The appointment follows a strong finish to 2009 for Distra, with three new customers going live on the Distra Universal Switch, including PayFair in Europe and two financial institutions in the Asia Pacific region.

As Distra's new director global sales and marketing, Peter will be responsible for developing and driving the company's sales and marketing activities, and spearheading business development, working with partners, prospects and Distra's distribution network. Peter will also be responsible for raising awareness of Distra's Universal Switch through industry events and the extended global sales and marketing team.

"Despite obstacles posed by the global financial crisis, Distra maintained a steady new business pipeline last year, which has generated strong momentum for 2010," says Mike Aston, CEO, Distra. "This is an exciting time in the payments industry, with innovations helping to reinvent the legacy business model and spurring transformation across the payments landscape. The appointment of Peter Lloyd as director global sales and marketing will further strengthen our team, and ensure our progress remains focused and strong."

Peter brings 38 years experience in the global IT industry to Distra with a career focused predominately on the finance and banking sectors in the US, Asia and Australia. Peter most recently spent twelve months with VocaLink, a Distra partner, where he held the position of regional Managing Director Asia Pacific. Prior to this, Peter spent 8 years with the eFunds Corporation where he was Managing Director Asia Pacific, responsible for leading a team implementing retail payment systems in 16 countries. Peter also spent time with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong , Dynasty Technologies, based in Houston and Tandem Computers, where, amongst other things, he was project director for the Westpac Bank Handiway System, the first operational point-of-sale (POS) network in Australia.

"Having worked closely witth Distra over the past 12 months, I've seen the innovative approach they have to the payments industry, and how they are working to bring about a change in the thinking of both the banks and non-banks - corporates, merchant groups and retailers - concerned with payments transformation," says Peter Lloyd, director global sales and marketing, Distra. "With the Company entering its 10th year, Distra is also now establishing a strong track record across a broad range of global clients for rapid implementation and high availability production. It's a great time to be joining Distra."