Ainsley Ward

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT AINSLEY WARD

An accomplished and global consulting professional, Ainsley works by day as an industry thought leader and Vice President for CGI\'s Payments Solutions covering interbank, FX and market infrastructures. Outside of this, he is Director of Connections on the Board of Scottish Archery and manages the Scotland National Archery Team during international events such as the Home Nations Cup and Commonwealth tournaments. Before settling in Ayr, Scotland, Ainsley has travelled extensively, including significant periods of residency in Toronto, Canada and Tervuren, Belgium. Bringing experience from working with banks on every continent, Ainsley is well versed in the demands of market modernization, finding opportunities from mandatory change, and guiding banks to better outcomes, representing many of his clients in industry working groups and committees including with the Bank of England, Bank of Canada and European Central Bank. Recently he chaired the UK’s Digital Pound Foundation Payments Working Group (CBDC) and designed the solution for BIS Nexus, a system to allow cross-border real-time payments through open data. Prior to CGI, Ainsley worked with world-leading companies running Management Consulting at FIS (Clear2Pay), as 2FA Product Manager at MasterCard, and Senior Advisor to European banks with ESBG. Ainsley is a VISA-accredited EMV consultant and was US EMF Honor Roll listed for his EMV migration contribution. He has created many patents and innovations in the cards space including standard chip profiles and a biometric match-on-card design. He is currently working hard on getting banks onboarded to SEPA Instant across Europe and designing practical applications of AI in the payments market.With a passion for sustainability and delivering better environmental outcomes, Ainsley works with major global banks undertaking payment market modernization, exploring the role of using Generative AI responsibly, migrating to new infrastructures such as cloud, supporting ISO 20022 migration and examining the future role that Banks will play. His thoughts are regularly shared as a panelist and speaker, with his understanding of the bigger picture providing delivery of winning payment strategies and products for clients around the world. Ainsley studied Engineering, Science & Technology at Brunel University in London, and currently resides in Ayr, Scotland. He is a competing recurve archer when time allows.