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Former Visa Exec to Join BitPay as Chief Compliance Officer

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Former Visa anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing officer Tim Byun has announced that he will join Georgia-based bitcoin merchant processor BitPay as its chief compliance officer.Byun served as a Visa executive from February 2009, and previously worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).BitPay executive chairman Tony Gallippi framed the hiring as a move that would further demonstrate his company is meeting the expectations of US regulators as it seeks to expand bitcoin adoption among global merchants.Gallippi said:“As the bitcoin industry continues to grow, BitPay wants to ensure that our policies and procedures fall inline with various state, federal and international regulations. For this reason, we hired Tim to set up and maintain our compliance structure.”The news follows BitPay’s record-setting Series A funding round closed in May, and amid a new influx of traditional payments and tech sector innovators leaving more established companies for the bitcoin ecosystem.For example, just over a week ago, Facebook’s Ben Davenport announced he would end his three-year stint at the social networking giant to join secure wallet startup BitGo.Public personaByun will also provide a new public face for the company, as he formerly spoke on behalf of Visa at high-profile conferences such as the annual International Anti-Money Laundering Conference and the National Forum on Prepaid Card Compliance.BitPay indicates that Byun will represent the company later this June when he speaks at Bitcoin in the Beltway, a Washington, DC-based conference organised by Sean’s Outpost founder Jason King.The conference will include Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, Blockchain’s Andreas Antonopoulos and more.Hiring boomThe news is perhaps the most noteworthy hire amid what has been an impressive increase in talent-seeking at the company. BitPay now has more than 40 employees worldwide, but previously indicated that its Series A funding will allow it to expand this total, adding 70 new jobs.In addition to Byun, the company also brought in former ClearPoint compliance manager Anjali Kamath as its new General Counsel and Compliance Manager.For more on how BitPay plans to allocate its new talent and the kinds of positions that the company is most focused on filling, read our most recent interview with executive chairman Gallippi.Disclaimer: CoinDesk founder Shakil Khan is an investor in BitPayImage credit: jps / Shutterstock.comBitPayjobsregulationUSAvisa
Original author: Pete Rizzo