Judith McGuire is SVP of Global Products at Discover Global Network.
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The fintech sector has seen significant changes in recent years, particularly in the areas of payments and fraud prevention. As new technologies continue to shape how consumers interact with their finances, leaders in the space must constantly adapt to ensure security and innovation align. One such leader is Judith McGuire, Senior Vice President of Global Products at Discover Global Network.
With over 20 years in the industry, Judith’s experience spans a time of rapid technological growth, from the rise of digital wallets to the widespread use of biometric payment methods. In her role, she’s worked on creating secure, customer-centric solutions that balance technological advancement with real-world application.
In this conversation, Judith shares her thoughts on making decisions in high-pressure situations, her approach to balancing innovation with trust, and her experiences leading efforts to enhance fraud prevention in an evolving market. From the early days of her career to her current work, Judith’s journey provides valuable lessons for those interested in payments, fraud prevention, and fintech strategy.
Enjoy the full interview!
1. What key experiences early in your career helped shape your approach to balancing innovation and practical implementation in payments, and how have those experiences influenced your decisions today?
Throughout my 20+ years in the industry, I’ve witnessed the rapid evolution of digital payment methods and consumer preferences. Early in my career, I learned to balance forward-looking vision with pragmatic investments to make strategic business decisions that solve customer problems. A key aspect of my role today is developing differentiated solutions to address these evolving needs.
For example, due to the global growth of contactless payments, especially for transit systems, I helped to build infrastructure to support open-loop contactless payments and customized solutions for various transit agencies.
Additionally, with the rise of biometric payments to enhance security and prevent fraud, I worked on updates to support increasing digital wallet usage withfaster and more secure transactions. These experiences underscored the importance of balancing innovation with practical implementation and reinforced my belief in taking a customer-centric approach, especially in payments.
2. How does Enhanced Decisioning technology work to improve transaction authorization, and why is it especially important for high-value transactions?
Enhanced Decisioning technology uses machine learning to connect customer and transaction data with spending patterns for risk-based authorization. This technology allows merchants to share real-time customer checkout data with issuers during authorization for card-not-present (CNP) transactions. From there, the credit card issuers use the data to make a more informed decision to approve or decline a transaction, which is especially critical in situations where high-value transactions are being made.
3. How do emerging payment methods like e-wallets and biometrics impact fraud prevention strategies, and how do you stay ahead of evolving fraud techniques in this environment?
The heightened number of cyber threats today reinforces the need to continuously innovate and adapt our risk mitigation strategies to protect against fraudsters. Globally, people are adopting different forms of payment at an unprecedented pace.
With the rise of e-wallets, tokens, biometrics, QR codes and new places to pay like unattended kiosks and EV charging, fraud methods are evolving alongside these advances. Therefore, it’s absolutely critical for payments networks to develop and implement new solutions for payment channels to enhance security, data privacy and user experience.
This also includes collaboration with technology partners offering best-in-class solutions to bolster authentication capacities such as tokenization.
4. How do you manage the balance between technological innovation and maintaining customer trust, especially when products need to be updated while still in use?
From my experience, reliability and resiliency are the foundation of a successful product strategy. As consumer needs evolve, the payments industry must adapt solutions to meet customers wherever they are in their payment journeys while prioritizing reliability and security. This often involves updating products and systems while they are still in use, which can be challenging since it's like refueling a plane while in flight.
To balance technology innovation with customer trust, it is crucial to have a robust platform strategy, which includes managing security patches and end of life software. Decisions on retiring, modernizing, or adopting cloud-based solutions carry significant downstream impacts and risks that business leaders need to consider in their strategy.
Once product updates and risk mitigation are complete, companies can then focus on working to shorten technology development life cycles, speed up time-to-market and develop integrated tools for the broader payments network.
5. What practices do you use to stay ahead in such a fast-evolving industry, and how do you ensure that your team is aligned with industry best practices?
Given the ever-changing nature of this industry, I make sure to stay attuned to changing payment methods, consumer demands and the specific needs of various markets. In addition, I actively participate in industry bodies where we learn, collaborate and share progress to stay at the forefront of industry developments. This approach helps ensure my team and I continuously maintain industry best practices and customer trust.
6. Can you share an example of how working with merchants and issuers to share data more effectively helped reduce fraud while improving the transaction experience for customers?
Gathering information is key to minimizing the risk of a fraudulent transaction. In a complex and fast-paced world, it’s critical for merchants to be able to quickly transfer additional data to card issuers. This allows more approvals to take place for a more informed decision without slowing down the transaction or creating a negative experience for the card holder.
By working with merchants to understand what data is sharable and working with issuers to use the data effectively, financial institutions can increase approval rates, while lowering fraud in a measurable way.
For me, this process underscores the importance of collaboration between merchants and the payments ecosystem to solve problems and create solutions that enhance the purchasing environment.
7. For those just entering the industry—especially those interested in risk, data, and strategy—what guidance would you give about building a resilient, values-driven career?
For those entering the payments industry, especially in risk, data and strategy, it's crucial to focus on job satisfaction rather than just climbing the career ladder. While promotions can bring short-term happiness, they don't replace the fulfillment of a role that aligns with your core values. Reflect on what you truly want from your job and explore why certain values are important to you.
Additionally, finding a company that prioritizes mentorship and supports your career fulfillment journey is invaluable. As a female executive in financial services, I've seen firsthand how access to leaders and resources can enhance career development. That’s part of what led me to become a member and a speaker for our company leadership resource group for women.
