Speaker list

Adam is the Co-founder of Open Banking Expo, the largest global Open Banking community incorporating event platforms in the UK, Canada and Europe, alongside Open Banking Expo Magazine which is distributed worldwide. Adam has spent his career working for various B2B financial services events and publishing firms in London before founding his own business in 2013. With a huge passion for curating timely and pertinent content across the mix of media channels available, Adam truly believes the principles of Open Banking should be adopted on a global scale and utilised by all corners of society.

Alex Servín is an executive and serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience. He currently drives Open Banking innovation as the Head at BBVA Mexico and was previously General Manager in Mexico at Belvo, the leading Open Banking startup in LATAM. He has founded and directed successful startups such as Pagaloop and Punto a Punto, in addition to having legal experience in M&A and Corporate Law.

Alex loves sports and is a competitive marathon runner. He is about to finish the 6 major marathons with a Personal Best of 2:41.

Andrew Crocombe – Head of Embedded Banking propositions

Andrew is a member of the founding team at ClearBank having been with the business since its inception in 2015. With almost 20 years’ experience within the financial services and payments sector, Andrew has held pivotal roles in building and scaling domestic and international fintechs. Over the past year, Andrew has taken on the role of leading ClearBank’s embedded banking offering – building on the Bank’s success over the past 5+ years in providing market leading Embedded Banking solutions to fintechs that ultimately service both SME and retail customers.

Andrew is a senior manager in the Payment Systems Regulator’s policy team. He is responsible for reforms to a range of key areas of payments policy, including Open Banking and digital payments.

Andrew has a deep background in regulatory policy, joining the PSR in 2021 from Ofgem, Great Britain’s energy regulator, where he most recently oversaw reforms to network charging arrangements.

Andy is the Chief Product Officer at GoCardless, responsible for driving forward the organisation’s global product and feature innovations. Andy joined GoCardless in 2020 as Vice President of Product Management, but has a long and demonstrated history of working in the subscriptions industry for both digital and consumer goods.

Prior GoCardless Andy was the Direct of Product Engineering and Growth at Paws.com, as well as the Director of Payments at Spotify. During his time at Spotify he headed up the payment division and was responsible for global payment acceptance strategy and execution (online and offline) whilst also leading a team of payments operators who managed revenue streams north of 2billion transactions a year.

Andy also has a Master’s Degree in Engineering from the University Cambridge.

Angela is an entrepreneur, PR leader and an influencer in the Fintech sector. Since co-founding SkyParlour in 2009, she has raised the profile of 100s of brands from dynamic scale-ups to market leaders in the fintech, tech and ecommerce sectors. Listed on the Innovate Finance Stand out 35 Women in Fintech Power list 2020, Angela is a Chartered Institute of Marketing MCIM.

Angela has sat on various Advisory Boards, past and present, including The Payments Association, Fintech Connect, The Merchant Payment Ecosystem and the European Women Payments Network, The Inclusion Foundation Executive Committee and is a Governor of Wilmslow High School. Her latest project is being part of DIGISEQ’s Non-Executive Board.

Angela is an international speaker and presenter with previous engagements at world class events including Money2020, Finnovate, Fintech Connect, Internet Retailing and Pay360.

She believes passionately in citizenship, the power of communities and striving to make the world that little bit better.

Anna leads the Insight, Communications and interim registration functions at the LSB. She is responsible for driving forward strategies which: reaffirm to registered firms the requirements of the LSB’s Standards and Codes through the provision of insight; raise awareness of the LSB and the importance of delivering good customer outcomes; and support applicant firms through the registration process.

Anna has extensive experience working in risk and compliance and is passionate about delivering customer centric solutions through the provision of best practice frameworks and strategies.

Bejoy Thomas is an experienced professional in the field of financial technology, specializing in Open Banking and integration solutions. With a robust background in leading projects that enhance operational efficiency and customer experience, Bejoy has played a pivotal role in implementing innovative financial solutions for various organizations. His expertise lies in leveraging platforms like MuleSoft and Salesforce to drive digital transformation and streamline processes in the financial services sector.

Bejoy is passionate about the intersection of technology and finance, consistently seeking to explore new ways to empower businesses through effective integration strategies. He is also known for his engaging speaking style, often sharing insights on industry trends and best practices at key events and conferences.

For inquiries or collaboration opportunities, Bejoy can be reached at bejoy@njclabs.com or +44 7863 907175.

Benjamin leads the Research and Strategy team at 11:FS. He has more than 20 years of experience advising leading financial services firms globally on changing customer behaviour, changing market dynamics and the impact of digital technology in business strategy, as well as being a regular host of the Fintech Insider podcast.

Callum has worked in the financial industry for 12 years, with the last 5 years being engaged in Open Banking. Working collaboratively across industry to deliver regulatory items, and help shape the future of Open Banking in the UK. He is currently leading the Open Banking Payments strategy, as well as the Digital Verification Strategy at Barclays.

As Commercial Director for Pay with Bank transfer, American Express’ Open Banking payments solution, Charlotte plays a fundamental role in defining the company’s Open Banking strategy within the UK market. During her time at American Express she has had a diverse career, having worked in 7 different roles across sales, marketing, product, business insights, strategy and planning, giving her varied learnings and experience, and making her well positioned to lead a cross-functional Open Banking team.

Christian has been active in open banking since 2017 and is passionate about the innovation, change, and force for good that the open economy brings to UK consumers and businesses.

Building on over 20 years of experience in payments, lending, and everyday banking, he joined Open Banking Ltd (OBL) in 2021 as Head of Ecosystem Support. His team helps 800 fintechs and banks implement and maintain their open banking propositions, as well as produces OBL’s monthly ecosystem performance reporting. He leads the ‘Levelling up Performance & Availability’ and ‘Financial Crime Data’ workstreams as part of the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee programme, as well as the ‘Industry Engagement’ effort within the ‘Commercial Variable Recurring Payment’ workstream.

