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Business

Ballerine Appoints Former Visa Risk Leader Cihat Fitzgerald as Chief Risk Officer

Published by Wanda Rich

Posted on February 5, 2025

Featured image for article about Business

San Francisco, CA, February 5, 2025 — Ballerine, an AI risk intelligence platform designed to help financial institutions, fintechs, and marketplaces automate and optimize merchant onboarding, verification, and lifecycle monitoring processes, announced the appointment of Cihat Fitzgerald as Chief Risk Officer.

Cihat Fitzgerald is a distinguished global payments risk and compliance executive with over 27 years of expertise in safeguarding the payments ecosystem. Cihat served as Vice President of Global Ecosystem Security & Integrity at Visa, where he spearheaded global risk compliance frameworks, enhanced fraud control initiatives, and collaborated with federal and international law enforcement on high-profile investigations. His contributions include authoring key industry standards such as the Visa Global Acquirer Risk Standards, Visa Prepaid Issuer Risk Standards, the Payment Facilitator and Marketplace Risk Guide, and the Visa Integrity Risk Program.

Noam Itzhaki, CEO of Ballerine stated: “We are excited to have Cihat join the Ballerine team as he will play a pivotal role in driving our commitment to securing merchant risk. His expertise and insights into regulatory compliance, fraud control, and general risk management will be a key contributor in strengthening our mission to build trust and resilience across the payments ecosystem.”

"I’m excited to be part of this exceptional team to help continue my mission to contribute and strengthen risk management capabilities for ecosystem participants. Ballerine’s focus on streamlining onboarding and compliance oversight capabilities with AI addresses key challenges in the payments industry. I look forward to sharing my experience to support its partners in navigating risk effectively," said Cihat Fitzgerald.

Ballerine transforms compliance from a burden into a competitive advantage by unifying KYB, web intelligence, and transaction data in a single AI-driven platform. Financial institutions can seamlessly onboard, verify, and monitor merchants at scale, ensuring compliance with card schemes and global regulations. As a Mastercard Merchant Monitoring Service Provider (MMSP), Ballerine offers industry-specific modules that adapt to different risk needs—giving acquirers, PSPs, and payment platforms a faster, smarter, and more precise way to assess risk.

About BallerineBallerine is an AI-powered risk and compliance platform that helps financial institutions and payment companies seamlessly onboard, underwrite, and monitor merchants while ensuring compliance with global regulations and card scheme requirements. By combining flexible risk infrastructure, AI-driven decision-making, and real-time insights, Ballerine streamlines complex workflows, reduces costs, and accelerates growth. Ballerine provides a unified, efficient, and globally adaptable solution for acquirers, PSPs, and payment platforms—eliminating the need for fragmented tools and manual processes. As a Mastercard Merchant Monitoring Service Provider (MMSP), Ballerine also helps institutions proactively detect hidden risks and prevent compliance violations.