Barclaycard Payments has announced the appointment of Colin O’Flaherty to head up its growing small business customer offering.
He will take up the newly created position of Managing Director, Head of Small Business, and will play an integral part in scaling the businesses and accelerating the alignment of Payments across the wider Bank.
O’Flaherty joins in September from American Express, where since 2004, he has held a number of senior leadership roles, most recently as General Manager for Commercial Services covering the UK, Russia and Central Eastern Europe.
With almost 20 years’ experience in payments, card services, loyalty and business development, O’Flaherty brings a truly global outlook of the payments landscape, having conducted business in more than 50 countries.
Reporting to CEO, Rob Cameron, O’Flaherty will take a seat on the business’ leadership team and will assume overall responsibility for Barclaycard Payments’ growing portfolio of 350k Small Business customers. He will ensure these clients receive maximum value from Barclaycard’s investment in its Unified Payments offering; from accepting payments in-store, online or on the go and making payments with its award winning credit cards, in addition to providing access to comprehensive banking and lending services from Barclays UK, being a partner of growth to our business customers.
Small businesses are looking for simplicity and faster and easier ways to pay and get paid. Barclaycard Small Business offers flexible products and services alongside new business tools, for example through software vendors such as Big Commerce, and better rewards such as its new market-leading, 1% cashback card launched in April. The team has also been named Best Business Card Provider by Business Moneyfacts for eight years running*.
Rob Cameron, CEO of Barclaycard Payments, said: “Small businesses underpin the UK economy and it’s critical Barclaycard provides them with payment solutions to support their needs and those of their customers. As their payment requirements evolve so too have our products and services, which now include partner solutions like Big Commerce, to help them sell online, and rewarding commercial card offerings like our new 1% cashback credit card.
“Colin’s expertise and global leadership capabilities will be invaluable to ensure we continue to make it easier, faster and more rewarding for small businesses to pay and get paid.”
Colin O’Flaherty added: “Barclaycard Payments is uniquely positioned to offer end-to-end payments and banking services to help small businesses achieve their ambitions. I’m delighted to be joining the company at this pivotal time for small businesses and the opportunity for continued growth and innovation presents an exciting challenge.”
O’Flaherty studied at Trinity College Dublin where he gained a First Class honours degree in Economics in addition to completing several executive education programmes at Harvard Business School and The University of Oxford.
Earlier in his career, O’Flaherty also worked as a Business Analyst for McKinsey & Company for a number of years.