The appointment of Tony Sheehan as CFO is a crucial step in Change Financial’s goal to become the leading global payments and platform provider.
Global fintech Change Financial (ASX:CCA) has welcomed a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to bolster its executive leadership team.
The company has named Tony Sheehan as its new CFO, who will officially start his duties on 19 July.
Sheehan is a highly experienced, strategic and influential finance executive with over 18 years’ international experience in the world of banking and finance.
This includes previous senior roles in Australia, New Zealand and the UK across investment banking, private equity, corporate finance, operations, and sales and marketing.
His extensive experience will help the company execute an aggressive growth roadmap as it embarks on a global expansion that includes pipelines in the US, South America, Thailand, Cambodia, as well as in Australia/New Zealand (ANZ).
240 years of experience
Prior to accepting the role at Change, Sheehan held senior roles at Global Payments Australia/New Zealand, which is part of the NYSE-listed Global Payments Inc.
Global Payments is a leading worldwide provider of payments and commerce technology, as well software solutions delivering innovative software services globally.
Sheehan held the dual roles of Chief Operating Officer (COO) and CFO during his tenure at Global Payments’s Australia/New Zealand operations.
In his role as CFO, Sheehan led and managed all aspects of accounting, financial performance and reporting, compliance, legal, operations, sales and marketing.
The addition of Sheehan to Change’s executive roster will strengthen what is already a highly experienced team with 240 years of combined experience in the fintech and payments industries.
The team is currently led by CEO Alastair Wilkie, and non-executive chairman Ben Harrison.
“Tony’s extensive experience in finance and operations, specifically within the fintech and payments landscape, will be invaluable to Change as we focus on delivering on our strategic objective of becoming a leading global payments and platform, providing innovative solutions to business and financial institutions,” Wilkie said.
Huge addressable market
Change is looking to execute on a major market opportunity, with global non-cash transactions projected to grow from US$684 billion in 2019 to US$1.5 trillion in 2025.
The company has developed innovative and scalable payments technology offering Banking as a Service (Baas) solutions to businesses and financial institutions.
This platform effectively provides the critical infrastructure that connects existing licensed banks with modern API- driven brands, such as fintech platforms.
Change manages and processes more than 16 million credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide, serving more than 125 customers in 36 countries.
Part of CCA’s growth strategy is to upgrade the existing platform with new features such as debit and credit cards, which the company expects will increase its addressable market by 10 times.
The appointments will bolster its payment solutions in the key markets of Australia, New Zealand, and the US.
Global fintech Change Financial (ASX:CCA) has announced a number of key appointments to its payments solutions teams, as it looks to further bolster its Australian, New Zealand and American businesses.
The company has appointed Nick Beach as Senior Vice President of Payment Solutions.
David McAleese and Brian Hodgdon meanwhile, have also both been appointed Vice Presidents of Business Development and Client Relations.
Beach will be based in Brisbane, and will be responsible for payments and card solutions globally, while working closely with business development and project delivery teams.
Beach’s previous role was at EML Payments (ASX:EML), where he worked for nine years holding several senior roles, and was most recently Head of Product and Solutions.
His other prior experiences included stints at SPARQ Solutions and JPMorgan Chase.
McAleese and Hodgdon will join as part of Beach’s Payments Solutions team.
Both will work with Change’s Latin American team to drive future growth, with McAleese based in Brisbane and Hodgdon in New Jersey, US.
McAleese has previously worked at leading organisations such as First Data, Citibank, ANZ, Westpac.
In those roles, he had built good relationships and partnered closely with key clients such as BOQ, Suncorp, Auswide, IMB, MyState and RACQ to deliver B2B customer solutions.
Prior to joining Change, Hodgdon held senior roles at Intermex and Payomatic where he led numerous new sales initiatives for payments and mobile card services growth in the banking and fintech market across the US and Latin America.
“All three bring extensive industry experience, and position us well for continued growth in the payments space,” says Change CEO, Alastair Wilkie.
“These appointments will be pivotal to our success of delivering user-centric solutions to our clients as we build the next generation of payments solutions and services for the global market.”
Change’s record quarter
The appointments coincide with Change’s record Q4 revenue, as the company pushes forward with the strategy of capitalising on global opportunities.
Change says it’s expecting rapid pipeline growth in these new markets and the new executives will work together to spearhead the rollout of Change’s Phase 2 Customer Ready Platform, which will allow it to offer a next generation integrated payment processing and card management solutions platform.
Prior to today’s appointments, Change also appointed a new CFO, Tony Sheehan – an experienced and strategic finance executive with over 18 years’ international experience in the world of banking and finance.
It’s expected that the extensive experience brought by these appointments will help Change execute an aggressive growth roadmap as it embarks on a global expansion that includes pipelines in the US, South America, SE Asia, as well as in Australia/New Zealand.
Change’s platform currently manages and processes more than 16 million virtual, credit, debit and prepaid cards worldwide, serving more than 125 customers in 36 countries.
The company has successfully executed on Phase One of its growth strategy.
ASX fintech Change Financial (ASX:CCA) is laying the framework for long-term growth in the multi trillion dollar global payments market.
