People moves: Tribe, Danske, Paysafe make changes

Nordea names former Handelsbanken boss as new CEO

Finland-headquartered bank Nordea announced Frank Vang-Jensen as its new CEO earlier this month. Vang-Jensen held a similar role at Handelsbanken before joining Nordea as head of personal banking in 2017. Out-going CEO Casper von Koskull will be staying till 2020 for the bank’s smooth transition.

Explaining his new role, Vang-Jensen said: “Striking the balance between cost and revenue will be one of my most important tasks. We operate in an extremely competitive environment. If our revenues go down our cost needs to go down more. If our revenues increase, we make sure our costs don’t increase even more.”

Cashplus recruits AmEx UK commercial credit risk boss

UK-based digital banking provider Cashplus has appointed Rahul Duseja as credit director. Prior to the appointment, Duseja served as head of credit risk for UK commercial cards and payments at American Express. In his new role, he will be responsible for directing the company’s focus on small and medium-sized enterprises lending.

Commenting up on his appointment Duseja said: “I’m excited to be joining Cashplus at this important time in the company’s history. Digital challengers are increasingly shaking up the SME banking and lending market, offering a lifeline to entrepreneurs where traditional players can’t, or won’t.”

Danske Bank appoints new CFO

Denmark-headquartered Danske Bank announced Stephen Engels as chief financial officer on September 5. Engels will take up the role from April 2020, replacing Christian Baltzer. Presently, Engels is the chief financial officer of Commerzbank and has previously been associated with Daimler as its head of internal audit, CFO and head of management group controlling.

Commenting on the appointment, Chris Vogelzang Danske’s new CEO said to The Wall Street Journal, “Stephan Engels brings strong execution expertise and management experience from banking and other sectors.”

Tribe Payments appoints C-level executives to beef up management team

London-headquartered payment service provider Tribe Payments has appointed Fadl Mahmoud as chief information officer, Vytautas Mickevicius as its chief technology officer and Alex Reddish as chief commercial officer.

Reddish said: “Tribe’s technology breaks the legacy cycle that makes it so difficult for many financial service providers to innovate and bring new concepts to market. I’m excited to join a tribe dedicated to delivering ground-breaking payment services where they are most needed.”

Paysafe appoints Richard Swales as chief risk officer

London-based payments provider Paysafe Group named Richard Swales as chief risk officer, effective October 14. Swales will be responsible for the group’s global risk strategy, consist of its enterprise, merchant and consumer risk functions. He will be directly reporting to CEO Philips McHugh.

Swales has over 30 years of experience in the risk industry. He has been associated with PayPal in various roles along with leadership roles in insurance, commercial finance, banking, telecoms and payments organisations in Europe, Asia and the US.

McHugh commented: “Paysafe has a strong track record of specialising in niche, highly regulated segments and verticals. This is something that differentiates us, and it also means we need to continue our laser focus on maintaining an industry-leading risk strategy. I am delighted that someone of Richard’s calibre and experience is joining our leadership team and I’m confident that he will be a huge asset as we continue to grow and focus on accelerating our strategy as the global, specialised payments provider.”

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