EPA strengthens Advisory Board to bridge the gap between fintechs and the traditional banking world

Marion King, Director of Payments, NatWest, appointed Chair of the board to help drive the EPA’s mission to influence and be a voice across the payments value chainLondon, United Kingdom. 9th December 2020: The Emerging Payments Association (EPA), which promotes collaboration and innovation across payments, is pleased to announce the addition of six new diverse, expert financial services leaders to its Advisory Board to help drive more meaningful change in a post-covid world. As part of this change, the Advisory Board will be led by Marion King, Director of Payments, NatWest. Marion is an accomplished business leader with extensive experience across the financial service industry, with an exemplary track record of stimulating growth through collaboration, innovation and superlative people leadership. Her appointment brings a new level of influence for the EPA to drive change in 2021, and to continue working together to build a strong network of payment providers across the globe. Advisory Board members are nominated and elected based upon their leadership, seniority in their company and their ability, passion and expertise to influence the industry and represent the entire community. Members of the Advisory Board are both nominated and voted on by the members of the EPA. After an extensive nominating and voting process, the following six personnel were selected to join the board:
  • Nathalie Oestmann, Chief Operating Officer, Curve
  • Jason Butcher, Chief Executive Officer, CoinPayments
  • Vikesh Patel, Head of SWIFT, UK and Ireland, SWIFT
  • Andres Kitter, Head of LHV Banking Services, LHV Bank
  • Lewis Alcraft, Chief Operating Officer, PayPoint plc
  • Daniel Holden, Chief Executive Officer, Trust Payments
 New Chair of the board, Marion King, Director of Payments, NatWest, said: “It is an honour to have been nominated by my peers to chair the Board and to continue with their excellent work of driving innovation. I send my congratulations to the new advisory members and look forward to working together to bring more collaboration between banks and fintechs, with the aim of implementing meaningful change.”Tony Craddock, Director General of the Emerging Payments Association, commented: “We are thrilled to have appointed Marion as Chair to lead our team of distinguished and experienced advisers. Marion’s wealth of experience and knowledge from across the financial services spectrum will be invaluable to the Board.” He added: “Our future is being led and influenced by our members. This opportunity to surround ourselves with such an esteemed group of executives is an honour as we work to evolve the industry through our shared passion for enabling innovation in otherwise challenging circumstances and making payments work. We’re looking to continue to build our impact throughout 2021.” The two Deputy Chairs, Andrea Dunlop and Neil Harris, CCO, GPS will be supporting the new Advisory Board Chair Marion King for the next year. The Board also includes senior representation from Mastercard, Ozone API, Judopay, Kompli-Global, Chargebacks911, SkyParlour and FLEETCOR and is now composed of 17 highly effective industry leaders, spanning the entire financial spectrum, who bring a dynamic ability and a desire to bridge the gap between the fintech and the traditional banking world, change the industry and create a profitable, sustainable payments ecosystem. In 2021, the EPA Advisory Board will be shaping the EPA’s strategy across its policy initiatives, with particular focus on innovation, Open Banking, digital identity, recognising the threat of financial crime and promoting international trade. The full EPA Advisory board for 2021, includes:
  • Alan King, Group President, Europe & Australasia, FLEETCOR
  • Andrea Dunlop, Deputy Chair
  • Angela Yore, Managing Director, SkyParlour
  • Huw Davies, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Ozone API
  • Jeremy Nicholds, Chief Executive Officer, Judopay
  • John Davies, Chief Executive Officer, Kompli-Global
  • Marion King, Director of Payments, Natwest and Chair
  • Monica Eaton Cardone, Chief Operating Officer, Chargebacks911
  • Neil Harris, Chief Commercial Officer, GPS and Deputy Chair
  • Scott Abrahams, SVP Business Development, UK & Ireland, Mastercard
  • Tessa Unsworth, Chief Commercial Officer, PPS
  • Nathalie Oestmann, Chief Operating Officer, Curve
  • Jason Butcher, Chief Executive Officer, CoinPayments
  • Vikesh Patel, Head of SWIFT, UK and Ireland, SWIFT
  • Andres Kitter, Head of LHV Banking Services, LHV Bank
  • Lewis Alcraft, Chief Operating Officer, PayPoint plc
  • Daniel Holden, Chief Executive Officer, Trust Payments
  For more information on the work and services of the EPA you can visit: www.emergingpayments.org you can speak directly to the EPA at: marketing@emergingpayments.org#ENDS# 
About the EPA
The Emerging Payments Association (EPA), established in 2008, sets out to make payments work for everyone. To achieve this, it runs a comprehensive programme of activities for members with guidance from an independent Advisory Board of 17 payments CEOs. These activities include a programme of digital and (when possible) face-to-face events including an online annual conference and broadcast awards dinner, numerous briefings and webinars, CEO Round Tables, and networking and training activities. The EPA also runs six stakeholder working groups. More than 100 volunteers collaborate on the important challenges facing our industry today, such as financial inclusion, recovering from Covid-19, financial crime, regulation, access to banking and promoting the UK globally. The EPA also produces research papers and reports to shed light on the big issues of the day and works closely with industry stakeholders such as the Bank of England, the FCA, HM Treasury, the Payment Systems Regulator, Pay.UK, UK Finance and Innovate Finance. The EPA has over 130 members that employ over 300,000 staff and process more than £7tn annually. Its members come from across the payments value chain including payments schemes, banks and issuers, merchant acquirers, PSPs, retailers, TPPs and more. These companies have come together to join our community, collaborate, and speak with a unified voice. The EPA collaborates with its licensees at EPA EU and EPA Asia to create an interconnected global network of people passionate about making payments work for all.
Media contact
Scott Girling-Heathcote Senior Account Manager at SkyParlourepa@skyparlour.com+44 (0)330 043 1315