The Payments Association hires new global ambassador to run new working group
The Payments Association, a trade body for the payments sector, has appointed Daniel Jonas as its new global ambassador, leading a new working group, Global Payments Infrastructure, to build the foundations for safe, resilient and interoperable payments.
He is a payments infrastructure and innovation strategist, with more than 25 years’ experience advancing from analyst roles to senior innovation leadership at firms like Atkins and Pay.UK. He brings deep expertise in interoperability, trust systems, and next-generation digital infrastructure.
Daniel Jonas, newly appointed global ambassador, said: “Stepping into this role, I’m looking forward to building bridges with UK and international partners across the industry, looking at payments through an international perspective, identifying new opportunities for innovation, growth and co-operation.
“It’s a genuinely exciting time for global collaboration. Over my years in this industry, I’ve seen how fragmented things can be, different businesses and specialities chasing the same outcome and reinventing the wheel but rarely working together to solve shared global challenges or make use of existing capability or interconnections. What we need is real co-operation across the industry and beyond it so payments infrastructure can realise its unique potential to act as the backbone of the financial and digital world in the era of the “multi-moneyverse.”
“That’s exactly what the Global Payments Infrastructure Working Group is focused on. No one country, operator, or technology provider can solve these challenges in isolation. By bringing together the best thinking and hands-on experience from the UK and around the world, we can deliver real benefits for end users, identify the missing pieces of the puzzle and push for a systematic approach to interoperability.”
The Global Payments Infrastructure Working Group was created by The Payments Association to bring together the people who design, operate and regulate payments to help shape the future of its infrastructure as it continues to transform at pace.
The first output is a report due in early 2027, laying out a common framework, proven global models, existing gaps and practical recommendations for action. The group will also play a role in Payments Week in London in April 2027.
Fiat money, commercial bank money, stablecoins, tokenised deposits and other digital forms of value increasingly need to coexist and interoperate. The Payments Association understands that this cannot be solved in isolation.
The working group will provide a neutral, practitioner-led forum to combine practical experience from the UK and around the world, to reuse proven approaches, reduce duplication and identify where common infrastructure can deliver wider benefits. It will examine payments infrastructure as a connected system, covering the legal, regulatory, technical, operational and commercial dependencies needed for solutions to work safely and at scale, allowing money and other forms of value to move safely from end to end.
Tony Craddock, founder of The Payments Association, said: “Daniel’s breadth of experience and his global network of relationships with infrastructure experts makes him perfect to lead this new working group. It will be a tough gig, but it’s critical to ensuring we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past: unnecessary duplication, excessive friction and unaffordable cost. Payments users deserve better.
If anyone can pull together some fresh thinking on payments infrastructure, with all its complexities, vested interests and legacy thinking, Daniel can. The result will be more resilient, interoperable and productive progress in payments infrastructure worldwide.”