If you’re managing 200+ bank accounts across 12 countries with a spreadsheet and goodwill, you’re not alone. But you are doing it wrong. You’re losing control. And you know it.
Every late close, every FX surprise, every “where’s the cash?” email from your CFO is a symptom of a system that’s outgrown itself.
Treasury teams are burning hours reconciling internal transfers, chasing balances, paying transaction fees to banks just to move money between their own entities.
Pretending its normal. Pretend that treasury has to be complex. That intercompany flows must be messy. That setting up banking for a new subsidiary must take months.
It doesn’t. It shouldn’t.
You wouldn’t run finance without a general ledger. Why are you still running treasury without an internal bank?
Meet Janne Tuunanen
With over a decade of experience at Nomentia, Janne Tuunanen has worked closely with companies across industries to solve complex treasury challenges. H e shares his insights on what it takes to build a solid business case for implementing an in-house bank.
What is an in-house bank, really?
The in-house bank is the fix most companies know about but haven’t acted on. Why? Because it sounds big, and no one has time for big. But not doing it is already costing you in speed, visibility, and in money.
Instead of relying on dozens of external banks and manual processes, in-house bank let’s you control the movement of money across your group.
With an IHB, you can:
- Set up virtual accounts for entities or business units
- Process payments and collections on behalf of group entities
- Run automated intercompany netting and cash pooling (physical or notional)
- Track intercompany balances in real time — with full audit trails
- Automate loan agreements, interest calculations, and internal postings
- Assign and reconcile incoming funds using rules and reference data
- Configure FX handling, sweeping, fund allocation, and transfer pricing policies
The result? Fewer accounts, fewer fees, cleaner intercompany flows, and real-time visibility into global cash. The best part? It’s measurable, and it’s next.
The treasurer’s wake-up call
Meet Johan, a treasurer who thought he had things under control. Johan manages treasury for a €500 million turnover manufacturing group with operations in eight countries. On paper, things look fine. Cash is flowing. Payrolls are met. No one is panicking.
But underneath, things look a little different.
The company has 250 external bank accounts spread across 14 banks. Every month, Johan’s team spends two weeks consolidating balances. The month-end close takes three days, and that’s on a good month. Intercompany loans are tracked in spreadsheets. No one has a clear view of the group’s cash position until it’s too late.
Then the audit lands. The FX report shows €60,000 in preventable losses over the past year. All due to poor internal netting and suboptimal currency rates. It’s not a surprise. Johan knew they were exposed. But now the CFO knows too.
That same week, a new acquisition in Spain stalls because treasury can’t open local accounts fast enough. Local teams are wiring money manually. Risk is spiking, and Johan’s phone won’t stop ringing.
He finally sits down and maps it out. Too many accounts. Too many banks. Too many internal transfers that cost real money. He adds up the fees, the staff hours, the hidden losses. It’s not sustainable. Things need to change.
Building the business case: A clear ROI
It’s easy to assume an in-house bank is only worth the trouble for the big players. That’s exactly what Johan thought too, until he did the math. Johan started mapping the chaos onto a spreadsheet: bank accounts, transaction volumes, fees, staff hours, and FX losses. What begins as a gut feeling turns into a clear financial case.
And the numbers speak for themselves:
Beyond ROI: Strategic impact of In-house bank
Twelve months after implementing the in-house bank, Johan’s treasury looks nothing like it did before.
Month-end close, once a painful three-day scramble, now takes less than a day. The team no longer chases balances or reconciles intercompany positions. Instead, it's all visible in real time. What used to be manual, fragmented, and reactive is now automated, centralized, and calm.
When the company acquired a new subsidiary in Poland, treasury had banking in place within hours. No waiting for local accounts. No compliance bottlenecks. Payments were live on day one.
The internal FX desk, once an operational headache, now runs like a miniature profit center offering better-than-bank rates to group entities and locking in spreads the company used to pay to third parties.
But the biggest change? Strategic speed.
With cash visibility across entities, better hedging tools, and a unified payments layer, the business can now move quickly no matter whether it’s a new market, a major deal, or a shift in capital structure. The in-house bank didn’t just bring savings but changed how fast the company can think and act.
If you’re considering it, you probably need it
Most companies don’t realize how inefficient their treasury operations are until the costs become visible. If you're even thinking about an in-house bank, it’s worth asking yourself a few direct questions:
- How many external bank accounts do we have — and why?
- What does our treasury team spend most of its time doing?
- How much are we losing to FX spreads we can’t control?
- Could we onboard a new legal entity’s banking in a day? If not, what's stopping us?
- What’s the real cost — in time, money, and risk — of continuing like this for another year?
These aren’t just operational questions. They point to whether your finance function is built to support scale, speed, and strategic decision-making. If your answers make you uncomfortable, you’re already overdue for an in-house bank.
Why you're (probably) ready for an in-house bank
Treasury complexity doesn’t scale well, and most companies are already feeling it. Too many accounts. Too many fees. Too much time spent on things that should be automatic. If your finance team is still chasing balances, reconciling internal transactions manually, or waiting weeks to set up banking for a new entity, you’re not behind. You’re exposed.
An in-house bank isn’t a luxury. It’s infrastructure. It gives you the tools to manage payments, liquidity, FX, and intercompany funding from one central platform. With fewer systems, fewer errors, and fewer surprises.
You’ve seen the numbers: over €150K in first-year savings, with long-term strategic upside. Efficiency is one thing. The ability to move faster, scale cleaner, and operate with confidence is something else.
The companies that adopt IHBs are building the foundation for smarter finance. Because the next time you acquire a business, launch in a new country, or face a liquidity crunch, you won’t be scrambling.
You’ll already be in control.
And if the idea of setting one up still feels like “something for later,” ask yourself: what’s the real cost of waiting another year?
