Ready To Hear Views From The Most Influential Payments & Regtech Experts?
#npf
ENDORSED BY
10th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum
OUR SPEAKERS
Chris Aruliah
Chief Product Officer, BCB Group
Chris is an industry veteran, passionate about financial innovation, and was previously at Bitstamp, where he held the role of Head of Business Development and was responsible for helping financial institutions enter the crypto market and focused on identifying opportunities for integrating crypto with traditional finance. Prior to that, he launched the open banking payments platform, Token, and built the pipeline for the business in Europe.
Gregory Dellas
Chief Compliance and Innovation Officer at EcommBX
Gregory Dellas is the Chief Compliance and Innovation Officer at ECOMMBX, an Electronic Money Institution with a flexible FinTech platform for cross-border inter-bank transactions. Whilst at the Bank of Cyprus, Gregory led the anti-money laundering (AML) risk management team within the International Banking Services Division and acted as the local compliance officer. His team was responsible for the onboarding of high-risk clients, the evaluation of large and complex transactions, as well as the review of existing and approval of new high-risk client relationships. In addition, Dellas was responsible for providing advice, guidance and specialized training to management and staff on AML and regulatory compliance matters.
In the past, Gregory worked with Coopers & Lybrand in Nicosia and held various senior and managerial positions in Cyprus Popular Bank and the Bank of Cyprus in wealth management, compliance and other areas. He has extensive experience as a private banker and led the setup of private banking units in the U.K. and Romania. He also served as the group money laundering compliance officer and was responsible for the AML function for Cyprus Popular Bank and all its overseas subsidiaries. Gregory is the founder and Chair of the ACAMS Cyprus Chapter, since 2015. He is CAMS, CGSS, CAMS (Advanced) – Risk and CAMS (Advanced) – Audit certified, a certified CAMS trainer, a GCI certified trainer, a Fellow of the International Compliance Association (ICA) and a long-standing member of the Anti-Money Laundering Professionals (AMLP) Forum. He also holds an MBA from Lancaster University in the UK and a BSC (Hons) Industrial economics from the University of Warwick.
Luke Ashley
Business Development Director at TruNarrative
Luke has been in the ‘Financial Crime Technology’ space for over 12 years helping businesses in Cyprus and wider Europe strike a balance between frictionless customer experience and compliance with KYC/AML regulation. At TruNarrative, this balance is struck with a unique combination of data, technology and expertise. TruNarrative provide solutions to FinTechs, Payment Providers, Banks, FOREX, Card Issuers, EMI Wallets and many more.
Jessica Ramos
Head Of Regulatory & Oversight Affairs at EBA CLEARING
Jessica Ramos is the Head of Regulatory & Oversight Affairs at EBA CLEARING. Prior, she held a number of positions at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) namely in Oversight Affairs, Legal & Compliance, Finance and as Chief of Staff to the global CEO. At SWIFT she was also responsible for diversity and inclusion initiatives for the business. She started her career as an Associate in Consortium Central America in 2006, focusing on banking, finance and corporate law.
She is a member of the Belgian Company Lawyers Bar, the New York Bar, the Honduran Bar and the In-house Competition Lawyers Association. In addition to her Law Degree, Jessica holds an MBA in Finance, an LL.M. in Corporate Law from New York University (NYU) and an LL.M. in Competition Law and Economics from the Brussels School of Competition. She has recently been certified in Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), Cyber Security for Business Leaders and Social Media Marketing.
Russell Burke
Independent Consultant; ex-Central Bank of Ireland
Russell Burke, independent payments consultant and payments sector specialist with PwC, with a unique combination of extensive regulatory and strategic experience, supports firms seeking authorisation to provide payments and electronic money services, works with advisory firms and regulated payments firms and is one of Ireland’s leading payments specialists with over forty years’ experience with the Central Bank of Ireland, the Irish Payments Services Organisation (IPSO) and Bank of Ireland. Russell also provides bespoke payments related training, strategic payment reviews and board director services.
