An Open Letter to the Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) community - Trade Treasury Payments

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An Open Letter to the Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) community

Dear friends and colleagues,

When we first imagined Trade Treasury Payments (TTP), it was as a solution to a feeling many of us share, especially today. With so much uncertainty and noise in the world, we needed something independent, yet grounded in a sense of community. A clear, trusted voice for our industry.

Today, I am both humbled and excited to introduce you to TTP: a new, impartial platform created to educate, inform, and connect the global trade, treasury, and payments community.

Our mission is simply to help every market participant—from global banks to first-time exporters—navigate the increasingly interdependent financial environment. If Investopedia helped millions understand investing, we aspire to do the same for the world of liquidity and risk management.

We believe liquidity helps livelihoods prosper. When capital flows confidently and risk is managed transparently, businesses and people thrive. TTP exists to support that flow—through education, open access resources, and global conversation. And as we begin this journey, I want to be clear: we aim to leave no institution, no market, and no region behind.

I’m privileged to be joined by a founding editorial team of exceptional calibre, comprising some of the industry’s most respected voices. I could not ask for a more experienced or passionate team to steer our content. Carter Hoffman, our trade and technology editor, will focus on macroeconomic trends in trade finance and make sure our analysis is data-driven and forward-looking. Joy Macknight, former editor of The Banker, brings decades of banking journalism experience and a passion for innovation in transaction banking (she was the first woman to edit that century-old magazine). Eleanor Hill, a treasury and payments guru who led editorial at TMI, has a keen eye on treasury tech, risk management, and the evolving needs of corporate treasurers.

Alongside our in-house team, I would like to announce and introduce our new editorial board. Tod Burwell, CEO and President of the Bankers Association for Finance and trade (BAFT); Rebecca Harding, CEO of the Centre for Economic Security; Eleanor Hill, Treasury Editor at TTP; Alan Koenigsberg, CEO of Koenigsberg Insights; Pamela Mar, Managing Director of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Digital Standards Initiative (DSI); Eleonore True, Director Trade Finance Week at ICC Austria; Richard Wulff Executive Director of the International Credit Insurance & Surety Association (ICISA), and Geoffery Wynne, Partner at Sullivan.

Together, we’re building TTP as a living library, and we want to build it with you—through industry contributions, Q&As, explainers, data insights, and much, much more. This will be a space where a treasurer in Lagos can swap insights with a banker in Dubai or a fintech founder in Singapore. Community-led, for the common good. In fact, our motto could very well be “by the industry, for the industry”. Everyone reading this is automatically part of the TTP community, and we welcome your ideas and knowledge.

We are launching at a time of intensified fragmentation—geopolitical rifts, rising tariffs, regulatory divergence. The number of national elections over the past year shows just how volatile global markets can be. But history shows that when challenges mount, collaboration is what carries us through. From sustainability efforts in trade finance to innovations in payment infrastructure, our industry has proven its resilience through cooperation. TTP is here to support and strengthen that spirit.

What will you find on the TTP platform? Expect deep dives into the nuts and bolts of trade finance—from letters of credit and supply chain finance techniques to the evolving secondary market for trade assets (the distribution of trade risk that now connects banks, insurers, and capital markets). We’ll keep you abreast of credit and political risk trends because, in a world of sanctions and sovereign shifts, managing risk is as critical as chasing returns. Expect regular regulatory updates—whether it’s the latest on Basel capital rules, the global rollout of ISO 20022 in payments, or new trade agreements—distilled to what treasurers and trade professionals need to know. We’ll track payment infrastructure changes: from instant payment networks and CBDCs to good old SWIFT upgrades. And true to our name, we won’t shy away from the hardcore treasury tools—cash management, liquidity forecasting, hedging strategies, the technologies treasury teams use—the very tools that keep the lifeblood of commerce flowing.

But just as important as what we will cover is how we will cover it. Our approach is grounded in accessibility and open access. Whether through articles, research papers, interviews or interactive data, we will deliver insights in whatever form best helps the community. We’re not just catering to the usual suspects in London or New York—we’re including everyone. Small businesses deserve the same clarity and insight into trade and treasury matters as any global bank. We hope our platform can contribute to levelling that playing field.

It’s no coincidence that we’ve set up our home on Brick Lane in London—a street synonymous with diversity, enterprise, and the fusion of ideas. Brick Lane’s history reminds us that when people of different backgrounds connect, amazing things happen. That’s the inclusive ethos we embrace. And you’re all welcome to our space, treat it like your Second Home.

All of this comes together in what we call the “Liquidity and Risk Management Highway”—a single road that connects trade, treasury, and payments. In many institutions, trade finance has been the distant cousin to core transaction banking, and payments a world apart from credit risk. But in reality, liquidity and risk link them all. They are part of one journey. Our new platform is laying down that road, brick by brick, to ensure ideas, data, and opportunities flow freely across what used to be separate lanes.

We deeply value your insights and perspectives; your engagement is critical in shaping the future of our content, and our direction. Please reach out, share your thoughts, and let us know the topics and issues that matter most to you.

In that spirit, I invite you to join us—read, learn, share and engage. Your voice matters immensely to us, and we’re eager to learn directly from your experiences and ideas. Let’s confidently follow the orange brick road, together shaping a clearer, more connected future for trade, treasury, and payments.

To mark this occasion, our official launch will take place at the House of Lords in London—an event made possible through the kind support of our Honorary Patron, The Rt Hon. The Viscount Waverley. Hosted in partnership with Lord Davies of Gower Byron. 

In the coming months, we’ll be listening closely to you, our readers, to guide what we explore on TTP. I truly believe that by learning together and supporting each other, the trade, treasury, and payments community can overcome any challenge—and achieve extraordinary things. 

Thank you for reading and for being part of our launch. Now, without further ado, welcome to Trade Treasury Payments!

Let’s follow this orange brick road together.

Sincerely,

Deepesh Patel

Managing Director, Editor-in-Chief

Trade Treasury Payments