Banking Circle Names Kush Saxena Chief Executive as B2B Payments Bank Plots Next Growth Phase
Banking Circle has named Kush Saxena as its new Group Chief Executive Officer, drafting in a veteran of Mastercard and Santander's merchant acquiring arm to lead the cross-border payments bank into what it describes as its next phase of growth at scale.
The appointment, announced on 18 May 2026, follows the recent arrival of former ING chief executive Ralph Hamers as Group Chairman, and signals a clear generational shift at the top of the Luxembourg-headquartered group. Co-founder Anders la Cour, who has led Banking Circle since its inception, moves into a Senior Advisor role with immediate effect. Fellow co-founder Laust Bertelsen will continue as chief executive of Banking Circle S.A., the group's regulated banking entity, before transitioning out over the next twelve months.
Saxena joins from Getnet, Santander's Latin American merchant acquiring business, where he served as chief executive of what is now the largest merchant acquirer in the region. Before Getnet, he spent eight years at Mastercard, latterly as Executive Vice President of the Merchants and Acceptance division and a member of the network's Global Management Committee. Earlier in his Mastercard tenure he served as Chief Technology Officer. He has also held board roles at UK-based correspondent bank Crown Agents Bank and biotech firm BioVie, and was a senior advisor to the World Bank.
Banking Circle is one of a small number of fully licensed banks built specifically to plumb cross-border payments and settlement for digital businesses, payment service providers, fintechs and tier-one banks. Operating from its Luxembourg banking licence, with additional regulated entities in the United States and the United Kingdom, the group has built a direct clearing footprint across major currencies that competes head-on with traditional correspondent banking relationships. Group revenues have now passed 500 million euros, and the platform sits alongside affiliated businesses including B4B Payments, embedded lender YouLend and Australian Settlements Limited.
Commenting on his appointment, Saxena said Anders, Laust and the team had built "something genuinely unique - a technology-led financial infrastructure platform" and that he was joining at an inflection point for the business.
For Banking Circle, the hire reads as a deliberate pivot from founder-led scale-up to institutional-grade payments infrastructure provider. Pairing a Mastercard and Getnet operator with a chairman of Hamers' standing suggests the group is preparing for a heavier push into merchant acquiring and embedded finance, and potentially laying the groundwork for a future capital event.
