LHV UK (the ‘Company’) announces that it has agreed on commercial terms to acquire Bank North’s Small Medium Enterprise (‘SME’) lending business. This transaction enables the Company to accelerate its strategy to expand to servicing SMEs. Powered by 14 years of consecutive growth, lending to SMEs has been one of the core business areas for LHV Group (the ‘Group’), LHV UK’s parent company and an investor in Bank North.

Bank North was Authorised with Restrictions, and it entered the mobilisation period in Q3 2021. The mobilisation period usually lasts up to 12 months and enables new banks to complete the build-out of their bank. One of the requirements to exit the mobilisation period is fully capitalising the bank. Bank North was unable to raise the required capital during the period due to the falling activity in the capital markets. As a result, on 30 September 2022, the Board of Bank North triggered the Solvent Wind Down process.

Transaction

LHV UK has made an offer to acquire the entire SME lending business of Manchester-based regional lender Bank North. LHV UK will acquire Bank North’s entire £17.9m loan book and technology systems for managing the loans. The transaction will also see 20 employees transfer to LHV UK and cooperation agreements with commercial brokers.

The Company will not need any third-party financing for the transaction. Once the business and assets transfer is complete, LHV UK will continue to operate the same business model. The transaction is scheduled to complete later this month, and the proceeds will be used by Bank North to settle creditors as part of its solvent wind-down process.

Regional development

The SME business will remain regional and driven by cooperation with local commercial brokers. Manchester will become LHV UK’s third hub in the UK. The Company has placed high importance on the regional development of the UK’s fintech sector; in addition to its London headquarters, LHV UK opened its second hub in Leeds for its development and engineering teams earlier this year. Another hub will further expand the talent pool to recruit new staff and allows LHV UK to continue to grow its business presence in the UK, creating more opportunities for the Company’s employees.

Technology

Bank North has built technology which enables the bank to streamline the lending process and approve loans to local businesses as much as ten times faster than the competitors. LHV UK will enhance the existing technology and plans to integrate it with its state-of-the-art modular and cloud-based core banking platform.

Future growth

The substantial UK SME lending market is currently underserved. Bank North has built a professional origination, underwriting and valuation team in Manchester, providing a solid foundation for growing the loan book. Through the Group, LHV UK has access to international markets to organise wholesale funding and capitalisation of the Company. To start providing new SME loans, LHV UK must register as an Annex 1 financial institution.

LHV UK’s growth strategy in the UK is underpinned by three business lines: banking services for financial intermediaries, SME lending and banking services for e-merchants. LHV UK is currently focused on obtaining a banking licence.

Erki Kilu, CEO of LHV UK, said: “The demand for SME lending is well proven, and this acquisition enables LHV UK to accelerate our plans to expand to servicing SME companies. By utilising the experience of LHV UK’s Executive Management in the SME lending space and our access to funding and capital, which is essential when running a loan business, we can quickly build on the solid foundation laid by Bank North’s team.

By combining the skills and experience of the two companies, we increase LHV UK’s technical capacity, create value and will be in a position to better deliver to the UK SME market. The SME lending business will remain regional through our offices in London and Manchester, where it’ll continue to benefit from local expertise and established relationships with the brokers, who’ve already delivered a proven substantial loan pipeline to Bank North.”

Ron Emerson CBE, Chair of Bank North, said: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to express our appreciation for the support that we have received from the LHV Group. As an investor, they have conducted themselves impeccably and have demonstrated real empathy for SMEs and a genuine understanding of the Bank North lending proposition and vision. Following a competitive and independently managed process, we are pleased that we were able to agree on this transaction with LHV UK, which not only preserves 20 jobs and the Bank North legacy but also ensures that SMEs will get much-needed finance from a progressive and well-funded provider.”

Global tennis megastar and venture capitalist Serena Williams will join J.P. Morgan's Global Head of Payments, Takis Georgakopoulos for a fireside chat at this year’s Money20/20.

The tennis legend recently shared the news that she's hanging up her racket to focus on her venture capital firm Serena Ventures. Since 2014, Williams’ firm has been funding diverse companies across all industries, including fintech and payments.

Scarlett Sieber, Money20/20’s Chief Strategy & Growth Officer will join Serena and Takis to discuss what's trending in payments, and how the digital and physical worlds are merging to create new financial experiences.

