Pushpendra Mehta, Executive Writer at CTMfile.com and host of the OpenTreasury Podcast, interviewed Craig Jeffery, Managing Partner at Strategic Treasurer.*

The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

The interview focuses on why corporate treasury should act as the “Superintendent of Payments,” taking the lead in coordinating, securing, and optimizing payments across the enterprise. Craig Jeffery, Managing Partner at Strategic Treasurer LLC, advances the concept and outlines a strategic framework—spanning payment visibility, security, governance, and continuous improvement—to help organizations strengthen controls, enhance efficiency, reduce risk, and scale payment operations.

Craig Jeffery formed Strategic Treasurer LLC in 2004 to provide corporate, educational, and government entities direct access to comprehensive and current assistance with their treasury and financial process needs. His 30+ years of financial and treasury experience as a practitioner and as a consultant have uniquely qualified him to help organizations craft realistic goals and achieve significant benefits quickly. 

Mr. Jeffery, you and Strategic Treasurer have been advancing a compelling concept —that treasury should act as the “Superintendent of Payments.” How do you define this concept?

Payments are managed by many areas within an organization, without one person having direct responsibility for all activities. Despite these separate actions and reporting lines, payments need to be coordinated effectively. The description of Superintendent of Payments helps to convey this concept.

Many are familiar with the term Superintendent of Schools, where the individual oversees the education system but doesn’t drive the bus, teach classes, or sweep the halls. However, the Superintendent makes sure everything functions and is properly coordinated. This serves as a comparable analogy for the role.

 

What constitutes the “Superintendent Mindset” that you believe corporate treasury teams should adopt?

It involves ensuring that payments support the organization’s relationship and liquidity needs, operate efficiently from an operational and working capital standpoint, and remain secure.
 

Strategic Treasurer’s 2026 State of Corporate Payment Supervision Flash Survey found that 56% of corporate respondents believe treasury should be the superintendent of payments. Do you see this as validation that the business and finance community is awakening to this need?

For smaller companies, there may not be a formal treasury department, but someone still fulfils the treasury role. Our assumption is that the rapid evolution of payments, along with the expanding threat landscape, has heightened this need. Some data from our research validates both the need for—and the broader recognition of the Superintendent of Payments role.
 

Why is now the right time for corporate treasury to establish itself as the strategic leader or superintendent of the entire payments function? What are the potential risks for organizations that fail to make this shift?
For most corporate treasury teams, this initiative means formalizing a role that already exists in practice, rather than starting from scratch.

The risks of inaction span multiple areas, but two of the most significant are fraud/security and compliance, followed closely by efficiency and scalability.

Having four different payment areas solve the same compliance challenges separately—and then repeat that process for security concerns—is extraordinarily inefficient and risky.

 

The survey also shows that 42% of corporations feel treasury is accountable for payments risk without having direct or full control. What’s driving this disconnect between accountability and authority, and how does moving to a superintendent-of-payments model help resolve that imbalance?

This is, to some extent, inherent in commercial-sized and large corporations. Built through acquisitions and regionalization, companies have become fragmented. We observe this fragmentation across many areas, but certain functions — such as treasury — do not operate well in a decentralized fashion.

Given the pace of change in payments, any local advantages or historical reasons for maintaining separate silos have largely disappeared. Accountability, combined with greater control and coordination—even without direct responsibility—is both possible and necessary today.
 

While 56% of survey participants say that over the past two years treasury’s responsibility for payment strategy has increased, 44% report that formal authority over payment strategy remains shared with other departments such as IT, AP, or operations. In an uncertain and competitive environment, what difficulties can arise when payment strategy is fragmented and treasury does not have clear, formal authority over it?

Strong coordination is vital, and great coordination requires leadership. This doesn’t necessitate having every part of the payment process roll up to the same person.

While there is a gradual trend toward more payment areas reporting into treasury, the more identifiable trend is toward establishing a clear leader of payments—what we refer to as the Superintendent of Payments. This person ensures everything works properly and that processes are systematically reviewed. Even if reporting structures remain fragmented, the overall process design, controls, and framework must be unified.

 

Do you think the spotlight on speed in payments, combined with increasing payment fragmentation, has made intentional supervision of payments under treasury more of a requirement than an option? In your view, what will distinguish organizations that adopt this aspect from those that do not? 

The majority of firms recognize the need, though only a growing minority have acted on it. Any loss, close call, or fraud-related headline should be used to amplify the need to superintend payments.

The distinction between firms that do and do not superintend payments will be reflected in differences in efficiency, the frequency and severity of losses, scalability, and overall staff readiness.

When losses occur, it will become increasingly untenable to assign blame to a single department or area in the absence of coordinated payments oversight.

 

You’ve developed a strategic framework for helping corporate treasury operate as the superintendent of payments. Can you share some of the key elements or critical insights from that framework, and explain how organizations can benefit from engaging Strategic Treasurer’s advisory services to implement this in a practical way? 

While this is best covered in a brief one-on-one call, I’ll outline a few of the common elements that make up the framework.

• Payment Flow Inventory. Capture a complete inventory of all payment flows within the organization. Start with outgoing payment flows first. Include all areas and systems, payment methods, banks, and accounts.
• Payment or Disbursement Framework.
  • Definitional: Clearly define responsibilities, processes, and required controls.
  • Human Element: Establish requirements for personnel involved in payment processes, including dedicated payment security training—not just cybersecurity training.
  • Structures: Document the entire banking structure and how payments flow through your bank accounts.
  • Data Management: Know where payment data begins and ends, how it is custodied, and where it may be exposed.
  • Services: Identify core security services required enterprise-wide across all payment processes—including from banks, payment system providers, and specialized third-party firms.
• Payment Security Assessment. Conduct an internal payment security assessment annually. And at least every third year have this done by an outside firm.
• Systematic Updates. Develop a formal, written plan to keep the company updated on new payment formats, regulatory requirements, and industry developments. Treasury or its designated leader should create the agenda and schedule reviews two to four times per year.

 

Craig, thank you for taking the time to share your valuable insights with us.

Watch the Replay of the Workshop Series: Superintending Payments

 

⃰ Disclosure: Strategic Treasurer owns CTMfile.