YapStone Appoints Michael Gramz Chief Risk Officer

YapStone, a provider of online and mobile payment solutions, announced Friday (Dec. 9) the appointment of new Chief Risk Officer Michael Gramz.

YapStone said in a press release that Gramz, formerly the chief risk officer and board director at Merchant eSolutions, the U.S. payment processing unit of Cielo, will focus on delivering risk management products and services for YapStone’s customers and partners. Prior to working at Cielo, the leading payment processor in Latin America, Gramz worked at Bank of America, playing a role in the formation of Bank of America Merchant Services. YapStone said Gramz brings broad experience in credit underwriting, onboarding, fraud management, loss provisioning and reserves, compliance and regulatory policy. “Gramz brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the company,” YapStone said in the release.

During the year, YapStone has been broadening its management team, hiring more employees to support its explosive growth. “We have been extremely focused on building the best payments team in the industry, and Michael’s experience and pedigree as a CRO speaks for itself,” said Tom Villante, YapStone’s chairman, cofounder and CEO. “I am personally thrilled to welcome Michael Gramz to the YapStone team, and we plan to capitalize on his expertise as we continue to expand globally and focus on developing innovative payment solutions.”

YapStone has been having a good year in 2016, winning accolades from Forbes and Deloitte. Forbes named it to its list of the Next Billion-Dollar Startups. It also landed on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list of fastest-growing tech companies in the U.S.

“It truly is an honor to join YapStone, a FinTech leader relentlessly focused on excellence,” said Michael Gramz in the same press release. “I look forward to working with the YapStone team to continue delivering innovative risk and fraud products to our partners and customers.”