Citi flags trapped cash, CBP opens tariff refunds, Zip embeds AI in vendor risk

Three signals pointed the same way for procurement leaders today: corporate treasurers are hunting for cash locked inside their supply chains, U.S. Customs fixed a start date for a long-delayed wave of tariff refunds, and a major procurement platform pushed vendor-risk checks deeper into the buying decision. Financial discipline, trade-policy mechanics and AI tooling are landing on the same desks at once.

Treasurers hunt for the cash locked in supply chains

A new Citi Institute report, covered by CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly, found that 72% of large corporates now put freeing up trapped cash at the top of their agenda for the coming year, versus 66% in early 2026. For 64% of respondents, pinning down how much cash sits idle across the network is now central to working-capital planning, up from 55% earlier in the year.

Citi built the study on its payments-network data plus a mid-year survey of over 700 large corporates and around 150 of their suppliers, and said its Global Supply Chain Pressure Index sits at its most sustained high since 2021-2022. Adoniro Cestari, who leads trade and working-capital solutions at Citi Services, said treasury teams are now asking "where is our cash sitting, and how quickly can it be put to work?".

Why it matters: Treasury and procurement priorities are converging, so buyers can expect payment timing, working-capital terms and cash-release targets to sit next to unit price in the next sourcing cycle.

U.S. Customs sets a date for stalled tariff refunds

Supply Chain Dive reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will start clearing refunds on Oct. 6 for certain finally liquidated import entries hit by tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February. Companies that filed a valid importer-of-record number by the end of July can claim through the agency's CAPE portal, and this third phase covers about $11.4 billion of IEEPA duties, some 6.9% of the total.

As of Sept. 11 the portal had taken in roughly $134.7 billion of potential and certified refund claims, of which $122 billion has already moved to the Treasury for disbursement. Baker Tilly's Pete Mento urged buyers to "read the eligibility requirements before telling your CFO to start spending the refund" because litigation status still decides who qualifies.

Why it matters: Importers with finalized entries now have a concrete claim window and a real cash-recovery opportunity, but eligibility turns on litigation standing, so trade and finance teams should confirm where they stand before modeling the money.

Zip pushes AI deeper into vendor risk

CPOstrategy reports that Zip has widened its AI risk orchestration into a complete third-party risk-management product that keeps supplier-risk checks inside the same system a company already uses to approve spending. Zip, which first introduced the capability in April 2025, says customers have logged cycle times 85% faster, portal completion rates of 98%, double the supplier-risk coverage and up to 90% less manual review work.

The company frames the release around AI agents that triage incoming requests, score suppliers against a buyer's own methodology and monitor them continuously before a purchase is approved.

Why it matters: The market is moving risk assessment into the buying workflow rather than beside it, so procurement leaders weighing AI vendors should test how deeply a tool embeds governance and whether vendor-reported gains hold up against their own supplier base.

The thread

Cash discipline, tariff mechanics and AI governance are three answers to the same pressure: a supply base that no longer sits still. Treasurers freeing locked-up liquidity, importers recovering invalidated duties and buyers embedding risk checks are each trying to shorten the distance between a change in the world and a change in the plan.