Teresa Cameron has built a career at the intersection of finance, payments, and technology, with over 25 years of experience spanning trading, foreign exchange, and financial operations. Now Group CEO of Clear Junction, one of Europe’s fastest growing companies, she is leading the business through its next phase of global growth, with a clear focus on bridging traditional financial infrastructure and digital assets.
Known for her analytical mindset and hands-on leadership style, Teresa has played a pivotal role in shaping Clear Junction’s strategy, strengthening its regulatory foundations, and expanding its presence across international markets.
We caught up with her to discuss her journey into fintech, the realities of leading in a fast-moving industry, and the trends set to define the future of payments.
Tell us more about your company and its purpose
Clear Junction is a global payments solutions provider, established in 2016. We enable regulated financial institutions to open payment accounts, issue virtual IBANs, access payment networks, utilise Treasury services and digital asset infrastructure quickly, securely, and in full compliance with regulatory requirements.
At our core, we build enterprise-grade infrastructure that bridges the gap between traditional finance and digital assets.
Our philosophy is centred on supporting financial institutions, such as banks, remittance companies, and PSPs with essential services that they’ve historically struggled to access. While it may sound counterintuitive, banks and financial institutions are among the most underbanked segments globally, often reluctant to service one another due to regulatory risk. We address this by developing robust controls, risk management frameworks, and technology designed to manage these risks effectively, allowing our clients to operate with confidence.
What are some of your recent achievements you’d like to highlight?
In October last year, I proudly stepped into the role of Group CEO following a year-long transition working closely with our founder, Dima Kats. Learning directly from him made the transition feel both smooth and natural.
I’ve always had an analytical mindset and have played a big role in Clear Junction’s growth over the past five years. My deep understanding of the business, combined with previous leadership roles, helped me step confidently into this position.
Before becoming CEO, I was group chief financial officer, where I focused on strengthening trust in the digital asset space. One of my proudest achievements was helping bring our anti-fraud escrow solution to market – the first of its kind in crypto – enabling buyers and sellers to transact safely, transparently, and with confidence.
I also led the acquisition of Altalix, now Clear Junction Digital Ltd, which strengthened our position in the digital asset space. This involved navigating an FCA change of control process shortly after the FTX collapse – a particularly challenging environment. Despite the risks, we successfully secured approval, and today we are one of the few UK businesses to hold both an FCA EMI licence and a cryptoasset registration.
How did you get into the fintech industry?
I had a slightly unconventional route into the industry. My parents couldn’t afford university fees, so I went straight into work after my A-levels, I began my career at Gerrard & National Intercommodities, GNI, managing expenses for traders on the LIFFE trading floor – which is where I first developed a passion for financial markets.
Later I worked for Schneider Trading, expanding my experience across Brokerage and Foreign Exchange as part of Finance and Treasury teams. While raising a young family, I studied in the evenings and on weekends to gain treasury and finance qualifications to complement my hands-on experience.
I progressed to become a partner in a brokerage firm, however I felt quite constrained by outdated attitudes towards working mothers, so I needed a change. That’s when I moved to PRS for Music, progressing into my first senior leadership role as head of financial operations, and then transitioned into tech start-ups for something more fast-paced and challenging. This included UNiDAYS, where I helped scale the business globally.
When Covid struck, the shift to hybrid working enabled me to return to London and bring together my experience across trading, brokerage, payments and financial services along with the experience of scaling up a business to Clear Junction. But my learning hasn’t stopped, and in 2023, I achieved both my Crypto Strategies for Business Leaders and Mergers and Acquisitions certifications from Imperial College Business School, a global top ten university with a world-class reputation in STEM.
What’s the best thing about working in the fintech industry?
Working in such an ever-changing, dynamic industry, no two days are the same, but that’s all part of the fun. I enjoy working in an environment where there are always problems to solve. I thrive in that place between uncertainty and opportunity, as it means that there’s no standing still and we’re always pushing forward.
Some of the most rewarding parts of my career have been when the wider public becomes engaged in what’s happening in our industry. For example, I’ve worked through major shifts like the introduction of the euro and the millennium transition, when there were real concerns about system failures.
