Digital bank and fintech Green Dot has appointed Renata Caine as the general manager of its banking-as-a-service division. 

“BaaS will continue to be an important enabler for companies thinking long term about their relationships with their customers and securing their loyalty through value-added embedded financial services,” Caine told Bank Automation News. “It is a complex ecosystem where different parties might own different parts of the BaaS stack.” 

One of the biggest challenges that Caine sees at Green Dot, and in the BaaS landscape, is “finding new ways to maintain ‘stickiness’ with our partners’ customers,” she said. 

Caine previously served as senior vice president of international planning and strategy at card-issuer Marqeta and was an adviser to venture capital firm Point72 Ventures, according to a release from Green Dot. 

Ex-head of small business at Visa Business Solutions joins Uplinq as board adviser

Uplinq, financial solution provider for small business lenders, selected former head of small business at Visa Business Solutions Matt Baker to serve as a board adviser.

“Accessing capital, managing their cash flow and getting access to credit has been the No. 1 issue that small businesses have faced,” Baker told BAN. Uplinq “sparked my interest because they solve that problem.” 

“These [adviser roles] can really add value to the [Uplinq] proposition,” he said.  

As a board adviser, Baker will assist with go-to-market strategies, make connections with financial institutions, including tapping his former employers Visa and Mastercard, and help develop new partnerships, Baker said. 

Desmond named chief product officer at nCino

Technology provider nCino tapped Sean Desmond to serve as chief product officer, Desmond told BAN. He started in the role on May 1.  

Prior to his new role, Desmond served as nCino’s chief customer success officer, according to nCino’s website.

“I have spent the majority of my career in the post-sale realm … in the continuum of how we take care of customers after they buy,” he said. “I take that customer-centric approach with me to this role.” 

At the tech provider’s recent global user conference, clients were surveyed and asked what their No. 1 priority is and 70% of the audience said efficiency, Desmond said. “So, that’s what we’re focused on at this point in time, but we’re also focused on scale and compliance and regulation and productivity.” 

Some of nCino’s clients include M&T Bank and Wells Fargo, according to nCino’s website.  

Fintech DailyPay appoints Pitts to board

Payroll fintech DailyPay appointed Brett Pitts to its board of directors, according to a May 2 release from the company.

“Over the past 15 years, I’ve heard a lot of observations about time to market and cost associated with big banks. … This new role will allow me to bring that experience and knowledge to the board and to DailyPay’s executive leadership and enable the company to continue to grow quickly and scale in ways that its customers and stakeholders will expect and demand,” Pitts told BAN. 

Prior to DailyPay, Pitts served as head of BMO Financial Group’s North American Treasury and Payment Solutions and executive vice president and group head of digital at Wells Fargo, according to the release

“Even within big banks like BMO and Wells Fargo, I’ve been able to lead organizations to do some very innovative things … first to open a host of new products completely online, first to develop and offer new payment types like Zelle, first to offer open banking mechanisms like API gateways and secure data exchange, first to leverage new real-time payments rails and many more firsts,” he told BAN. 

As a board director, Pitts plans to help DailyPay address ways to simplify financial management for employees, while ensuring employers understand their role in supporting financial health, he said.  

“When you’re dealing with people’s money, you have to innovate in thoughtful ways and do as much to help people use those innovations effectively as you do developing things like a new app experience,” he said.