Prior to joining OBL, Christian worked for Citibank in the US, then in Belgium as Director of their credit cards business, before becoming Managing Director of dutch credit card issuer ‘ICS’ in Belgium. In these roles, he developed partnerships in the telecom, e-commerce, retail financing, insurance, and travel sectors. He relocated to the UK in 2016, joining HSBC as Head of Product Development – everyday banking. He is also an advisor to fintech mozzeno in Belgium.

Christian has a product-centric background with different companies delivering an online product.

He spent several years at Swedish online payments giant Klarna, where he was heading the merchant integration and delivery management department worldwide.

Upon joining LeoVegas Group five years ago, he set the vision and strategy for the group’s payments product where his focus has since been on sculpting a division capable of delivering a groundbreaking payment experience for customers globally.
The department’s mission is to lead the industry with innovative solutions, setting new benchmarks for the payments experience of all customers for all brands of LeoVegas Group worldwide.

Open Banking in Europe was early on identified as a key pillar to the product strategy and LeoVegas has been involved in integrating products built on Open Banking APIs since the very start.

Christoffer Andvig is the founder and CEO of Neonomics. With extensive experience within the financial industry, Christoffer has built one of the Nordic’s leading open banking platforms. Neonomics is an open banking disruptor unifying access to over 2500 banks and 150 million bank customers across Europe via one of the most secure and cost-efficient pure PSD2 API platforms in the market. Neonomics provides open banking and account data solutions that challenge the traditional banking and payments sector on a global scale. Prior to founding Neonomics, Christoffer developed extensive knowledge through working with Klarna, during its early introduction into the Norwegian market in 2011, and later worked with Collector Bank to build an e-commerce payment system.

Prior to Global Payments I spent 5 years with challenger bank, Zopa

40 years payment industry experience having worked for a major UK bank, a large clothing retailer and now Virgin Media O2. I currently support multiple payment methods across a myriad of channels for both consumer and business customers.

Diederik Bruggink works at the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG) and at the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute where he is responsible for all payments topics worldwide. In that role, he analyses the multiple dimensions of the payments market, proposing and assisting in agreeing member positions with respect to their payments’ and related businesses. He is also advocates the associations’ positions on payments with policymakers, regulators, standardisation bodies, industry associations, and enabling a constant member dialogue on developments, with a particular focus on innovation.

He is a Member of the Board of the European Payments Council (EPC), is a member of the European Commission’s Payments Systems Market Expert Group and Chair of the Cash Efficiency Working Group of the EPC, to name a few. He was also co-chair of two Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB) working groups, that on access to and acceptance of cash and that on transparency for retail payment end-users, as well as a member of the European Central Bank’s Market Advisory Group on the Digital Euro.

He is one of the key authors of the first three editions of the World Payments Report, makes regular appearances at industry conferences and serves as a member of the editorial board of, and regulator contributor to, the Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems.

Duncan is the CEO of GetVerified, bringing over 20 years of banking experience from New Zealand, London, and Hong Kong. He has held a range of executive and programme leadership roles. Over the past 12 months, Duncan has led the New Zealand Banking Association’s anti-scams programme, with a focus on Confirmation of Payee, intra-bank data sharing, and other initiatives designed to enhance protections for consumers and businesses.

Emma Zaraisky is a Partnership Development Manager at Google. Her background includes nearly a decade leading global projects at Worldpay combined with her Financial Institutions focus at the Boston Consulting Company. With a passion for bringing people together to conquer complex projects, she’s currently focused on spearheading strategic initiatives for the EMEA region at Google.

Faith is an independent consumer finance expert. She is a member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Services Consumer Panel where she chairs the EU Working Group and is the lead for technology and innovation. She acts as the Customer Representative on the Open Banking Implementation Entity Steering Group and authored the widely-read report, ‘Open Banking: A Consumer Perspective’. She recently joined the Current Account Switch Service as an independent non-executive director. Faith is also a member of the RegTech Council.

Previously, Faith was a member of the Payments Strategy Forum, ESMA’s Financial Innovation Standing Committee Consultative Working Group, as well as CILEX’s Strategic Risk Committee. Between 2010-2012 Faith pursued the Clore Social Leadership Programme, undertaking research into Big Society while based at the Institute for Government and more recently helped the Institute look at how it creates impact.

Gavin has created over a dozen companies, employing 100’s of people, and delivering $100M’s in measurable impact. He co-chaired the development of the Open Banking Standard, was founding CEO of the Open Data Institute, and has raised over $100M in venture and philanthropic funding. He has mentored, chaired, or been non-exec of over 30 organisations across sectors. Mostly recently Gavin, founded and now runs IcebreakerOne.org, making data work harder to deliver a Net Zero Future.

Hamish Wood is the VP for Customer Success across UK & Ireland at GoCardless, responsible for leading the Professional Services (Implementation), Customer Success, and Customer Advocacy teams. Hamish joined GoCardless in 2019 and has over 10 years of experience in customer-focused roles. He has previously held positions at Westpac, Spark New Zealand and MaritzCX.

Hamish has also co-chaired multiple professional LGBTQIA+ networks, working to ensure fair representation and education in the workplace, and is currently an Advisory Board Member for Career Accelerator.

Hannah is the Public & Regulatory Policy & Government Affairs Lead for the External Affairs Team at Capital One (Europe) plc. Hannah joined Capital One in April 2024.

Hannah previously worked for the British Retail Consortium (BRC), where she represented retailer views primarily on payments issues and developments, working to drive forward innovation in retail payments. She has sat on several working groups and committees including JROC’s Open Banking working groups, the CBDC Engagement Forum, and SCOR.

Prior to working at the BRC, Hannah worked in Policy at the FCA. She led the ‘Access to Insurance’ piece of work which resulted in new signposting rules in travel insurance, and led the ‘Cancellations and Refunds’ guidance which looked at the interplay between section 75 and insurance. Hannah also worked on the FCA’s broader work on vulnerable consumers and access to financial services.

Helene is an innovation and payment specialist. She has extensive regulatory experience in the UK and internationally.

