Advisory Board Nominees 2026
Ali Erhat Nalbant
Co-founder & CEO
Arf
Why do you want to become a member of The Payments Association Advisory Board?
I have spent my career on the part of payments that clients never see. Arf exists because moving money across borders is not really a speed problem, it is a capital efficiency problem, and I want that perspective represented in the rooms where the industry sets its agenda.
The Payments Association is one of the few forums where operators, regulators, banks and capital providers genuinely sit together rather than talking past each other. Most industry debate at the moment concentrates on rails and settlement times. Far less attention goes to working capital, prefunding, counterparty risk, custody and treasury, which is where payment companies actually get stuck. Businesses with strong technology and real customer demand routinely find their growth constrained by how much capital they can access in each market.
I would like to help widen that conversation, and to do it as a contributor rather than a commentator. That means active involvement in the working groups, particularly around cross-border payments and digital currencies, and bringing members into discussions with the credit and liquidity providers who fund the industry but are rarely part of it.
What do you see as the main challenges The Payments Association should focus on in the year ahead?
First, the liquidity gap. Trillions of dollars sit locked inside the payments system at any moment, funded largely from company balance sheets and expensive debt facilities. That is a structural constraint on growth across the membership, and it deserves the same policy attention that settlement speed has received.
Second, the convergence of payments and digital asset regulation. Stablecoins are moving from optional to necessary for many members, which increasingly means holding two licence types and operating two sets of infrastructure. The Association can help members navigate that, and help regulators understand the operational reality.
Third, the infrastructure that has not been built yet. Custody priced for payment volumes, treasury across fiat and stablecoins, interoperability between a growing number of issuers, and familiar products such as escrow, letters of credit and cash management that remain difficult to replicate on chain.
Fourth, transparency. On chain settlement makes capital genuinely traceable, which could open payments financing to private credit at scale. Getting the standards right early matters.
Underpinning all of it: making sure smaller members and emerging market corridors are not drowned out by the largest players.
What will you bring to the Advisory Board?
An operator’s view of the problems the industry talks about least. I run a business whose entire purpose is funding payment flows, so I see daily where capital gets trapped, why credit providers hesitate, and what actually blocks a payments company from opening a new corridor. That is a different vantage point from a scheme, a bank or a processor, and I think it is currently under-represented on the board.
I also bring a bridge to capital markets. Much of my work sits with private credit funds, debt providers and institutional investors who want exposure to payments but lack visibility into how their capital is deployed. I can convene those conversations, and help the Association reach an audience that rarely engages with payments trade bodies.
Practically, I will commit real time rather than a name on a list. I am happy to mentor a working group, contribute to consultation responses, speak at events including PAY360, and introduce prospective members from the liquidity, stablecoin and infrastructure side.
Andrew Johnstone
Vice President, Business Development, Fintech and Digital Partners
Mastercard
Why do you want to become a member of The Payments Association Advisory Board?
I have been a committed supporter and advocate of The Payments Association and its predecessors, GX and the Emerging Payments Association, since 2011, when I moved from banking and consumer finance into what Mastercard then described as Prepaid. That move gave me a front-row seat as fintech moved from the margins of financial services into the mainstream. Throughout that period, I have seen the Association play a genuinely valuable role: connecting people who might not otherwise meet, giving emerging businesses a stronger voice, and creating a forum where commercial ambition, regulation and innovation can be discussed constructively.
I would like to join the Advisory Board because I believe I can help the Association stay close to where the market is going next. Payments are no longer a specialist topic sitting inside banks or payment companies;they are embedded in how people live, work, shop, save, learn, travel and run businesses. Customer expectations are rising, technology cycles are shortening, and the next wave of change – AI, embedded finance, digital wallets, open banking and account-to-account payments – will create both significant opportunity and new risk. Fraud prevention, in particular, will become even more important as the same technologies that improve customer experience are also used for more nefarious purposes.
What feels especially important to me is broadening the Association’s relevance beyond the payment and fintech community that already knows it well. As well as Fintech, my role at Mastercard now covers Digital Partnerships, which gives me visibility across both traditional and non-traditional segments. My team supports more than 30 verticals, including WealthTech, HealthTech, EdTech, RetailTech, InsurTech and RegTech. Many of these businesses are becoming payments businesses, whether or not they describe themselves that way, and they would benefit from the insight, advocacy and connections the Association provides. I believe I could help bring more of those voices into the conversation.