“Serena Ventures has a long track record of financing promising new ventures and ideas that have the power to create meaningful change,” Sieber said. “With investments spanning fintech, edtech and consumer product startups, Serena’s firm is poised to lead a global movement shaping the future of money. Takis heads up J.P. Morgan’s Payments business which moves nearly $10T per day, and has acquired, invested in, and partnered with numerous fintechs in recent years. I’m incredibly excited to chat with these two incredible leaders about what's next for Serena Ventures, J.P. Morgan Payments, and the innovation across the fintech landscape.”

Money20/20 is the world’s leading, premium content, sales and networking platform for the global money ecosystem. This year’s event promises the clearest and most distinctive focus on the future, across the world of payments, fintech and financial services.

Money20/20 USA takes place October 23-26, 2022 at the Venetian Las Vegas.

Mastercard, the global payments technology company, and PostePay, part of the Poste Italiane Group, today announced they are working together to launch a “Request to Pay” (RTP) solution in Italy.

Request to Pay allows billers to request the payment of goods and services, digitally and in real time. The payer receives a digital request on their web or mobile device and can then choose to accept it and proceed to the payment method.  

This solution is suitable for different types of businesses and uses cases to suit consumers’ needs – from online payments to recurring invoice payments such as bills and taxes to P2P money exchanges.

This partnership offers an innovative, simpler and more efficient solution to digitize payment requests, easing their management. Buyers can benefit from a single point of access for their payment management, in just a couple of clicks through the PostePay App. In addition, the solution allows buyers to check a consolidated digital report of their expenses, helping them to keep control of their spending.

For sellers and business owners, RTP makes proceeds management easier, with more efficient cashflows and payments management. Mastercard's proprietary research “Together Towards Tomorrow: challenges and opportunities of digitalization for businesses”, shows that 75% of Italian enterprises and retailers interviewed welcome greater digitalization.

“This partnership with Mastercard – stated Marco Siracusano, CEO PostePay Spa – places itself in the digital development process powered by Poste Italiane to catch new market opportunities, and fuels the changing process in consumer habits, through a better experience in making and receiving payments. PostePay solid experience, together with Mastercard role and expertise in the international payments market, are key drivers to the success of ‘Request to Pay’, an innovative solution – added Siracusano – that will allow to further widen PostePay ecosystem through integrated services to benefit all of our customers, with the opportunity to extend our offer even over domestic borders”.

“We are proud to be working with PostePay to keep simplifying and modernizing payments for both consumers and merchants to build an inclusive and sustainable ecosystem. As we launch ‘Request to Pay’ in Italy, we are certain that it will not only benefit consumers by giving them more control, flexibility and security but will also provide a more efficient, cost-effective way for billers to offer first-rate customer service, bringing significant improvements in business digitalization” – said Mark Barnett, President Mastercard Europe.

‘Request to Pay’ further expands the Mastercard and PostePay portfolio of solutions and applications that offer users high-level flexibility and control. The solutions are part of the two companies’ joint mission to promote an inclusive digital economy where everyone can benefit for safe, easy, fast and accessible transactions, also drawing from Mastercard international expertise, such as the United States, where the Bill Pay Exchange solution has already been launched. 

Equifax and PrinSix have facilitated an Open Banking solution for KCOM, a Yorkshire-based broadband provider, to create the UK’s first internet service provider (ISP) accepting applications for a social tariff online.  

Social tariffs give eligible low-income households the ability to access cheaper deals from their service providers. Social tariffs were applied to broadband and mobile bills in the summer to tackle the rising cost of living. 

Despite social tariffs being offered by Telco’s, only 2% of those eligible for the discount have applied. Due to the lack of uptake, the Government is increasing pressure on Telco’s to close the gap – but many are relying on outdated systems that result in applications taking up to four weeks to be approved. 

Open Banking technology offers a unique route to this application backlog. Equifax’s solution with KCOM, which allows Telco’s to verify an individual’s receipt of Universal Credit. Equifax’s joint open banking solution has drastically increased the speed of the decision-making process, making it possible for applicants to have a greater chance of approval and receiving a decision in minutes.  

Andy Sacre, Product Director of Open Banking at Equifax UK said; “Broadband is an everyday essential for all households. Using technology, like Open Banking, to help more people access this utility is the exact type of action Telco’s should take today to combat the rising living costs. 

