OpenPayd appoints Fidor founder as senior advisor
Multi-currency account provider OpenPayd has appointed Fidor Bank’s founder Matthias Kröner as a senior advisor.
Matthias Kröner, former CEO of Fidor Bank
Kröner will support OpenPayd by driving its plans for an international expansion and helping the firm develop its Banking as a Service (BaaS) offering.
The founder of Fidor Bank and Direkt Anlage Bank (DAB), Kröner built both firms from the ground up. He left Fidor after a reported disagreement over the future of the company under French parent BPCE Group.
BPCE bought Fidor for €140 million in 2016, and injected a further €89 million into the bank in 2018. Yet the group dropped its plans to roll-out Fidor in France, and Kröner departed in April 2019.
Prior to Fidor he set records as the youngest CEO of a German direct bank, when he took charge of DAB Bank at the age of 32.
“I’ve been deeply involved in the launch and growth of the BaaS sector over the past few years – it’s an upward trajectory that’s only set to continue,” says Kröner.
“As business models evolve and payments becomes increasingly commodified, new banking and payments use cases are emerging which require international scale, greater flexibility and better margins.
“OpenPayd offers a unique approach in the space, through its global network of licenses, an established partner ecosystem and a single access point to all those services.”
Kröner will be teaming up with former colleague Sophie Guibard, chief growth officer at OpenPayd. Guibaud spent four years as managing director for Europe at Fidor between 2015 and 2019.
