16 The Treasurer June/July 2018 www.treasurers.org/thetreasurer
PROFILE
Treasury management in the payments industry moves at a fast
pace, so how do you tackle a major integration at the same time?
Joanne Bates provides insights to her approach at Worldpay
Words: Ben Poole / Photography: Louise Haywood-Schiefer
FULL SPEED AHEAD
Joanne Bates, co-treasurer at
Worldpay, Inc, first discovered the
world of treasury in the second-year
placement of a graduate management
accountant training scheme at Cable
& Wireless.
“In comparison to the first year in
management accountancy, I found
treasury quite challenging, but I really
liked the fact that, as someone who was
quite young, I was dealing both with
senior people in the organisation and
with large sums of money. The impact
you could have in treasury felt like
so much more than just doing
management accountancy.”
Another placement followed in
corporate finance, where Bates worked
for a couple of years. Despite this being
with largely the same team, she says
that it gave her an appreciation of the
decisive nature of treasury. “In corporate
finance, you spend a lot of time looking
at a deal only for it not to happen.
I found that incredibly frustrating.
When the opportunity came up to be
deputy treasurer of Cable & Wireless
Communications [which is now part of
Virgin Media], I jumped at the chance.
I was really young, only about 26, and
it was a great opportunity.”
STEPPING UP IN PAYMENTS
AND TREASURY
Bates joined Worldpay as deputy
treasurer in June 2012, having never
worked for a company in the payments
sector before. “I love working in
payments, because treasury is part
of the product. People in the business
will ask what I think about potential
new products they are considering.”
When Bates first joined Worldpay,
the treasury team was just three people.
Over the years, the size and reach of
the function has grown, something
that she has continued to push further
since becoming treasurer. “There are
certain items that are now on everyone’s
agenda, whether they be the head of our
e-commerce business or someone who
is part of our collections business. I have
deliberately set out to do that.”
In her role at Worldpay, Bates is
responsible for areas such as debt
and capital management, working
capital, cash forecasting, FX and risk
management. In addition, she is also
involved in strategic initiatives in the
business. “We have a board that I am
on that assesses new initiatives coming
through the business. I also work on
the capital review board, assessing
projects that may impact working
capital or capital.”
Having achieved the AMCT
qualification back in 2001, Bates is a
great example of where a passion for
treasury can lead to in a career. At the
time of writing, she is due to speak at
the ACT Annual Conference 2018 in
Liverpool. “I appreciate the connections
that the ACT brings,” she says. “In
Liverpool, I’m going to be part of a panel
discussing cash management. Given that
we have around $4bn that goes through
our bank accounts every day, I think I am
quite well positioned to speak on that.”
On the subject of gender, Bates is a
passionate advocate of improving the
representation of women in senior roles.
As a lead sponsor of the Women of
Worldpay (WOW) network, she regularly
joins colleague-led panels and discussion
forums, as well as mentoring several
more junior members of the business.
“Success cannot be achieved by
standing still and never being prepared
to take risks,” she comments. “Some of
my best performers have been those
who said they were not ready for the
job, but we promoted them anyway.”
CAREER PATH
2018-present
Co-treasurer, Worldpay, Inc
2016-2018
Group treasurer, Worldpay
2012-2016
Deputy treasurer, Worldpay
2011-2017
Company secretary and finance director,
Supporting Adult Independent Living/
Supporting Homeless
2010-2012
Treasury consultant, Rentokil Initial
2010-2011
Treasury consultant,
Ecclesiastical Insurance Group
2007-2009
Senior treasury manager,
Aegis Group
2004-2007
Career break
2000-2004
Deputy group treasurer,
NTL Inc (now Virgin Media)
1998-2000
Deputy treasurer,
Cable & Wireless
1996-1998
Manager international corporate finance,
Cable & Wireless
1994-1997
Finance graduate programme,
Cable & Wireless
QUALIFICATIONS
AMCT (2001)
London Business School corporate
finance evening course (1997)
Qualified CIMA (1996)
BA (Hons) Business Studies Upper Second,
University of Wolverhampton (1994),
gaining the final year CIMA prize for best
management accounting paper

