About Mr. John Crookes

John originates from Dublin in Ireland where he studied at St Declan’s College. He began his career in London in 1983 and lived there for 12 years where he spent most of his career working for British Telecom specialising in Credit Control and Debt Management. This involved liaising closely with external Debt Collection Agencies obtaining background information for litigation, bankruptcy and insolvency cases, reporting on fraud events and special project work/investigations where required. He was also responsible for the implementation of the first In House Debt Collection Agency within British Telecom, he was involved with initial set-up activities, specifically preparing the commercial policy and procedures manual and providing technical assistance on collection policy.

He moved to New Zealand with his wife and two children in 1995 and has worked for the past 7 years as an Operational Risk and Compliance Manager within the Banking and Financial Services industry. He was responsible for the successful implementation of the Global Risk Policy to his Merchant Acquiring Department, implementing credit policy aligned with minimising assessed risk exposures. Working with industry bodies such as Law Enforcement he became renowned for his merchant fraud strategy and education programs.

He is currently responsible for Operational Risk and all matters relating to Card Scheme Compliance and Business Continuity. He is an advocate of the Advanced Measurement Approach to Operational Risk and is responsible for the implementation of operational risk frameworks including models that measure and identify drivers for reduction of operational risk capital. He is currently leading the compliance program PCIDSS (Payments Cards Industry Data Security Standard) to ensure that merchant data is stored securely.

John is also a founder member and former Chairman of the New Zealand Risk Council, a member of the Australasian Card Risk Council and is a representative on the MasterCard Operating Committee. John speaks regularly in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Europe. In 2007 he was invited to speak on behalf of Incisive Media at Europe and North America’s premier Operational Risk conference in London and New York where his presentation "Mitigating Risk through Merchant Fraud Prevention in the Banking Industry" was widely acclaimed.