The company provided a market update for investors this morning, confirming it’s completed Phase One – product integration – of a three-phase strategy set out by CEO Alistair Wilkie and the CCA executive team.
The company will now focus on Phase Two — building out the Customer Ready Platform for its combined product offering, scheduled for delivery later this year.
While CCA’s short-term operations and revenue channels won’t be affected by the updated rollout, the moves are part of a broader strategy to accelerate growth and capture more of what is now a global market opportunity.
Phase One
The initial phase of the strategy was focused on CCA’s technology suite, which required the integration of tech products following last year’s acquisition of Wirecard’s Australian and New Zealand assets.
In its technology update this morning, Change said it has established a cloud network and installed the new payments management platform.
The system has been developed with an API gateway that provides automated links between the payments management platform with CCA’s certified processing platform and mobile apps – all of which operates with encrypted software and advanced security settings.
The completion of Phase One “gives Change a platform to demonstrate its new capability to customers, and accelerates the sales and business development cycle”, CCA said.
In addition, the company “is already in discussions with a number of banks about bringing their technology into the cloud and onto Change’s BaaS Platform”.
BNPL disruptor
A feature of CCA’s advanced technology suite is that it’s now positioned to offer a BNPL service that’s materially differentiated from other players in the market.
Traditional BNPL providers still require direct connections to the POS (point of sale) systems operated by merchants.
However, CCA’s InstallPay platform capability allows payments to be split directly to customer debit, prepaid and credit cards.
The key advantage of the platform is that banks and FinTechs can offer BNPL services, as opposed to partnering with a third-party providers and keep their customer relationships.
“It allows them to offer BNPL under their own brand, putting them back in power of the customer relationship therefore increasing engagement with their end customers,” CCA said.
The company said its unique tech advantage in the marketplace has the capacity to be “hugely disruptive to incumbent BNPL players”.
It lowers barriers to entry and provides market access to any bank or fintech that offers prepaid, debit or credit cards.
Effectively, InstallPay gives merchant clients a customisable interface around fees charged and the number of instalments.
“The functionality is live in all markets globally, and Change has a number of large clients in Latin America and Asia using the product, including one of south-east Asia’s largest banks,” CCA said.
Looking ahead
With its multi-phase growth strategy on track and a disruptive BNPL platform live in the market, Change has also engaged a global payments advisory team to assist in identifying key opportunities in the rapidly growing global payments market.
The company has conducted an initial market assessment and “concluded the global need for its Platform solution”.
Research from McKinsey shows payments services generated revenue of almost $US2 trillion last year.
In that context, Change is now moving towards Phase 2 and 3 of its strategy to drive growth across its global client base, where it already serves 125 customers in 36 countries.
Phase 2 — the Customer Ready Platform – is due for completion in the second half of this year Phase 3 – Advanced Platform Features – scheduled for delivery by 2022.
“Combining the two platforms (certified processing platform and payments management platform) together and leveraging both the company’s existing technology and the recently acquired will accelerate Change’s product development by approximately 24 months,” CCA said.
https://stockhead.com.au/tech/change-financial-accelerates-strategic-growth-pathway-with-hugely-disruptive-bnpl-platform/
Fintech payments company Change Financial (ASX:CCA) announced this morning that it’s finalised the strategic acquisition of Wirecard’s Australian and New Zealand assets.
The company confirmed the completion of the sale conditions, which will see it take control of Wirecard’s Australia and New Zealand operations.
The acquisition follows Change’s initial announcement earlier this month, when the company jumped at the opportunity to acquire the Wirecard assets at attractive multiples.
And with CEO Alistair Wilkie – the former chief operating officer at $1bn payments platform EML Payments (ASX:EML) at the helm, Change is well placed to convert its strategic acquisition into a material profit generator in the years ahead.
Game-changer
Change said the deal gave it control over a strong global payments business that generated recurring revenues of $9.3m in the 2020 financial year, and total income of more than $15m.
Wirecard’s Australian and New Zealand business specialises in card management and payment platform solutions, for “banks and financial institutions as well as digital brands and fintechs”, Change said.
The business currently serves more than 120 customers across 35 countries, including the ‘Big Four’ Australian banks and major supermarket operators.
Importantly, all key personnel at Wirecard have stayed with the business post-sale – a direct indicator of senior management’s view about the platform’s growth prospects.
Prior to the acquisition by Change Financial, Wirecard’s regional leadership group also explored the potential for a management buy-out (MBO) for the assets, to capitalise on the global opportunity.
As of today (October 1), all required staff of Wirecard Australia & NZ are now employed by Change Financial.
Customer transfer
In confirming the deal, Change advised that it has now started receiving signed assignment deeds for Wirecard customers.
In conversations with administrator McGrath Nicol, which selected Change’s offer in a competitive bidding process, the company expects to complete more assignment deeds in the months ahead.
In addition, existing Wirecard customers have continued to use the company’s services and pay their bills throughout the administration process.
With the sale now completed, Change is focused on accelerating the integration process and expanding market share in the months ahead.
The company flagged a “10-fold” increased of its addressable market via the introduction of new card services.
It also plans to onboard more than 10 companies from its existing client base in the US to the expanded product offering.
https://stockhead.com.au/tech/change-financial-seals-the-deal-on-game-changing-acquisition/