Jessica Richards

Jessica is Head of Market Development for NatWest Payments, where she leads on regulatory, industry and external engagement. She has also recently taken over business management responsibilities for NatWest’s Payments Centre of Expertise which is entrusted to process around 1 in 4 payments in the UK. She is part of the Bank’s Payments ExCo and also sits on a number of industry Boards on behalf of NatWest.

Jessica has spent the last twelve years at the heart of the payments industry. As a Director at Payments UK and subsequently UK Finance, she led the team during a period of significant change for the industry, which included the launch of the PSR, PSD2, Open Banking and the establishment of Pay.UK. She ran the Industry Board and also represented the UK at the European Payments Council in Brussels.

Jessica has over twenty five years senior level experience in financial services including investment banking at Morgan Stanley. She has a MEng from Oxford University and an MBA from London Business School.