Stephen Buechner was appointed Chief Risk & Compliance Officer, whereas Thomas Pinter is now Chief Commercial Officer. The new hires are part of the Warsaw-headquartered PSP's ambitious growth strategy, which includes broadening of the product portfolio, tightening partnerships with leading card organizations and developing relevant organizational structures.

Stephen Buechner is a seasoned payment industry manager with extensive experience in risk and compliance. Throughout the past 20 years, Mr Buechner has held diverse top-level managerial positions in some of the world's leading financial institutions, including Ingenico Group, Global Collect, Paysafe Group, Barclays and Citi. His mission at Straal is to lead the organization through the transition from an advanced gateway provider into a leading payment orchestration company and a premium partner of major card organizations.

Thomas Pinter is a payment industry expert with over 12 years of business development experience earned in, among others, Intrapay, Secure Trading and Paysafe Group. As Chief Commercial Officer at Straal, he is responsible for planning and implementing business development strategies and tactics across all target industries and verticals, as well as identifying new commercial opportunities and areas of growth.

As a rapidly-growing company operating in highly regulated and extremely competitive areas of the market, we rely on top-class experts with a proven track record of successful accomplishments. I am convinced that Stephen and Thomas will remarkably contribute to Straal's structural and commercial development - said Michał Jędraszak, CEO, Straal. We do in months what traditional financial institutions and tech firms used to do in years. Driving really fast on a wet winding track requires outstanding skills. Therefore, I am happy to welcome Stephen and Thomas behind the wheel.

Straal has been offering payment, optimization and fraud prevention services under its brand since 2017. Earlier, the company was operating in the white label model. The Warsaw-based PSP holds PCI DSS Level 1. Certificate and is recognized as one of the leading experts in recurring payments in the CEE region. The company plans to soon introduce new products based on open banking APIs and regulations imposed by the PSD2. The newly-appointed C-level executives will play a key role in Straal’s further development.