The new director of FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) is Robert W. Werner.   Werner had been Director of OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control). Both are bureaus of the Department of the Treasury. Werner replaces William Fox, who left FinCEN in January to work for Bank of America. Barbara Hammerle will serve as Acting OFAC Director; no announcement was made about Deputy Director William F. Baity, who filled in as director beginning February 4, 2006. It was his second turn as acting director. (Contact: FinCEN, 703-905-3770)

The Merchant Risk Council, a nonprofit group organized to find online fraud, named 15 members to its 2006 board of directors. They are:
• Julie Fergerson - Vice President, eFunds, re-elected as co-chair
• Tom Sullivan - Director of eCommerce Risk, Expedia, elected as co-chair
• Steve Riddell - Risk Operations Manager, Apple, elected as secretary
• Mike Caputo - Vice President, Controller, Barnes and Noble, re-elected as treasurer
• Greg Andrews - Manager of Global Payment and Fraud Services, Hewlett Packard
• Seana Pitt - Vice President, Network Development, American Express
• Tracy Brown - Director of Information Security, American Eagle Outfitters
• Perry Dembner - Vice President of Marketing, CyberSource
• Susan Grajek - Credit Fraud Investigator, CompUSA
• William Lambson - Senior International Treasury Manager, Adobe
• Tim Laudenbach - Credit Risk Manager, Best Buy
• Mark Michelon - Director of eCommerce Risk, Cendant Travel Distribution Services
• David Sessions - Vice President of Operations, Experian
• Ronda Sifford - Loss Prevention Manager, Costco
• Adrienne Kinney - Network Security, Discover Financial Services LLC.
The Merchant Risk Council has 7,500 members from the worlds of online retailers, financial institutions, vendors, and law enforcement agencies. (Contact: The Merchant Risk Council; 512- 977-5592)

Pay By Touch named Bill Townsend as executive vice president, office of the chief executive officer. The company says Townsend will work with chairman and ceo John Rogers on strategic planning. Pay By Touch also named Drew Hyatt senior vice president, and Elizabeth Yata, vice president and group product manager, respectively, of its banking and credit authorization services. (Contact: Pay By Touch, 415-281-2253)

Sterling Bank, based in Houston, promoted Deborah Dinsmore to executive vice president and director of operations, responsible among other things for the bank’s payments operations. She was previously the $3.7 billion bank’s senior vice president and chief information officer.(Contact Sterling Bank, 713-507-2770)