🌟 Editor's note

Editor’s Note | Week of 7 April 2026

By Carter Hoffman

When a grey rhino shares the room with a banker, an economist, and a commodity trader, the conversation quickly turns from market dynamics to geostrategic risk. The picture that emerges for commodity finance, starting in the Gulf but far from contained there, is anything but reassuring.

Last week was the first round of a series of our global commodity finance roundtable series that TTP is cohosting with our friends over at TXF. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for a deep dive analysis into everything that was discussed. And be ready for our next round, coming to you from the TXF Amsterdam conference in May.

Alongside that, this week’s slow read looks at a different kind of gap, focusing on how SMEs and mid-market companies manage foreign exchange risk, and why the biggest challenges are often the ones that are hardest to see.

Across the rest of the week, we have been covering developments in supply chain finance, payments security, and changing consumer payment experiences, as well as sharing new video content from TTP Studios.

As always, plenty to read and watch.

Until next time — stay chatty.

— The TTP Editorial Team

Slow Read

Closing the FX risk gap for SMEs and mid-market companies

At Trade Treasury Payments Studios, Eleanor Hill, Treasury Editor at Trade Treasury Payments (TTP), spoke with Neh Thaker, Co-founder of HedgeFlows, about the challenges SMEs and mid-market companies face when managing foreign exchange (FX) risk.

While many companies focus on market volatility as the primary risk, Thaker argues that the real issue lies elsewhere. “Undoubtedly it’s the blind spots,” he said.

For most finance teams, movements in FX markets are expected and understood. However, the more dangerous exposures are often the ones that are not immediately visible, particularly economic exposures that sit outside traditional reporting frameworks.

Thaker said, “Those are the ones that tend to trip them up because they’re less visible.”

Unlike transactional or translational exposures, which are captured in accounting systems, economic exposure tends to stay hidden, which can lead to significant consequences, including unexpected performance declines, even when financial reports appear stable.

When risk becomes visible too late

These blind spots can and do have a material impact on business performance.

Thaker pointed to examples where companies with similar revenue profiles experienced very different outcomes depending on how they managed FX exposure. 

In one case, a business saw sustained margin compression that only became apparent after the fact, forcing difficult conversations at the board level. In another, a high-growth company absorbed some FX impact through its margins, but ultimately had to reduce marketing spend, which in turn affected revenue growth.

“It started this sort of vicious cycle,” Thaker said.

In both cases, the underlying issue was not a lack of data but a lack of visibility into the full scope of exposure and its downstream effects.

The gap between perceived and actual control

A key challenge for SMEs and mid-market firms is the disconnect between how well they believe they are managing FX risk and the reality of their FX risk management.

For Thaker, this gap is driven by two factors. The first is unaccounted economic exposure, and the second is a lack of clearly defined objectives. “It’s very rare to find a mid-market company that has that conversation well in advance,” Thaker said.

Without clarity on the goal – whether it be to protect margins, stabilise revenues, support growth, or something else entirely – treasury decisions can become reactive.

This challenge is compounded by the fact that many firms lack the time, tools, or internal expertise to build a consistent FX risk management approach, particularly in high-growth environments where finance teams are already stretched.

Building resilience in FX risk management

Despite the availability of FX products and platforms, many SMEs only begin hedging after experiencing a significant loss. Thaker believes this reflects a deeper structural issue rather than a simple lack of access. Efforts to make FX products more accessible or affordable have not fully addressed the problem.

Encouragingly, there are clear indicators of when companies begin to manage FX risk more effectively. One of the most important shifts is moving from a reactive approach to a proactive one, where firms assess and hedge exposures before adverse movements occur.

Another is a change in mindset around hedging performance. Rather than focusing on gains or losses from individual hedges, more mature organisations evaluate whether they are achieving broader business objectives. “Are we delivering the business outcomes that we said we would?” Thaker says they should be asking.

Finally, resilience is reflected in the extent to which FX awareness is embedded across the organisation. When responsibility moves beyond the CFO and becomes part of the wider finance team’s routine, risk management becomes more consistent and sustainable.

