Brian Riley

Director, Credit / Co-Head of Payments

Brian is a Director of Credit Advisory Services and a Co-Head of Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. Brian has spent a quarter of a century with top tier national credit card issuers at Chase, Citi, HFC, and Wachovia (First Union National Bank) in senior management credit policy, operations, and system design functions with an emphasis on applying scoring and technology solutions to acquisition, credit, collection, and fraud.

Following a six-year stint running his own boutique consulting firm, Riley spent the past ten years at TowerGroup, originally a MasterCard business, subsequently acquired by Corporate Executive Board (CEB), where he was a Principal Executive Advisor in their Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Service, which was discontinued by CEB as of June 2016.

Riley has been regularly quoted in major media such as the American Banker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC, CNN and National Public Radio on payment topics such as the evolving payments model, revenue dynamics, interchange, regulatory intervention, mobile payments, Apple Pay, gift cards and global card trends, who draw from his well-rounded background to explain current card business challenges, project industry trends and provide a seasoned view of emerging technologies.

Brian Riley’s accomplishments in the operational phase of his career included participating on the product development of HFC’s first retail credit card operation, a breakthrough in the late 1970s. He participated in numerous bank card acquisitions at Citi, Chase and First Union where was accountable for the operational and technical integration for more than 50 million credit card accounts. At Citi, Riley was integral for migrating collection operations systems to Sioux Falls, South Dakota as well as the technical design for extensive risk policy metric and measurement systems. While Operating at Chase, Riley ran credit policy for the Metropolitan Community Bank and was accountable for the operational and systems integration of Chase Lincoln First in Rochester, NY, a 135 branch retail banking network. Brian also helped opened Chase’s first domestic operation outside of NY Metro, in Tampa, Florida. At Wachovia, originally operating as First Union, Riley managed the integration of 46 acquired credit card portfolios onto one platform from three disparate systems, setting the ground work for a national credit card business. Brian also brokered the sale of more than $4 billion in bad debt to investors and designed a forward flow arrangement that generated $700 million in revenue.

Brian’s broad perspective on industry trends and emerging technologies enables him to identify new opportunities for his clients. It is this insight that will fuel the research and consulting initiatives of Javelin's Credit Card Advisory Service moving forward.

Brian attended the State University of New York and has done advanced studies in computer science at Fordham.

Latest Insights

March, 2024
Javelin Report
High-Yield Savings Accounts: An Efficient Way to Fund Credit Card Loans

Credit card lending requires funding, and banks with credit card programs find themselves at an interesting point: The prime rate is at its highest level in decades, and in anticip...

February, 2024
Impact Note
Credit Card Lending Needs a Slowdown; Work with Cardholders to Shield Upcoming Risk

Consumer debt is climbing, and for the wrong reason. Consumptive spending is evident on credit cards, and household budgets are under stress, diminishing the ability of consumers t...

February, 2024
Impact Note
Capital One and Discover: The Potential to Build a Global Payments Ecosystem with Scale

The Capital One acquisition of Discover, if it gains regulatory approval, will create a global force in payments for acceptance, issuance, and processing. To clear the regulatory h...

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