“Our partnership with KCOM and PrinSIX has replaced outdated approaches with intuitive and personalised application journey’s. This reduced the application timeline for social tariffs on broadband from four weeks to four minutes an incredible jump in efficiency. Ultimately, this means those in the greatest need of additional financial help will get it quicker.”

Julian Graham-Rack, CEO of PrinSix, said: “We are delighted to support KCOM in offering affordable access to the internet for many more people, meeting their day-to-day needs in the new digital world. 

“The PrinSix approach treats each applicant as an individual, by making the process completely personalised and relevant to them. Our technology is very different to traditional assessment journeys, which create barriers for those in our communities that need the most help because they fail to understand the complexity of individuals’ circumstances quickly and simply.”

Tim Shaw, KCOM Chief Executive, said: “With so many people struggling with the cost of living crisis, we are determined to help our customers keep control of their household budgets.

“By moving our Flex application online leveraging developments in Open Banking we are making it far easier and quicker for our customers to be accepted onto our Flex social tariff. 

“And by reducing the price of our tariff we’re also reinforcing our commitment to making sure everyone has access to high-quality, reliable broadband. In real terms, this means being able to work online, book essential appointments and deliveries and stay connected with loved ones. 

PayNearby, India’s leading branchless banking and digital network, recently announced two strategic leadership hiring to further strengthen and expand its Distribution-as-a-Service (DaaS) network. The company has appointed Vishal Khanna as the ‘National Head of Sales’ and Alok Jha, as the ‘Head of Strategic Initiatives’. The latest appointments are tactically aligned to the company’s ambitious plans to drive growth, through DaaS, across emerging businesses and channel partners, while bringing millions at the last mile into the formal financial fold.

PayNearby is witnessing stellar growth, riding on the back of its cutting-edge, tech-led DaaS network of 50+ lakh retailers and various product offerings designed to make Bharat financially and digitally empowered. Continuing its growth trajectory, PayNearby has plans to accelerate its progress while introducing new lines of business and product offerings, helmed by these senior leaders. Deeply rooted in fintech and sales, these highly-skilled leaders will fuel PayNearby’s mission and vision to strive to democratise digital and financial services and make it further accessible to the last mile.

Vishal Khanna who previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics - a Google Pay Project, brings with him 20 years of vast experience across several sectors like FMCG, retail, telecom sales & distribution and fintech, with a special focus on strategic business planning, business network development, clients & merchants relationship management and expert market penetration. Prior to joining PayNearby, Vishal has also worked with Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices, Apollo Tyres, Birla Tyres, and Home Solutions Retail. As the National Head of Retail Sales at PayNearby, Vishal, will drive acquisition and growth strategy to diversify the company’s retail network and double its footprint while offering partners much-needed access to the rural heartlands and scale. His role will be to make PayNearby the benchmarked financial service provider in the country by enabling a best-in-class sales and distribution network.

Alok Jha brings to the table over 30 years of rich experience in internet-based businesses including B2B e-commerce, service aggregation and payments while helping businesses expand quickly and profitably. His focus has been chiefly in the fields of fintech and telecom while having worked with many renowned companies like Blow Plast, Mudra Communications, Forbes, and Suvidhaa Infoserve among others. During his last stint with Ease Venture Private Limited, he was the Managing Director & CEO and prior to that he was the Managing Director of CyberPlat, a Russian MNC in the fintech space.  Apart from being as a seed investor Alok is also an advisor and mentor to many start-ups and incubators.

With experience expanding across the field of pharmaceuticals, furniture, apparel, advertising, e-commerce and payments, Alok has an affinity to go-to-market sales strategies for young stage industries, large corporates and MNCs. His core strength lies in business mentoring & scaling, understanding consumers across various spaces, building and working with teams and growing businesses that revolve around customers, services and brands. At PayNearby, his role will be to strengthen the company’s strategic initiatives while bringing efficiency to the marketplace through digital and financial enablement. He will help the company expand its portfolio while driving innovation for its customer and retailer base.

