Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank, named Martin Murrell the new head of global payments and Milton Santiago the new head of global digital solutions last month.  

The pair will 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 at SVB, said in a company release.  

As head of global payments. Murrell will manage payments products, like commercial cards, merchant services and embedded payments.  

As global head of digital solutions, Santiago will be tasked with defining SVB’s digital strategy and creating a road map of the bank’s technological investments to meet strategic goals, an SVB spokesperson told Bank Automation News.  

Prior to joining SVB, Murrell served as the chief operating officer at Amalgamated Bank for half a decade while Santiago worked as the managing director of global eCommerce at Bank of America for seven years. 

SVB was acquired by First Citizens Bank in March after SVB suffered from a liquidity crunch. Post-acquisition, FCB is “committed to retaining and growing SVB’s specialized businesses” of serving the innovation economy, the SVB spokesperson said.  

In Q2, SVB’s tech and healthcare banking team reported “more than $1 billion in new loan commitments to new and existing clients,” the spokesperson said. 

Stax names Rowe CEO

Payment technology provider Stax Payments named Paulette Rowe its new chief executive last month. Rowe replaces John Kristel, who had served as interim CEO since January, according to a company release.  

“My immediate priorities are to meet customers and partners, get to know my new colleagues across all our offices and strengthen the team with key new hires,” Rowe told BAN. “I’m delighted to have the backing of the Stax board to increase our investment in our people, products and service delivery.”

Rowe is looking to target “specialized verticals like health care and property” as a key area for growth with the company’s embedded payments solutions.  

Stax will also “prioritize new partnerships with the card brands and other fintechs,” Rowe said. 

She previously served as CEO of the integrated and e-commerce solutions division at London-based Paysafe, which offers digital payments internationally, according to her LinkedIn profile.  

Fowler new leader at Zelle’s parent company

Early Warning Services (EWS), a banking consortium fintech and the parent company of Zelle, appointed Cameron Fowler as its next CEO effective Oct. 2. 

Fowler will replace Albert Ko, who was appointed as the chief executive of EWS in May 2019 and left the company in May, according to his LinkedIn profile.  

Fowler will assume his responsibilities as the chief executive of EWS on Oct. 2. 

Prior to joining EWS, Fowler served as the chief strategy and operations officer for BMO Financial Group and led the digital and discretionary wealth business at Barclays in London, according to an EWS release. 

“I am thrilled to join an organization with the strength, history and ambition of Early Warning,” Fowler told BAN. 

Discover appoints Owen interim CEO

Card payments behemoth Discover Financial Services announced that Roger Hochschild will step down as the CEO after nearly two decades leading the company. 

Discover has tapped John Owen, a member of the board, to serve as interim CEO until a replacement is found, a Discover release said. 

Hochschild’s resignation comes on the heels of the FDIC announcing a probe into Discover in July for misclassifying certain credit card accounts into its highest merchant and merchant acquirer price tier, according to a July Securities and Exchange Commission filing. 

“Since joining the board in 2022, I have been impressed by Discover’s dedicated employee base and all the potential that lies ahead for the business,” Owen said in the release.  

Arnt is new co-CEO for dLocal

Payments company dLocal announced that Pedro Arnt has been appointed co-chief executive, joining Sebastian Kanovich. 

The two heads of dLocal have complementary skills, with Arnt bringing experience in scaling tech-driven organizations while Kanovich adds experience in commercial, tech and payments, a dLocal release stated.  

The Montevideo, Uruguay-based company is targeting emerging markets to expand its services, Kanovich told BAN.  

“DLocal is addressing a vast untapped total addressable market [TAM] within the rapidly expanding markets that we currently serve,” Kanovich said.  

Arnt previously served as chief financial officer at Mercado Libre, a $69 billion company with operations in emerging markets, for the past 12 years.  

“He helped build Mercado Libre from the ground up, and due to this unique experience, he’s seen scale in LatAm and tech like few others have had the privilege of witnessing,” Kanovich said. “Pedro understands just how a business is able to generate value and technology – by building scale and compounding results over the long term.” 

Arnt aims to accelerate dLocal’s growth by “rolling out additional processes, deploying more and better systems” and plans to “strengthen our compliance infrastructure across emerging markets,” he told BAN.