Specialising in payments since 2000, Russell most recently helped transform the regulated payments sector in Ireland, over seven years as the Senior Payments and Electronic Money Authorisations Specialist with the Central Bank of Ireland’s Payments Authorisations Team, assessing and making decision recommendations for the many payments and electronic money firms now authorised in Ireland such as Facebook, Google, MoneyCorp, Square, Stripe and Modulr.
Doina Nicolici
Regional Representative, UK and Ireland, EBA CLEARING
Doina Nicolici has held various policy and stakeholder engagement roles across the payments industry in the UK and is currently Country Representative for the UK and Ireland at EBA CLEARING, where she is responsible for managing the relationship with the shareholder banks and users in this region.
Alex Mifsud
CEO at Weavr.io
Alex has been a serial payments entrepreneur over the past 15 years. His first business, Entropay, launched Visa’s first virtual prepaid card programme in 2003 which made the Sunday Times TechTrack 100. Before Weavr, he founded Ixaris Technologies, an innovator in global B2B payments with a multinational client base.
Alex is passionate about the dissemination of technology. His non-profit work includes co-founding the Malta Internet Foundation and, more recently, the London Blockchain Foundation. He is a Chartered Engineer and has a PhD in Computer Science from Edinburgh University.
Dr. Justine Scerri Herrera
Partner at MK Fintech Partners Ltd
Justine is a warranted Maltese lawyer who obtained a Doctorate (LLD) from the University of Malta and a Law Master’s Degree (LLM) from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Justine started her legal career in the courtroom as a Criminal and Civil Litigator but quickly moved on to work in the corporate world where she gained experience in other sectors, namely the Financial Services and Investment Services sector/Capital Markets.
Justine’s previous employment includes employment with a Top Criminal Law Firm, an International Bank and a Leading Investment Services Firm (Exante). Last April 2019 Justine also received certification for a Capital Markets course she followed at the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) titled ‘Trading Equities, Bonds and ETFs’ and a course titled ‘Virtual Financial Assets’ by the Malta Institute of Management (MIM) in preparation for obtaining the VFA Agent Licence needed to service crypto related clients.
Justine currently specialises in the Fintech Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies sector at MK Fintech Partners which entity forms part of ‘Michael Kyprianou & CO. LLC’ group, which is incidentally Top ranked in The Legal 500 and according to Gold Magazine is the 3rd Largest in size in Cyprus. Justine mainly deals in advising and licencing for issuers and service providers falling under the Maltese Virtual Financial Assets Regulations (crypto & blockchain), Investment Services Act (Capital Market players, Capital Raising etc) and Financial Institutions Act (EMI, PI).
Freddie Frith
Head of Financial Services at Clausematch
Freddie Frith joined Clausematch in 2018, where he has quickly progressed in different commercial roles. He now heads up Clausematch’s commercial proposition for Financial Services, focusing on accelerating the adoption across NeoBanking, FinTech, Insurance and Investment Management. Before working at Clausematch, Freddie worked in commercial roles as Silverfin, Ogilvy and Loreal. Freddie is also a thought leader in Regulatory Technology, regularly hosting podcasts and webinars, contributing to whitepapers and writing blog posts.
Robert Courtneidge
Payment Industry Expert
Robert Courtneidge is valued and respected industry expert in the emerging payments industry. He is working with a number of businesses assisting them on their strategy and products using his 30+ years legal experience to give them practical and innovative solutions. He is co-author and Editor of The PAYTECH Book 2020. He was co-founder of the Prepaid International Forum and has worked with the Emerging Payments Association since it was founded.
He has been regularly featured in the prestigious Payments Power 10 (including being ranked #1 in 2015), a highly competitive ranking of the most influential contributors in payments. As a lawyer in payments he was voted in the top 10 in the world by US publication Paybefore in 2015 being the only European in the list. As a lawyer he has worked closely with The Payments Services Regulator, HM Treasury, UK Finance and Financial Conduct Association, in the UK as well as other compliance and industry bodies globally. Robert has deep expertise in electronic money and payment services and is highly skilled in all aspects of payment services including consumer protection, banking regulation and compliance, and AML/CTF. Robert is highly active on the conference front regularly chairing and moderating events as well as speaking on issues facing the European Payments’ Industry including laws relating to blockchain, digital assets and Central Bank Digital Currencies.
