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IndustryUpdate

Mastercard completes acquisition of BVNK public safety, finance and operations, with a background
in driving organizational growth and operational perfor-
Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK, expand- mance.
ing its strategy to connect traditional and digital cur-
rencies. BVNK provides infrastructure that enables Elder, who will continue to work closely with Evans,
businesses to hold, move, manage and convert value has played a key leadership role at Aventiv and will
across fiat and digital currencies while supporting secu- focus on advancing strategic initiatives, strengthening
rity, compliance and interoperability. Mastercard said customer relationships and overseeing enterprise execu-
combining its global payments network with BVNK's tion. Together, the executives will lead the company's
stablecoin and on-chain technology will help financial next phase of growth.
institutions, fintechs and enterprises scale applications
including cross-border B2B payments, payouts, settle- i2c selects Joseph Schmidt, Jason Goldberg
ment and treasury management.
i2c appointed Joseph Schmidt as chief financial officer
The company added that the acquisition supports its and Jason Goldberg as chief client officer, strengthening
vision of a multi-money ecosystem in which fiat, stable- its executive leadership team as the company continues
coins and tokenized assets work together seamlessly. its global expansion. Schmidt brings to the company
nearly 20 years of experience in corporate finance, merg-
Visa to acquire BioCatch for $2.4 billion ers and acquisitions, investing and operations. Most
recently, he served as CFO of American Banknote Corp.
Visa signed a definitive agreement to acquire behavioral Goldberg joins i2c with more than 25 years of lead-
fraud intelligence provider BioCatch for $2.4 billion in ership experience in payments, lending and fintech,
cash. The company said the acquisition will strengthen most recently leading network growth at Zelle. He has
its cyber, fraud and risk management offerings by help- also held executive roles at Citi, Mastercard, Elevate,
ing financial institutions detect and prevent account MoneyLion and American Express. At i2c, Schmidt will
takeovers, scams, money mule activity and application oversee the company's global finance organization,
fraud before payments occur. while Goldberg will lead client engagement, retention
and growth, supporting financial institutions and fin-
BioCatch uses AI and machine learning to analyze techs using i2c's banking and payments platform.
behavioral, device and network signals in real time,
protecting 1.8 billion devices and serving more than 350 Peter Loo joins Bybit
banking clients worldwide. The transaction is expected
to close by the end of Visa's fiscal second quarter of 2027. Bybit appointed Peter Loo as chief legal and compliance
officer. Loo brings more than 25 years of legal, regulatory
APPOINTMENTS and compliance experience across investment banking,
financial regulation and digital assets. Most recently, he
served as general counsel and head of sector develop-
BALBOA | CORP expands advisory board ment at Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority,
where he helped develop licensing, market conduct and
BALBOA | CORP appointed Austin Campbell and enforcement frameworks for the virtual asset sector.
Richard Douglas to its advisory board. Campbell is He has also held senior legal and compliance roles at
founder and CEO of Zero Knowledge Group and former Barclays Capital, MF Global and Amber Group. At Bybit,
head of treasury at Paxos, where he managed more than Loo will lead the company's global legal, regulatory and
$22 billion in reserves and helped develop the BUSD compliance strategy as it expands internationally.
stablecoin for Binance.
Illumia taps Eric Schuster
He has also held leadership roles at JPMorgan, Citi and
Stone Ridge and serves as an adjunct professor at New Illumia appointed Eric Schuster as chief product officer,
York University's Stern School of Business. Douglas is a stating he will lead product strategy and development
three-time fintech founder with expertise in payments, across the company's technology portfolio. Schuster
blockchain, risk management and regulatory compli- brings more than 20 years of experience in enterprise
ance. He has advised high-growth fintech companies software and product leadership to the company. Most
and served as an independent director on fintech boards. recently, he served as chief product officer at ADP, over-
seeing product strategy for the ADP Workforce Now
Evans, Elder assume leadership roles at Aventiv platform and helping advance the company's AI initia-
tives. Before that, he spent nearly 15 years at Ceridian,
Brian Evans was named chief executive officer of Aventiv, now Dayforce, where he led product management dur-
while Kevin Elder was appointed president. Evans ing the company's transition to a cloud-based human
assumes the CEO role following the company's owner- capital management platform/
ship transition and formation of its board of directors.
He brings leadership experience spanning corrections,

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