Speaking on the appointment, Anand Kumar Bajaj, Founder, MD & CEO, PayNearby said, “We are delighted to welcome Vishal and Alok into the PayNearby family. These leadership appointments are strategically aligned with our aim to fortify human capital within the company and have people with the right skills and experiences who will help us reach the next level of growth. Alok is a veteran with expert strategic experience across industries. He has showcased his leadership prowess in several assignments involving B2B e-commerce, fintech and payments. His pivotal role in advising and mentoring startups to success showcases his extraordinary skills as a business leader. Vishal’s incomparable proficiency in sales and adroitness strategic business planning is imperative to our future expansion goals. We are delighted to join forces with people who are strongly aligned with our vision for the company and look forward to benefitting from their decades of expertise in the field. We have an ambitious and aggressive growth plan in the coming months, and they are the right fit to make the right impact and fuel our continued success as an industry leader. As we continue to accelerate our next-generation DaaS platform, we look forward to employing their adroitness and leadership in their corresponding fields to achieve extensive growth and take PayNearby to new heights and Bharat to an empowered future. PayNearby, Zidd Aage Badhne Ki.”

Verto, a leading B2B cross-border payments and foreign exchange (FX) enabler, has partnered with ForexPeople to bring secure, fast and seamless global payments to South African businesses buying, selling, or operating globally.

With more than $1.5 billion in transaction volumes, Verto provides trusted and reliable payment solutions to more than 3,000 customers and payouts to over 150 countries. Verto, authorised by the UK FCA as an Electronic Money Institution, chose to partner with ForexPeople, a registered Fit and Proper financial service provider and license holder, because of its deep expertise as a leading foreign exchange intermediary with a reputation for high ethical standards.

The partnership ensures that Verto is fully compliant with all local regulatory requirements, with specific emphasis on the imminent promulgation of the Conduct of Financial Institutions Act (COFI). Verto South Africa is now registered as a Juristic Representative (JR) of ForexPeople, which is registered with the FIC and the FSCA.

“Combined, the two companies bring a credible, compliant and highly capable cross-border payment solution to the South African B2B market, which sits at the forefront of innovation and regulatory expectations” says Ola Oyetayo, CEO of Verto.

With the ability to send and receive payments globally through a single API or via the Verto web and mobile platform, the solution empowers South African businesses to make and receive international business payments seamlessly from a central ecosystem, using a service that helps with currency conversion and global account management. The partnership provides a bedrock of global regulatory best practices and best-in-class customer service, aimed at reimagining and simplifying the cross-border payments experience of South African businesses.

“ForexPeople has always based its client services ethos on a very personal ‘high-touch’ approach. Through this partnership with Verto, we are now introducing a simple, intuitive online channel for new clients to exchange and make international business payments with ease,” said Richard Beddow, MD and Founder of ForexPeople.

ForexPeople is a member of SAATA (SA Association of Treasury Advisors) and has signed a statement of commitment to the Global FX Code to ensure transparency, best practices and risk management, this commitment aligns with Verto’s high code of ethics, trust and transparency. The partnership satisfies all standards for competence, risk management, safety, and compliance set by the South African Reserve Bank for cross-border payment providers.

ForexPeople offers a highly personalised service complementing Verto's automated onboarding and cross-border payment capabilities.
 

“The Verto platform is optimised to address the key pain points experienced by South African businesses making cross-border payments,” says Oyetayo. “It allows for several self-service options with a completely automated system currently in development. Our goal is to provide South African customers with an exceptional and trusted payment experience that empowers them to grow internationally through fast, seamless and friction-free global payments.”

Leading AI-based solutions provider, Pelican AI, announced that Santander Consumer Bank Austria has extended its partnership with Pelican to use its PaaS (Payments as a Service) solution. The Pelican Digital Payments Hub and integrated Sanctions Screening solutions will be used to process Target2, domestic SEPA payments and cross-border SWIFT payments on the Pelican cloud.   

European payment systems are undergoing significant innovation due to the impact of new technology developments, evolving regulations and the changing expectations of corporate customers and consumers.  

Pelican’s PaaS solution, based on the Pelican Digital Payments Hub, handles format-agnostic and differentiated processing of all payment types and can coexist and interact with back-office applications based on legacy technology, allowing Santander Consumer Bank Austria to retain and extend the life of its existing core systems without making a significant new investment. Crucially it will also allow the bank to upgrade to the latest cloud-based payment services and embrace market and regulatory changes in the mandated timelines by leveraging Pelican’s AI-based payment automation, format translation, payments enrichment and statement matching capabilities. The integrated AI and NLP-based Sanctions Screening capabilities will offer an intelligent screening of payments in full compliance with EU and global regulatory requirements.