She joined the FCA in June 2019 and is a senior manager in the innovation department aiming to support beneficial and responsible innovation in the financial services sector, including through our different sandboxes, innovation pathways and sprints. She also led policy on payments matters, including open banking, fraud and crypto.

Before joining the FCA, she worked at the European Banking Authority, where she developed a number of instruments in the payments space and led the supervisory work with all EU national competent authorities. Prior to that, she worked at the FSA/FCA in a range of roles ranging from supervision to competition and in the industry in compliance roles.

She holds a PhD in law.

Henk was appointed CEO in January 2022 to implement an effective and appropriate governance and management framework for the organisation, and to manage the delivery of the CMA Roadmap and the operations of OBL.

He is now leading the next phase of the development of open banking as it moves to a new regulatory framework and Future Entity.

Henk joined OBL from Post Office Ltd, where he had more than nine years’ experience in senior roles in innovation, including Managing Director of Digital Services and as Deputy CEO, Financial Services and Telecoms.

He has considerable expertise in managing profitable and consumer-focused blue chip and start-up firms, including senior roles at Egg PLC, Prudential UK, and Belgian internet bank.

Isabel is a seasoned payments industry expert with over a decade of experience. She has recently joined Nationwide Building Society as Digital Payments & Cards Director with the aim to share her FinTech experience to accelerate Nationwide’s ambitions.

Prior to joining Nationwide, Isabel held key positions at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Lloyd’s Bank, Banked, Zopa, and Shieldpay.

Isabel’s a recognised industry thought leader, contributing to events and publications in the FinTech and Payment spaces. Isabel is a passionate advocate for inclusivity in finance and technology, and actively mentors LGBT+ and women to encourage more diversity in FinTech & Payments. She’s a member of industry groups, including Women of FinTech, Women in Payments, and the 19% List.

With her extensive expertise, Isabel wants to help shape the future of payments and ignite people’s passion for the ecosystem.

James Neville is the CEO and co-founder of award-winning open banking platform Yaspa, one of the leading providers of payment and identity verification services to businesses across the UK and Europe. An ex-Worldpay CTO, James has also held senior operational roles at brands such as Just-Eat, Ascential, Babcock & Brown and Sportingbet. He is delighted to be sharing his experiences here at the Open Banking Expo, and to talk particularly about Yaspa’s development of a ground-breaking platform for real-time, frictionless financial risk checks – an open-banking product part funded by the UK Government to help gambling operators detect and protect vulnerable customers.

Jane is Head of Department in Payments & Digital Assets at the FCA, working on crypto and payments policy. Jane came to Payments & Digital Assets from Resolution, covering the insolvency of FCA regulated firms. Previously Jane concentred on Client Assets, and has a background as a corporate lawyer.

Janine Hirt is the CEO of Innovate Finance (IF), the industry body representing the world-leading UK FinTech sector. Having joined the founding IF leadership team in 2015 first as Head of Membership then Ecosystem Director, she moved into the COO role in 2017 before stepping up to lead the organisation in 2021. Janine is passionate about driving transformation to create a more democratic, transparent and inclusive financial services sector for all. Her professional career has been marked by roles that sit at the intersection of policy, international relations, and industry, including senior positions at Chatham House, (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) and the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce.

Janine received her BA Magna Cum Laude from Boston College, JYA at Oxford University, and her MSc from the London School of Economics. Janine is an American, British, Swiss and German national who calls London and NYC home.

Janusz has over 26 years of experience in the payments across EMEA; working in Poland, UK, Ukraine, Russia, managing companies in Germany, Austria, the Baltic States, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary; gained in companies that were owned by VC-PE, listed and privately owned. Positions held included CEO / President, General and Regional Director, CFO, Mergers & Acquisitions Director, Business Development Director for companies such as Euronet Worldwide, Fiserv (Polcard), and Polskie ePlatnosci.

He has extensive payment sector experience across Mergers and acquisitions, Finance, Acquiring POS, mobile payments and wallets, cards issuing processing and mPOS / softpos. He is an active angel investor in fintech companies directly and through VC funds in Poland and the UK. He has invested in over 20 companies over the last 8 years; both in Poland and Europe and not just in the fintech and payments sectors.

Born in England, Janusz graduated in Geography from the University of London (University College), is qualified as a UK Chartered Accountant (ACA) and is a Member of the UK Treasurers Association (ACT).

Jason is a Director within Barclays UK. Before leading the Open Banking and Digital teams he has built up multi-year experience across merchant facing and proposition development roles within consumer credit and embedded finance. Jason is now responsible for the day-to-day running of Barclays’ Open Banking platform alongside digital enhancements and strategic developments which focus on delivering measurable customer and commercial benefits.

Joe is a business development and marketing professional with experience in the professional services, legal services and FinTech sectors working across the North since 2016. Joe joined FinTech North as its first full-time employee in September 2019, having previously worked for the Institute of Directors and a global law firm. As Engagement Manager for FinTech North, Joemanages all event, marketing and commercial activity, and regularly supports Northern FinTech entrepreneurs and new market entrants.

FinTech North is the focal point for FinTech in the Northern Powerhouse. Since 2016 FinTech North has brought the northern FinTech community together via events, conferences, virtual seminars and trade missions. FinTech North’s objectives are to bring the community together, to develop the northern FinTech economy, align with development of the national FinTech sector and to promote the North of England as an international destination for FinTech.

Jon Hart has been an essential part of Moneyhub for 8 years in his role as API Partnerships Director. Throughout this time, Jon has been pivotal in bringing a diverse array of Open Banking and Open Finance propositions to the forefront, continually striving to enhance consumer access to financial products and services. His passion lies in crafting innovative and valuable solutions for consumers while boosting operational efficiencies for businesses. Day to day, Jon collaborates closely with Moneyhub’s clients and prospects, developing a deep understanding of their challenges and aspirations to create meaningful user experiences by leveraging Moneyhub’s cutting-edge data and insights platform. His work is crucial in bridging the gap between technology and finance, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion and the expansion of credit access for underserved populations.

