Identitii appoints former Investec Head of Payments, Joe Higginson
ASX-listed fintech Identitii announce that the former Head of Payments for Investec Bank (UK), Joe Higginson, has joined Identitii as Chief Commercial Officer.
Commenting on the announcement, Higginson said, “The global payments landscape is changing rapidly, as financial institutions accelerate their move to digital to better leverage Open Banking and meet changing customer and regulatory demands. It’s easy to underestimate how hard it is for banks to make these changes, but the reality is that they are operating tens or hundreds of different interconnected systems that are decades old and so complex it’s impossible to simply turn one off so you can connect a new one.
“In essence, banks must perform critical technology upgrades while still flying the plane, which carries significant risk to compliance, customer experience and data security. This is exactly the problem Identitii solves and it’s why I joined at such an exciting time in our journey. I believe Identitii has the technology and the capabilities to help financial institutions all around the world overcome legacy technology challenges and accelerate digital adoption. I’m thrilled to be part of the team.”
Joe’s career has seen him move from selling complex technology solutions to financial institutions all over the world, to working within banks to improve their systems and processes at a time where they are accelerating digital adoption and considering whether to build or buy technology. Where once technology purchases were for large multi-year and multi-million dollar implementations delivered on-site, today’s financial institutions purchase targeted services from a range of specialist providers to solve specific challenges. The industry is also looking more towards cloud-based products and services that enable them to move faster and more seamlessly to support growing customer demands and increased scrutiny from regulators.
As Head of Payments at Investec, Joe was responsible for designing, building, and implementing a next generation payments infrastructure for the bank, reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer. The new platform sits at the heart of the bank’s technology architecture, enabling it to scale quickly to meet increasing customer demand for faster payments and more streamlined products.
Prior to Investec Bank, Joe was Global Head of Payments for Travelex, where he was responsible for innovating across Travelex’s suite of products to help increase revenue and grow the bank’s payments business. He also held roles with Western Union Business Solutions, where he established and ran the company’s financial institution division, responsible for product development and sales to financial institution clients.
As CCO at Identitii, Joe will use this industry experience and significant payments expertise to drive Identitii’s commercial strategy and go to market activities.
