Former Amex Exec Hired By Visa As Chief Risk Officer

The former president of the global services group at American Express will join Visa as its chief risk officer on September 3, according to a press release.

Paul D. Fabara will take over the job from Ellen Richey, Visa’s former vice chairman and chief risk officer, who spent more than 11 years with the company before retiring.

Fabara’s job will be to “maintain the integrity of the Visa payment system and protect the company and its assets from unexpected loss.” He will also be the main contact person for the regulatory agencies tasked with oversight of Visa in the more than 200 countries in which it operates.

Fabara will also be a big part of Visa’s payment security initiatives moving forward, and will work on strategies to ensure the security of the future of payments for the company. He will also oversee projects meant to “prevent, detect and minimize the impact of attacks on Visa’s clients and other payment system stakeholders.”

“We’re thrilled to have Paul joining Visa as our chief risk officer,” said Al Kelly, Visa CEO. “Trust and security is foundational to Visa’s long-term success, and I’m confident of the positive impact Paul will have on Visa’s risk strategy.”

While Fabara was in his last position at American Express, where he spent eight years in various roles, he was responsible for managing a number of different groups that included “new accounts, customer service, credit, collections, asset recoveries, fraud operations, procurement, manufacturing, automation, facilities, sales and business enablement, enterprise strategy and execution,” the press release noted.

Before that, Fabara worked at Barclays Bank as global chief operating officer for Barclaycard. He also worked as chief operating officer, card services, at Alliance Data Systems.

Visa said it was actively looking to the future to expand the payments space.

“The company’s relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce,” it said in the release.