Stanchion, a global payments solutions provider, announces that it has hired Dr Paul Avrahami as its country executive to lead its market and business development activities in Israel.

Stanchion has been operating in Israel, with clients in the banking, financial services and payments space for eight years. Recently, the country has gone through an exciting transformation in financial services with the adoption of EMV Payment Standards, the planned introduction of Open Banking regulations as well as digital banking and the payments wallets that are seeing rapid and dynamic growth in local opportunities. 

By hiring Dr Paul Avrahami, Stanchion plans to continue and increase its investment, as announced back in February, through a local entity, which will front and provide real-time support and  skills experience that Stanchion brings in the field of payment technologies and solutions to its Israeli customers. Stanchion works with over 100 banks and financial service payment organisations across the world, and the dynamic innovation across these markets can introduce ideas and experience into Israel, especially in areas like Open Banking and ePayments. Stanchion has been leading the European payments market in developing standards and practical experience.

Tel Aviv subsidiary will enable Stanchion to identify and share great ideas and solutions that are often innovated and funded in Israel and where these organisations need a channel partner with an international distribution network to grow their client base.

Stanchion’s market priorities are:

1. Working with Futurex and Credics Technologies Ltd to offer a best-of-breed data-encryption solution and migration solution from the ARX hardware security modules (HSMs). Stanchion is the  official distribution and support channel of Futurex’s HSM solutions in Israel. Futurex is one of the world’s leading providers of cryptographic technology and solutions for payment processing, card and mobile issuance, and advanced fintech solutions. The company offers an advanced, best-of-breed portfolio of HSM solutions that comply with all PCI and FIPS security standards.
2. Providing quality service to its existing customer base in Israel by expanding the technical software services it offers locally around platforms such as ACI Postilion payment solutions, where Stanchion is an official partner of ACI Worldwide.
3. Introducing Agile Payment capabilities, which are critical today for digital transformation and being competitive by offering its own digital payments integration platform (Verto) and which accelerate the time to market for Banks, Acquirers, Issuers, FinTech and Wallet providers to integrate their digital apps into the traditional legacy payment network protocols.
4. Sharing knowledge and experience into the market of successful ideas, business models and deployments from Europe, through offering banks, wallet providers and other new financial institutions, consulting and advisory solutions gained from European experience.

“Stanchion views Israel as an innovative, dynamic market for payments given the change in the regulatory environment and changes in technologies.  Payments are a mission-critical business that require deep expertise to bring together the security, compliance and agile innovation needed for success.  With rapid growth in mobile-initiated payments, electronic wallets, contactless payments, open banking and alternative payments methods, Stanchion is well positioned to help banks and payment providers with the full management of their payment programmes, given its experience and customers around the world.  Hiring a key, respected local figure such as Dr Paul Avrahami will provide Stanchion with an ability to be a trusted advisor to its target customer base in Israel and provide local quality technical service,” said Norman Frankel, Regional Managing Director UK/Europe at Stanchion and Director, Future Payment Solutions (Israel) Ltd.

Dr Paul Avrahami, Country Executive, Israel for Stanchion and Future Payment Solutions (Israel) Ltd, added: “Israel now has a dynamic local payments environment that is flourishing and attracting a lot of investment and innovation. I am delighted to bring my experience and network to work with Stanchion to help them fuse their international experience with the local needs and to identify local solutions that may be suitable for international markets.  The payments landscape is a very exciting place to be operating in within Israel currently and our goal is to bring proven technology in order to have scalable, versatile solutions in place to satisfy rapidly evolving business needs.”