Pelican AI gives its clients the opportunity to utilise a payments hub that is not only compliant today but can also easily adapt to market developments in the EU in an ever-changing payments landscape. Pelican’s SaaS-based solution, used by large global banks worldwide, can unify the bank’s current infrastructure, delivering the integration needed and bringing sizable cost savings.

Parth Desai, CEO, Pelican AI states: “With the PaaS solution using Pelican’s Digital Payments Hub, we're enabling banks like Santander Consumer Bank Austria to be more cost-efficient, grow their business and market share, with faster time to value for them and their customers. We have no doubt that our solution will help them drive further growth. We're excited to be part of their ongoing success."

The Pelican Digital Payments Hub integrates all payment infrastructures and transaction types including Target2 for High-Value Payments, TIPS and EBA RT1 for SEPA Instant Payments, EBA STEP2 for SEPA Credit Transfers, SWIFT MT and MX for correspondent banking and open APIs for PSD2 and Open Banking. The solution is message and format agnostic supporting multiple formats out of the box like ISO 20022, SEPA, SWIFT – MT & MX, FED, CHIPS, regional RTGS, faster payments schemes, and many more. It delivers exceptional levels of efficiency, control and flexibility through complete end-to-end payments life cycle for all payment methods and all clearing and settlement mechanisms, exception processing and statement matching, covering transformation, routing, repair and reporting services including configurable dashboards.

Pelican Secure Watchlist Filtering, part of the AI and NLP-enabled suite of financial crime compliance solutions, is a market-leading financial crime compliance solution for Enterprise Watchlist and Sanctions Screening. It delivers reputational protection across all payment processes and counterparties and is deployed on both a local and global basis by multiple large and small financial institutions to ensure risk mitigation and reduce cost to compliance. It offers significant reductions in FPR and review times through information-rich alert management screens with escalation capabilities and configurable dashboards and reporting to support internal and regulatory audits. 

CellPoint Digital, a global leader in payment orchestration, has added payment industry veterans and innovators to its leadership team in important roles in Product, Revenue, Marketing, Strategy and Business Alignment.

Tom Randklev joins as Global Head of Product having spent eight years at Global Payments. Based in Atlanta, Tom specialises in strategic planning, competitive analysis and new product launches, and has a passion for developing transformative new payment solutions. Leveraging his in-depth fintech experience with Global Payments and TSYS, he will drive the expansion of CellPoint Digital’s payment orchestration platform and ecosystem.

As the new Global Head of Revenue, Greg Worch will convert businesses in multiple verticals to payment orchestration and scale CellPoint Digital’s global revenue rapidly and sustainably. Also based out of Atlanta, Greg is an expert in the payment space, bringing more than 30 years’ experience in delivering strong growth for the likes of Worldpay, Chase Paymentech, Global Payments and several early-stage technology organisations.

Melanie Siewert is responsible for building and growing the CellPoint Digital brand as the new Global Head of Marketing, Brand and Design. Based in Atlanta, she is a strategic marketing leader with a depth of expertise in B2B marketing, financial services and payments. Her impressive track record of creating world-class brands includes leadership roles at Truist, Worldpay, Equifax and Whirlpool.

Kevin Weber joins the CellPoint Digital team as Global Head of Product and Payment Strategy. Based in Miami, Kevin has 30 years of consulting experience in the airline, IT and healthcare sectors. His focus is on developing a value-based approach to payment orchestration with a detailed ROI analysis of the payment ecosystem to continuously optimise CellPoint Digital’s payment platform.

New Global Head of Business Alignment, Marc Moskowitz, brings operational excellence and cross-functional business alignment to the CellPoint Digital team. Also based in Miami, his background running global operations, process improvement and technology teams at Fiserv, Nielsen and PwC enables him to drive scalability, efficiency and continuous improvement across the business’ functional teams.

Zoe Wheeler joins as Global Head of Culture & Team, bringing the international experience of leading people initiatives within innovative organisations. Based in London her focus will be on talent attraction and driving the employee value proposition for the Leading Payment Orchestration Platform.