Elie Beyrouthy
Chair of the Executive Board at European Payment Institutions Federation (EPIF); Vice President, European Government Affairs at American Express
Elie Beyrouthy has been the Chair of the European Payment Institutions Federation (EPIF) since March 2018. He is the Vice President of European Government Affairs at American Express since June 2017, where he leads the company’s engagement with European Union Institutions and advises senior leaders on EU regulatory and public policy matters. Elie also represents American Express’ interests in several EU trade bodies and professional associations. Prior to joining American Express, Elie was Director of International Regulatory Affairs at Western Union for 5 years. From 2007 to 2012, Elie held leadership positions at the World Savings Banks Institute and the European Banking Federation. Elie began his career as an intern at the European Commission and the United States Federal District Court of Minnesota. He holds two Master's Degrees in Law from the University of Minnesota and from the Jean Moulin University in Lyon – France. He is also a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lyon.
Isavella Frangou
VP of Sales and Marketing
Isavella is the VP of Sales and Marketing at payabl. She is a specialist in online payments, fintech and finance, working closely with e-commerce merchants to help them optimize their payments functionality.
For the last 8 years, Isavella has been working with payabl., a licensed payments institution and principal member of Visa and Mastercard. Before joining payabl., she held commercial roles in financial services industry companies, including American Express.
Isavella holds an MBA in International Marketing and Finance and in International Relations from Depaul University in Chicago, and a BA in International Relations and Europe Area Studies from the American University in Washington DC.
Nadia Manzari
Attorney, Partner at SCHILTZ & SCHILTZ; Member Board of Directors, Banque Centrale du Luxembourg
Nadia is a passionate pioneer in the FinTech space. In finance for more than 20 years, she contributed and assisted in the development of the FinTech ecosystem in Luxembourg.
Before joining the firm in 2018, Nadia was the Head of the Innovation, Payments, Markets Infrastructures and Governance Department at the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), where she started her career in 2001.
She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences covering payment services, financial technologies, remuneration policies, and corporate governance.
Nadia is a lecturer for Fintech and Digital Finance law and regulation in the Master in Finance and Economics (MScFE) and for Tech law at the University of Luxembourg in the Master in Space, Communication, and Media Law.
She graduated in law from the University Robert Schuman in Strasbourg and holds a master degree in private law (maîtrise en droit privé, mention “droit des affaires”) as well as a postgraduate DJCE diploma (Diplôme de Juriste Conseil d’Entreprise) degree with a focus on German-French business law. She holds the Certificate in Corporate Governance of INSEAD and is an ILA-certified director.
Jon Asprey
Managing Director, Information Governance & Privacy, FTI Consulting
Jon’s expertise is at the intersection of data science/analytics, information governance, and regulatory compliance with a particular focus on Privacy and Data protection.
Jon specialises in the application of information governance and privacy principles enabling firms to leverage data assets in a robust and compliant manner. He has a particular focus on enabling firms to effectively leverage data through designing appropriate Target Operating Models (TOM), as well as engendering the cultural and organisational change required to support good information governance practices.
Prior to joining FTI, Jon led the Privacy and Data Protection team at Promontory (part of IBM consulting) supporting a number of large technology transformation programmes. He has experience in the application of AI and automated decisioning to business processes, as well as the adoption of industry leading tools such as One Trust, IBM Information Governance Catalog, and Collibra to support large Information Governance programmes. He has advised on a wide range of data management programmes linked to Data Privacy/GDPR, AML/Financial Crime, Conduct & Supervision, Regulatory Reporting & Change Management as well as data quality monitoring and operational data governance.
Jon is experienced in complex global stakeholder management and driving business change, as well as supporting firms with regulatory liaisons, with experience of engaging directly with regulatory authorities including the ICO, FCA, PRA, and OCC (US). He also has a particular focus on the leverage of emerging technology (RegTech) and new ways of working.
