Plaid Appoints Ripsy Bandourian as First Head of Europe

Plaid, the California-based financial services fintech has hired fintech and technology veteran Ripsy Bandourian as its first Head of Europe. The position, says Plaid, has been created to help meet the increasing demand for services across the continent.

New Plaid Head of Europe is an expert in consumer experience

Bandourian comes to the position from a background in consumer experience. According to reports, she spent eight years at Booking.com, leading teams across product, marketing, and partnerships in Amsterdam.

She also has extensive experience in technology, operations, and driving consumer experiences at scale. Prior to Booking.com, Bandourian worked on emerging market strategy at Apple in London, was a consultant at McKinsey and began her career as a quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs. 

Plaid’s expanding presence across Europe

Plaid has been concentrating on its expansion into the European markets for some time. Bandourian’s appointment has been hailed as critical to increasing Plaid’s European businesses and supporting fast-growing fintech and companies outside of financial services, as they respond to changing consumer behaviours in the region. 

Recently, research by Plaid revealed that over one-third of people make mobile payments where previously they used a credit or debit card, and more people now use fintech than social media. 

This increase has been the result of an uptick in digital payment methods and embedded finance becoming more critical, more companies will turn to fintech to improve their customer experience and drive faster checkouts. 

As a result, Plaid will enable these companies to explore new opportunities to better serve their customers.    

Growth for Plaid in all areas

The appointment of Ripsy Bandourian follows a period of significant growth for Plaid in Europe, revealing the increased demand from customers wanting to use frictionless methods to manage their finances.

Data shows that in the first quarter of 2022, the fintech doubled the number of transactions completed via its platform. Plais also expanded its staff by 30%. 

The addition of open banking payments capabilities to Plaid’s services in Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands as well as Plaid offering Account Information Services for the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, and Spain and Payment Initiation Services in the UK, France, and Germany, has contributed to the move.

Speaking about Bandourian joining the team, Eric Sager, COO of Plaid said, “As more companies outside of financial services turn to fintech to create new products that better fit their customer needs, Plaid plays a key role in helping them understand what local customers across different markets want and how fintech can play a role in better serving them. Ripsy’s background in new market expansion, partnerships, and improving customer experience will help drive Plaid’s continued growth across Europe.” 

Ripsy Bandourian also commented on what her new role will mean within the company. She said, “The past two years have created intense shifts in how people in Europe interact with their money. Now, nearly every company with online customers is figuring out how to embed a digital financial service into its product.”

She added, “Having spent most of the last decade working with platforms and marketplaces, I aim to help Plaid harness this huge opportunity for growth and help companies across the region make sense of open banking and how they can leverage it to drive adoption of products and services, as consumers increasingly turn to digital financial tools.”