The story so far
My career started at Nexus Payment Services, an ATM transaction switching company and one of the founder members of Link. In the middle of ATM network integrations, PayPoint was conceived, and I was handed the challenge of designing, planning and delivering it. Eighteen months later, 8,000 magstripe terminals were operating nationally.
When chip cards arrived, I jumped in. My first EMV role was helping the Halifax upgrade its current account platform, card issuing systems and ATM network from magstripe to Chip & PIN. Eighteen months later, the bank began issuing 12.5 million Chip & PIN debit cards.
Since then I've worked across banks, retailers, networks and regulators. The technology has changed many times. The logic of a good payment ecosystem hasn't.
How I work
I'm independent, so the advice is about what will work for you, not what anyone is selling. I start from first principles: who the parties are, how authorisation and settlement really flow, and where the risk sits. Then I tell you plainly which changes matter and which don't.
I also write about payments, cards and fraud at The Payment Monkey, where the aim is to explain this stuff simply, because if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.