Fotini Tsikkou
COO at ECOMMBX
Fotini is currently the Chief Operations Officer at ECOMMBX and has an experience of more than nine years in the financial services industry. She is an accomplished individual with direct involvement in the development of acquiring services in Cyprus. She has been the Regional Head of Operations for the SEMEA and EU regions at ECOMMPAY for the past 7 years, playing a key role in the company's growth on a global scale, diligently following high standards of transparency and reliability, in line with the company’s business activities. As an Executive Member of ECOMMBX, Fotini has expanded her knowledge in the field of financial technology - fintech, thus enabling her to be a successful COO. Along with her team, she has established a compliant and technologically advanced environment in which they offer top notch financial services to a niche global clientele, in direct collaboration with global banking partners.
Nicholas Messaritis
CTO at EcommBX
Nicholas Messaritis currently holds the position of Chief Technology Officer for the last 3 years, the last year working for EcommBX Electronic Money Institution. Previously, he worked as a software developer and payments consultant for financial software vendors TSYS and OpenWay. Nicholas is still actively involved in software development and he is fascinated by new development in the space of software development and by fintech innovations especially in the area of automations.
Michael Clark
Vice President, Global Product and Technology Lead for Platforms, Ventures and Partnerships at Mastercard
Michael has been operating at the intersection of technology, business and customer throughout his career, delivering complex human centric innovative solutions and strategies, which push the boundaries, helping to create new innovative experiences and propositions for customers and employees. Across the globe he has played a key role in Open Banking and digital strategies for a number of tier one banks, as well as delivering next generation powered propositions and business strategies for various fintechs and corporates. In his role at Mastercard, Michael has designed and delivered one of Mastercard’s first Open banking products. He has since moved into the Ventures area of Labs as a service, where he is now focused on designing and delivering digital products and platforms of the future for today’s needs, taking advantage of the digital revolution to deliver total experiences for Mastercard and its customers. In addition Michael also sits on various Open Banking regulatory standards bodies across Europe, helping to design the future of finance, and its role in a digital world.
Meirav Harel
Founder at MHfintechs
Meirav Harel was chosen for "100 most inspirational women in Blockchain 2020", chosen twice for "Women in Fintech Powerlist" by Innovate Finance UK, With 20+ years of experience in Finance, Technology, and creating award winning Fintech Innovation, Meirav Harel is a world known FinTech, Blockchain, Digital Disruption, Future of finance, Investment & Trading Interfaces expert.
Specializing in Innovative Technologies, and their impact on the Future of Banking, Finance, Money, Regulations, Macroeconomics and Businesses, Meirav is a highly demanded Advisor and international Keynote Speaker, on topics including Blockchain, Fintech, 5G, NFT, the Future of Money, Finance, Banking, Cryptocurrencies and Digital Disruption. She Lectures, Consults, Provides Management services and in-depth Research, to leading International Financial, Regulatory and Academic institutions, in Europe, Asia and USA, and is the lecturer of the Full Fintech Course at the MBA program of the College of Management in Israel.
Ambassador to EWPN (European Women in Payments Network), Former Head of Strategic Innovation Technologies at BDO, Bancor’s former Acting COO, former COO at IQONIQ,
Meirav had been for 7 years the Product & Business Development Manager of "LeumiTrade", Bank Leumi's award winning Financial Trading website, which was chosen twice as one of the three Best Trading Websites in Europe.
Stelios Georgakis
Director, Head, Financial Market Infrastructures & Payments Department at Central Bank of Cyprus
Stelios joined the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) in 1992, after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in the UK. In January 2013 he became the Head of the Licensing and Regulatory Compliance Section of the Supervision Division. As such, he negotiated the AML action plan with the Troika relating to the banking sector, and oversaw its successful implementation. With the introduction of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) of the European Central Bank, he became responsible for the On-Site Inspections, the AML/CFT supervision and the prudential supervision of credit, payment and e-money institutions that fall outside the scope of the SSM. In March 2017 he became Head of the supervision of significant and less significant credit institutions. He was the CBC member of the EBA Board of Supervisors and alternate member of the Supervisory Board of the SSM. As of 1 November 2020, he is Head of the Financial Market Infrastructures & Payments Department and of the Accounting Services & Controlling Department.
