Market Infrastructure & FinTech

As fintech headhunters, we work on a retained basis and approach leaders directly, and most of the people we approach are already in post and not looking for a move. Senior appointments in this field require the pace and product sense of a growth company together with the discipline around controls expected of a firm accountable to the Financial Conduct Authority or the Bank of England, a combination that is difficult to find. We assess candidates on both, and we go beyond qualifications and experience alone to identify leaders whose abilities, leadership style and values align with each organisation’s plans.

Our Market Infrastructure & FinTech practice is part of our broader Financial Services work. It draws on the same network of senior leaders in banking, capital markets, payments and technology, which allows us to search for candidates outside the obvious fintech names.

Fintech leadership roles we appoint

Stone Executive makes appointments across fintech leadership. That encompasses the chief executive, who sets the direction of the business, as well as the functional leaders who build its technology, protect its licence and bring its products to market. Senior fintech appointments typically sit at executive committee or board level, where the individual will often hold a regulated responsibility.

• Chief executive officers and managing directors, including founder succession
• Chief technology officers, heads of engineering and chief information officers
• Chief operating officers and chief financial officers
• Chief risk officers, chief compliance officers and money laundering reporting officers
• Chief product officers and senior commercial leaders
• Chairs and non-executive directors with fintech, payments or regulatory experience

Our fintech executive recruitment work gives particular attention to the technology seat. A fintech CTO in a regulated business is accountable for the platform, the data it holds and, in many lenders and payments firms, the automated models that make decisions about customers. For that reason, we assess technology leaders on governance and regulatory judgement as well as engineering depth, and these searches sit alongside our chief technology officer recruitment practice.

Fintech and market infrastructure sectors we cover

Our Market Infrastructure & FinTech practice focuses on companies that process payments, provide credit, hold client funds and maintain financial records, from venture-backed scale-ups to established infrastructure providers. Each part of the sector comes with its own rules, operational risks and candidate pool, so we shape every search around the sub-sector in question.

• Payments, card issuing and e-money
• Consumer credit and digital lending
• Wealthtech and digital banking
• Financial data and regtech
• Market data, exchanges, clearing and settlement
• Digital assets

Payments executive search calls for leaders who understand scheme rules, safeguarding and the operational demands of processing transactions at volume. Appointments in exchanges and post-trade draw on a different network, and those searches run alongside our capital markets practice. For investor-backed fintechs, a senior appointment is often tied to a funding round or an exit plan, and we partner closely with our private equity and venture capital practice.

What is financial market infrastructure?

Financial market infrastructure is the set of systems that allow financial transactions to be cleared, settled and recorded. In the UK, the Bank of England supervises payment systems recognised by HM Treasury, central securities depositories and central counterparties. Central counterparties sit between the buyer and the seller of a financial contract.

Leading an infrastructure provider is a different undertaking from leading a venture-backed fintech. An FMI is judged on availability, resilience and the confidence of the participants who depend on it, and the Bank of England supervises it with the stability of the UK financial system as its objective. A fintech scale-up is usually judged on growth, and its leaders are often putting risk and control functions in place for the first time. Senior roles at infrastructure providers often include chief risk officers, heads of clearing or settlement operations, and technology leaders in charge of systems that participants depend on through the trading day. Leaders who have succeeded in one setting do not always suit the other, so we test for this early in every search.

Regulated leadership in fintech

Many senior fintech roles are regulated appointments. Where a firm is authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, as consumer credit lenders are, section 59 of the Act requires it to take reasonable care that no one performs a controlled function without the approval of the appropriate regulator. Senior management functions come within that requirement.

Payment institutions and electronic money institutions are authorised or registered under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2011. The FCA’s operational resilience rules apply to these firms, and those in scope had until 31 March 2025 to ensure they could operate their important business services within impact tolerances. In a payments business, that obligation commonly falls within the remit of the chief technology or chief operating officer.

We raise the regulatory side of an appointment at the briefing stage of every fintech executive search. It then informs the assessment and the referencing, and the timetable allows for any approval the role needs before the appointee starts. Our financial services executive search practice handles appointments subject to the Senior Managers and Certification Regime across the wider sector.

Our fintech executive search process

Our fintech executive search process is a retained sequence led by a partner from briefing to appointment. From briefing through to offer, a typical search takes four to eight weeks. Where a role needs regulatory approval, the appointee’s start date comes later, and we plan for that from the outset.

Brief and market map. We meet the chief executive, chair or investor who owns the appointment and agree the role, its reporting line and any regulated responsibility it carries. We then map candidates across fintech, banking, capital markets and technology businesses.

Direct approach. We approach each candidate personally and in confidence. Each approach gives a clear account of the opportunity, the business and its regulatory standing.

Assessment and shortlist. We interview candidates against the brief and present a shortlist with a written profile for each, covering track record, regulatory history, motivation and our own assessment.

Offer and appointment. We manage the offer, references and resignation, and we remain in contact through the notice period and any approval process.

Track record in fintech and financial services

Stone Executive has been a retained headhunting practice for twenty years and has completed more than 1,000 senior appointments across its sectors. The firm is recognised in the Financial Times’ UK’s Leading Recruiters 2024, operates from six UK offices and is boutique by design, with every search partner-led from brief to appointment.

Our current work includes a live fintech CTO search for an FCA-authorised consumer credit provider. The brief covers how the business uses AI and automated decisioning to assess and serve its customers, and the role reports to the chief executive.

FAQs

To discuss a fintech, payments or market infrastructure appointment, please contact our team on 0333 800 1560.