GoCardless has appointed Paul Stoddard, a former Mastercard executive, as president. 

Stoddart is an accomplished individual. He became president of Mastercard's New Payment Platforms following the acquisition of Vocalink, where he built and grew a business unit focused on expanding the card scheme's position in payments beyond cards to account-to-account payments. He previously co-led Barclaycard's Corporate Finance division. He worked for NatWest for ten years, most recently in their merchant acquisition and e-commerce division, Worldpay. 

GoCardless will leverage Stoddart's experience to accelerate the development of its account-to-account payment capabilities in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. 

This year will be a watershed year for GoCardless, as we expand beyond recurring payments to support a broader range of client categories and payment use cases. It is critical that we are led by the right individuals as we expand our business, develop open banking products and services, and expand into new markets. Paul offers a wealth of experience in both card and non-card payments and will assist us in identifying opportunities that will position GoCardless as a force in the payments space. 

Stoddart's hire comes less than a year after GoCardless raised $312 million in funding. Meanwhile, the company released Verified Mandates in the United Kingdom and Success+ in the United States, a 'payment intelligence' tool that uses machine learning to forecast the optimal day to recover lost payments. 

In the future months, VRPs will be available in both sweeping and non-sweeping configurations. By mid-2020, GoCardless will integrate PayTo as part of its global bank payment infrastructure.