Protecting Corporate Cash in Highly Volatile Environments
For corporate treasurers managing significant cash positions, particularly those with deposits exceeding FDIC insurance limits or heavy reliance on money market funds, understanding how different liquidity structures perform under stress is essential. This paper examines the structural vulnerabilities in traditional financial instruments and presents a framework for building true liquidity resilience.
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When Liquidity Assumptions Break
Market stress does not unfold gradually. It accelerates suddenly, often exposing structural weaknesses that were invisible in stable conditions.
Recent market disruptions, including the regional banking turmoil of 2023, reminded treasury teams how quickly stable assumptions can unravel. Deposits above insurance limits, reliance on money market funds, and operational bottlenecks inside financial institutions are risks that feel remote in calm markets, but can surface overnight.
This whitepaper challenges treasurers to examine the foundations of their liquidity strategy. It draws from recent crises and historical stress events to surface the questions that matter most:
What actually happens to your cash under severe stress?
Where does liquidity depend on intermediaries?
How quickly can assets be converted into operating funds to make payments?
When you stress test, you really want to look at all the different wrapping structures and really start thinking about where the money’s eventually going to come out when you do have to make a payment. Even if an investment is technically safe, access depends on the wire room operability. In other words, funds can be liquid on paper, but any payment or transfer to an operating account externally can be entangled in bank infrastructure.
Stephane Lintner
Co-Founder & CEO, Jiko
What You’ll Learn
Discover a practical framework for identifying structural liquidity risks and building resilience into corporate cash strategies, and why common liquidity assumptions can fail when markets shift.
1. Why Liquidity Risk Is Structural
Regulatory reform has strengthened the system, but leverage and cross-institutional exposures remain embedded in financial infrastructure.
2. The Difference Between Liquidity and Payment Continuity
Holding liquid assets does not guarantee operational settlement. Wire room operability and intermediary dependencies matter just as much.
3. Core Questions Every Treasury Team Should Answer
The paper outlines the essential considerations treasury teams must address: how much liquidity is truly required to meet critical obligations, and how that liquidity must be structured to remain reliably accessible when markets and financial institutions are under stress.
4. Strategies for Building Liquidity Resilience
Among commonly used cash instruments, direct ownership of T-bills is uniquely aligned with preserving principal, maintaining liquidity under stress, and avoiding discretionary redemption risk.
Download the full whitepaper now to deepen your understanding of liquidity risk drivers and discover a framework for resilient liquidity.
Get the whitepaperFurther reading
Corporate Cash Confidence Survey Report
How Finance Professionals Are Navigating Risk, Liquidity, and Safeguarding Corporate Cash. Read more →
Positioning Cash for Market Resilience and Operational Readiness
In a recent webinar hosted by Strategic Treasurer, Jiko’s CEO Stephane Lintner and Head of Product Xavier Audibert joined Craig Jeffery for a practical briefing on how treasury teams can strengthen their 2026 strategies to best position cash to ensure obligations can be met under any market condition.. Read more →
Beyond the Bank Account: T-Bill Agents and the Future of Treasury
Jiko CEO & Co-founder Stephane Lintner explores the structural frictions in corporate cash management and how autonomous T-bill agents could reshape how treasurers manage liquidity, safety, and strategy at scale.. Read more →