Backbase appoints Iman Ghodosi as Regional Vice President to lead Asia Pacific expansion
Amsterdam-headquartered Backbase, a global leader in engagement banking platforms, has recently appointed Iman Ghodosi as Regional Vice President for the Asia Pacific region. The new role is based in Sydney and will see Ghodosi drive the company’s international expansion, product development, and Asia Pacific market growth.
He has a wealth of experience in the industry, previously the Vice President and General Manager for Asia Pacific at Zuora. Ghodosi has also worked at organizations including SAP, Oracle, and Netsuite. A techie at heart, Ghodosi holds an MBA from the University of Newcastle in Australia and a Master of e-business from the University of Southern Queensland.
Ambitious Plans
“I am thrilled to join Backbase, the market leader in engagement banking platforms, enabling the disruptors of the banking industry and incumbents alike,” said Iman.
“Having built its end-to-end omni-channel banking platform from the ground up using open standards to support the digital transformation journey of any sized bank, Backbase offers an unrivalled proposition to future-proof your bank.”
“With over 120 strong team members in the region, we will continue to ramp up investments in the next several months, hiring for key roles in ASEAN, ANZ, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and India.”
Commenting on the new appointment, Jouk Pleiter, CEO and Founder of Backbase, said, “As we continue to make inroads into the global financial services sector, I’m pleased to welcome Iman to our leadership team and look forward to his team capitalizing on the growth opportunities, while supporting banks in orchestrating seamless banking experiences for their customers and employees.”
Competition Heating Up
Backbase, with its state-of-the-art engagement banking platform, envisions potential for it to grow in Asia Pacific’s retail, SME, corporate and wealth management banking sector. Across all banking segments, reliance on legacy IT and broken point solutions are still prevalent, lagging behind new and agile players.
More than 100 new challengers are expected to emerge across the region, bringing stronger post-pandemic propositions by 2025, and at least two digital banks in every Asia Pacific market are looking to present a serious challenge to incumbents, according to the Fintech and Digital Banking 2025 Asia Pacific IDC Infobrief commissioned by Backbase.
The infobrief also discovered 63% of banking customers in Asia Pacific are willing to switch to new digital challengers, leaving banks with the risk of falling behind.
“Consumer sentiment has changed dramatically in Asia Pacific,” Iman said.
“In a platform era of Grab, Netflix and Spotify, people today want the same self-service experience with access to their personal financials, anytime, anywhere. Such consumer habits, compounded by the pandemic have disrupted the financial services industry and nowhere in the world do we see it more than in Asia Pacific.
“Backbase is primed to address this real need, helping banks to adopt and build modern, cloud-native digital banking platforms to keep pace with changing consumer demands, gain a 360 degree view into banking behaviours, and grow market share.”
Strong Growth
Backbase was founded in 2003 by veteran tech entrepreneur, Jouk Pleiter. Some of the company’s clients include BNP Paribas, Citibank, HSBC, RBC, and Westpac, with several neobanks and large incumbents to be added in the near future.
In recent months, the company has scaled up international hiring, adding over 600 employees in the first two quarters of 2021. It has also expanded product compatibility to all major cloud providers and will also make major client announcements soon.
Backbase has a team of almost 1,500 people spread across 22 countries and 15 offices in Atlanta, Amsterdam, Boise, Cardiff, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hyderabad, Kraków, Mexico, New York, Poland, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto.