Australian Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) today commenced the launch of its operations in the US market.
Openpay is an ASX-listed, fast-growing, and highly differentiated player in global BNPL payment solutions. It delivers the most flexible plans in the market, focuses on industries where it can make a real difference: Automotive, Healthcare, Home Improvement, Memberships, and Education; and its target customers are finance-savvy and of an older demographic who use Openpay plans as a cashflow management tool.
The Company also has a unique B2B offering, Openpay for Business, a SaaS-based platform that allows companies to manage trade accounts end-to-end.
The US launch adds to Openpay’s global reach, with the Company already offering its services in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. In the US, it will offer both its differentiated ‘Buy now. Pay smarter.’ and B2B SaaS products. Its focus will be on similar industries to Australia and the UK, including Retail to scale quickly and verticals such as Automotive and Healthcare, where Openpay is a leading BNPL provider in Australia with its flexible longer-term, and higher-value plans.
The Company has already built a strong US pipeline, with partnership discussions with foundational partners in banking, merchant, and large payment processor sectors at advanced stages.
To support the impending launch, Openpay is pleased to announce the appointment of its US executive team, led by Brian Shniderman, a 32-year veteran in the payments and fintech advisory industry. Mr Shniderman will become Openpay US’ CEO and Openpay’s Global Chief Strategy Officer. He joins from Deloitte, where he founded and grew the firm’s globally top-ranked Payments practice. He successfully helped the C-suite of large global companies implement high-visibility, complex payments, fintech and banking strategies, mergers and acquisitions, operations, and technology initiatives. These include large credit card issuers, merchant acquirers, networks, payments processors, corporates, governments, and merchants. Prior to Deloitte, Mr. Shniderman was an executive at several advisory firms, focusing on fintech and payments. In 2001, he was recognised as an innovator of the year by Fortune for introducing approaches for B2B equity-based payments, continuing to innovate and launch new fintech products since then.
CEO and Managing Director of Openpay, Michael Eidel commented, “This is possibly the most significant announcement for Openpay since we listed on the ASX on this day, last year. We are very excited to have commenced the launch of our consumer BNPL and B2B offerings into the US, building on our proven responsible approach, flexible products and focus on industries where we have strong confidence in our ability to deliver a differentiated value proposition. We’re entering the market with a team of highly respected US industry leaders who see great potential to bring our unique approach in BNPL and B2B to the US market.”
Brian Shniderman added: “It’s clear that consumers and merchants want and need much more transparent, fair and flexible payment alternatives to traditional credit cards and BNPL options that lack transparency and charge unreasonable rates. I joined Openpay US because this is an amazing company leading the shift towards a much more consumer friendly and merchant-centric payments future. Merchants I’ve advised were contacting me to help them find a better option. Openpay is the clear solution, and they’ve agreed.”
Also joining the US executive leadership team is Gary Stein, who joins as the US company’s Chief Product and Compliance Officer and Troy Carrothers, who will serve as a Corporate Advisor.
Gary Stein brings nearly 30 years of financial services experience to Openpay US, including the last 9 as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) Deputy Assistant Director for Consumer Credit, Payments, and Deposits. At the CFPB, Mr Stein developed the Bureau’s markets-shaping vision for both faster payments and consumer data sharing. He also oversaw the Bureau’s Small Dollar & Instalment Lending Markets team. Earlier in his career, Mr Stein served as a senior banker and financial services consultant.
Mr Carrothers is a financial services and retail leader with more than 25 years of experience across credit cards, payment acceptance, and customer services. He led one of the largest retail credit card portfolios in the US as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Credit, Payments and Customer Service at Kohls. Prior to Kohl’s, Mr Carrothers held management and senior leadership roles in the US and Latin America with Citigroup and Fidelity Investments. He also was the Chairman of the Board for the Merchant Advisory Group from 2018 to 2019, representing approximately 160 merchants domestically and internationally.
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