Crisis · Turnaround · Remediation
Payments crisis manager and turnaround executive.
Brought in when something has already gone wrong: a scheme or acquirer notice, a regulator's findings, a sponsor bank threatening to off-board, a platform failure losing revenue by the hour, or a payments team that has walked out. Short, intense, with authority to act, and finished when the threat is gone and the permanent fix is in place.
The triggers
- Visa, Mastercard or your acquirer has identified you for fraud, disputes or enumeration, with a deadline.
- A regulator has issued findings or threatened operating restrictions.
- A sponsor bank or acquirer has given notice, or is about to.
- A migration, outage or PSP failure is losing revenue every hour.
- The head of payments, risk or compliance has gone, and the team with them.
- Fraud or chargebacks have spiked faster than anyone can explain.
The first week
- Hours 0 to 48. Read what the counterparty actually asked for. Establish the real numbers from raw data. Name what must be true by the deadline.
- Days 3 to 5. Put the fastest controls in: rules, routing, descriptors, refunds, payouts, whatever moves the number now.
- Day 5. The remediation plan in the counterparty's format, with owners and dates, in their hands before they ask twice.
- Every week after. Progress against the plan, reported to the counterparty and to the board.
What done looks like
- The threat withdrawn and documented to the party that raised it.
- Ratios, controls or systems under the relevant threshold for long enough to count.
- A permanent owner in the seat, hired or developed.
- A written handover so it does not recur, and a clear end to the engagement.
How this differs from the other seats
Intervention, not continuity.
An interim or fractional head runs the function while you hire or grow. A crisis manager is brought in because of a specific threat with an external deadline. The shape is different: days to a few months, close to full-time, a mandate to change things fast, and a defined exit. The measure is also different. Not "the function runs well" but "the threat is gone and the acquirer, scheme, regulator or bank has said so in writing".
I have been the person acquirers, schemes, regulators and police forces called when something went wrong across 20-brand listed groups in nine licensing jurisdictions. I know what each of them needs to see, in what order, to stand down.
Situations I have handled
- Scheme and acquirer notices for chargebacks, fraud and enumeration
- Regulator findings on AML, payments and consumer-protection obligations
- Acquirer and PSP terminations and emergency re-routing
- Failed or stalled platform migrations
- Fraud attacks and promotional abuse at scale
- Sudden loss of the payments or risk leadership
- Pre-deal and post-deal payments and risk emergencies
Questions people ask
Crisis manager FAQ
What is a payments crisis manager?
A senior executive brought in with authority to act when a payments, risk or compliance problem threatens the business in the short term. The role is short, intense and ends when the threat is withdrawn and the permanent fix is in place.
How is a turnaround executive different from an interim head of payments?
An interim head runs the function while you hire. A turnaround executive is brought in because of a specific threat with an external deadline, works close to full-time with a mandate to change things fast, and leaves when the threat is gone. The first is continuity; the second is intervention.
How fast can you start?
Within days. The first 48 hours are a diagnostic: what the counterparty has actually asked for, what the real numbers are, and what must be true by the deadline. The plan follows in the first week.
What does done look like?
The threat withdrawn and documented to the party that raised it, the numbers under the relevant threshold for long enough to count, a permanent owner in place, and a handover so it does not recur.
If the deadline is this week, do not fill in a form.
Email me with the counterparty, the deadline and what they asked for. I will reply the same day.