Expansion and change are the constants in global business. Great treasury turns them into an advantage. In this episode, Bethany May, U.S. Lead for Payments Industry Advocacy, sits down with Lori Schwartz, Global Head of Treasury Services at J.P. Morgan Payments, to talk about what it really takes to support multinational clients through growth and change: entering new markets like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), taming multi-currency complexity and keeping control as the world demands ever-faster payments. Their conversation covers the rise of free trade zones as launching pads for corporate treasury centers, how APIs and automation are moving technology upstream and client stories spanning programmable payments and real-time liquidity. Along the way, Lori shares her cardinal rule of payments (never shall a payment fail due to lack of funding) and her advice for staying ahead: stay interested, stay humble. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of J.P. Morgan, its affiliates, or its employees. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable. Neither the author nor J.P. Morgan makes any representations or warranties as to the information’s accuracy or completeness. The information contained herein has been provided solely for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, advice or recommendation, to make any investment decisions or purchase any financial instruments, and may not be construed as such. Any mentions of third-party trademarks, brand names, products and services are for referential purposes only and any mention thereof is not meant to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation.© 2025 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All Rights Reserved.
Expansion and change are the constants in global business. Great treasury turns them into an advantage. In this episode, Bethany May, U.S. Lead for Payments Industry Advocacy, sits down with Lori Schwartz, Global Head of Treasury Services at J.P. Morgan Payments, to talk about what it really takes to support multinational clients through growth and change: entering new markets like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), taming multi-currency complexity and keeping control as the world demands ever-faster payments.
Their conversation covers the rise of free trade zones as launching pads for corporate treasury centers, how APIs and automation are moving technology upstream and client stories spanning programmable payments and real-time liquidity. Along the way, Lori shares her cardinal rule of payments (never shall a payment fail due to lack of funding) and her advice for staying ahead: stay interested, stay humble.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of J.P. Morgan, its affiliates, or its employees. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable. Neither the author nor J.P. Morgan makes any representations or warranties as to the information’s accuracy or completeness. The information contained herein has been provided solely for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, advice or recommendation, to make any investment decisions or purchase any financial instruments, and may not be construed as such. Any mentions of third-party trademarks, brand names, products and services are for referential purposes only and any mention thereof is not meant to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation.© 2025 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All Rights Reserved.
Narrator (00:02):
Welcome to Pay It Forward, a podcast by J.P. Morgan Payments for J.P. Morgan Payments. Get to know our business and gain a better understanding of where we sit at the intersection of technology and finance. Did you know we move nearly $12 trillion dollars globally each day? Through over 170 countries and 120 currencies at more than 5,000 transactions per second? Join us as we take you inside the stories, technology, and people that make it all happen. (1)
Bethany May (00:38):
I'm Bethany May from Payments Industry Advocacy for J.P. Morgan Payments, and I'm joined today by Lori Schwartz, Global Head of Treasury Services for J.P. Morgan Payments. Welcome, Lori.
Lori Schwartz (00:49):
Thank you, Bethany. It's great to be here with you.
Bethany May (00:51):
Great to be here with you too. I'm excited to talk to you today about global expansion and the treasury innovations that are supporting it. So Lori, let's start first with the topic of expansion. I know that the team recently launched in a new market, the UAE, and I imagine this was a huge operational effort, presumably requiring navigating a regulatory landscape, assessing client needs in this market, and potentially a technology build. Can you walk us through what it took to get this market launched?
Lori Schwartz (01:21):
Bethany, you're 100% right. Entering a new market is probably that word itself. It's new. And so as a firm, this is where we bring the strength of our organization coming together. We were fortunate to have people in UAE. They helped us understand the market, learn about the market, build the right relationships, which, yes, involved regulators and financial systems and all of that, that comes together to make a banking offering in a country. Fortunately, we have taken over the years very deliberate decisions with regards to how our technology is built. And so in our constant endeavor to be globally consistent and locally relevant, we were able to leverage many of our global systems, our payment system, our deposit system, our liquidity system, to bring that consistency of product into the UAE and specifically ADGM, Abu Dhabi Global Markets, where we launched.
(02:17):
For us, entering a new market is a long-term investment. And so having this done from the start, making sure that we are where our clients need us to be in the markets was a really important endeavor, and we were super proud last year for launching because it started this trend of the free trade zones, which we also launched China. We're now looking into GIFT City and ultimately and always following the needs of our clients and being where they need us to be.
