Tink’s UK and Ireland head Rafa Plantier leaves for a new challenge

Two and a half years after joining from Stripe, Rafa Plantier,Tink’s Head of UK & Ireland, has announced his departure from the open banking provider.

In a post on LinkedIn, Plantier wrote that he would be “signing off from Tink to take on a novel challenge”... he didn’t reveal what that challenge would be, only that it wouldn’t be open banking related.

In his time at Tink, the executive was deeply involved in significant moves including the acquisition of OpenWrks’ bank account aggregation platform in 2020, and a partnership with Wealthify to bring open banking payments to the robo-investor.

As well as thanking CEO and founder Daniel Kjellén, Plantier also shared his parting thoughts on the open banking industry.

He welcomed the scrutiny and critique of third party providers like Tink saying “sunlight is the best disinfectant” and that the responsibility of looking after people’s financial data “will always merit close examination.”

“The history of Financial Technology is filled with examples of tech that took time to settle but later became an integral part of the fabric of financial services,” he wrote, pointing to QR Codes, biometric verification, NFC and virtual IBANs.

“Today, I am as bullish on open banking (and the [Third Party Provider] community) as I ever was.”

A Tink spokesperson confirmed Plantier’s departure to AltFi, and said the company would make a further announcement in the next week or so.