Jim Mortensen is a Strategic Advisor in Aite-Novarica Group’s Fraud & AML practice, covering identity, fraud, and data security issues.
Jim has been in the financial services industry for over 30 years, delivering fraud prevention, identity verification, and credit underwriting solutions to top-tier financial institutions both domestically and internationally. Through his experience in the industry, he has developed a substantial knowledge base spanning fraud and credit management, analytics development and implementation, product strategy, and product management. Prior to joining Aite-Novarica Group, Jim held several roles in the industry at Equifax, Early Warning Services, and American Express.
While at Early Warning Services, Jim led the Identity Solutions product line and was responsible for developing and managing products that mitigated the potential losses on deposit accounts across the country’s largest banks. Significant among his accomplishments was the development and implementation of a suite of analytic scores that validated consumer identities and predicted the likelihood of future loss. Additionally, while at Early Warning Services, Jim led and managed the company’s risk advisory committee, composed of fraud and security executives across the banking industry, which helped to determine the direction of the company’s product roadmap.
Prior to joining Early Warning Services, Jim spent the earlier part of his career at American Express, where he held numerous positions on both the issuing and acquiring sides of the company. The bulk of his time there was spent in the international business, where his group was integral to the company’s expansion of its card product lines to include revolving, cobrand, and premium charge card products across Asia, Europe, and Latin America. As part of this expansion, he and his team developed the underwriting and fraud policies, models, processes, and related automation supporting both the lending and charge card product lines.
Jim also serves on the board of the Arizona Chapter of the ALS Association, the only national not-for-profit health organization dedicated solely to the fight against ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). In his tenure at the association, he has held the positions of treasurer, vice-chairperson, and chairperson for the chapter. He currently serves on the national board of representatives and the national finance committee.
Jim holds a B.S. in Accounting from Arizona State University and is a certified public accountant licensed in the state of Arizona.