Freemarket Bolsters Product and Banking Team to Enhance Strategic Growth

11th July 2023, London, UK. 

London-based Freemarket, a leading fintech platform for regulated B2B cross-border payments and currency exchange, builds on its recent growth by adding a key new hire to its already robust banking operations and relationship management team.

Hayley Viner joins Freemarket at a critical time of growth and expansion, where she is responsible for evolving the growing payments fintech’s product offering. With over 15 years of experience in payments, Hayley is passionate about creating and developing valuable financial solutions that empower the end-user. Before Freemarket, Hayley was Head of Product for ClearBank and delivered market-leading global payment solutions at HSBC, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Barclays.

Hayley joins Freemarket’s Head of Operations, Simon Lee and Head of Banking Relations, Nirav Parekh who joined the firm back in 2022. With over 30 years' experience in banking and financial services including leadership roles at Goldman Sachs, DST (IFDS) and Swiss Re/Phoenix Group, Simon Lee’s expertise covers operations management, cash management and treasury operations, liquidity/forecasting, payments and settlements, SWIFT implementation, client services, network management/vendor management and off-shore management.

Nirav Parekh has over 20 years' experience in the banking and financial services sector and was brought in to evolve and expand the firm’s global bank network to include additional banks and NBFI partners. Nirav brings an astute understanding of the banking and payments business and is known for his insight into the evolving demands of the UK and European payments landscape.

Freemarket works with businesses to accelerate their growth by giving them access to cross-border payments and currency exchange in over 140 currencies and across 100 countries, optimised for their needs through a single API integration and its proprietary platform.

Michael Whitehead, Chief Banking and Product Officer, Freemarket commented: “We’re thrilled to welcome Hayley Viner as the newest member to the product and banking leadership team. There is a significant opportunity for fintechs like us to provide agile cross-border payments and FX services to SMEs at good value. Having the right team and structure in place is key to us supporting these enterprises to further accelerate their growth.”

“Freemarket have established themselves as a trusted provider for hundreds of SME clients that are typically under served by the traditional banking community yet need access to reliable and secure FX & Cross Border payments solutions. The team is renowned by the community and customers alike for delivering these solutions with superior customer service and experience. I’m thrilled to be joining the company to continue to work with the team to deliver more exciting products to market for our customers”, added Hayley Viner.