About

Emma Slatter oversees and aligns all legal, regulatory, compliance and government engagement matters for Visa in the UK and Europe in the fast-evolving payments landscape. She has recruited market leading high performers and, under her leadership, the Legal, Regulatory & Compliance (LRC) team has had an extraordinary year. As well as leading on Brexit transitional arrangements, with the pandemic accelerating the trend away from cash payments, proactive engagement with government departments and officials across Europe has ensured that issues and opportunities associated with the increase in digitalisation and innovation in payments, with heightened regulatory scrutiny, have been effectively managed. Slatter’s team has also implemented more streamlined legal and compliance support across Europe, with training programmes, templates for key business initiatives, client onboarding and AML/AFC process improvements, and in-sourcing of legal services to facilitate increased volume and complexity of the team’s work, whilst reducing external counsel spend. She has established and championed the ‘Legal Liaison’ concept, whereby one or more lawyers is allocated to each business area or geographic region to provide accountability and a responsible primary contact. This has facilitated greater coordination across the varied business landscape – the context, needs, challenges and frustrations – providing a conduit for prioritising or escalating matters and increasing responsiveness to the business while developing the increasingly specialist know-how required.

With Slatter’s market-leading in-house experience, she has brought expertise, vision and dynamism to this highly demanding, complex role. The business perceives her as a true partner, going above and beyond the call of duty and leading a team that gives outstanding support to the Visa brand and all its activities. As well as adding value through technical expertise and excellent commercial judgement, Slatter’s key strengths lie in nurturing and motivating a high-performing team, making a positive contribution to corporate culture. Facing the additional challenges of the pandemic, she has led by example within Visa, sharing with her team a host of physical and mental wellbeing initiatives. Having now signed up to the Mindful Business Charter, the LRC team are piloting this for Visa’s European business. Slatter is also the European Executive sponsor for Visa Pride, including initiatives like the welcome program, partnering new employees with LGBTQ+ colleagues to help navigate their new Visa careers. She and her team are leaders in Social Impact, engaged in multiple pro Bono, volunteering and I&D initiatives and working with multiple charities in a variety of areas.