Julian is a strategy consultant with over 25 years experience in financial and professional services. Prior to joining Whitecap in 2012 he was marketing director at HML, the UK’s largest outsourced mortgage servicer (now part of Computershare), and his career has also included roles at Boston Consulting Group, Nationwide Building Society, Mortgages plc, and Merrill Lynch.

Whitecap Consulting is a strategy consultancy based in Leeds, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Bristol, Newcastle and Birmingham. It is particularly active in high growth sectors. Whitecap’s financial services clients have included banks, building societies, technology providers, FinTechs, retailers, universities, and various firms in the intermediary financial services market.

Whitecap is involved in multiple regional FinTech and LegalTech ecosystems. The firm is directly involved in FinTech North and FinTech West, both of which it helped create and now helps coordinate. Via these initiatives, Julian is also involved in the FinTech National Network which was created in 2019 to help link the national Fintech sector across the UK. Whitecap also leads the LegalTech in Leeds initiative, which is a regional LegalTech community in the Leeds City Region which is linked to various national initiatives.

Julian is currently studying for a DBA (Professional Doctorate), focusing on strategy and innovation in financial services. He also sits on a number of advisory boards and steering groups relating to FinTech, LegalTech and innovation.

In her career Kate Fitzgerald has led change and transformation in payments, banking, and operations. She specialises in leading large transformational programmes for end-to-end payments in financial services.

Most recently, Kate worked as a senior advisor on payment systems at the PSR. Previously she worked in a variety of roles at Lloyds and led payment integrations for the merger with Halifax Bank of Scotland, and the Verde Divestment, ultimately becoming TSB’s Payments Director. Kate has also served on the board of Payments UK.

Kate joined the PSR in June 2020.

Kate Marsden is the CMO of award-winning open banking platform Yaspa, and over the last few years has overseen its rebrand from Citizen, and its growth into one of the leading providers of payment and identity verification services to businesses across the UK and Europe. Kate has worked for almost three decades across many start-ups, scale-ups and corporates in the fintech space, and is delighted to be chairing the Payments stage at this year’s Open Banking Expo.

With 14 years’ experience in the mutual sector within Financial Services, I have transitioned from accountancy into strategy, driving the business forward with strategic thought leadership and collaborating with Group businesses to create long term strategic Plans. I have a passion for research and emerging trends that can make a real difference to members of society, and therefore delighted to be joining a panel to discuss just that on behalf of Skipton.

Kevin was born and raised near Easingwold, North Yorkshire. He is passionate about sports and an accomplished businessman. After studying physics at university, he co-founded Hunters Estate Agents in 1992, expanding it into one of the UK’s leading estate agencies. Influenced by his parents’ interest in politics, Kevin stood for and was elected MP for Thirsk and Malton in 2015. Since then, he has been very active in Parliament on both national and local issues and held several government roles, including Minister for Small Business from October 2022 to July 2024, most notably Kevin led the Government’s action on ensuring compensation for sub-postmasters following the Horizon Scandal. He previously co-chaired the successful APPG on Fair Business Banking from 2018 to 2022, championing efforts against economic crime and corruption. Kevin is a strong advocate of the small and medium sized business sector and of the North and has been campaigning hard for more investment in Northern roads, rail, digital networks, skills training and private sector investment, which he believes is key to growing the Yorkshire and wider UK economy. Re-elected for the fourth time in July 2024, he now serves as Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade.

Kirsty has spent over 25 years in financial services in roles spanning finance, strategy, risk, data, technology, innovation, and strategic investment at six different Top Tier financial institutions.

Kirsty’s passion is organisational growth through cultural change; challenging the ways things “have always been done” and championing the opportunities that new tools and technologies bring.

Today, as the Group Fintech Investment Director, Kirsty uses her diverse experience to support business growth objectives and delivery through strategic fintech investment; focused on creating value by actively managing the portfolio across all businesses.

And whilst she’s doing that, she’s a wife and proud mum to two boys; who she says have taught her more than anything else she’s ever done.

Kyle runs the SHIFT Open Finance Community and is Co-founder of Ignite. The SHIFT Community is an invite-only community of 200+ Fintechs with the mission to progress the Open Finance agenda through active collaboration between Fintechs and Financial Institutions. Ignite is an incubator programme supporting founders to start their new fintech ventures.

Leo Cullen is a product and business development specialist with over 20 years experience developing and promoting tech solutions for the banking and financial service sectors.

Liz is Cofounder and CEO of Ctrl-Shift and has spent her now long career focusing on the opportunities created where people, business and technology meets. Over the past 20 years Liz has focused on the opportunities that the sustainable use of personal data brings for businesses, individuals, and society. She has worked extensively with Blue Chip businesses, Governments and Legislators and Think Tanks to support the development of our personal data economy.

Throughout her career Liz has worked both in and for large corporates and has developed deep skills and strong networks across private, public and the third sector. She brings deep and strong experience in the impact of business models and operating environments on the shifting landscape of consumers, digital, trust and value.

Liz combines vision married with evidence and market knowledge, business strategy and operational implementation and the ability to bring together strong teams to deliver extraordinary results.

Chris is a passionate advocate for the potential of technology and the benefits of diversity and inclusion. His core policy focus is on digital technology for the public good with a particular interest in technologies such as AI and blockchain and areas of application such as fintech and trade.

In Parliament, he specializes in legislation that deals with technology. He introduced a private members’ bill that proposed the regulation of artificial intelligence and was integral to the passing of the ground-breaking Electronic Trade Documents Bill.

On technology, he has previously co-authored House of Lords Select Committee Reports on: Democracy and Digital Technologies [2020], Artificial Intelligence [2018], and Digital Skills [2015] and under his own auspices published an influential report encouraging government testing of blockchain solutions for policy delivery, DLT for Public Good: leadership, collaboration and innovation [2017] He is also adviser to several tech and fintech companies.

