Moneybookers names Tero Pollanen, head, anti-fraud

His appointment is one of a series of new hirings that has seen Moneybookers' headcount double since the beginning of 2008.

Tero, formerly senior manager for fraud strategy at LloydsTSB, will be heading up Moneybookers' industry-leading Anti-Fraud and Risk Team, driving the continued development and implementation of the Company's proactive fraud prevention strategy. This area is becoming ever more crucial in ensuring safety for all users as Moneybookers expands at a rate of 10,000 new account openings a day. The security of Moneybookers' system is one of the key drivers for this growth in turn, as users look for a safe way to shop and transfer money online.

In order to meet this strong growth, Moneybookers has doubled its total staff headcount from 150 at the start of 2008 to nearly 300 in March this year. Moneybookers will hire an additional 100 employees by the end of 2009 to help facilitate the continued expansion of the business. The company recently announced record results for 2008 with EUR2.4 billion in transaction volume and profit of EUR18.7 million, and is confident of successfully building on this growth momentum throughout 2009. Moneybookers signed up its seven millionth account holder in March.

Nikolai Riesenkampff, co-CEO of Moneybookers, said: "I'm delighted to welcome Tero to the Company as he brings with him a wealth of experience which he will be employing to enhance the security of our systems even further. He will be a welcome addition to our industry-leading team of anti-fraud specialists as we seek to continue to grow our business."

Tero Pollanen, new Head of Anti-Fraud at Moneybookers, said: "Moneybookers is at the forefront of fraud prevention in the online payments industry but this is an ever-changing world and we need constantly to keep refining and updating our security measures. I'm looking forward to this challenge and making sure we remain one step ahead of fraudsters."