SVB Appoints Former BofA and Amex Execs as Payments and Digital Solutions Heads

Silicon Valley Bank has named new heads of its payments and digital solutions divisions.

The bank announced Tuesday (Aug. 22) that Martin Murrell had been named head of global payments, while Milton Santiago would become its new global digital solutions head.

“In a period of dramatic change in the payments and digital banking landscape, Martin and Milton bring the vision and execution needed to enhance SVB’s product suite, bringing inventive and bespoke solutions to our innovation economy clients,” Gagan Kanjlia, chief product officer for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), said in a news release.

According to the release, Murrell will oversee the teams handling the bank’s payments products, including commercial card, merchant services and embedded payments. He has 25 years of banking experience, joining SVB last year to work in its payments infrastructure, integration and delivery team.

His credentials include time with Amalgamated Bank, American Express and Capital One.

Santiago is a 30-year industry veteran, and is the founder of both Bank of America’s CashPro and FinTech Advisors LLC, having joined SVB in 2018.

PYMNTS spoke with him last year about the bank’s relationship with its startup founder clients, with Santiago comparing the experience to inviting celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay for dinner.

“What would be going through your mind? ‘What do I cook? How does it taste? How was the placement done?’ Your head is on fire,” Santiago said. “I would argue that we have the most demanding customers in the world because these are the innovators who focus their lives on transforming how people do business.”

That was 14 months before those clients led a run on SVB, leading to a crisis in the regional banking sector and to SVB’s takeover by regulators, who sold the bank to First Citizens.

As noted here last month, the bank had begun its startup/venture lending business again, though on a more cautious level.

“The economy and the fundraising environment are headwinds on loan origination,” Marc Cadieux, who was named president of SVB’s commercial banking division in June, told The Wall Street Journal. “Fewer companies are able to clear that key underwriting bar — do you still have the support of venture investors behind you.”