Mr Eagle-Brown, the former Merchant Account Leader at MasterCard, will manage the development and management of relationships with large retail merchants and acquirers. He will report to ERN's Head of Global Sales Andrew Rush, another well-renowned name in the financial services industry.

"I'm delighted to be joining ERN at this exciting time, with big data set to change the transactional landscape in the coming year. The team already in place at ERN is full of talented individuals, and my expertise in business development and customer relationship management will strengthen our overall offering," he said.

Mr Eagle-Brown, a graduate of the University of Sheffield, also boasts more than a decade's worth of experience in the travel industry, first with Thomas Cook and then at foreign exchange service Travelex.

"Brian's appointment to ERN shows just how serious we are about hiring only high-pedigree names," said Dan Brassington, CEO of ERN.

"ERN plans to shake up the way banks and merchants manage and use big data, enabling them to offer value-added products to customers that boost loyalty and long-term custom. Brian's experience of developing customer relationships in fast-growing businesses is crucial to that push," Brassington continued.

ERN's transactional big data platform, Looop, was launched at the FinovateEurope 2013 conference in February. The scalable, reliable and secure big data platform will, for the first time, enable both banks and merchants to perform deep-level analysis of customer behaviour on a micro and macro scale.

Looop - which is fully PCI and ISO 27001 compliant - is designed to boost customer loyalty by enabling banks and brands to create value-added products based on the analysis of transactional data.