Australian payments company Zepto has appointed Mariana Paun as its Chief Business Resilience Officer, a new role that combines Information Security, Operations, and Risk and Compliance under a single executive.

The change responds to evolving regulation and expectations around fraud prevention and payment protections in Australia’s real-time payments sector.

The role centralises security, operational oversight, and regulatory compliance as the sector faces growing scrutiny over scams and consumer protections.

Recent developments include the Scam Prevention Framework and changes to PayTo liability settings, which assign responsibility among banks, payment providers, merchants, and other participants.

Zepto processes more than AUD $90 billion in account-to-account payments annually, according to eCommerceNews.

Paun joined Zepto over three and a half years ago as its first dedicated security hire, building the security function before taking on Operations, covering service delivery, disputes, and incident management.

She has previously held senior security governance, risk, and compliance roles at Afterpay, Block, and Littlepay.

“Resilience is not just about managing risk, it’s about enabling innovation safely and maintaining trust with customers, partners and the broader ecosystem,”

Paun said.

“At Zepto, security and compliance aren’t just obligations, they’re fundamental to how we build trust and deliver value to our customers. Strong security foundations are essential to supporting payments infrastructure and protecting the flow of client funds, and that’s non-negotiable.”

She added that as payments and identity become more closely connected, the new role will embed security, risk management, and operational oversight into all of Zepto’s activities.

Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Australia, based on image by LensMastersCollection via Freepik