Plaid Hires Ex-Adyen Exec to Expand Open Finance in Europe

Plaid has named former Adyen executive Brian Dammeir to oversee its European operations.

Speaking to CNBC Monday (Nov. 20), he said the thing that excited him most about joining the digital finance firm was “the opportunity around open finance.”

“When we think about Europe, it’s about how can we be more relevant globally … how can we find more and more use cases outside of our starting point in fintech.” Dammeir added.

“Right now, that’s really about expanding into account-to-account payments as well as into lending and traditional banking.”

Dammeir spent eight years with Adyen, most recently heading the Dutch payments company’s unified commerce unit, working out of San Francisco.

He takes over at Plaid from Ripsy Bandourian, who left to “pursue other passions,” a company spokesperson told CNBC. That spokesperson added that Dammeir had interacted with executives at Plaid for “more than a decade.”

The two companies announced earlier this month that they were working together to introduce Pay-by-Bank services in North America in early 2024.

“With this broadened offering, we look forward to continuing to position our single platform as the go-to enterprise solution in North America,” Davi Strazza, president of North America at Adyen, said in a news release.

PYMNTS looked last month at how the growing adoption of open banking had led to a surge in the use of account-to-account (A2A) transfers.

“But despite its growing popularity worldwide, many A2A payment users, both businesses and consumers alike, have become increasingly dissatisfied with the constraints of these transactions,” that report noted.

Transaction limits and susceptibility to fraud have been significant concerns, according to insights found in the latest installment of the “Real-Time Payments Tracker® Series Report” from PYMNTS Intelligence.

That survey showed that not only do A2A payments lack certain fraud controls common in other payment methods like credit cards, but they offer no mechanisms to revoke or recover funds in the event of fraud.

“Americans have also expressed dissatisfaction with the slow and expensive nature of A2A transfers, and instead show a preference for faster payment methods such as peer-to-peer (P2P) apps,” PYMNTS wrote.

The survey found that 35% of consumers consider A2A payments too slow, and 36% are dissatisfied with the cost of these transfers. Still, more than half of consumers showed interest in A2A transfers, suggesting market potential if the speed and cost issues are fixed.