How are you really measuring the cost of payments?Cost
FTT Festival of Payments presents
The MerchantClub
Built by merchants. For merchants.
The best conversations at payments events often happen away from the stages.
A Head of Payments from one business sits down with their counterpart from another. They compare notes. Talk openly about what is working, what is not, who they are working with and the problems they are trying to solve.
The Merchant Club is designed to create more of those conversations.
Launching as part of FTT Festival of Payments, the Merchant Club brings together a curated community of senior payments leaders from retailers, marketplaces, digital businesses, travel, mobility, subscription businesses and some of the world's most recognised consumer brands.
The promise
No endless pitching. No awkward networking. Just a room full of people who understand the job.
The idea
A club, not another conference track.
The Merchant Club is a dedicated merchant community built around peer-to-peer learning, relationships and candid conversation.
At the Festival, members will have their own home: The Merchant Club Tent.
The Merchant Club TentFTT Festival of Payments, London
Members only. Open throughout the Festival.
- ArriveDrop in for coffee.
- LingerStay for lunch.
- ConnectMeet another payments leader.
- LearnJoin a workshop.
- SolvePut a problem on the table.
- BreatheOr simply escape the noise for half an hour with people doing similar jobs at other businesses.
House view
Some conversations will be programmed. Many of the best ones probably will not be.
The format
Merchant Takeovers
Forget another panel of four people giving polished answers to predictable questions.
Throughout the Festival, Merchant Club Leaders will take over the Club to host conversations around the issues they actually care about.
What are you doing about failed payments?Conversion
Build or buy?Strategy
How are you approaching orchestration?Architecture
Where is AI actually making a difference?AI
What is happening to your fraud strategy?Fraud & risk
Are stablecoins relevant to merchants yet?New rails
What's yours?Members set the agenda→
From there, the room takes over.
WhiteboardsWorkshopsDebatesRoundtablesProblem-solving
Honest conversations between peers.
Slides. No decks required.
The founding group
Meet the Merchant Club Leaders
The Club is being shaped by a founding group of senior merchant payments leaders.
They are not simply speakers. Merchant Club Leaders help build the community.
They influence the conversations we have, the challenges we explore, the people we bring together and ultimately what the Merchant Club becomes.
Founding Leaders announcing shortlyLead payments at a merchant and want to help shape what this becomes?
Become a Merchant Club Leader
Who it's for
Your peers are already in the room.
Senior people on the merchant side of payments. The ones who own the checkout, the acquiring contracts, the fraud losses and the board questions about all three.
The roles11
- Head / Director of Payments
- Payments Strategy
- Payments Product
- Acquiring
- Checkout & Conversion
- Payments Operations
- Payments Partnerships
- Fraud & Risk
- Treasury
- Commerce & Embedded Finance
- Customer Experience
The businesses11
- Retail
- E-commerce
- Marketplaces
- Travel
- Mobility
- Media
- Gaming
- Subscription
- Hospitality
- Platforms
- Consumer Technology
If payments are an important part of how your business operates, grows or serves its customers, this is your community.
The Merchant Club Tent
Your home at the Festival.
A merchant-only space in the middle of FTT Festival of Payments. Somewhere to work, meet, eat and think, a few steps from the stages but well away from the noise.
Your address for the Festival
The Merchant Club Tent
Drinks, live music and a good time.
- Event
- FTT Festival of Payments 2027
- City
- London
- Access
- Merchant Club members and Leaders
- Open
- Throughout the Festival
- All day
Coffee, on tap
Drop in between sessions, or start the day here before the Festival gets busy.
- Midday
Lunch with peers
Long tables, good food and the conversations that run on past the hour.
- Programmed
Merchant Takeovers
Leader-hosted workshops, roundtables and debates on the problems members bring.
- Unprogrammed
Space to talk
Room for the one-to-ones and small-group conversations nobody scheduled.
- Quiet
Somewhere to work
Power, wifi and a seat when you need to clear your inbox or take a call.
- Members only
Merchants in the room
Access is for merchant-side payments leaders. You're among peers, not prospects.
House rules
How the Club works.
A few simple principles keep the room useful for the people in it.
Merchants first
Built for the buy side.
Membership is for people who run payments inside merchant businesses.
No pitching
Nobody is selling.
The Tent is a space to learn from peers, not to be sold to.
Candour
What's said stays here.
Conversations run on trust, so people can talk openly about what is and isn't working.
Curated
Every member is reviewed.
Applications are reviewed so the room stays senior, relevant and merchant-led.
Membership for 2027
Pull up a chair.
Built by merchants. For merchants.
Or email victor.cruz@vcinnovations.co.uk
- 1ApplyTell us about your role and the payments challenges on your desk.
- 2We reviewEvery application is reviewed to keep the Club merchant-led.
- 3Join the ClubConfirmed members get access to the Tent and Takeovers at the Festival.