Barclays hires payments veteran Antony Stephen to boost BNPL solution

Barclays has appointed payments veteran Antony Stephen as CEO of its POS finance business.

Anthony Stephen will focus on scaling Barclays Partner Finance

Stephen will formally join the bank from Amazon on 4 October, where he will look to leverage his 25 years of payments and financial services experience to scale up Barclays’ point-of-sale finance business in the UK, Barclays Partner Finance.

Barclays Partner Finance is a buy now, pay later (BNPL) lending platform that enables consumers to spread the cost of new purchases.

Stephen will also provide senior leadership to the team working on Barclays’ new data-led digital commerce platform Barclays Cubed, headed up by Ruchir Rodrigues.

“Antony’s global experience with an industry-leading firm like Amazon and his passion for customer centricity will be invaluable in driving this business forward,” says Rodrigues.

At Amazon, Stephen headed up the e-commerce giant’s payments division in Europe, leading a suite of payment products worth over $50 billion.

Speaking on his appointment, Stephen says that while the core business model of POS finance has existed for some time, technological advancements and changes in consumer behaviour make it an “incredibly exciting time” for point-of-sale finance.