On inclusion, and again under his own auspices, he has published influential reports on accessibility in the public realm and support for disabled students as well as Lords reports on Financial Exclusion [2017], Social Mobility [2016] and, for the Cabinet Office, The Lord Holmes Review on opening up public appointments to disabled people. He continues to advise the government on diversity and inclusion.

An ex-Paralympic swimmer, Chris won nine gold, five silvers and one bronze medal across four Games, including a record haul of six golds at Barcelona 1992.

Marie is Raidiam’s resident Open Futurist, using her exceptional insight to help countries and businesses create opportunities in the emerging data economy. Marie is interested in the possibilities that Open Data ecosystems like Open Finance can deliver – and how we can get there. Since 2016 she has been bringing together the best people and ideas in Open Banking, Open Finance and Open X: highlighting progress, analysing the impact of new possibilities, and helping people to have the necessary conversations.

Marie was previously the founder of market intelligence platform, Open Future World. Marie also runs open-conversations.org where she curates a daily list of the most interesting news headlines and insights. This is an independent and free source of discerning information on progress in Open Banking, Open Finance, and Open X.

Marija Ivoninaitė is a Director at FTI Consulting, a leading global business advisory firm that provides multidisciplinary solutions to complex challenges. With a vast network of over 8,000 professionals across 29 countries and six continents, FTI Consulting serves a wide array of industries, helping clients navigate critical business issues.

Marija brings a wealth of experience in financial services and economic governance, gained through roles in both the public sector and government affairs. Her career includes significant contributions at organisations such as the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), and representations like Scotland House Brussels, and the Channel Islands Brussels Office, amongst others.

Today Marija advises a diverse portfolio of financial services clients, including major fintechswho are trying to navigate the complex regulatory and policy developments in Europe. She specializes in emerging opportunities within digital finance, with a particular focus on open finance, the adoption of AI across the industry, and improving the retail investment landscape. Her expertise supports clients in staying ahead of the rapidly evolving regulatory environment in this dynamic sector.

Marija holds an MA in Politics and Philosophy from the University of Aberdeen and an MA in European Governance and Politics from the University of Sheffield. She is multilingual, fluent in English, French, Lithuanian, and Russian.

Marion is a highly accomplished business leader with an exemplary track record of driving growth through innovation, change and superlative people leadership. Marion is Chair and Trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity, where her key priorities are maintaining the existing implementation of open banking, as well as working with the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC) to decide the future direction of open banking in the UK.

Marion also fulfils a non-executive director portfolio, contributing to the growth and advancement of financial services companies.

Marion was Director of Payments, NatWest (2015-2022), responsible for setting the Payments strategy and prior to joining NatWest, she was President of MasterCard UK & Ireland developing a world beyond cash through an innovative approach to everyday Payments.

Before joining MasterCard, Marion was CEO of VocaLink, where during her tenure the Faster Payments Service was launched and Voca and Link were merged.

Marion has held international Managing Director roles at Reuters, in London and Hong Kong.

Marion was previously chair of the Advisory Board of the Payments Association (2021-2023).

Mary has over 15 years experience in financial services, having worked with Equifax for 11 years, both in Australia and the UK.

Starting her career in Marketing and Product Management, Mary had a number of successful years in consumer finance, before moving to the world of credit reference agencies, where she kicked off her client engagement and sales career.

In Mary’s current role, she works strategically with some of the UK’s largest lenders to help them understand the value of various types of data in their business practices and has helped several of them to successfully implement Open Banking to support their affordability strategies.

Matthew joined the FCA as the new Director of Payments & Digital Assets in October 2022. In his role, Matthew is responsible for Market Interventions, Market Analysis and Policy across the Payments and Digital Asset Portfolios.

Since joining the FCA, he has driven forward the development of the UK’s regulatory regime for crypto, including both the crypto financial promotions regime and the design of the proposed UK stablecoins regime.

In addition, Matthew continues the FCA’s leadership in international crypto initiatives leading the IOSCO Fintech Task Force Crypto and Digital Assets Working Group which produced the IOSCO Policy Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets which are designed to address concerns related to market integrity and investor protection arising from cryptoasset activities. He is also leading an ambitious piece of work to promote, support monitor and assess adoption and implementation of effective regulatory regimes for crypto across IOSCO member jurisdictions.

Matthew is also responsible for the development of open banking, and has overseen the publication of the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee’s (JROC) Roadmap which outlined an ambitious programme of work to progress the next phase of Open Banking in the UK, as well as subsequent publications.

Matthew is currently supervising around 1,300 payments firms and has recently implemented the FCA Consumer Duty amongst other things. He is driving up standards across the UK payments industry through both supervisory and policy activities, including partnering with other UK regulatory authorities to target the impact of APP fraud.

Prior to the FCA, Matthew was the Director of the National Economic Crime Command within the National Crime Agency (NCA). His responsibilities included leading the multi-agency National Economic Crime Centre which has a strategic UK system leadership role for economic crime and illicit finance. He also led the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) which has national responsibility for receiving, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence submitted through the Suspicious Activity Reports Regime. At the NCA, he has driven the public- private partnership with financial services to find solutions for government and industry problems together, including through a Crypto Summit. Matthew works to balance risks and opportunity of innovation and has carried this into his current role at the FCA.

Operationally, he is a multi-agency Commander with extensive experience in leading international initiatives and collaboration, including through his work with Interpol, Europol and international roundtables on serious and organised crime. He received national and international awards for his investigations and innovation.

Matthew holds a PhD in Risk Management and has been part of a team creating worldwide child abuse risk assessments.

