Smith joins Alaric from Visa Europe, where he spent nine years focused on fraud detection and prevention, and is the latest recruit to join the growing software company. He will be working alongside the Fractals™ team at Alaric, promoting the intelligent fraud detection solution.

Smith brings 30 years' experience in the cards and payments industry around the world. He has worked with organisations across the payments spectrum, from card schemes to issuers, acquirers and vendors. He has played a prominent role in the introduction of innovative new products and services in the UK, including the first PIN/debit pilot scheme and the first universal debit card scheme (Switch). As well as Visa, John has worked for various companies including Euronet Worldwide, Global Insight, IFS International, SEMA Group and ACI Worldwide.

"Alaric is a strong and growing player with a very competitive product set which addresses the needs of the traditional four-party payments model, as well as emerging payment trends and methods which carry their own fraud and security risks," said Smith. "Fraud never sleeps and the increasing pace of change demands constant vigilance on the part of all players to combat fraudsters and maintain consumer confidence in an increasingly electronic and automated payments system. Alaric has, and is constantly developing, the right tools to combat both existing and emerging challenges."

"John has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the European payments market and he adds both strength and depth to our team at a time when we are seeing strong market interest from issuers and acquirers for our Fractals product," said Peter Parke, General Manager, Fraud Solutions at Alaric.

Fractals is an intelligent fraud detection and prevention framework suitable for PSPs, online merchants, card issuers, acquirers and payments processors. When used 'in-flight', illegal transactions can be stopped before a transaction is completed. Proprietary mathematical models incorpoorate self-learning allowing the model to automatically adapt to new fraud trends and retain its effectiveness. The Fractals Rules Engine enables fraud analysts to create and deploy powerful fraud detection rules within minutes, delivering substantial reductions in fraud losses.