Ant International and Barclays Forge AI-Driven Treasury Management Alliance to Strengthen Global FX Efficiency
In a significant move poised to reshape global treasury practices, Ant International has partnered with UK banking giant Barclays to introduce cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to foreign exchange (FX) risk management. The collaboration centers on enhancing operational resilience and cost-efficiency for international businesses navigating the volatile FX landscape—using the power of Ant International’s proprietary AI forecasting tool, the Time-Series Transformer (TST) Model.
This partnership marks a milestone in digital treasury transformation, particularly in how cross-border companies manage liquidity, predict exposures, and reduce hedging costs amid fluctuating currency markets. By combining Barclays’ extensive FX expertise and robust trading infrastructure with Ant International’s big data and AI innovation, the two organizations aim to elevate global treasury standards while enabling smoother, more affordable transactions for businesses worldwide.
Tapping Into AI to Tame FX Volatility
At the heart of the collaboration lies Ant International’s Time-Series Transformer (TST) Model—an advanced AI forecasting engine built on a transformer architecture and trained with nearly 2 billion parameters. The model leverages the latest breakthroughs in time-series forecasting, enabling it to predict FX exposure and company cashflows with remarkable accuracy across multiple timeframes—hourly, daily, and weekly.
According to Ant International, the TST Model currently delivers over 90% forecast accuracy, significantly improving treasury teams’ ability to anticipate FX risks, align trading volumes, and reduce over-hedging or the imposition of excess risk premiums by banks. The result: more precise FX planning, improved liquidity control, and lower overall costs in currency conversion and hedging processes.
In collaboration with Barclays, this model has been fully integrated into the bank’s BARX NetFX trading platform—a trusted solution for corporates, e-commerce platforms, and payment providers that require high-frequency, large-scale currency transactions. The integration enables Barclays to enhance its Guaranteed FX capabilities by leveraging the TST Model’s predictive power to forecast client needs and tailor hedging strategies accordingly.
Early Successes and First-Mover Advantage
The partnership has already borne fruit. Ant International and Barclays successfully completed the first wave of intra-group FX transactions using the AI-enhanced platform, showcasing real-world application and demonstrating measurable cost savings.
The TST Model provided Barclays with better visibility into Ant’s anticipated FX requirements, enabling more efficient trade execution and reducing the bank’s own risk exposure. This, in turn, allowed Barclays to offer tighter pricing and more competitive quotes for Ant International’s treasury operations.
Ant International passed these benefits on to its ecosystem of business clients by offering stable, predictable, and cost-effective FX rates—especially for high-volume trading pairs such as the U.S. dollar (USD) and the euro (EUR). As a result, initial trial transactions showed tangible reductions in FX costs for Ant’s customers, validating the real-world value of the AI-driven treasury framework.
Bridging Technology and Banking Expertise
The strength of this collaboration rests not only in the technology itself but in the alignment of strategic goals between Ant International and Barclays. Both organizations are deeply invested in transforming cross-border payments and treasury functions to better serve the needs of globally oriented businesses.
Ben Parkinson, Head of Global Fintech & FX Automation Sales at Barclays, emphasized the collaborative spirit and innovation underpinning the relationship. “Ant International has been a valued and long-standing partner of Barclays, and we were thrilled to work together on this innovative solution,” he said. “Their state-of-the-art AI model has improved the accuracy of forecasting cash flows and helped us optimise the FX hedging process.”
Parkinson added that the partnership demonstrates the bank’s commitment to FX automation—one of its core growth areas—and exemplifies the potential of fintech-bank collaborations in setting new industry benchmarks.
For Ant International, the use of its TST Model with a major global financial institution like Barclays represents a significant validation of its technical capabilities in the field of treasury and risk management. Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Technology at Ant International, called the partnership a “milestone” in the company’s treasury transformation journey.
“The collaboration with Barclays on our Time-Series Transformer Model is an important milestone in our ongoing journey to help treasuries optimise their FX strategies,” said Li. “It shows how enhancing our internal treasury operations through AI can directly benefit customers, by translating cost savings into better rates and more stable service.”
Looking Ahead: Expanding Currency Coverage and Business Utility
While the current collaboration has focused on major currency pairs that align with Ant International’s existing treasury exposure, both companies have indicated plans to expand the reach and functionality of their solution.
Barclays and Ant International aim to extend the TST Model’s application across a broader spectrum of currencies and regional markets, enabling a wider variety of businesses—particularly small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs)—to access the benefits of automated FX forecasting and hedging.
Pushkaraj Gumaste, Head of Corporate Banking for Asia Pacific and the Middle East at Barclays, stressed the importance of innovation in staying ahead of clients’ evolving needs. “This collaboration is a strong testament to how Barclays is dedicated to evolving alongside our partners,” he said. “It’s a perfect example of how we can make cross-border business more seamless and efficient for our clients, while deepening the value we bring to their global operations.”
Rising Demand for Treasury Innovation
The timing of this partnership comes as global businesses increasingly look to technology to navigate economic uncertainty and currency volatility. With cross-border transaction volumes expected to exceed $290 trillion by 2030, according to industry estimates, the pressure on finance and treasury departments to manage risk and drive cost efficiencies has never been higher.
For many multinational corporations, especially those operating across dozens of markets with variable currencies and regulatory conditions, the combination of AI-powered forecasting and expert banking infrastructure can offer a competitive advantage.
Ant International and Barclays believe their model can become a blueprint for the future of global treasury operations—one in which AI-driven insights and automated execution converge to create a more secure, agile, and cost-effective financial environment for businesses.
About Ant International
Headquartered in Singapore, Ant International is a leading global digital payment, digitisation and financial technology provider offering a unified techfin platform to unlock next-gen commerce for all. In close collaboration with partners, they support merchants of all sizes worldwide to realize their growth aspirations through a comprehensive range of tech-driven digital payment and financial services solutions. To learn more, please visit https://www.ant-intl.com/
