02 · Payments infrastructure · Europe
A regulated payments product built from a blank sheet.
Built HAPIC's product and operating foundation while the licensing, vendor and organisational tracks were moving in parallel.
Product decisions before an engineering organisation existed.
The company was building a financial service for entrepreneurs in Cyprus under an EMI model. There was no ready-made platform, operating model or established internal delivery machine.
That made vendor selection, interfaces, data ownership, compliance journeys and operational failure modes product decisions — not procurement details.
A licence does not create a product. The customer, technology and operating systems must become one business.
The foundation across five connected systems.
Business onboarding, account experience and service proposition
SEPA, SWIFT, TARGET2, transfers and beneficiary journeys
CBS, AML/KYC, banking, EMI and liquidity-provider integrations
Pricing, unit economics, budget allocation and financial forecasts
MVP scope, backlog, vendor ownership, hiring and operating cadence
Strategy had to survive implementation.
- Defined the product strategy, target customer, proposition and MVP scope
- Led selection of core, AML/KYC, payment and other technology partners
- Designed customer journeys and the portfolio across accounts, payments and FX
- Worked with the CFO on unit economics, forecasts and budget allocation
- Recruited and led product and business-analysis capability
- Participated in leadership decisions on market, pricing and launch priorities
The regulatory application was a company effort. My role was to make the product, vendor and operating foundation credible and launchable alongside that process.
A licensed institution, not a concept deck.
HAPIC publicly identifies itself as a Cyprus Electronic Money Institution, regulated by the Central Bank of Cyprus under licence 115.1.3.68.