P27 Recruits Paula da Silva as Its New Chief Executive Officer

P27 announced that it has recruited Paula da Silva as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective from January 2022.

Finance Magnates recently learned from a press release that Paula da Silva, a financial executive veteran with over thirty years of experience, has been chosen by P27, a cross-border payments platform developed by a group of Nordic banks, as its new Chief Executive Officer. She will replace Lars Sjögren in January next year, with deputy Claus Richter taking control in the interim.

P27 is backed by a number of banks, including Danske Bank, Handelsbanken, Nordea, OP Financial Group, SEB and Swedbank. Its aim is to develop a state of the art payment platform for the Nordic countries.

Earlier, in July, the venture successfully secured merger approval from the EC, allowing it to prepare and onboard customers in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. With the approval successful, the group states it is focusing on bringing the Nordic payment infrastructure to the market.

Looking Back at da Silva’s Vocation

Prior to the announcement by P27, SEB recruited da Silva where she stayed for eight and a half years. Originally, she joined as Head of Working Capital Management and Deputy Head of Transaction Banking in 2013. Within two years, she received a promotion to Head of Transaction Services, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Before that, she joined P27-Nordic Payments Platform AB as its Chairperson in June 2019. After about twenty months, she changed her position and became a Board Member in the Stockholm Metropolitan area.

In January 2009, da Silva became a Board Member at Bankgirot. She held the position for more than a decade before moving on.

da Silva spent most of her career at SEB. She started in 1988 as a Representative in Sao Paulo, Brazil. After three years, the company promoted her to Area Manager for Latin America where she stayed until 1995. Then, she took a break for about three years, before she returned to SEB as Head of Commercial Banking in New York. Another four years went by and the company elevated her to Head of Strategic Projects, Cash Management. Next, she progressed to Deputy Head of Cash Management until 2007. Finally, she reached the position of Head of Product Management, Global Transaction Banking.

Transforming P27 into a Solid Company

Martin Anderson, the Chairman of P27, said: “Paula is bringing a long track record of successful transformation journeys as well as deep knowledge and vast experience in the payments, cash management and transaction banking area which will serve the phase of transforming P27 into a solid company under supervisory scrutiny, with a respected place in the financial system of the Nordic countries.”