Neira Jones

Why organisations work with Neira Jones

• Understanding Payments, endorsed by Sir Ron Kalifa (author of the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech) and Monzo founder Tom Blomfield, is the closest thing the payments industry has to a standard reference text. She has since extended that body of work with Beyond Payments on decentralised finance and The A-Z of Payments, a 1,600-entry industry glossary. Organisations working with Jones get access to that body of work in a live advisory context, not just a speaker’s perspective.
• She spent her executive career operating at the scale where payments risk becomes consequential: as Director of Payment Security and Fraud at Barclaycard, she was directly responsible for the security compliance and risk management of approximately 100,000 merchants and third parties.
• Four years on the PCI Security Standards Council Board of Advisors and current membership on the UK Payment Systems Regulator Panel give her visibility of how standards are made, not just how they should be interpreted – a position that is genuinely rare in a speaker.
• She makes a specific and verifiable argument – that fraud prevention and cybersecurity are the same problem managed as two – that most organisations have not yet addressed and which has direct commercial and regulatory consequences.
• She covers three disciplines – payments mechanics, cybersecurity, and regulatory compliance – from a single practitioner perspective. Most organisations rely on separate specialists for each, which produces the fragmented picture Jones helps boards resolve.

Biography highlights

• Author of three Routledge-published books on payments: Understanding Payments (2024), Beyond Payments (2024), and The A-Z of Payments (2025). Understanding Payments is endorsed by Sir Ron Kalifa, author of the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech, and Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo and GoCardless
• Former Director of Payment Security and Fraud, Barclaycard – responsible for security compliance and risk management across approximately 100,000 merchants and third parties
• Panel Member, UK Payment Systems Regulator
• Former member, PCI Security Standards Council Board of Advisors (four years); Fellow of the British Computer Society
• Inducted into the InfoSecurity Europe Hall of Fame (2011); SC Magazine Information Security Person of the Year (2012); Merchant Payments Ecosystem Acquiring Personality of the Year (2013); Cybersecurity Woman Influencer of the Year (2021)
• Listed on the Refinitiv Top 100 Influencers in Financial Services, Fintech Weekly 100 Most Influential People in FinTech (2021), and Retail Technology Innovation Hub Top 100 Influencers (2023)

Biography

At Barclaycard, Neira Jones was Director of Payment Security and Fraud – responsible for security compliance and risk management across approximately 100,000 merchants and third parties. That scale of direct institutional exposure shaped her central argument: payments security and cybersecurity are the same problem. Organisations almost universally manage them as if they were two.

Her three Routledge-published books form the most comprehensive public treatment of how payment ecosystems work. Understanding Payments (2024), endorsed by Sir Ron Kalifa, author of the Kalifa Review of UK Fintech, and Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo, has become the reference text for practitioners and regulators navigating the industry. Beyond Payments (2024) extends that work into decentralised finance and the next generation of payment infrastructure, and The A-Z of Payments (2025) is a 1,600-entry industry glossary.

That practitioner depth is backed by formal standards standing. Jones served on the PCI Security Standards Council Board of Advisors for four years and is a Panel Member for the UK Payment Systems Regulator – roles that give her direct visibility of how payment standards develop and how regulatory expectations form. She is a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

The industry recognition reflects both communities she works across. She is an InfoSecurity Europe Hall of Fame inductee and SC Magazine’s Information Security Person of the Year. She appears on the Refinitiv Top 100 Influencers in Financial Services and the Fintech Weekly 100 Most Influential People in FinTech.

Key speaking topics

• Payments ecosystems and fintech infrastructure
• Payment security and fraud prevention
• Cybercrime in financial services
• Financial regulation and compliance (PSD2, GDPR, AML)
• Digital trust and open banking
• Cybersecurity governance for boards
• Decentralised finance and digital currencies

Ideal for

• Chief Risk Officers and Chief Information Security Officers in financial services and payments organisations
• Boards and executive committees approving payments infrastructure or fintech partnerships
• Compliance, legal, and regulatory professionals operating in payments and fintech
• Fintech investors and M&A teams requiring cybersecurity and payments due diligence expertise

Audience outcomes

• A structural understanding of how payments ecosystems work – across cards, open banking, real-time payments, and digital currencies – and where security and compliance risk sits in each
• Recognition of why fraud prevention and cybersecurity are typically managed as separate functions when the threat landscape treats them as one – and what that costs
• Practical clarity on the regulatory environment governing payments, including PSD2, GDPR, and AML frameworks, and how those requirements shape commercial decisions
• A framework for evaluating fintech partnerships and payments infrastructure decisions against security, fraud, and compliance criteria
• Greater confidence engaging with regulators, auditors, and technology vendors on payments security questions