Interac is excited to announce that Cindy Cross joined Interac as Chief Legal Officer (CLO) on August 1. Cindy brings over 20 years of legal experience to her role at Interac. Her areas of expertise in financial services include licensing and regulatory matters for payment institutions, derivatives dealing, and the dynamic world of cross-border payments and payment ecosystems.
Cindy joins Interac from Western Union, where as Deputy General Counsel she was responsible for the strategic leadership and oversight of business legal affairs for all of Western Union’s business units. Leading a team of over 55 lawyers and paraprofessionals based across the globe, her responsibilities included providing legal and business advice, support of strategic initiatives and partnerships, product development, GTM legal needs and regulatory matters.
In her nine years at Western Union, she dealt with a broad range of jurisdictions and areas of law including data protection, cybersecurity, enterprise risk, anti-money laundering, employment, blockchain, fintech development, cross-enterprise programs (e.g. Brexit, PSD2), and litigation matters.
Cindy also acted as a member of the Women@WesternUnion Steering Committee, responsible for advising the Western Union Executive Team on gender balance, as well as setting standards, creating transparent measurement tools, and ensuring accountability for achieving objectives related to global diversity issues.
In 2015, Cindy participated in the Ashoka Executive-in-Residence program and worked with Siyafunda, an NGO operating in South Africa to help provide IT training and life skills to residents. She has also participated in Leadership Room, an intensive and tailored executive leadership training program.
Prior to joining Western Union as Associate General Counsel in 2011, Cindy worked for seven years at Travelex in a number of roles, including Head of Legal for the APAC region and subsequently General Counsel of Travelex Global Business Payments. She started her career in mergers and acquisitions at a national Canadian law office. She earned her L.L.M from New York University Law School, focusing on human rights and humanitarian law. Cindy also has a Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Cindy’s experience will be an asset to Interac to maintain our trusted reputation in the financial services sector as we work to build the future of payments in Canada.