Bethany May (02:45):
So you talked a little bit about intentional technology build decisions, building technology so that, as we expand, the technology's there to support that. As we think about expansion, we see interesting dynamics at play for our clients as well. We have multinationals who are headquartered in the US or in EMEA and are expanding into the UAE. And we have UAE headquartered entities like energy giant ADNOC, who are expanding and operating across borders. Both tend to require market-specific banking capabilities and a local presence. So, talk to us a little bit about the ADNOC engagement. What did this teach your team about what multinational treasurers actually need when they're expanding into new markets?
Lori Schwartz (03:26):
Yeah, it's great. And the partnership with ADNOC has been phenomenal across many years, but I think if I was to wrap it up simply, location matters. And so for ADNOC being Abu Dhabi-based, having a presence, having bank accounts, being able to run their global treasury center as they do out of the financial free zone, like Abu Dhabi Global Market, became really important. And as I continue to learn by evaluating the different free trade zones that are across the world is they really become the combination of the free trade zones plus the in-house bank really as a special connection for corporate treasuries that want to achieve the benefits of having either the regional treasury centers or the in-house banks, but also the fluidity and operational flexibility which free trade zones provide. So for us, that became, frankly, a launching pad to our continued pursuit of market expansion in this regard.
Bethany May (04:22):
So quite a bit of opportunity there across a number of major markets globally. And let's zoom out a little bit here. You mentioned a number of major markets globally. That UAE story that you talked about really speaks to something bigger. How are you and your team thinking about J.P. Morgan Payments' role in high growth markets more broadly? Is it about having a presence in these markets, being able to support clients there through select local services and relationship coverage? Is it about building integrated infrastructure and being able to support clients there at scale, with the same control, visibility, and automation that they have in core markets? Is it both?
Lori Schwartz (04:59):
It's all of that and then some, Bethany. Ultimately, we want to be where our clients need us to be, how they need us to be there. And sometimes, as we're looking at our market presence, we start, we grow, and we expand. So what does that mean in practicality? We move money around the world, we help clients make payments. And oftentimes, as you're making cross-border payments, which we have connections across a variety of different markets, over 100 across the world, it's about FX.
(05:28):
And so reaching the currency, reaching the market itself through FX cross-border payments, the 120 different currencies that we can do today, it gives us a look and feel for the market. It helps our clients access those markets. And then in what we believe to be an important part of our ambitions and initiatives over the next couple years is making sure that as our clients are growing into these markets, and you're 100% right to focus on where are the high growth markets, where is the trade flowing? Where is the business expanding? We can continue to deepen those capabilities, yes, always with coverage and expertise in our sales organization, but equally so through banking capabilities directly to access domestic payments to support onshore activities. And that kind of comes together to be our global footprint of offering.
Bethany May (06:15):
I liked how you phrased that, Lori, with, "As we start and grow and expand," and presumably our clients are doing the same thing. Our clients are growing and expanding in their businesses as well. And so then cross-border payments must become increasingly important to them. Can you talk to us about what that means in practice, our clients’ needs to make cross-border payments, and what are some of the implications of that?
Lori Schwartz (06:38):
Yeah, so I'll kind of take a step back to take a leap forward because cross-border payments is probably one of the most rapidly changing parts of our business today. So if you think about any corporation operating in, you know I'm sitting here in New York, so let's start with United States. I'm producing a good, I'm ultimately selling that good. Chances are, I need to source either materials or you know a finished product, but from somewhere across the world, which could be, in this case, Vietnam. Therefore, I need, as a company, a means of both creating that contractual relationship to of course source the goods, and, a means with any good contract to pay for those goods. So you had cross-border payments stemming really from supply chain dynamics. I need to buy something, I need to pay for something. You have service companies which operate in key hubs, like in India, I have payroll, I have a variety of different you know overhead, I've got an office.
(07:39):
And so cross-quarter payments and the most established B2B type flows is just how do we help you run your company, source your goods, pay your employees, make payment commitments, and so forth. But equally so, and probably with the revolution, and I'm going to use that word probably a bit provocatively, of online, e-commerce, you see businesses evolving and expanding into their direct business models being cross-border itself. And so you think about you know the payment services companies that are transacting in FX, reaching markets. And so you start to have a much more robustly growing need, remittance payments and otherwise, to start flowing cash across borders.
(08:24):
Historically, that has been facilitated through wires, deep correspondent banking networks, phenomenally impactful, powerful, and have really done the job. But as we know in the business that is payments, speed, scale are coupled trend and continually growing. What we're seeing now is the expansion and interoperability with the near real-time payment systems. And that's an area that is exciting us a lot is how do you connect the cross-border flow to the settlement of real-time, all with the view of helping money move faster around the world.
