Banco Santander has hired former Apple executive Trish Burgess as global head of peer-to-peer payments.
In this newly created role, Burgess will be charged with increasing P2P usage across Santander’s global footprint to foster an international payment network.
The bank is currently working on plans to extend One Pay FX, its real-time mobile money transfer system developed in concert with Ripple, to non-customers through a standalone open market app called Pago FX which will be launched in the UK, Germany and Poland for individuals and SMEs in the near future.
At Apple, Burgess provided direction for the launch of the consumer tech giant's new credit card and worked on the roll out of Apple Pay in Europe and Asia.
Reporting to Chirag Patel, global head of Santander Digital Payments, Burgess will become part of a team at the bank which includes a roster of banking and technology executives formerly from companies including Google, Amazon, PayPal, Facebook, and Netflix based in Madrid, London and Silicon Valley.
Says Patel: “We know that innovation is powered by the most talented people, and we welcome Trish’s wealth of payment experience. Her fresh thinking is invaluable to the team as we forge ahead with our ambition to responsibly serve the financial needs of one billion potential customers and businesses in Europe and the Americas.”
In April last year, Santander pledged to spend EUR20 billion on digital technology over the next four years with payments identified as the cornerstone of a new open financial services platform.