Kristian Gjerding, CEO at CellPoint Digital, commented: “The past few years have seen extraordinary growth for CellPoint Digital, and it’s vital we have the right leadership team in place to make our ambitious long-term goals a reality. Rounding out our leadership team with these new roles, I am confident we have the best people in place to meet the demands we are seeing from a range of industries that recognize our powerful platform enables them to turn payments into a strategic advantage.  Their vision and expertise will allow us to cement our position as the global leader in payment orchestration and continue to innovative, all with a team and culture that will allow us to attract and retain best-in-class talent.”

CellPoint Digital’s powerful Payment Orchestration Platform optimises digital payment transactions, from cards or alternative payment methods, and accelerates the deployment of new payment options. Users can easily scale their own payment ecosystem across the world, unify the customer payment experience across their website, mobile apps and other channels, optimise the routing of each transaction, increase conversion rate and minimise payment costs.

With a completely redesigned and enhanced platform, Anubi Digital unveils DUO, a unique service that allows its customers to deploy digital assets in pairs to Uniswap’s liquidity pools and earn a sustainable stream of crypto reward over time.

Of all the opportunities present in DeFi, providing liquidity to decentralised exchanges such as Uniswap is the most transparent and economically viable: rewards are derived directly from the fees generated on-chain by the exchanges themselves, with no exposure to centralized counterparties or to leverage.

Providing liquidity, however, is a highly complex activity. This is why Anubi Digital has created DUO, the new service accessible directly from Euro that makes liquidity provision easily available to everyone.

Diego D'Aquilio, CEO of Anubi Digital, comments: "DUO is our answer to a specific demand for solutions that allow digital assets to work in a transparent, diversified and profitable way. DUO was conceived with a long-term vision based on our strong belief that efficiency and transparency are fundamental pillars for this industry to growth. Shaping this growth is part of Anubi Digital's mission”.

The flexibility of being able to enter and exit DUO with any digital asset - or directly from Euros - and the complete automation of the deposit, withdrawal and fee collection process make DUO unique in the crypto landscape.

How it works

• Clients can choose between four different DUOs: BTC/ETH, ETH/USDC, BTC/USDC, USDC/USDT: crypto prime assets with substantial liquidity.
• DUO can also be purchased without owning the constituent asset pair: simply select a starting asset - Euro or your own crypto in custody on the Anubi Digital platform - and it will be directly converted into the desired amount of DUO.
• Anubi Digital takes care of the entire technical process of converting and depositing into Uniswap's liquidity pools, for maximum simplicity and ease of use.
• Similarly, Anubi Digital collects the fees produced by Uniswap on a monthly basis so that each user can choose to automatically re-add them to their position (auto-compounding), gradually increasing their amount of DUO over time.

Thanks to the uniqueness of its features, DUO is:

• Sustainable over time, as remuneration is based on the continuous flow of fees paid to Uniswap for its service
• Liquid, because it allows participants to withdraw their assets with ease
• Collateralized, as the inserted liquidity never leaves the exchange's smart contract - unlike the undercollateralized uses prevalent in the crypto world today
• Unleveraged, and therefore not exposed to liquidation events
• Technically secure, as it is based on the AMM (Automated Market Making) paradigm, which is now fully understood and is based on simple and transparent smart contracts.

These key attributes are even more important in light of the events that have impacted the crypto industry in recent months, highlighting the risks of illiquid, undercollateralized models with high levels of leverage and debt. In this context, Liquidity Provision proved resilient despite the market volatility and continued to operate as expected.

Cornerstone FS plc, the cloud-based provider of international payment, currency risk management and electronic account services to SMEs, announces that it has appointed payments expert John Burns as an Independent Non-Executive Director, with effect from 1 December 2022.

John has over 40 years’ experience in the payments industry. In particular, he has undertaken substantial work regarding the introduction of the European Union’s Payment Services Directive in 2007, including being involved in negotiations as a member of the European Payments Council Experts Group and the Commission's Payment Systems Market Experts Group and supporting its implementation into UK law after having joined the Financial Services Authority (now FCA) in June 2008.

Other experience includes eight years at the Association for Payment Clearing Services and various positions with Clydesdale Bank Plc and Lloyds Banking Group.

Cornerstone also announces the appointment of Simon Charles Bullock as an Independent Non-Executive Director effective 10 October 2022. He brings over 30 years’ experience in CFO and other finance roles in public and private companies operating in the UK and internationally, including at Caxton FX Limited, a provider of foreign exchange, international payments and prepaid cards, and blue-chip companies Mars and General Electric.