olga baranova

Olga Baranova is an accomplished payments specialist with over 20 years experience, delivering profitable business initiatives. Leading the development and execution of market entry strategies with Corporates and Fintech’s including Visa, Mastercard, Samsung Pay, NatWest and Crypterium. Working with issuing and acquiring banks, processors and vendors, brings an analytical approach to solving complex problems to deliver profitable outcomes on time and budget.

Fluent in Russian (mother tongue) with British and Russian passports Olga has a B.Sc. (Hons.) – First Class St. Petersburg State University, St Petersburg

Key Achievements • eDirham (UAE federal payments program sponsored by the Ministry of Finance of UAE): Successfully designed and delivered eDirham card and eDirham digital wallet product and market entry strategy. Designed eDirham Scheme business rules and operational framework. • Crypterium: Successfully delivered the Global card-issuing partnership with Visa prepaid card issuing partner, for a start-up this was an exceptionally challenging negotiation. • NWG: Led the migration of the NatWest Group Debit card portfolio from MasterCard to Visa impacting 17m cardholders, 11 brands and 50+ products) Delivered on time on budget. Helped NWG to optimise their Debit card portfolio which led to 20% year on year growth.

Key Expertise • Subject matter expert in payments, technology and banking. • Payments digital strategy: cards, digital wallets and push payments. • Product strategy and go-to-market roll-out strategy (Global & European). • Crypto-based card products, International Schemes’ requirements and regulations. • Relationship management. Client facing, brings business development, consultancy, engagement and advisory skills. Persuasive and influential. • Global card issuing partnership sourcing, RFI, and negotiation. • European and MENA payments landscape, value chain and regulatory environment. • Management and development of successful teams.