Neira Jones
Keynote speaker and three-time Amazon bestselling author shaping the global payments landscape from boardroom to regulator.
Why book Neira Jones for your next event
- Neira brings over 25 years of hands-on experience transforming global payment systems, combining regulatory insight with real-world commercial leadership.
- As a three-time Amazon bestselling author, she delivers frameworks and thinking already used by payments professionals worldwide.
- Her keynotes cut through complexity with clarity, wit and practical insight that decision-makers can act on immediately.
Non-binding request for Neira Jones
Payments, regulation and innovation explained by someone who shapes them
Neira Jones is a globally recognised keynote speaker, three-time Amazon bestselling author and strategic advisor operating at the intersection of payments, technology and regulation. With more than 25 years of experience across financial services, fintech and cybersecurity, she offers audiences rare insight into how innovation and regulation truly interact. As a Panel Member of the UK Payment Systems Regulator and former executive at organisations including Barclaycard, Santander and Oracle, Neira delivers no-nonsense perspectives that help leaders navigate disruption with confidence.
Who Is Neira Jones
Neira Jones is one of the most influential voices in global payments today. A keynote speaker, chair, board advisor and panel member for the UK Payment Systems Regulator, she has built a career spanning more than 25 years at the forefront of payments modernisation, fraud prevention, digital assets and fintech governance. Her work bridges strategy, technology and regulation, giving audiences access to insight that is both authoritative and immediately relevant.
Her professional journey includes senior leadership roles at Barclaycard, Santander and Oracle, where she shaped payment security, fraud strategy and large-scale transformation initiatives. Today, she advises organisations across financial services, payments and fintech, while continuing to influence policy and market direction through her regulatory role.
Bestselling Author Shaping Industry Thinking
Neira is the author of three Amazon bestselling books: Understanding Payments, Beyond Payments and The A–Z of Payments. These titles have become essential reading for payments professionals and are widely used to build shared understanding across organisations and leadership teams. Her writing is valued for its clarity, structure and refusal to overcomplicate what truly matters.
Being named one of only ten leaders in the inaugural 2025 Payments Power 50 further reflects the impact of her ideas. When Neira takes the stage, audiences hear directly from someone whose thinking is actively shaping how the industry understands payments, digital assets, stablecoins, AI governance and compliance.
Regulation Meets Real-World Innovation
Since March 2023, Neira has served as a Panel Member for the UK Payment Systems Regulator. This position places her at the heart of regulatory oversight while remaining deeply connected to commercial reality. She understands not just how regulation is written, but how it affects innovation, competition and consumer outcomes in practice.
This dual perspective allows her to speak with rare credibility about the tensions and opportunities between regulators, banks, fintechs and technology providers. Rather than abstract theory, she delivers grounded insight into what regulation means for strategy, investment and execution.
Topics Neira Jones Speaks On
Neira’s keynotes and talks are tailored to senior audiences who need clarity in complex environments. Her most in-demand topics include:
Payments transformation and modernisation
Digital assets, stablecoins and future payment models
AI governance and agentic AI in financial services
Cybersecurity, fraud and operational resilience
Regulatory change and compliance strategy
She is known for translating dense regulatory and technical topics into language that boards, executives and policymakers can engage with and act upon.
Why Book Neira Jones for Your Event
Neira is not a commentator on the sidelines. She is actively shaping the systems she speaks about. Her audiences value her for zero fluff, sharp analysis and a delivery style that is engaging, direct and intellectually rigorous. With a strong following of over 20,000 professionals on LinkedIn, her insights resonate far beyond the stage.
Whether addressing a boardroom, leadership summit or global conference, Neira combines bestselling author authority with practical experience and regulatory insight. She equips decision-makers with the understanding they need to navigate disruption, manage risk and identify opportunity in a rapidly evolving payments landscape.
Book Neira Jones for your event to give your audience access to one of the most respected and influential voices in payments, regulation and fintech today.
Keynotes
Keynote by Neira Jones:
Agentic AI in Payments: Governance, Risk and Opportunity
Payments are moving from bots negotiating with bots to a far more complex reality: autonomous AI agents making decisions in financial transactions whilst humans aren't even in the room. This keynote explores the governance frameworks, regulatory implications, and operational risks that organisations must address as AI agents become core infrastructure in payments systems.
Key Takeaways: Why agentic AI represents a step-change from traditional AI implementation; governance frameworks that regulators are watching; how to build robust controls when autonomy is the entire point; practical steps to ensure AI efficiency doesn't compromise audit trails or regulatory compliance.
Keynote by Neira Jones:
Beyond Crypto: Stablecoins, CBDCs, and the Future of Settlement
Stablecoins are no longer fringe technology. They're reshaping settlement, cross-border payments, and central bank strategy. This keynote clarifies the regulatory landscape, competitive dynamics, and genuine use cases that separate innovation from hype. From e-money tokens to potential CBDCs, Neira guides audiences through the choices that will define the next decade of payments infrastructure.
Key Takeaways: The true difference between stablecoins, CBDCs, and traditional e-money; why regulators are moving from prohibition to pragmatism; which use cases deliver genuine value versus which are solutions in search of problems; how organisations should position themselves in a multi-currency settlement world.
Keynote by Neira Jones:
Payments Security in an Age of Orchestration and API Exposure
Open Banking, payment orchestration, and the explosion of third-party integrations have fundamentally altered the threat surface. This keynote examines how organisations can maintain genuine security posture whilst embracing the connectivity that modern payments demand, and why traditional perimeter security is obsolete.
Key Takeaways: How API proliferation changes fraud and cybercrime patterns; the real vulnerabilities in orchestration platforms; compliance frameworks that actually protect versus those that create false assurance; practical strategies for securing innovation without killing it.
Keynote by Neira Jones:
Regulating in Real Time: What the PSR, FCA, and ECB Are Really Trying to Do
Regulatory frameworks are evolving faster than many organisations can track. Drawing on direct involvement in UK regulatory thinking, this keynote decodes what regulators actually want, where enforcement is heading, and how organisations can move from compliance theatre to genuine regulatory partnership.
Key Takeaways: The priorities shaping UK, EU, and global payments regulation; what regulators mean when they talk about "resilience," "competition," and "innovation"; where enforcement scrutiny is intensifying; practical steps to align business strategy with regulatory intent before enforcement becomes necessary.
Keynote by Neira Jones:
Payments at Scale: Digital Transformation Without the Wreckage
Digital transformation in payments sounds straightforward until you're managing legacy systems, regulatory constraints, customer expectations, and business continuity all at once. This keynote draws on Neira's experience at Barclaycard and her work with enterprises navigating modernisation to explore what actually works, and why many transformation programmes stall.
Key Takeaways: Why payments transformation fails when it focuses on technology instead of ecosystems; the role of open banking and strategic partnerships in successful modernisation; how to manage regulatory risk during transformation; why speed of implementation matters less than direction of travel.
Policy Updates - The Big Problems and Future Challenges in Payments with Neira Jones
Watch Neira Jones in action!
Digital Identity 360 - Enhancing the Customer Experience with Behavioral Analytics
Watch Neira Jones in action!
