The consultancy, established to help businesses place mobile technology at the heart of their strategy, has strengthened its Cards and Payments' division to provide clients with specialist support in their payments' strategy.

Changing consumer needs, deeper regulation and lower barriers to entry are challenging existing businesses to evolve and also presenting the opportunity for new entrants to thrive. And as the pace of change quickens, mobile is continuing to emerge as the key interface for both traditional players and those who want to innovate.

In his role, Matt will work with clients to drive performance from existing products and prepare their businesses to embrace mobile and digital payment technology, working alongside Piran's digital authentication experts to enhance services in the rapidly evolving payments ecosystem.

Matt has more than 20 years' experience within financial services and has built a reputation as an industry practitioner and outstanding strategist. He is able to use payments industry expertise to deliver high-value returns to clients in the UK, Europe and North America. He has worked for, and at many, of the world's leading banks, lenders and processors, and is instrumental to many key industry decisions.

The key services that Matt will oversee include: payments' strategy, partnership development, benchmarking and performance improvement, proposition and product development, business insight and research, mobile payments, value management and loyalty, merchant acquiring and acceptance, as well as programme design and management.

Julian Sawyer, Piran Consulting's Chief Executive Officer, said: "The payments' ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex and having someone of Matt's reputation and experience will help navigate our clients through this complexity.

"The convergence of the cards and payments' team with our telecoms and digital authentication experts gives us a real point of difference and positions Piran for an exciting period of growth.

"Matt's appointment demonstrates Piran's growth ambitions and the ability to attract the best talent in the industry. I am delighted that our clients and partners can benefit from his experience and I believe the business is ideally positioned to optimise performance in both the physical and digital economy."