Miguel is the Head of Strategy and Deputy Head of the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub. His aim is to contribute to the creation of digital financial public goods that can support the evolution of the global financial system to meet the demands of the digital economy. He was the Head of the BIS Toronto Innovation Centre working with highly scalable systems, open finance, and AI for supervisors and before he was the head of Payment Systems and Financial Market infrastructures at the central Bank of Mexico where he guided the development, operation, analysis, and regulation of financial market infrastructures. He oversaw the modernization of the payment systems, directed the creation of a fast payment system denominated in dollars, and was deeply involved in the development of the operational and regulatory strategy of the Central Bank regarding financial market infrastructures, including digital currency and the inclusion of new market participants in the ecosystem. In his previous roles he directed strategic planning and managed macro-financial analysis for the Bank of Mexico, and he is an Economist with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Mirna Sleiman is the Founder and CEO of Fintech Galaxy, a Central Bank licensed Open Finance platform operating in the UAE, KSA, Bahrain, Egypt and other markets across the MENA region. Mirna set the company’s mission to revolutionize the financial services industry with an open API infrastructure that enables financial inclusion by driving collaboration within the ecosystem through Open Banking, Open Finance and embedding financial services within non-financial companies.

Before founding Fintech Galaxy, Mirna was heading public sector business for Thomson Reuters across 22 countries in MENA. She provided digital transformation advisory to financial institutions and government entities across MENA. She also spent a decade as a journalist with Reuters, Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal.

Mirna has an EMBA from The City, University of London. She’s also certified in Fintech from MIT, Corporate Governance from The Wharton School and Digital Transformation from University of Cambridge.

Nicola Anderson is the CEO of FinTech Scotland, the independent cluster enterprise focused on delivering positive economic outcomes through financial innovation.

Nicola has led FinTech Scotland since 2021, advancing the fintech ecosystem and fintech innovation in Scotland to be recognised as one of Europe’s top fintech centres of excellence and now formally accredited as a cluster of excellence.

This economic and innovation progress has been achieved by bringing together diverse participants such as entrepreneurs, large businesses, government, the third sector, and universities to drive positive economic outcomes whilst contributing to the global fintech movement.

Recently, Nicola has been instrumental in setting up the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL)– an industry-led collaborative research and innovation programme – with the remit of shaping the future of Financial Regulation in Scotland.

Through her career in financial services Nicola has been an influential advocate of making finance work well for customers, society, business and markets. She has been directly engaged in digital and data transformation, regulation, and policy development, with an emphasis on innovation, collaboration, and customer focused outcomes.

Nicola’s experience spans large and small enterprises, and regulatory bodies. This includes the FCA where her experience includes collaboration with HM Treasury, the Bank of England, and other bodies, on banking reform, digital transformational changes and complex regulatory issues following the financial crisis. Her entrepreneurial experience comes from a variety of industries including retail, hospitality, and financial services, and involves a practical understanding across different stages of the business lifecycle.

In addition to leading FinTech Scotland, Nicola is also a non-executive director at Advice Direct Scotland, a member of the Scottish Taskforce for Green and Sustainable Financial Services, and a member of the Scottish Government’s Financial Services Growth and Development Board.

Nicola has been passionate about building and scaling businesses for over 25 years, from the early days of the consumer internet to today. Her career spans roles as CEO, Co-Founder, Managing Director, Investor, as well as Corporate Innovation & Transformation Specialist. Her industry focus includes FinTech, FMCG & Media. She lived and worked in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, France and is now based in her hometown, Berlin.

She is currently Managing Director at Qwist the leading independent European Open Banking platform provider, with key markets in DACH, Spain and Portugal. She led the business through a major transformation as CEO until the formation of a new Group following the acquisition of ndgit. Prior to this, she was Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director at OptioPay, an Open Banking Fin-/AdTech company, as well as in a leading growth and innovation role at PayPal in Europe. Nicola fundamentally believes that we need to use technology to democratise financial services. Open Data and data authorship, distributed data models and innovative embedded finance models are one way to move towards a more equitable future.

Nicola is passionate about creating positive impact in the world. She holds board positions in for-profit social impact businesses (Vested Ltd. among others), supporting female founders as well as solar energy company Wattz. She is also an advisor to impact accelerators and funds like Village Capital and Planet A Ventures.

Nicole is VP of Product Strategy, Innovation and Policy for Yapily, an Open Banking infrastructure provider. As part of her role, Nicole leads Yapily’s engagement with UK and EU regulators and sits on a number of committees including the PayUK Industry Advisory Council and the JROC Programme Finance Committee and associated workstreams. She has over 20 years of experience working in product management, strategy, and pricing at global firms, previously holding roles at BT, Vonage, and Corporate Executive Board (now Gartner).

Paul Horlock is currently the Chief Payments Officer of Santander UK and is responsible for creating a single UK Payments team operating in all payment lines across the business and working as part of the Global Cards team. He is also engaging with the development of the global Payments strategy for the Santander group and with the evolution of PagoNxt.

Paul brings 20 years’ experience in the payments sector to Santander UK. His previous positions include Chief Executive of Pay.UK, which he joined at their inception in October 2017 to bring together Faster Payments, Bacs and Cheques into a new UK Domestic scheme, serving the UK  retail and commercial banking market and delivering key market innovations such as Confirmation of Payee. Prior to this, Paul held senior positions at Nationwide as Director of Payments; leading work in the Payments Strategy Forum and Open Banking and formerly at Barclays as Head of Global Payment Processing.

FinTech / TechFin and Online Banking Co-Founder, CTO, and Solution Architect at SDK.finance: Pavlo leads the technological vision and product architecture at SDK.finance, overseeing the development of fintech solutions for banks and financial institutions. 20+ Years in Digital Payments: Pavlo has extensive experience in the payments industry, making significant contributions to various digital payment solutions and infrastructure development. Launching Multiple Fintech Products: Pavlo has successfully led the launch of several fintech products, each designed to solve critical problems in the finance sector. Author of “The World of Digital Payments: Practical Course (FinTech)”: His expertise in digital payments culminated in writing this authoritative book, which provides practical insights into the world of fintech. Payments Innovator: Pavlo is recognized for his innovative contributions to the payments industry, constantly exploring new technologies and solutions that drive the sector forward. Key Ideologist: He is the key ideologist at SDK.finance, shaping the company’s technological strategy and solutions with a focus on digital finance.

eter leads a team of Payment, Cards, Clearing and Liquidity Management specialists providing cash management solutions to clients both in HSBC’s 20 Europe presence countries and into HSBC’s global network.

