Global head of disputes and prepaid operations
Angela Ratliff describes herself as someone who goes where the problems are. As head of U.S. Bank’s prepaid card business in early 2020, she did not have to go far.
The COVID-19 pandemic drove tremendous growth in the use of prepaid cards, as states were using the cards to make unemployment payments to millions of people suddenly out of work.
The growth, however, was accompanied by a spike in fraudulent unemployment claims.Ratliff rallied her team and dug into the root causes of the problem.
“If I see something that needs to be fixed, I tend to just gravitate toward it,” she said.
That quality led to her recruitment in 2017 by Jim Thompson, now chief risk officer at the $554 billion-asset U.S. Bank, Ratliff said.
“Even if I didn’t necessarily have the experience on paper, he knew my skill set and said, ‘You can do this. You’re capable.’”
Her first challenge at U.S. Bank involved strengthening the financial crimes function for payments, an area that had been facing regulatory scrutiny prior to her arrival.
The work she did to tackle fraud during the pandemic led to yet another new challenge: her appointment in November as head of U.S. Bank’s newly created global disputes function, which consolidates disputes operations for a range of products.
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The move is designed to improve the way disputes are handled by sharing best practices between product lines, Ratliff said.
“That also allows us a little bit of flexibility in our staffing,” she added. “If one area is up and another is down, we can shift and cross-train.”
To familiarize herself with the operation, Ratliff has been listening to calls and reading through customer communications. Normally, she would spend time with employees face to face as well, but the pandemic has meant a shift to working with them remotely and sharing screens.
Although working from home is less than ideal given the task at hand, it was welcome in the early days of the pandemic, said Ratliff, who has two daughters, ages 5 and 3. They occasionally sat on her lap during video meetings, which, Ratliff said, helped make other employees more comfortable with tending to their personal lives when needed.
“I did have people reach out to me to say, ‘Thanks for letting us see that,’ for saying, ‘It’s OK,’ ” said Ratliff, who is expecting a son in June.
“I do think it’s important for leaders to model the behavior that we talk about.”
Nominating executive: Scott Lippert, executive vice president, payment services operations, U.S. Bank
What he said: “Her passion is as palpable as it is limitless. I told her recently that she has a high degree of ‘just gives a darn,’ about her work, the bank and our customers,’ “ Lippert said.
“I’ve been thoroughly impressed with her willingness, as a senior leader, to roll up her sleeves and really engage personally on the challenges in front of her. She doesn’t shy away from doing the research in pursuit of a solution, or to further advance an idea.”