Bethany May (09:00):
Lori, I think you touched on a number of really important topics there and particularly with companies that are operating globally, you talk about the need to pay for goods maybe in one location when you're receiving your revenues in a different location in a different country, expenses maybe in a third or fourth, or even dozens of additional currencies. And so we see that through this, not only are companies needing to make cross-border payments, they might face challenges with currency mismatch, and treasurers are then needing to navigate FX needs across dozens of currencies. Talk to us about a client mindset of multicurrency management and making cross-border payments, and what are some of the considerations and complexities associated with that?
Lori Schwartz (09:41):
It's a great question, Bethany, and undoubtedly something that is on the mind of all treasurers around the world is as your business expands, as the markets which you touch, either through you know direct sale of your product, direct employment of your people, or supply chains, all of the things we've just discussed, currency comes into the mix, and currency is an exposure. It is a receivable, an asset, payable, takes all the different forms on your balance sheet and therefore the considerations of how you optimize against the risk, the exposure as well as the cost come at the fore. The good news is there is a lot of different tools that treasurers have to work through that mindset.
(10:25):
So at its most basic level, you can opt to differentiate the exposure you hold on your balance sheet from the payment of which you are making. What does that mean? That's just an FX payment to us. You have dollars, I need to pay Vietnamese Dong in my prior example and I'm going to do that through an FX transaction. But there is a consideration that as your exposure and need grows, you may very well, as a treasurer, start to consider what actual currencies you physically hold on your balance sheet. And so over time, I might opt to actually open an account and hold that currency directly over time for forward purposes and manage, through a variety of different markets and FX solutions, the risk, the hedging against those currencies.
(11:12):
But what also starts to happen is, as companies grow, they operate more broadly. And so a great example of this is one company that we've worked with globally: Wizz Air, Europe’s fastest-growing ultra-low-cost airline. So they were operating across 16 different currencies and multiple legal entities. And so what they started to notice, as many companies do, is I have like type transactions, currencies, payments, receivables, liquidity needs, and I can benefit from in-house centralization, effectively netting, right, using what I have first and managing my FX more strategically on the transactional basis.
(11:53):
And it was really great to work Wizz Air, in part because helping companies rationalize accounts to the tune of 60%, which we did with Wizz Air, but also create that visibility control, and optimization really comes to top line to bottom line revenue benefit and core cost expense, in this case, for a company like Wizz Air. Together with their treasury management solution, we implemented a cross-currency virtual account management solution that also leveraged internal netting and it's proven to be exceptionally valuable in helping to manage both the span and reach that they need to within their business models and the 16 different currencies, but also in a manner that is effectively risk-managed, cost-managed, and efficient for their global treasury.
Bethany May (12:39):
Lori, you mentioned virtual netting and multicurrency management, I imagine that these structures must help to release surplus liquidity. That must mean a lot for our clients.
Lori Schwartz (12:52):
It means so much. Doing more with less is universally beneficial. And when you think about it from a cash management landscape, there is a cardinal rule in payments processing, or at least there is one, according to me, which is never shall a payment fail due to lack of funding. Therefore, in a corporate treasurer's mindset, there is a delicate balance every day of ensuring that I have enough cash on hand in the right currency, in the right place to make my payments, but also not too much, where it becomes an operational inefficiency for the company.
(13:28):
And so when we help companies across the globe implement technologies, create efficiencies, do things like account rationalization, it is always about helping them do more with less. And as you rightly said, you release that working capital. It's got a massive benefit, whether it's invested, reinvested, used to pay down debt, there's a variety of different benefits and cash is a critical component of every corporate treasurer's balance sheet, but it's also a comparatively expensive component of their balance sheet. So through the solutions and the global reach and the liquidity account structuring practice that we have, helping companies achieve that efficiency is a top goal.
Bethany May (14:10):
And I imagine this has an impact on their treasury team as well. Releasing their need to do active currency swapping has an operational impact, allowing those treasury teams to focus on more strategic growth initiatives. So the benefits are multifold within that. We've just talked a lot about different product capabilities. Let's talk now a little bit more about the role of technology.
Lori Schwartz (14:47):
Well, modernization is the first pillar of our treasury services strategy, so it plays a huge role. I fundamentally believe that the technology we have today will be, if not the biggest, one of the biggest enablers for the business going forward. Why? Because the flexibility of your technology becomes the catalyst to creativity within your organization. And if we know one thing for certain, the needs, the dynamics, the speed, the scale, all of those things we've talked about, it's only going to continue to grow and evolve. And so we've spent, you know, a considerable amount of time and years and effort modernizing our technology, which, as a global organization, it is a feat into of itself, but it proves phenomenally impactful. And that benefits ourselves, it benefits our clients, and so a couple examples that come to mind is the progression of products over time.
