Icon Solutions‘ connection with NatWest, one of Britain’s biggest retail banks, has been further strengthened via the appointment of two Board Observers.
Lee McNabb, NatWest’s Head of Payments Strategy, and Ian Povney, the bank’s CIO Payment Technology, will carry some observational functions on the board of the London-headquartered payments firm.
“We are very pleased to welcome Ian and Lee to the Icon Board,” said Tom Kelleher, Co-Founder and Commercial Director at Icon.
“Their combined experience and expertise further strengthen our capability to evolve IPF and our services offering to simplify payments transformation.”
NatWest’s collaboration with Icon dates back to September 2023 when it first partnered with the company to accelerate its payments modernisation. This was followed by a strategic investment in the firm in March 2024.
The bank stated at the time that the investment fell in line with its strategic ambitions to broaden the range of payment options it offers, ultimately to ensure wide customer choice. Fintech in general has become a particular area of interest for NatWest.
Explaining the firm’s approach to the sector in an interview with Payment Expert at the Pay360 conference earlier this year, McNabb emphasised that NatWest is ‘an open shop in terms of collaboration with fintechs’.
Commenting on his new role with Icon, McNabb remarked: “Our partnership with Icon is key to NatWest’s payments strategy, reflecting our ongoing commitment to investing in and embracing new technologies and capabilities.”
Povey added: “NatWest and Icon have been working collaboratively to modernise payments since 2019. IPF is the payment framework that empowers us to enable change from within and be in control of what we build, so we can deliver new payment services to our customers quickly, safely and cost-efficiently.”