Finastra has confirmed the appointment of Isabel Fernandez, a “highly” regarded senior banking and technology executive, “to the role of EVP for the company’s Lending Business Unit, effective May 2022.”
Isabel will be “part of Finastra’s recently expanded leadership team as the company pivots to a ‘Business Unit’ led model.”
She was most recently at ING Bank where she was “a Board Member and Global Head of Wholesale Banking, overseeing growth in Lending, Financial Markets and Transaction Services, including Payments & Cash Management.”
In this role she focused “on accelerating growth, new business models and digitalization and transformational projects including strategic technology-led innovation and Know Your Customer (KYC) initiatives.”
Isabel was also “instrumental in driving ING’s global sustainability strategy.”
Prior to that, Isabel built her career “over 16 years at GE Company in various roles, most recently as Commercial Leader.”
Here she “headed the global sales organization including Shared Services, Sourcing and Partnerships.”
Other roles “include President & CEO Global Bank Loans at GE Capital Americas and Head of Enterprise Clients.”
These experiences “contribute to her stellar leadership, execution and change management capabilities.”
She has also worked at ABN AMRO Bank and “is among others Non-Executive Director and Head of the Audit Committee at Pegasus Europe.”
Simon Paris, CEO at Finastra said:
“We are thrilled that Isabel is joining us on our journey towards being ecosystem orchestrators for Banking as a Service (BaaS) and the future of financial services software. She brings deep expertise in the lending and technology arena, and I am confident her strategic leadership will help us drive even more growth for our market-leading lending solutions and the thousands of banks around the world that rely on them to power their business.”
Isabel remarked:
“I am excited to join a purpose-led, fast-paced and tech-savvy company like Finastra. Its mantra around accelerating digital transformation and cloud while driving open finance is inspiring and it has the potential to really make a difference to communities around the world. I’m passionate about how we can maintain momentum on these fronts in the Lending Business Unit, supporting greater finance options for SMEs as well as streamlining lending processes for our corporate customers. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in.”
As covered, Finastra is building “an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities.”
Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra “delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world’s top 100 banks.”
Their open architecture approach “brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers.”