Corporate transaction banking portals have traditionally been designed around the bank's products, legal entities and processing structures. Treasurers increasingly expect something different: faster access to information, interfaces that adapt to individual roles and connectivity that allows banking activity to sit inside their own workflows.

SMBC has redesigned the experience around client behaviour and is already seeing signs of it translating into increased adoption of its growing transaction banking services. The bank launched the US cash management and payments capabilities of SMBC Connect on 22 April 2026, with additional services to be rolled out progressively across North America. It is now migrating customers from its existing Americas platform in phases over the next 18 months.

Craig Vaream, Head of Cash Management and Co-Head of the Global Transaction Banking Department in New York, said SMBC involved 50 clients throughout development, seeking feedback on capabilities, functionality and even the placement of information on screen. Among clients using the new system, wire-payment volumes are up 70%, payment values 134% and deposits 140%, according to Vaream.

Those figures do not establish that the platform itself caused each increase, but they give SMBC a measurable early indicator of deeper activity among clients using it.

Client behaviour is shaping the interface

The starting point was a consistent message from corporate users: they want their professional digital experience to resemble the personal applications they use outside work. That does not mean simplifying treasury into a consumer banking product. It means allowing different users to decide what information they see and how they receive it.

SMBC Connect therefore allows users such as payables staff, treasurers, assistant treasurers and chief financial officers to arrange widgets differently and configure alerts around their own requirements. SMBC also employs former corporate treasury practitioners in New York to contribute to product design alongside the 50-client feedback group.

The feedback loop continues after a feature is designed. Vaream said SMBC shows proposed functionality to clients, modifies it and returns with another iteration. One example is transaction tagging. Rather than forcing users to search only through a bank's legal-entity structure, clients can label transactions in ways that correspond to their own operations and retrieve the information more quickly in reports.

Connectivity is the next layer of the treasury experience

The portal is only one part of that build. Application programming interface (API) connectivity is next, allowing more banking activity to sit directly inside corporate systems. Treasurers are seeking faster access to bank information, although not every enterprise resource planning system is yet ready to support the same level of API integration.

The broader objective is a similar experience across markets. A user moving between Tokyo, New York and London should not have to relearn the platform. Achieving that consistency requires coordination across regions even though payment rails, regulation and treasury practices differ locally.

AI starts with fraud and financial visibility

Artificial intelligence (AI) is at an earlier stage. Clients are exploring AI for fraud mitigation and cashflow forecasting, but adoption is uneven. Cashflow forecasting remains difficult, with many corporate treasurers still relying heavily on spreadsheets, and relatively few have moved far into AI-based forecasting so far.

Fraud detection offers a more immediate application. Anomalous transactions, unusual payees, geographies and payment amounts are areas where AI can help identify suspicious activity. The pressure is two-sided because fraudsters are also using AI, increasing the need for banks and corporate clients to improve their controls.

SMBC also plans to use digital tools to surface information that can help clients manage their banking activity more actively. Inactive accounts and alternative payment methods that might have reduced transaction costs are two examples Vaream gave. The proposition moves the platform from executing instructions towards showing a treasurer where cash or payment choices may be inefficient.

That is a more practical near-term role for AI than autonomous treasury management. It also fits the four attributes Vaream repeatedly returned to: control, personalisation, efficiency and transparency. The technology is being introduced around specific operational decisions rather than as a separate AI layer that users must adopt for its own sake.

Wider migration will show whether early engagement persists

SMBC Connect is still early in its rollout. Global transaction banking is a growth focus in SMBC Group's three year strategic plan, providing the wider institutional context for the investment. The evidence from the interview comes from clients already using the new system; the wider Americas migration will take place over the next 18 months. Sustaining the early engagement will require continued investment in differentiated capabilities and the same feedback loop as more customers move across.

The early user activity gives SMBC a concrete baseline to follow as that migration expands: more wire payments, greater payment value and higher deposits among clients on the new system.

The next phase broadens the proposition. API connectivity will move more treasury activity outside the portal, AI will be applied first to areas such as fraud and financial visibility, and SMBC is working towards a more consistent experience across regions. As the platform reaches a much larger and more diverse group of corporate treasurers, the question is whether a product development model built around continuous client input can sustain the engagement now appearing among early users.