Stelios also holds a B.Sc.(Hons) in Civil Engineering and an MBA.
Simon Mc Feely
Chief Risk & Compliance Officer at TransferMate Global Payments
Simon McFeely, Global Head of Risk & Compliance, leads a team of over 50 risk and compliance professionals located across 9 different countries. Simon is responsible for strategic development and execution of TransferMate’s enterprise risk, compliance, regulatory and licencing expansion programs. Simon joined TransferMate in January 2021 and has been critical in implementing a globally standardized AML/CTF compliance framework across the business, focused on achieving best customer outcomes and deterring potential threat scenarios. Highly experienced in payments compliance and risk management, Simon has spent more than 12 years in risk focused roles risk working across both the second and third line of defence. For the last 7 years, Simon has focused purely in the global payment space and has a deep knowledge of the global threat and regulatory landscape. Simon is a Chartered Accountant and a Big4 trained Auditor. Prior to TransferMate, Simon served as the Global Head of Compliance Risk Assessment for Western Union.
Joe Morley
Vice President and General Manager for Europe at TrueLayer
Joe leads TrueLayer’s European business, based in Dublin. He’s responsible for operations and commercial expansion across the EU, including regulatory compliance. The former WhatsApp and Facebook executive has extensive payments, technical and commercial knowledge, having launched and managed the business APIs for the monetisation of both platforms in EMEA.
Vahid Bassett
Head of Corporate Units, ECOMMBX
Vahid is the Corporate Units Head of ECOMMBX, responsible for the design and launch of new products, integration of new technologies and nourishment of existing/new partners and relations. With a broad but solid understanding of modern methods, market drivers and customer expectations acquired from previous experience, Vahid brings a fresh set of eyes and ideas that help draft the vision and strategy of ECOMMBX.
Part of ECOMMBX’s Spartan’s task force, currently undergoing the complete restructuring of the company’s core systems and larger technological framework, aimed at expanding its payments platform, to fully exploit the opportunities deriving from PSD2 and other such Global initiatives.
Amjad I. Qaqish
CPA, CFE, Director of Global SAR Reporting at Binance
Heads a team of talented investigators who detect, analyze and prevent AML/CFT through their
end-to-end investigations and who prepare reports for regulatory reporting.
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Special Agent, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation (June 1998 - October 2021)
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Computer Investigative Specialist - 2019 - 2021
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Cyber Crimes Unit - 2018-2019
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Deputy Attache, London Post - 2018
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Suspicious Activity Reports Coordinator - 2017 -2018
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Supervisory Special Agent - 2017 2018
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Special Investigative Techniques - 2005 - 2017
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International Anti-Money Laundering Instructor, International Law Enforcement
Academy - 2010 - 2021
Tomas Karpavičius
Head of the Market Infrastructure Policy Unit at the Bank of Lithuania
Tomas Karpavičius has been working at the Bank of Lithuania in the field of FMIs and payments for 20 years. Since 2012 he is the Head of Market Infrastructure Policy Unit. The scope of the unit’s tasks covers oversight of FMIs as well as catalyst role for payments market and payments innovation. Tomas Karpavičius has worked on the implementation of SEPA in Lithuania, market preparation for TARGET2-Securities, definition and implementation of regulatory requirements in payments area (PSD2, PAD, etc.), deployment of instant payments in the market. He represents the Bank of Lithuania in a number of industry working groups at the national level and within the Eurosystem.
Steven Meighan
Inspector at Garda National Economic Crime Bureau & FIU Ireland
Steven has over 20 years’ law enforcement experience and specialises in financial crime and money laundering. He is a FATF country assessor and sits on various national and international AML fora.
Steven holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Applications from Dublin City University and a M.Sc. in International Police Science from the University of Portsmouth. He was called to the Irish Bar in 2015 and is currently reading for a PhD at the University of Hull researching the regulation of crypto-assets for the purposes of anti-money laundering.
