Being able to work with businesses that have a brilliant vision, but need trusted partners to help them execute on it, is to me where the payments industry will be a shining star in the next few years. We want to be at the very heart of that.
What is your role at Payen?
As Chief Operating Officer, I’m focused on supporting our customer success and enabling Payen’s growth. That means overseeing our commitments to improved operations within our own business, while steering our approach to externally dictated factors such as regulatory compliance.
My role is to get the right focus points across our key relationships and partnerships – specifically with a lens on compliance, best practices and ongoing relationship management. On a personal level, I’ve invested in building our reputation as a compliance-first organisation, which has reinforced our credibility in the ecosystem in which we operate.
Why is your role inspiring to you?
I like to think in the long-term, and love to build up skills and experience to move things forward in a credible and sustainable way. The reality is our sector is very, very complex – so it’s hard to affect change without having a lot of different areas of expertise.
Over the course of my career, I’ve sought out exposure to different parts of the business. This has allowed me to accrue a wealth of experience across technical operations, financial crime and compliance. This year I completed my Post Graduate Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance from the International Compliance Authority – allowing me to combine theoretical best practice with extensive ‘in the field’ experience.
What are your priorities within the business?
I make sure that our leadership team has the best access to insights and updates from across the markets in which we operate. I oversee an international network of external advisors and legal entities – and much of this guidance underpins the compliance of our operations.
The truth is that compliance isn’t always given the prioritisation it really demands – because it’s seen as a blocker or a hygiene factor. However we’ve taken a different approach and framed it as a strategic enabler. If you’re on top of – and ahead of – compliance requirements, it’s easier to drive growth.
How does this help your customers?
Within Payen, compliance is now fully ingrained within each department across the business. Working in payments, we have always been compliant with our sector’s stringent regulations, but now we’re a compliance-first organisation.
Our compliance focus is hugely empowering for our team and our clients; if you want to make bold or challenging business decisions, the expertise we hold helps safeguard the business as you make them. We’re experts in helping our clients build a presence in new markets – something which is highly complex; even finding where to get the right information can be challenging. We like to position ourselves as a provider of both the technology and strategic expertise to make our clients’ growth possible.
What’s exciting to you about the payments industry?
The sector as a whole has existed in a state of continual disruption over the last number of years – as digitisation in banking, commerce and business as a whole has occurred, but at different speeds. Everyone knows they need to move fast and to innovate. The idea in principle sounds easy but the reality is incredible challenging.
Being able to work with businesses that have a brilliant vision, but need trusted partners to help them execute on it, is to me where the payments industry will be a shining star in the next few years. We want to be at the very heart of that.