www.treasurers.org/thetreasurer June/July 2018 The Treasurer 17
PROFILE

18 The Treasurer June/July 2018 www.treasurers.org/thetreasurer
PROFILE
“We need to be clear on how we
can make the integration a success,
while maintaining our daily business”
the other way around? We are currently
trying to get to the position where we can
outline what we need to achieve by the
end of the year, and then to ensure that
we get the approval to do this.”
TREASURY’S ROLE
Worldpay’s traditional business covers
in-store credit card transactions, and it
also has a global e-commerce business
unit as well. The global nature of the
e-commerce division creates a level
of complexity, from the wide variety of
currencies to the different bank accounts
all around the world, for example. As
such, the treasury team is split more onto
the e-commerce side of the business.
“I’ve got a person who just closes
off positions – mismatches between
the currency that comes in to us from
schemes and the currency that we pay
merchants,” says Bates. “Obviously, the
corner shop down the road in London
doesn’t want dollars. The money that
comes into us from schemes won’t
necessarily match what we are paying
out, so we have to trade the FX on that.”
Worldpay has traditionally had three
regulated businesses in the UK and one
regulated business in the Netherlands,
which has a major impact on cash
management in the company. Part of the
regulations require the business to keep
all merchants’ cash completely separate
by legal entity. This prevents treasury
from making the usual move of sweeping
all cash into one central pool.
“We have to keep cash separate, so
it is forecasted separately and funded
separately,” says Bates. “Those flows are
very dependent upon how much is being
spent on the high street and online.
We have people that forecast on the
merchant side, very short term. Because
we have money that comes in all over
the world, we have to make sure that
we have got money in the right place to
make payments and FX trades. We have
a team of people that just does that, and
then I have someone who does the long
term – what you would think of as the
more usual corporate cash forecast – how
much money can we spend on our next
acquisition, for example.”
GLOBAL PAYMENTS PROVIDER
On 16 January this year, it was announced
that US-based payments processor
Vantiv had completed the acquisition of
Worldpay Group, creating the combined
global payments provider Worldpay, Inc.
As part of the combined organisation,
there are now two co-treasurers: Bates
in the UK and her US counterpart,
Timothy Cooper.
“Tim understands the US business and
what drives that, and I understand the
international business – including all
the FX complexity that the US business
didn’t have,” says Bates. “We complement
each other and also get on really well,
which is important, as the integration
is a big extra part of our job this year.”
Bates and Cooper have put a lot of time
and effort into creating a new treasury
team structure for the organisation. “We
have deliberately tried to mix people up
because we don’t want people working
in silos. For example, out of my three
direct reports, two are new and are based
in the US, and Tim has the opposite on
his side.”
When the two businesses were brought
together, they told the market that they
would make $200m of synergy savings.
The whole business has been given
targets to get to that point, which of
course includes a treasury target working
towards that goal.
“We also have projects that are
specifically looking at integration of the
business,” explains Bates. “If you think
about governance, we have our policies
and they have theirs; we need to bring
these together and they have to go to the
board. Then we have got a project that is
looking at our technology, as both parts
of the business have different treasury
management systems, so we need to
establish which one we are going to use.”
The people part of the equation is vital,
too, notes Bates.
“We need to be clear on how we can
make the integration a success, while
maintaining our daily business. If we
need extra people, what level of person
do we need? Do we take people out of
the current team and move them into a
project, and backfill there, or do we do it
The team also includes three
people who manage the bank account
management, KYC and anti-money
laundering. Having accounts with
more than 100 banks and over 2,000
bank accounts around the world is a
particularly important role when your
business is to make payments. “Worldpay
processes for other companies, so it is
not just our own flows that go through
our bank accounts,” says Bates. “Banks
are obviously very careful about that,
and we go through some detailed
AML questioning. Different banks
have different risk appetites, rules and
regulations, and we have to keep on top
of all of that.”
Treasury staff also work with
technology, operations and the business
to ensure that products are being
designed in the most efficient way from
a treasury perspective. If something is not
working from a treasury perspective and
that thing is operational, these members
of the team act as a bridge between the
specific department and treasury.
ASSESSING THE LANDSCAPE
While the low interest rate environment
persists in Europe, the same cannot be
said about the US, where the Federal
Reserve recently raised rates. As a result
of the merger, this is news that has a
direct effect on Worldpay.
“As a company that is now listed in
the US where a lot of our debt is in US
dollars, one of the things that is high on
our agenda is raising interest rates,” says
Bates. “The Fed put rates up in March,
plus there are two or three more priced
into the market for this year. The Fed is
giving signals that will happen, although
obviously things can change. For years,
nobody has ever really thought much
about the fixed/floating mix, and whether
they are happy with it. We are looking
at that actively now, as I think a lot of
US companies are.”
Closer to the London offices that we are
speaking in, Brexit is a topic that looms
large, particularly for a payments services
company such as Worldpay. Bates, who
sits on the company’s steering committee
for Brexit, says: “Our Brexit steering
committee is in place to make sure that
we are in a good position in a year’s time.
We can’t wait until this time next year
to make changes – we need to plan how
we will respond to a variety of possible
outcomes now.”

www.treasurers.org/thetreasurer June/July 2018 The Treasurer 19
PROFILE
Ben Poole is a freelance writer and editor,
specialising in treasury and transaction banking
WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT
TREASURY IS…
The problem-solving. Making sure that a hedge
works from an economic, business, accounting,
tax, legal and regulatory perspective is no
small ask. People forget how complex the
problem-solving is; you need an eye for detail
while considering the bigger picture.
THE PERSON WHO HAS MOST
INSPIRED ME IN MY WORK LIFE IS…
There have been two exceptional women during
my career: Jackie Giles was group treasurer at
Cable & Wireless – she was a no-nonsense sort of
person, yet really cared about her staff; and Ruth
Prior, who is now the CFO of William Hill, but was
the COO of Worldpay. She was the only female
executive at the time and her approach brought
a different view at board level.
WHAT I VALUE MOST
ABOUT THE ACT IS…
The various levels of qualification that the ACT
offers. Once you are a member of the ACT, the
resource materials on the website are extremely
useful and a great starting point. The knowledge that
the ACT gives to treasury professionals is invaluable.
THE WORK CHALLENGE I WOULD
MOST LIKE TO FIX IS…
The integration work following the merger with
Vantiv. If I could wave a wand and get everything
with our integration all done and the newly
expanded team working well together, that
would free up our time to really add value.
In terms of regulation, the second
payment services directive (PSD2) is a
key priority for Worldpay this year. The
company currently accepts more than
300 payment methods, and yet PSD2
could lead to a whole host of different
payment methods. “When things like
PSD2 happen, we have to adapt as a
business,” says Bates. “That’s part of our
big selling point to the global merchants
– they only need to come to Worldpay,
they don’t need to go to somewhere in the
Netherlands to do iDeal and somewhere
else in China to do Alipay, for example.
PSD2 is a big opportunity for us.”