Tied Faucets Adyen executive will lead its European operations

American financial technology firm Plaid has hired ex Adien executive Brian Dummer as the new head of Europe, the company told CNBC exclusively.

Dammeir was previously Adyen's global head of unified commerce, a role he led from the Dutch payments company's San Francisco office. Dammeir oversaw the core of Adyen's business – bringing together different payment experiences, including online, in-store and app-based, into a single platform.

Dammeir will take over the reins from Ripsy Bandourian, who previously oversaw the company's expansion into Europe, at a crucial time for the company as it moves into other areas of finance, including payments and lending.

Plaid, which was last valued by investors at $13.4 billion in a funding round, offers technology that allows fintech apps to retrieve data from people's bank accounts and initiate payments on their behalf.

It's part of a movement in finance and technology known as “open banking,” which promotes opening up financial data to non-bank financial institutions to encourage competition in the sector.

Dahmer told CNBC in an exclusive interview Monday that what he was most excited about when he joined the company was the “opportunity around open finance,” an evolution of open banking that seeks to innovate across all areas of finance, including lending.

“When we think about Europe, it's about how we can be more relevant globally…how we can find more and more use cases beyond our starting point in fintech.” Dummer told CNBC.

“Right now, it's really about expanding account-to-account payments, as well as lending and traditional banking,” he added.

Bandurian, ex Booking.com The executive company was appointed as the first head of Europe last year. He worked with Keith Gross, formerly Plaid's International boss, who now focuses largely on running the UK business.

Bandurian left Plaid to “pursue other passions,” a company spokesperson told CNBC via email. Dummer had been in contact with Plaid executives for “more than a decade”, the spokesman added.

Dammer did not take the decision to leave Adien lightly. The longtime fintech executive has held positions at Adyen in its North American and European offices for more than eight years, starting in product before moving up to general management and strategy in North America and Europe.

Dummer said Plaid wanted to encourage a broader movement toward so-called “open finance,” which would enable the creation of innovative new products in lending, insurance and other parts of the financial ecosystem.

Payments have been a big focus for Plaid beyond the financials, as payment volume on the platform is expected to grow by more than 90% in 2023.

Now, Plaid is looking to work with partners beyond just fintechs, Dammeir noted, without sharing the names of any potential future partners. The company already works with the likes of Monzo, Checkout.comPublic and Moneybox.