I would bring a practical, commercial perspective shaped by more than 30 years in financial services across sales, marketing, business development, product development and relationship management. More importantly, I would bring curiosity, pragmatism and a genuine desire to help the Association remain useful, relevant and influential for a broader payments ecosystem.
What do you see as the main challenges The Payments Association should focus on in the year ahead?
The Payments Association should focus on the issues where it can do something distinctive: convene the right people, simplify complexity and turn discussion into practical industry action.
Fraud, scams, and financial crime would be my first priority. Faster, more digital and more embedded payments create real benefits for consumers and businesses, but they also create new opportunities for criminals. The industry needs stronger prevention, better intelligence sharing and more coordinated responses, while avoiding unnecessary friction for legitimate customers. The Association is very well placed to help members tackle that balance collectively rather than in silos.
Regulatory change is the second major challenge. Members are facing a demanding agenda across consumer duty, APP fraud reimbursement, open banking and open finance, digital identity, operational resilience, data sharing, sovereignty and the future of account-to-account payments. The Payments Association is uniquely placed to educate and influence key decision makers at the highest levels of government. I believe the Association’s value is not only in responding to consultations, but in helping members understand what these changes mean commercially and operationally. Many organisations, particularly smaller or newer entrants, need practical interpretation as much as policy representation.
The third priority should be responsible innovation. Digital currencies, AI, embedded finance, wallets, real-time payments and new acceptance models will reshape the market, but the industry must stay focused on outcomes rather than hype. Innovation should improve customer experience, inclusion, resilience and commercial sustainability. The Association can help by creating practical debate between those building new propositions, those operating critical infrastructure, and those responsible for regulation and supervision.
The fourth priority should be inclusivity. Payments affect everyone, yet not everyone benefits equally from innovation or has the same level of access, confidence or protection. The Association has an important role to play in ensuring that industry progress supports consumers, small businesses and communities that may otherwise be left behind. Inclusivity should not be treated as a separate social agenda;it should be central to how the industry designs products, manages risk, builds trust and measures success.
Finally, I would like to see the Association continue to expand the breadth of its membership. The payments ecosystem now includes banks, fintechs, schemes, processors, merchants, software platforms, marketplaces and vertical specialists who increasingly have payments at the heart of their proposition. A broader membership base would strengthen the Association’s influence and make its work even more representative of where the market is heading. It is also exciting to see the Association broaden its scope to the wider European market, reflecting the ambitions of its members.
What will you bring to the Advisory Board?
I would bring a combination of global experience, perspective and practical energy. I have worked in financial services for more than 30 years, with the last 15 focused on supporting fintech and digital partners in the UK, Ireland and beyond. My career has taken me through marketing, product management, business development and relationship management across banking, consumer finance, fintech and partnerships. That breadth matters because payments rarely sit neatly in one box;they cut across proposition, technology, regulation, risk, customer experience and commercial delivery.
I have worked for and with lenders, large banks, start-ups, scale-ups and, for the last 18 years, at Mastercard. I have seen the industry from multiple angles: as a supplier, a partner, a network, a proposition builder and a commercial lead. That gives me empathy for members of different sizes and stages of maturity, from organisations trying to scale quickly to established players managing complexity, governance and transformation.
My strongest contribution would be a pragmatic, partnership-led mindset. Much of my work has involved connecting different interests, shaping propositions, aligning internal and external stakeholders, and turning complex opportunities into commercially viable outcomes. I am comfortable challenging assumptions, but I try to do so constructively and with a focus on what will actually move an issue forward.
As an Advisory Board member, I would listen carefully, contribute actively and help the Association stay connected to the issues that matter most to members. I would bring a strong network across payments, fintech and digital partnerships, but also a willingness to roll up my sleeves where useful. Above all, I would want to help The Payments Association remain an influential, inclusive and practical voice for an industry that is becoming more important, more complex and more central to the wider economy.
Charlotte Bullock
Chief Product Officer
Bank of London
Why do you want to become a member of The Payments Association Advisory Board?
I want to help influence change in UK payments, and The Payments Association is where the industry comes together to do that.
Bank of London’s business is built on payments. As a clearing bank, we see the whole chain: from the business clients who integrate with us, through their payment flows, down to the end customers those payments reach. That view shows me where the ecosystem works well, and where friction, cost and risk build up that no single firm can solve alone. Those are exactly the problems that need the collaboration and independent representation the Association provides.
