PYMNTS Intelligence data shows middle-market CFOs and treasurers seeking greater cash flow visibility and more flexible working capital tools.
Citi’s Services and Treasury and Trade Solutions businesses each posted 18% revenue growth.
Wells Fargo’s corporate businesses recorded strong loan and deposit growth alongside higher treasury management and payments revenue.
Some of the strongest growth inside big banks is coming from the services that companies use every day to move, hold and manage money.
Second-quarter results from the likes of Citi and Wells Fargo offered evidence that corporate banking growth is extending beyond conventional lending. Payments, treasury management, liquidity services and custody cement the relationships between banks and corporate finance departments, producing fee revenue while helping banks attract the deposits generated by their clients’ daily operations.
The comparison with lending requires some qualification. Loan balances also grew at several banks, particularly in corporate businesses, so the quarter did not establish that cash management has displaced lending as the industry’s primary growth source. It did show that transaction-oriented services can grow alongside lending and give banks another route to broaden corporate relationships.
The demand side of the equation can be seen in PYMNTS Intelligence research. By way of example, the “2025-2026 Growth Corporates Working Capital Index,” produced with Visa, surveyed 1,457 chief financial officers and treasurers at companies across 23 countries. The growth corporates, often described as middle-market companies, typically generate $50 million to $1 billion in annual revenue.
Finance executives are seeking more predictable cash flow and using working capital to support capital investment, inventory purchases, expansion and faster payments to strategic suppliers, according to the report. Companies using external working capital tools proactively also reported better cash flow visibility and operating flexibility, while artificial intelligence-supported forecasting and workflow tools can give finance teams a clearer view of liquidity.
The demands create an opening for banks that can connect payments, receivables, liquidity and financing rather than sell each service as a separate product.
In Citigroup’s latest earnings results, the company said its Services business generated $6.4 billion in second-quarter revenue, up 18% from a year earlier, including $4.7 billion from Treasury and Trade Solutions, also up 18%. Securities Services revenue rose to $1.6 billion from $1.4 billion. The performance made Services one of Citi’s faster-growing major businesses during a quarter in which companywide revenue increased 14%.
