Richard Davies has been appointed Asia-Pacific director of Logica's global products business, the latest move in the technology vendor's global expansion plan.
In the new role, Davies is responsible for expanding the firm's financial institution client base as they upgrade their payments systems. Based in Singapore, Davies is supported by a sales team of six as well as research and development centres in Bangalore and Chennai. He reports to Nigel Turner, London-based managing director of Logica's global products business, who was appointed to his own role last month.
"One objective of my appointment is to bring a subject matter level of expertise into the region that we don't currently have," said Davies. "[Another objective is] to support local teams selling products. The other thing is, this is a market where we see considerable growth."
The banks here were less damaged if you like and more likely to be investing in their future," he added.
Logica specialises in a broad base of financial industry support services. Perhaps best known in Asia for its consulting and business integration solutions, the global products business was officially established last year to promote and sell the firm's financial services products, including the new payments infrastructure, Logica All Payments Solution (Laps). South Africa's Standard Bank was the first institution to deploy Laps this March.
Davies said Logica is currently "in discussions" with a number of Asian institutions about implementing the payments platform.
Asia is a good bet for payments platform vendors. A recent Greenwich Associates report found that local banks in the region experienced significant growth in their corporate banking businesses as global institutions retrenched during the past two years. The consulting firm cited HDFC in India and Chinatrust in Taiwan as examples. It is institutions like these, whose payments businesses are growing, that are the target market for vendors such as Logica.
Asked how corporates will benefit from Logica's bank-oriented solutions, Davies said: "Corporates want to know where they're cash is, how it's being used and what they're being charged for it. These types of platforms offer the opportunity to enrich the information that's being passed between a corporate and its bank and vice versa in terms of accounts receivables and tying payments back to invoices."
"Laps is not a cure-all, but it is a platform that enables [a bank] to offer those services if they so chose to," he continued.
Payments are not the only focus for Logica in Asia. As part of its global products expansion, the firm is also offers a payments filtering solution to address anti-money laundering compliance, provides real-time gross settlement solutions to central banks, and financial messaging solutions.
Prior to his appointment, Davies was London-based director of global payments at the vendor where he helped establish its global products business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has worked in the payments industry for more than 25 years, including management positions at American Express and Thomas Cook Group.
