How to Evaluate a Yield Product for Your Company's Treasury

The quoted rate is the least useful number in a yield pitch. It tells you what happens if everything goes to plan, and very little about what happens when it doesn't.

Choosing the right yield product safeguards your company’s critical cashflow, ensures liquidity, and minimize the financial risks. That matters most for operating cash, the money that has to cover payroll, and supplier invoices in the next few weeks. A treasury product can offer an attractive return and still be the wrong home for it if the cash might not be back in time, which is why the rate should be the last thing a finance team looks at, not the first. Four questions come before it.

1. What is the underlying asset?

"Yield" can mean short-dated US Treasury bills, a money market fund, repo, private credit or a tokenized Treasury fund, and each carries a different mix of credit and liquidity risk. A T-bill fund and a private credit strategy can quote similar rates for very different reasons. If a provider can't explain the underlying asset in a sentence your leadership would understand, that is usually the end of the conversation.

2. Who holds the assets, and what happens if the provider fails?

Custody is the question most pitches skip, so ask it directly: do the assets sit in a segregated account in the company's name, with a qualified custodian, or on the provider's own balance sheet? The test is whether, if the provider became insolvent tomorrow, the company's position would be ring-fenced and recoverable, or whether it would be an unsecured creditor waiting in line.

3. How fast can you redeem?

This is where operating cash gets hurt. Some products redeem the same day, while others run a request queue where the provider processes withdrawals on its side and the funds arrive days later. Some funds can also gate or suspend redemptions when too many holders exit at once.

Two details deserve a close look. The first is what "approved" means, because in queue-based products an approved redemption often means the request was accepted, not that the cash is in your account. The second is timing against the cash forecast: if payroll runs on the 28th and redemption takes up to seven days, the request has to go in by the 21st, usually before payroll numbers are final.

4. What is the net yield after fees?

Only then does the rate come in, and it should arrive with three things stated: gross or net, the fee basis, and who deducts it. The basis matters more than people expect. A performance fee on yield takes a share of what you earn, while a management fee on principal takes a share of what you put in, whether the product earns anything or not. When one product sits on top of another, fees can be charged at both layers, so a gross figure from one provider and a net figure from another can't be compared.

Variable returns also move, and a product that presents its rate as if it were guaranteed has already told you how it will communicate when conditions change.

A cautious buyer isn't a slow buyer

Clear answers make this a quick decision, and vague custody or redemption terms stall it, as they should. None of it asks finance teams to work differently: the approval matrix, the cash forecast and the due diligence work on investment policy still apply, and a yield product should fit inside them.

That's how we approached treasury at Reah. Each option shows its net return, risk level, fees and redemption period before you deposit, and deposits and redemptions can run through the same approval policies as any other payment. Returns are variable and never guaranteed, which is why we'd rather show the mechanics than lead with a number.

If you're working through this for your own company's cash, I'm happy to compare notes, or you can create an account at platform.reah.com to see how we lay it out.

– Vicky Zhang

Reah is a financial operating system for global businesses — fiat banking, stablecoin treasury, cross-border payments, and AI-native execution on one ledger. Open your account today.