New York-based Piermont Bank appointed Rodrigo Suarez as its new chief banking and innovation officer. 

Suarez previously served as the $467 million bank’s head of innovation. In his new role, he will use his tech-first mindset as Piermont looks to launch new products to assist the bank’s fintech partners, Suarez told Bank Automation News.

“We’re in constant dialogue with technology companies that are innovators themselves,” he said. “That constant dialogue is what really enables us to understand what’s relevant and what we can do to stay ahead of that curve.”

Saurez was formerly principal of INV Fintech, a sister tech accelerator to Bank Automation News.

Being a smaller bank allows for a level of agility not seen in Piermont’s larger competitors; the ability to build and launch products at a faster rate is one of the bank’s biggest strengths, he said. 

Suarez built the bank’s innovation department from scratch following the bank’s charter in 2019, he said. He helped launch a payment solution to allow tech companies to transact directly with the bank via API. “There will be a lot more of those [launches] in the next few months,” he added. 

Suarez plans to use his background working at fintechs, developing projects and products within lending to enhance the bank’s deposit and payments offerings for technology companies, Suarez said. 

Hofmann appointed CRO at GFT

Digital transformation company GFT selected Scott Hofmann as the new U.S. chief revenue officer. 

Hofmann will assist the Stuttgart, Germany-based company in unifying its North American operations and demonstrating how the company’s digital transformation capabilities can assist with upgrading legacy banking systems, Hofmann told BAN.

“Part of my job as CRO is to educate [financial institutions] on the opportunity costs of not transforming their legacy systems,” he said. “In the case of traditional banks, this might mean taking advantage of open banking, banking-as-a-service and real-time payments.” 

Hofmann joins GFT from IT consultancy Globant, where he served as managing director for nearly two years, he said. 

“I’m looking to bring in a U.S.-focused CTO and delivery leadership to work under our head of delivery, Leandro Rodrigues,” Hofmann said. “As we grow our core banking practice, we’ll continue leaning heavily on GFT’s partnerships with the three major cloud providers — AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure — and core banking platform Thought Machine.” 

Ribbit chooses Rable as new CEO 

AI-enhanced risk management platform Ribbit announced in late March that it named Greg Rable as the company’s new chief executive. 

The Oxford, U.K.-based platform plans to have Rable oversee day-to-day operations while building out predictive data capabilities for its bank-focused products within the lending space, according to a company release.

“I joined Ribbit because I continue to view bank behavior data as critical in financial decisioning,” Rable said in the release. “The need for predictive data regarding the entire population, not just prime consumers, continues to be an area lacking for the industry, and I look forward to growing Ribbit into the predictive data powerhouse lenders seek.” 

Rable was founder and served as chief executive at alternative data fintech FactorTrust before it was sold to TransUnion in 2017. He will maintain his position on Ribbit’s board of directors, which he joined following a series A investment from ABS Capital in Ribbit in 2021, according to the release. 

Railsr names Morel CEO after rescue sale 

Financial services platform Railsr named Philippe Morel its chief executive effective April 4 following its emergency sale to an investment group from D Square Capital in March. 

In addition to Morel, Debbie Lotz and Nick Charteris have been named chief financial officer and chief operating officer, respectively, according to a company release. 

“This is a pivotal moment for Railsr, and we are starting a new phase on the front foot,” Rick Haythornthwaite, chairman at Railsr said in the release. “This triumvirate of executive appointments [brings] deep experience and renewed energy to rebuild momentum, drive change and return Railsr to growth.” 

The London-based company was saved by the sale to D Square Capital following an economic downturn and failed purchase of fintech company Flutterwave, according to the release.