Conall Dee
Head of Fintech and Payments, IDA Ireland
Conall Dee is Head of Fintech and Payments at IDA Ireland, based in the Dublin office. Conall fosters and develops relationships with multinational client companies across areas such as Fintech, Payments, Digital/Challenger Banking, Open Banking, RegTech, Blockchain, Market Infrastructure, Digital Assets and Blockchain and assists companies to set up and scale operations in Ireland. Prior to this role, Conall was a Project Executive in IDA Ireland’s Investment Management team, where he had responsibility for managing client relationships and new business development across Asset Management, Fund Servicing and Aircraft Leasing.
Diarmuid Whyte
President at the Compliance Institute
Diarmuid Whyte qualified as a Chartered Accountant working in KPMG in 2010. He has been a member of the Compliance Institute since 2013 and joined the Compliance Institute's Council in January 2017 and has been president of the institute since January 2022.
He is Director EMEA Client Asset Oversight in Citi Bank. Previously he was Head of Compliance and Client Asset Oversight in Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland Limited. Prior to this Diarmuid was the Chief Risk Officer and Head of Compliance for Willis Towers Watson in Ireland. This position included direct responsibility for a MiFID regulated investment firm, three trustee businesses, three businesses operating as investment and insurance mediation firms for the provision of individual life, pension, investment advisory services and two non-life intermediaries providing a broad range of insurance services.
Diarmuid also worked for the Central Bank of Ireland, where he was a member of MiFID and Client Asset Inspection units from 2010 to 2013. Diarmuid is a Licentiate of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland (LCOI).
Ciara O’Grady-Inoma
Director – Risk & Regulatory Practice at Deloitte
Ciara is a Director in the Risk Advisory department of Deloitte where she provides risk and regulatory advisory services to payment firms, E-money firms, insurance and reinsurance companies, investment firms, credit institutions and other financial institutions. Ciara has extensive knowledge of the domestic and European regulatory environment obtained through the ACOI qualification and 13 year’s experience in regulatory, risk and compliance roles in industry and professional practice. Most recently Ciara held the position of Chief Risk Officer and Head of Compliance & MLRO with Revolut Securities Europe Limited (pending authorisation) where she supported the Group in establishing their European stock trading arm in Dublin seeking authorisation with the Central Bank of Ireland and establishing the European Risk and Compliance functions for the stock trading business. Ciara re-joined Deloitte in early 2022 where she has spent 6 years as a consultant in the regulatory and risk Leadership Team. She has advised Irish Retail Banks, a number of Payment Institutions and E-money Institutions, Big Tech firms, Investment firms and Life Insurers on designing and developing robust AML, CTF and Sanctions Frameworks. She regularly provides AML, CTF Training to Boards of Directors, Regulators and 1 st and 2 nd line of defence FinCrime professionals. Ciara has also lead the design of AML, CTF & Sanctions Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessments with stockbrokers, e-Money firms and Banks in Ireland and has supported financial institutions in remediating Customer Books and Risk Mitigation Plans. Ciara also supports financial institutions seeking to establish a presence in Ireland with their applications for authorisation with the Irish regulatory authority.
Greg James
Senior Manager at fscom
Greg James has over 8 years’ experience within the financial services industry, with roles ranging from; regulatory compliance, AML, enterprise-wide risk analysis, and data protection.
He worked in a multi-national bank before moving to fscom to become part of the specialised PSD2 re-authorisation team creating, advising and submitting applications. Since the re-authorisations project, he has assisted fintechs through ongoing advice and managing larger discretionary compliance projects.
Greg has a MSc in Compliance from University College Dublin and a Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance from Alliance Manchester Business School. He is a Fellow of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland (FCOI), a Licentiate of the Institute of Banking (LIB), and a Professional Member of the International Compliance Association (MICA). Alongside these professional memberships, he holds certified functions as a Certified Data Protection Officer (CDPO) and a Certified Financial Crime Practitioner (CFCPP).