(15:38):
So we've talked already a bit about visibility, control, optimization, moving your full liquidity, where you need it to be, when you need it to be, accessing all of the different payment rails across the world, but a lot of that had historically been about set-and-forget sort of rules. And then you have to come in and I need to monitor over here, massage over there, change the rules over time. And that worked and that was fantastic. But technology has given us new tools and new mechanisms of interacting with those products. And so APIs become a critical component of how our clients interact with us and exchange information with us.
(16:16):
We've seen that most directly come to life in its first generation of an API used to instruct a payment, an API used to access data. We're now taking that one step further, which is APIs being used to interact with your cash concentration structures. "I want to set my rules. I want to trigger my sweeps." And that's all about account structuring liquidity management, and becomes insanely impactful, as we've seen with one of our clients, Siemens, the largest engineering company in Europe. They have leveraged blockchain programmable payments and virtual accounts to support their real-time and scalable liquidity, all API-based. It's reduced considerable internal effort, to your point. When the technology is either making the decision or executing the decision, that's a lot of workload off of the teams, and it can be exceptionally valuable for our clients. We're pushing those in a lot of different ways, but also always hinging back to making the payment, funding the payment, reaching the market and the variety of different ways that we do across that treasury services teams today.
Bethany May (17:17):
So Lori, new tools, new mechanisms of interacting, APIs, we can see that payments are moving faster than ever, and expectations are higher than ever. Talk to us about what has changed in our clients as they consider the baseline for a modern treasury and how are leading teams building for speed and control?
Lori Schwartz (17:36):
It's a great question and it's one at the top of our minds, our clients' minds. And I think it comes back to a lot of what we've been talking about and what you brought to the earlier parts of the conversation, Bethany, which is technology is the enabler. And that begins and ends and starts and goes in between, and every part of that process matters. So corporate treasurers themselves need to be and are assessing what does their technology look like within the company? Have they full utilized it? And we actually had a roundtable in Ireland a couple weeks ago, a really in depth conversation about making the best out of your treasury management system. Are you using it as a means of data collection or are you using it as a means of creating informative decisions and executing? That then gets complemented and coupled into the bank capabilities.
(18:30):
And when you have the start and the finish and the connection in between, you can do like what we've seen one of the companies that we work with, Australia's FinClear, do, which is really begin and succeed on cashflow optimization. Right, so needing faster, just in time cross border liquidity coupled with the API sweeps that enable real-time automatic transfers, across borders, across currencies and doing that in a way which not just moves liquidity where it needs to be, but provides that data, that information, such that, in many ways to your earlier point, Bethany, like the aggregated cash can be an informed decision.
(19:10):
That becomes critical, and we've seen a lot of success in companies and, to your direct question, when treasurers are thinking, yes, who is my banking partner? Super important. What capabilities do they have? But also how does that work into my ecosystem? I also think, and while the world is still figuring it out in some ways, the next generation of AI tools, agentic interactions and how much of that can be seamless behind the scenes versus manual intervention or done in complement is going to be critical. But I would always say to every corporate treasurer, think about the technology that's sitting throughout the ecosystem of your payments and your operations and that starts at home most often.
Bethany May (19:53):
Lori, I think you just hit all the buzzwords that people are looking to hear when they think about payments and treasury. Let's take a second to bring it back to a market strategy. As you think about many of those themes that you just mentioned in payments, how do these themes shape where our clients choose to operate next and where they invest next?
Lori Schwartz (20:11):
Yeah, it's a great question, Bethany. And we have the privilege and the pleasure at J.P. Morgan Payments of working with so many clients at different levels of size, of market presence across all different industries, sectors, multinational corporations, financial institutions. And so in some ways, it's almost every market is important, and therefore how do we prioritize and execute? And I think it comes back for me always to, we talk to our clients. We look at where trade growth is growing. We look at where, especially in the commerce side of our business, where in governments themselves and countries are embracing those flows.
(20:52):
You know, it's been really interesting to watch what some countries, Thailand and Singapore come to mind of actually connecting real-time payment systems. Why? Because there's a lot of travel between Singapore and Thailand. And so having a, you know, Singaporean that's visiting Bangkok on a weekend's holiday be able to make a direct payment from their bank account to pay for their dinner or what have you becomes super interesting. So again, industry will depend on it. For us, we have a long-established market presence across 40-plus countries.