Peter has more than 25 years’ experience in institutional banking and has held roles in transaction banking and markets, as well as country management roles in Asia, Africa and the U.K., at Standard Chartered, Bank of America and Citi – where he was previously Head of Treasury & Trade Solutions for UK & Europe.

Peter has two daughters, Holly & Olivia, is an endurance athlete and enjoys visiting art museums in Europe.

Raffaele is leading the commercialisation of Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) at NatWest Group.

A senior leader with over 10 years of international experience in the finance sector, Raffaele holds a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, Law and Finance, as well as a Master of Science in Public Management, from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

Prior to NatWest Group, Raffaele spent four years at Simon-Kucher & Partners in Milan, defining pricing and commercialisation strategies for Italian retail and investment banks.

Rashee is the Associate Director of Membership and Growth at Innovate Finance, the independent industry body that represents and advances the global FinTech community in the UK. Rashee has been working in FinTech since its nascent days in London. Prior to Innovate Finance, Rashee led marketing and communications for high-growth FinTechs including Bankable and Applied Blockchain. Rashee enjoys working with startup teams as well as global tech & financial institutions and is passionate about driving the voice of fintech and innovation globally. She is also a diversity leader and was a working group member of the Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce commissioned by the HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Rashee holds an MSc in Strategic Marketing from Imperial College London. A Thai-born-Indian, Rashee calls both Bangkok and London home.

Rema is an accomplished advisory board member, transformational leader and public speaker within the Payments, e-Commerce and Financial Services industries globally. She has been based in Malaysia, Singapore, Chile and now The Netherlands specializing in go to market and business strategy, operationalisation of payments and electronic money institutions, financial crime advisory and M&A due diligence for large-scale organizations.

Rema currently oversees earner financial products of Uber’s Global Commerce operations in APAC & EMEA. Concurrently, she is the Co-Chair of Uber’s Works Council in The Netherlands, promoting and protecting the interests of employees locally. Additionally, Rema is an experienced public speaker on embedded finance, payments and women empowerment. Additionally, she is an experienced public speaker on embedded finance, payments and women empowerment; sharing her insights and best practices with diverse audiences. She is also an Advisory Board Member at FinTech Connect, a platform that connects and empowers the global fintech community.

Rik Coeckelbergs is the Founder and Managing Director of The Banking Scene, a network organisation for bankers and is passionate about building communities and conceptualising ideas, enabling sustainable business models. Over the years, the community grew to 5 inspirational events in Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Brussels, the biggest with +400 attendees.

Before his entrepreneurial journey, Rik worked for +10 years in the financial services industry in various roles, both as an external consultant and in internal roles in business, strategy and marketing. In 2009, he created a LinkedIn community called “Innovation In Payments”, which today is LinkedIn’s largest payments group worldwide with +100k members.

Rik Coeckelbergs is a regular speaker and blogger on thebankingscene.com and a guest writer for third-party websites. Occasionally, Rik contributes to publications, like in 2019 in “Regtech Blackbook – The Sequel”. More importantly, in 2021, Rik contributed to 2 chapters in Chris Skinner’s most recent bestselling book “Digital for Good”, an interview with Marc Lauwers, CEO of Argenta, on purposeful banking and a second one sharing his vision for the bank in 2040.

Rob Haslingden is an independent proposition and product marketing consultant and Smart Data lead.

A former Head of Propositions and Product Marketing at Experian, and subject matter expert (SME) for Open Banking, he helped the organisation launch its UK Open Banking services. Currently working with the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), he’s helping to define and articulate consumer and SME use cases for Open Finance, as well as acting as an Advisor to consent management fintech, Smarter Contracts.

Rob has spent most of his working life associated with the commercial use of data, helping consumers and businesses understand the value of data and its power for good. Recent projects include supporting the creation of a UK digital payroll exchange, using bureau data to protect vulnerable customers when gambling, and supporting the launch of Buy Now, Pay Later data sharing at Experian.

Following a career in e-commence & Retail, Rob Levy has built multiple payment products for some of the world’s best known brands. Now at Barclays, Rob leads Product for BPF, the bank’s Point-of-Sale lending division as well as the bank’s Core Banking System’s transformation program, Digital Platforms for the retail bank and the group’s Open Banking business.

Robert is Public Policy & Strategy Director at Token.io. He is an economist and regulatory/public policy professional with a focus on payments and open banking. He has extensive experience across both the private and public sectors, having previously held senior policy positions at the UK Payment Systems Regulator and a global payment processing firm. He also worked for a number of years as an economic consultant for a big-four professional services firm, where he advised firms on matters relating to competition and economic regulation.

Roni Zacharion, CEO & Founder of open banking-based real-time credit scorer Kreditz, is a serial entrepreneur with +20 years in fintech. Prior to starting Kreditz (2018), he pioneered the alternative SME-finance scene in Sweden with his first fintech venture European Factoring Exchange (2010), which financed +500m EUR prior to its sale to Logiq A/S (2017). Roni envisions a world without “credit borders” and believes everyone is entitled to a fair assessment, which is why Kreditz long-term vision statement reads “One World – One Score”.

Samer Soliman, CEO of Arab Financial Services (AFS), is driving the company’s digital transformation across the Middle East and Africa. His leadership is steering  AFS into a new era of payments innovation, characterized by seamless and intelligent payment solutions.

Samer’s extensive international experience spanning more than 25 years in the banking and payments sector adds a unique perspective to his role. Prior to his current position, he held significant leadership roles at Network International, including as the Managing Director for the Middle East business, overseeing regional acquiring and issuing, and implementing a comprehensive growth strategy.

In addition to his role at AFS, Samer is actively engaged in the fintech community and contributes to the development of future leaders. He serves as a Board Advisor to Sarwa Digital Wealth and is a Board Member of SP Jain Global School of Management, a prominent Australian business school known for disruptive innovation in business education across multiple countries.

