LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Icon Solutions has today announced the appointment of James West, Head of Payments’ Business Execution & Platform Modernisation, Citi Services, to its Board of Directors. Amit Rijhsinghani, Head of Payments Technology, Citi Services, has also been appointed as a Board Observer.
James brings over 25 years of experience in global banking technology roles. He joined Citi in 2013 and currently oversees business execution and platform modernisation for Payments within Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS), Citi Services, leading business execution and product development of the ISO 20022 and Platform Modernisation programmes. Amit joined Citi 13 years ago and is responsible for formulating and driving the technology strategy for Payments within Citi Services. He is also part of the TTS Tech Senior Management Team and the Payments Executive Committee. He has over 20 years of industry experience across multiple financial institutions.
The appointment of James and Amit to Icon’s Board of Directors follows Citi’s strategic investment in Icon in December 2023. Citi is progressing a multi-year modernisation effort of its payment platforms, and as part of the programme is working with and has invested in Icon to expand its innovation toolkit and futureproof its payments services.
This includes using the Icon Payments Framework (IPF) – an ISO 20022 and cloud-native, open source-based technology framework – as part of its micro-services architecture to simplify and standardise Citi’s business capabilities. This will enable the delivery of new solutions to clients in a faster and more consistent way.
Commenting on his appointment, James said: “Citi’s relationship with Icon demonstrates our commitment to strengthening our technology and payments capabilities, and we look forward to deepening our collaboration.”
Tom Kelleher, Co-Founder and Commercial Director at Icon, adds: “We welcome James and Amit to the Board of Icon Solutions. Both share our dedication to payments solutions and technology modernisation. We’re working in close partnership to drive change across Citi but also help Citi's corporate clients innovate and interact with the bank seamlessly and with greater flexibility. Payments ecosystems extend beyond banks into global corporate treasury functions on similar journeys to modernise. The industry knowledge and expertise James and Amit bring to Icon Solutions is invaluable, as we support banks and other industries around the world in simplifying payments transformation.”
About Icon Solutions
Icon Solutions is a payments solutions company providing financial institutions with technology, payments subject matter expertise and multi-disciplined services. Financial institutions engage these capabilities on their payments transformation journey from defining their payments strategy through to accelerating IPF-based solutions built by their in-house engineering teams, by Icon and/or by a Systems Integrator.
The Icon Payments Framework (IPF) is Icon’s major contribution to the payments industry. It is the framework that underpins payments orchestration solutions and sits at the heart of the core payments architecture of banks such as Citi, UBS, NatWest and BNP Paribas. Leveraging the IPF software development kit, banks can easily, quickly and safely deliver payments systems with a low total cost of ownership. IPF also features a range of additional optional modules and ready-made integration to clearing and settlement schemes to accelerate the implementation of end-to-end payments solutions.