the years. Having an easy-to-use tool that people are trained on will increase both the results and the ROI they can get out of it and help them deal with any changes, new security requirements, or regulations coming their way.
9. If you had to imagine the payment ecosystem of 2026, what do you think it will look like?
I think it will be similar to what we have today but with more regulations and faster demands.
10. Finally, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to treasury leaders preparing for the future of payments?
Especially when it comes to fraud prevention, treasury teams need to remember that they’re the last line of defense before a payment leaves the company and goes out to the bank. It’s critical to partner closely with other departments, particularly procurement and vendor onboarding since those teams handle new supplier banking data and receive banking change requests every day.
The question is: how are they analyzing those requests to confirm they’re valid and legitimate? Collaboration with IT is also essential, as that team is responsible for keeping the master data file updated and secure.
In short, don’t isolate the treasury function. Work as a team, and make sure that the processes and systems you have in place today are strong enough to protect you from any type of payment risk in the future.