Rethinking how SMEs are served

Looking ahead, improving FX outcomes for SMEs is going to require a shift in the approach taken by financial institutions. Traditional segmentation models, which tend to be based on turnover or transaction volume, often fail to capture the complexity of a company’s FX exposure. Smaller firms operating across multiple currencies can face greater challenges than larger, more domestically focused businesses.

As FX markets remain volatile, closing the gap between perceived and actual control will be critical. For SMEs and mid-market companies, that means moving beyond tools and access, and towards a more structured, informed approach to managing risk.

Weekly digest

12 days to go!

The Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) Breakfast Club is back at The Lansdowne Club on Wednesday, 22 April. Together with Sullivan & Worcester LLP, we are diving into one of the most pressing issues in the industry today: Beating Fraud in Trade Finance.

Host and Moderator:
🎤Eleanor Hill Editor, Trade Treasury Payments (TTP)
🎤 Geoffrey Wynne, Partner, Sullivan & Worcester LLP

Our Panel of Speakers:
Neil Shonhard, CEO, MonetaGo
David Cuckney, Executive Director, ICC International Maritime Bureau
Robert Parson, Partner, Sullivan & Worcester LLP
Antía Martínez Blanco, Associate Director, Receivables and SCF Europe, WTW

If you are involved in trade treasury or payments, this is a morning you don’t want to miss. Join us for high-level networking and practical solutions to one of the sector's biggest challenges.

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UK late payment reforms set to impact supply chain finance

The UK government is advancing plans to introduce a 60-day cap on payment terms, marking its most significant intervention in late payment practices in over 25 years.

The proposed reforms include expanded powers for the Small Business Commissioner to investigate and fine persistent late payers, alongside new requirements for large firms to disclose and explain their payment performance.

A statutory 60-day limit, combined with mandatory interest penalties, will materially change how payment terms are structured across business-to-business transactions.

While the measures are intended to strengthen supplier protection, they are expected to place additional pressure on working capital, particularly for larger organisations.

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Why increasingly sophisticated attacks outpacing payment controls is like a game of chess

In this piece, Alex Clements, Head of Anti-Money Laundering at TransferMate Global Payments, looks at why payment fraud continues to stay one step ahead of control frameworks.

Fraud is no longer just about system weaknesses. It is about timing, behaviour, and exploiting pressure inside real processes.

“It’s a game of chess, but fraudsters always make the first move.”

Many controls are still built on static rules, while fraud operates in real time. That gap is where most of the damage happens.

By the time an issue is spotted, the payment has often already moved. At that point, options are limited.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7447230108060442624/

Why is trade fraud still winning?

The alarm is ringing, but are we listening? Despite years of warnings, trade fraud continues to escalate, fueled by duplicated documents and fragmented data across global borders.

Join Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) and Sullivan & Worcester LLP (our 2026 'Best Law Firm – Trade and Commodities' award winner!) for an exclusive Breakfast Club roundtable in London:

"Can we beat the fraudsters in our trade finance transactions?"

We’re moving past the "why" and focusing on the "how." How do we move from detection to prevention? How do we close the gaps between regulators? And how do we rebuild trust in the ecosystem?

Where:The Lansdowne Club London, London
When: Wednesday, 22 April 2026
Access: Strictly limited to ensure high-level peer-to-peer discussion.
Apply for your seat here: link

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Did You Know? 

Fraudsters have been playing the long game for far longer than most people realise. One of the earliest recorded cases dates back to ancient Greece, where a merchant named Hegestratos tried to sink his own empty ship to pocket the insurance payout proof that creative deception is hardly a modern invention. Today’s fraudsters use very different tools, but the mindset has barely changed. As Alex Clements notes in the newsletter, they still rely on timing, pressure and gaps in real processes, striking before controls have a chance to react. It is a reminder that fraud evolves faster than most organisations’ ability to spot it.

Trade Treasury Payments (TTP)