Since joining the Bank as its first product hire, I have built our clearing and settlement platform across web and API, covering domestic and international payments, and led engagement with the PRA and FCA as we progressed towards becoming the UK’s second new clearing bank in over 250 years. That journey showed me how much the industry’s direction depends on constructive engagement with the Bank of England, regulators, HM Treasury, Vocalink, Pay.UK and correspondent partner. It also showed me how valuable it is when firms, big and small, speak with a clear, shared voice…
I want to add to that voice. As a board member, I would bring real client and infrastructure insight into the Association’s strategy and priorities, contribute to papers and responses for regulators, and work with members and working groups on the projects that matter most. I am particularly interested in cross-border, financial crime and the responsible adoption of new technology, where our clearing and settlement view is directly relevant.
I also believe in what the Association stands for: building an industry that works for all, and a payments ecosystem that is both profitable and sustainable. I have spent my career as a commercially driven, client-facing product leader, and I would use the Advisory Board to help make sure the Association’s work translates into better outcomes for members and their clients, and to champion that work across the industry.
What do you see as the main challenges The Payments Association should focus on in the year ahead?
There is a lot of hype right now about stablecoins and AI. Both matter, but the Association’s main challenge is to keep the industry focused on what clients actually depend on, while helping members adopt innovation in a way that is safe, commercial and well regulated.
The payment rails still come first. For clients, the priorities stay the same: payments that are fast, reliable, cost-effective and settle with certainty. Domestic settlement infrastructure is the foundation for everything else, including new propositions built on digital assets. The Association should keep pressing for continued investment in, and modernisation of, the UK’s core payment systems, and make sure members of all sizes are properly represented in how that future is designed, governed and funded.
Separating signal from noise on stablecoins and digital assets. Stablecoins have real use cases, particularly in cross-border payments, which are still too slow and expensive for many businesses. But firms need clarity on how these instruments will be regulated, how they connect with traditional settlement, and where they genuinely improve on today’s rails. Through its Cross-Border and Regulator working groups, the Association can bring practical member experience to the Bank of England, FCA and HM Treasury as the UK framework develops.
Responsible AI adoption. AI is already reshaping onboarding, fraud detection and operations across payments. The challenge is adopting it in a way that is explainable, well governed and aligned with regulatory expectations, especially in financial crime. The Association can lead with member-led, practical insight rather than leaving the story to vendors and headlines.
A proportionate regulatory environment. Members continue to face significant pressure from fraud reimbursement, safeguarding and the overall cost of compliance. As the regulatory landscape changes, the Association has an important role in pushing for proportionate rules that protect consumers without holding back competition and smaller firms.
Positioning payments as an enabler of growth. Above all, the Association should help the industry be seen as an enabler for businesses, for consumers and for the UK economy. That means engaging constructively with policymakers, using evidence and research to show how payments innovation delivers real client outcomes, and speaking positively and confidently about the industry’s contribution.
If the Association can help members navigate these challenges together, it will strengthen the ecosystem and the UK’s position as a global payments leader.
What will you bring to the Advisory Board?
A different perspective.
I am not a native payments person. I began my career at Aon, joining its first apprenticeship intake and progressing through private client broking and product management. I then spent almost five years at SAP helping Tier 1 and challenger financial institutions with technology transformation. That background means I approach payments with fresh eyes, and I am comfortable asking questions that people who grew up within the industry might not think to ask.
What has stayed constant is that I have always been client-facing. I am a commercially driven product leader, and I see everything through the lens of client success: what clients need, what creates value for them and what gets in their way. Alongside the CEO perspectives on the Board, I would bring the view of someone who designs and sells payments products and hears directly from clients every day.
I also bring practical experience of building a regulated payments business from the ground up. At Bank of London I architected our end-to-end platform across core banking, ledger, domestic and international payments, and pricing. I led engagement with the PRA and FCA, built correspondent banking relationships to extend our cross-border reach, and delivered products including embedded banking and virtual accounts. Having also been closely involved in fundraising that raised more than $160m, I understand the commercial and investor pressures that fintechs and challengers in the membership face.
On innovation, my experience is hands-on. I launched the Bank’s first client-facing generative AI solution, built a production multi-agent AI system, and am working on stablecoin partnerships for cross-border payments. I would gladly contribute that experience to the Association’s papers, working groups and projects, and mentor a project where it would be helpful.
Finally, I am an active and visible industry voice. I speak regularly at PAY360, Money20/20 and FinTech Connect, as well as on panels and podcasts. I would use that platform to champion the Association’s work, speak positively about what the industry achieves, and introduce new members from my network across banking, fintech and technology. I would also be glad to support and guide members, particularly early-stage and growing firms, as they work through the challenges I have faced myself.