Those experiences have given me a strong perspective on how to navigate change, both operationally and in terms of public perception. At Clear Junction, I love seeing how our teams come together to build and deliver new technology – it’s extremely motivating.
What frustrates you most about the fintech industry?
As exciting as things are constantly changing, it’s also our biggest challenge. At times, it can feel like taking two steps forward and one step back. And I’m sure it will be one of the most common answers to this question, but one of the biggest frustrations is how regulation often lags behind innovation.
We’re all building new products and services in an evolving regulatory landscape, which can mean operating in regulatory grey areas.
At Clear Junction, we work closely with regulators and make informed decisions based on where we believe regulation is heading, but it’s still a constant balancing act. While that can be frustrating, it also keeps the work engaging, there’s always a new challenge to navigate.
How have your previous roles influenced your career
Each role I’ve had has given me a different lens on how businesses operate – from the pace and pressure of trading environments, to the discipline of finance, to scaling tech businesses and leading teams through change.
That mix of experiences has shaped how I lead today. I tend to look at challenges both operationally and strategically – understanding the detail, but also stepping back to see how it fits into the bigger picture.
That’s been particularly important at Clear Junction, where we’re operating in a fast-moving, complex space and need to balance innovation with strong controls and long-term thinking.
What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?
Although it may be painful at the time, I’m a true believer that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. Hindsight is a great thing, and the pain of a mistake helps you to put in the guardrails you need for the future.
Since we’re constantly innovating and trying new things at Clear Junction, this means mistakes are made along the way – mistakes we continue to learn from. As a team, we’re in a constant feedback loop: what are the lessons learned? How do we adjust to go forwards? Being able to admit when things have gone wrong can be difficult, but it’s the only way to learn and build for the future.
What has the future got in store for your company?
One of the things that makes Clear Junction unique is that we’re a bootstrapped business. We don’t have external investors shaping our direction – we choose our own path. Looking ahead, the priority is focused, sustainable growth. That means strengthening our international presence, deepening client relationships, and continuing to expand into key markets.
At the same time, we’re investing in product development to ensure we stay ahead of how payments infrastructure is evolving. A big part of that is building out hybrid rails that connect fiat and digital asset ecosystems. This is where we see real momentum in the market, and it’s an area where our experience in risk management and regulated infrastructure gives us a strong advantage.
Alongside growth, I’m focused on building a business that’s resilient and long-term in its thinking – commercially and culturally. That includes creating opportunities within the organisation and continuing to break down barriers into fintech, particularly for those from non-traditional backgrounds.
What are the next key talking points or challenges for your industry as a whole?
Stablecoins – they’re becoming central to the future of digital payments. For a long time, stablecoins were largely theoretical, but over the past year we’ve started to see real-world implementation. I expect that to accelerate massively over the next 12 months.
At Clear Junction, we’re seeing this shift firsthand. In cross-border payments, we’re combining traditional rails with digital asset infrastructure, using stablecoins to improve the speed and efficiency of settlement. These hybrid models will have a major impact across the industry – from payments to tokenised deposits – by improving how money flows.
Regulation will continue to shape that progress. We’re seeing major developments globally, from safeguarding changes in the UK to evolving cryptoasset regulation, MiCA in Europe, and ongoing developments in the US.
AI is another key theme, but it’s important to see it as a tool rather than a replacement. It can help speed up processes like data collection and screening, but ultimately it still relies on human input and oversight. You need people to guide how it’s used and to interpret the outcomes. Where it will really add value is in removing lower-level manual work, allowing skilled professionals to focus on better, more informed
decision-making. This is particularly relevant in areas like financial crime, where both speed and judgement are imperative.
Alongside this, we’re operating in a much more complex and uncertain global environment. Geopolitical instability is becoming an increasingly important factor, not just in regulation and cross-border payments, but across the entire business. It influences strategy, operations, and even how teams feel day to day. That uncertainty feeds into the decisions we make constantly.
Ultimately, for fintech to continue leading, we need to focus on what customers truly need, often before they even realise it themselves. And right now, that can be summed up in one word: interoperability.
The post In Profile: Teresa Cameron, Group CEO of Clear Junction appeared first on The Fintech Times.
