Fidel API Names Mastercard Vet Salman Syed as COO

Financial infrastructure platform Fidel API has appointed Salman Syed as chief operating officer as part of its goal of expanding in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Fidel API said in an emailed news release Thursday (Sept. 8) that Syed will lead the company’s go-to-market and operational activities, “with an emphasis on sales, business development, marketing, account management and partnerships.”

With the appointment, the company has also opened an office in San Francisco to be closer to its clients and tap into the Bay Area’s talent pool.

“Since launching our New York office two years ago we have seen tremendous demand for our platform in the US. Broadening our footprint to Silicon Valley is a key step in expanding our business in the region,” said Dev Subrata, CEO and co-founder at Fidel API. “Salman is well placed to help Fidel API accelerate its growth and I look forward to working closely with him.”

Syed spent several years with Mastercard working across strategy, product management and partnerships. His most recent role was as senior vice president and general manager for North America at Marqeta, where he led the company’s go-to-market and operational activities in the U.S. and Canada, its largest market.

PYMNTS spoke recently with Patrick Nealon, vice president of strategy at Fidel API, about the rise of automated financial tasks due to secure connections between financial institutions and software developers.

See also: Open Finance’s Future Starts With Consumer Consent

While the majority of the financial world is focused on open banking, Nelaon said there’s a larger trend taking shape: open finance. He said the term describes “a new way to approach the sharing and use of financial data.”

Nealon pointed out that even now, moving from one application to another within finance is clunky and often means logging off entirely or working one’s way through a range of verification experiences. But the past few years, he added, have seen the emergence of infrastructure that can offer software developers a better path toward accessing that critical data.