(21:24):
We believe, strongly so, that our footprint of today will not meet the client demand of tomorrow, which is why we're expanding both in the established onshore locations, but, as we talked about, increasingly so in free trade zones. And that's become a really unique and interesting trend. Couple that with our universal goal of providing optionality such that our clients needs, as they deem them to be, as we help them to support. But a lot of that comes down to what is the business they're in? Where are the types of payments going? And over time we'll get everywhere we need to go.
Bethany May (21:56):
I love that. Well, we've talked a lot today about the ways that J.P. Morgan is working to meet our clients' increasingly complex treasury needs. I think it's time, Lori, to get out your crystal ball. Let's talk a little bit about the future of treasury. Let's look three to five years out. What excites you most about where global payments and treasury are heading?
Lori Schwartz (22:17):
There is so much that it's exciting. AI is revolution, differentiator, art of the possible. I 100% believe on that scale, speed and maintaining security as king of the three foundational S's in moving payments and moving money around the world. But I wanted to use also this opportunity to talk a little bit about what could it be, to your direct question. And so picking back up on the Singapore/Thailand example with connecting RTP systems, we've talked about connecting cross-border FX into real-time payment systems. We are ultimately embracing and revolutionizing, I'm going to use the word again, how money can move. And so there is a question of thought, and I think a potential out there is, as interoperability and reach continue to grow, can we, within the payments world, achieve ubiquity? The customer experience, the receivable initiation, will I be able to travel around the world as easily as I do with my credit card as I can with my bank account? And that, for me, seems like a very exciting art of the possible for payments in the future.
Bethany May (23:31):
Yeah. I love that, Lori, and I agree so wholeheartedly. I love your focus on interoperability, reach, and ubiquity. I think there's so many innovations happening right now in the payments landscape and they're happening at the same time, and I'm really excited to see how they work together to improve payment efficiency and really simplify treasury operations. So Lori, for the treasury leaders and payment professionals who are listening today, what would you say is one mindset shift that they should embrace to stay ahead?
Lori Schwartz (23:58):
Stay interested, stay humble. There's more to learn, but the technology is no longer the inhibitor of what we can do. It will be our creativity and our use and our ability and willingness to embrace the technology to move the industry forward.
Bethany May (24:18):
The art of the possible. I think that's a great phrase for what you just described and wholeheartedly agree with that one. So we've talked a lot today and we've covered a lot of ground on how J.P. Morgan is partnering with our clients to push boundaries and treasury. Let's keep that fun energy going with a quick personal fun fact to close. In the last podcast, you shared about your favorite movie. This time, Lori, can you tell us all, when you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Lori Schwartz (24:44):
So this may surprise, but it will make sense, and I'm going to take a step back to the reason and the why, because you know me, Bethany. It's never going to be a direct answer. It's always going to be a story. But one of the things growing up that my mother felt very strongly about was water safety. We were in the pool at nine months. My sister and I, when I say we, that's who I mean, were competitive swimmers all through our youth and through high school. And then, as a swimmer, you often become a lifeguard. I became a water safety instructor. I coached a swim team. And so there was a considerable part of my life where the plan, the big plan, the grand plan was to be a professional lifeguard.
Bethany May (25:22):
That would have been a great outcome. I mean, I always say safety first. It's funny to think about what you wanted to be when you were a kid. My childhood dream when I was young was to find a way to opt out of the whole career thing and just live a life of leisure. Somehow I ended up at J.P. Morgan, working really hard, and to be honest, I love it. So I think between your answer of wanting to be a water safety instructor or coaching a swim team and me as someone who didn't want to do anything, somehow J.P. Morgan got two pretty good hires, if I say so myself.
Lori Schwartz (25:56):
There is no career you can't have at J.P. Morgan. So it's a fantastic place to be.
Bethany May (26:02):
All right. Well, thank you so much, Lori. I appreciate you coming on.
Lori Schwartz (26:07):
Thank you so much, Bethany.
Narrator:
Thank you for tuning in to Pay It Forward, a podcast by J.P. Morgan Payments for J.P. Morgan Payments. If you're interested in exploring career opportunities at J.P. Morgan Payments, please visit jpmorgan.com/careers and enter the word payments for relevant opportunities. Stay up to date on the latest stories, technology, and people powering payments by subscribing on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform. Keep pushing boundaries, and we'll keep moving the payments world forward one transaction at a time.
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