Experian’s New Fraud Leader Examines SEPA’s Potential Impact on Risk Management

As Experian’s first-ever Head of Identity & Fraud for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Tony Connell‘s responsibilities will include combating international organized crime to complying with new SEPA guidelines. He opened up to PYMNTS.com about how he plans to drive what’s next in credit and debit protection for this credit monitoring agency.

PYMNTS.com: Could you tell us a little bit about your professional background, and what it means to be Head, Identity & Fraud, Europe, Middle East and Africa for Experian?

TONY CONNELL: I started my career in the wholesale and treasury side of the payments space, and the majority of my career since has been focused around the technology and risk management side of the industry.

I have been fortunate to experience operating internationally, throughout EMEA, US and Asia, and have seen how the fraud and risk landscapes have evolved over recent years from both client and vendor perspectives.

At Experian, I am focused on managing and developing its broad range of identity, authentication and fraud prevention services across the EMEA region, ensuring their uptake, relevance and that they deliver value for customers and partners.

This is about making sure we are providing the right tools, insight and capabilities to our customers to create an environment where it is easy, safe and beneficial to transact and interact for all parties involved.

PYMNTS: What was most attractive about Experian, and what was the driving factor to join the organization?  

CONNELL: The global capabilities and strong in market presence at a local level combined with significant data assets made joining Experian an attractive proposition.

This role provides the opportunity to help clients meet a range of hugely important business challenges in the fraud and wider identity areas, from the fight against sophisticated multinational organized crime to meeting SEPA implications.

PYMNTS: PYMNTS.com is all about “what’s next” in payments. How will you, in your role, help Experian define “what’s next” ?

CONNELL: From a European perspective the next and really current big thing in payments is SEPA, by January this year only 15% of the potential transactions went via SEPA, which when you consider the investment seems low.

For SEPA to be really successful the industry needs to have confidence in it and early transactions which use it have to work perfectly. This is where Data validation can play a key part, not just in the case of payment details but also identity verification which can drive out fraud.

In relation to SEPA but also in general the creation of a trusted environment for transactions and interactions whether these are across borders or undertaken on the internet is a big opportunity. Addressing these needs requires a combination of data, insight, standards and skills which  Experian is ideally placed to provide delivering the level of trust and protection required for everyone to maximize the opportunities the internet affords us with.

PYMNTS: Who or what has been your biggest influence in your career?

CONNELL: I have been fortunate to work with and for many outstanding individuals throughout my career. Perhaps the most influential was Pat Hayward, a partner in the first company I worked in after University.

He always leads by example, demonstrating how to enjoy creativity in the business world and not to accept the status quo just because that was the way it has always been done.

One of the key lessons he taught me was that you can be passionate about innovation, and that good ideas must be execute in a structured and commercially viable way to deliver value.

 


 Tony Connell, Head of Identity and Fraud EMEA at Experian

Tony Connell is Experian’s first Head of Identity & Fraud for Europe, Middle East and Africa, with a wealth of fraud and risk expertise gained from both client and vendor perspectives. (Read more)