P27 announces SEB’s Paula da Silva as new CEO
P27, a cross-border payments platform that is being formed by a group of Nordic banks, has announced the appointment of SEB’s Paula Da Silva as the new CEO who would be replacing Lars Sjogren and she is expected to start on January 17, 2022.
P27 is an initiative by 6 banks, namely Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Nordea, OP Financial Group, SEB, and Swedbank, to launch an ambitious payments platform that would be state of the art and would help in bringing the payments services industry in the region to world standards. The industry, when compared to the rest of Europe, is backward and there is a lot of potential for growth and upgradation in the region for both banking and payment services. This is what the new platform would be looking to exploit in the future and with the growth of the payments industry and transactions volumes during the pandemic period, it does look like an attractive proposition.
Martin Anderson, the chairman, P27, said: “Paula is bringing a long track record of successful transformation journeys as well as deep knowledge and vast experience in the payments, cash management and transaction banking area which will serve the phase of transforming P27 into a solid company under supervisory scrutiny, with a respected place in the financial system of the Nordic countries.”
The platform had secured merger approval from the EC in July and since then, it has been able to onboard customers in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden. With the approval in place, the group has now said that it is moving into a new phase focused on bringing the Nordic payment infrastructure to market.
Therefore, Sjögren is being replaced by SEB transaction services head and former P27 interim chairperson da Silva. She will take up the CEO role in January, with deputy Claus Richter in charge of the interim. The transition is expected to be smooth in the short term and once the transition is completed, it can be expected that the group would have renewed focus on growth and expansion. The platform would be looking to move into other countries in the region and with the backing of some major banks in the region, it should not be too difficult for it to acquire new customers and it would all come down to the execution of its strategy.