Samer has held several executive and non-executive roles, including Chairman of Network International Jordan and Board Member of Diners/Discover ME. He has also served on the Product Advisory Board of UnionPay International. Currently, he is the Chairman of Arab Financial Services in Egypt and the UAE.

Samer holds a Master’s degree in Leading Innovation and Change from Robert Kennedy College in Switzerland. He has recently completed a CEO program from The Wharton School and is currently pursuing a PhD in Business Administration.

In his downtime, Samer finds joy in art, innovation, and technology. His forward-thinking mindset mirrors a genuine love for the transformative blend of creativity and cutting-edge advancements. Samer also enjoys being surrounded by nature. His favorite places to visit are the South of France and Italy, where he finds inspiration and relaxation.

Samer has been recognized as a top Arab visionary, featured twice in the Arab Power List

I have worked at Lloyds Banking Group for almost 3 years. I am the Product Owner of the Lloyds Bank Smart ID app that was launched last September, and I am driving forward the Group’s Digital Identity Strategy.

Simon is head of competition law at NatWest. He has a background in competition and regulation in telecoms and financial services, having worked previously at Vodafone Group, HSBC and the Office of Fair Trading (as it became the Competition and Markets Authority). While at HSBC, Simon was heavily involved in the CMA market investigation that led to the creation of Open Banking, and at NatWest he has engaged extensively with internal and external stakeholders on VRP.

Sophie Hossack has spent 15 years working in high-growth technology companies, from pre-revenue start-ups to high growth scale-ups. Previously Sophie was the first employee and part of the founding team at Dext (Receipt Bank), the leading automated bookkeeping platform for accountants, bookkeepers and SMEs. As Head of Partnerships at Allica Bank, Sophie works with organisations who are passionate about supporting and serving UK SMEs, with a particular focus on partnering with accounting firms.

Stephen Winyard is a Director at Salt Edge – a leading fintech company in open banking.

He has a longstanding experience of over 25 years of co-founding and managing several disruptive and complex technology companies and has delivered millions in revenue and substantial shareholder returns during that time. Steve has been involved in open banking for several years and was part of the founding team of a UK-regulated PIS/AIS company.

In addition, he has been a Council member and key advisor to the UK Government with the Digital Policy Alliance that met in the House of Lords in Westminster, frequently.

At the moment, Stephen applies his vast expertise in building sustainable relations with financial institutions from various sectors to help them implement the best open banking strategies.

lead the Customer Success Team at Token, ensuring that our customers derive the maximum commercial benefit from the investment made in Open Banking payments. We work closely with our clients to help drive the adoption of Open Banking services with their merchants, through sharing best practice and supporting go to market and commercialisation efforts. Prior to Token, I had numerous leadership roles with early stage & scale up FinTech’s, 3 of which have had successful exits.

Sven Siat has been the Head of Connectivity at SIX since August 2019, and is responsible for bLink, Switzerland’s leading Open Banking platform. With more than 10 years of experience at the intersection of digitalization & banking, he has contributed to the development and launch of innovative solutions such as Paymit/TWINT and a blockchain-based trade finance platform. Previously, he worked at UBS and Accenture Strategy. Sven holds an MBA from IE in Madrid and a B.Sc. in Economics.

Chair, INED and adviser with strong customer focus and commercial credentials. Global experience with deep understanding of market complexity, drivers, regulation and participants. Experienced in delivering customer centric strategy & propositions supported by
robust corporate governance.

Award judge for The Banker, European Banking Association, Merchant Payment Ecosytem and The Payments Association.

Highly regarded industry spokesperson and published author including the Payment Association Guide to Consumer Duty and a The PAYTECH Book item that forms part of the Manchester University MBA programme.

Ambassador for The Payments Association and EMEA Advisory Board member Women in Payments.

Tim heads up D•One – the B2B open banking services division of the ClearScore Group. Tim is passionate about the ability of open banking to effect positive change within the lending industry, and such has set up D•One to help facilitate and accelerate open banking adoption for the benefit of both consumers and lenders alike.

Before joining ClearScore, Tim spent a number of years leading the HD Decisions business following its acquisition by Experian in 2014. Prior to that he spent his early career working in analytics at Capital One having previously studied engineering at the University of Nottingham. He is a keen sports and music fan.

Todd Clyde is the CEO of Token and an established operator of Silicon Valley software companies. He has an over twenty-year track record of bringing groundbreaking technologies to market, including e-learning, internet banking, mobile banking and now open API banking. Token is Todd’s fifth technology start-up, and he has navigated his previous four to successful exits, including one $2B exit. Todd joined Token in 2016 to modernise payments and drive a shift from traditional payment methods to account-to-account payments.

Tom is the lead product manager for Zing, the new open-market global payments fintech empowering people to live their best international lives when it comes to converting, holding, sending, and spending, international currencies.

Zing has been built to put the customer first; delivering best-in-class experiences and customer support. Born within HSBC, Zing leverages fintech approaches to customer-centric and agile development, and HSBC’s deep experience in international payments.

Tom leads the strategy and execution of Zing’s product, working across the business to deliver a fast-growing app that’s already ranked at over 4.5 stars in the App Store and Google Play Store. Tom was previously a product manager within HSBC having also been a front-end developer at Barclays. Tom led payments and transfers globally at HSBC and has been working in the payments space for the last 10 years.

Enthusiastic leader of the world’s most influential trade association in payments, a lively public speaker and avid networker, Tony is passionate about payments and the difference it can make to lives everywhere.

Tony shares his knowledge derived from 20 years in payments and his evangelical zeal for innovation when speaking and chairing conferences, publishing books and white papers, or enrolling payments leaders to join The Payment Association’s collaboration network.

Tony frequently invests in early-stage payments companies, helping them to win in a highly competitive payments ecosystem. He founded The Payments Association in 2010 to promote the UK as global hub for payments innovation and the interests of its 250+ members in the UK, EU and Asia, which include banks, card schemes, PSPs, issuers, processors, acquirers and legal experts, who all come together to drive collective industry change.