August 8, 2024 (Toronto, ON)
We’re thrilled to announce that Thomas Purves has come onboard as Advisor & Consulting Lead, Payments Innovation. With over 20 years of leadership experience in global-scale payments, digital banking, and fintech, Tom brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our team. His extensive background, which includes co-founding LaHave.io, a US-based consultancy specializing in fractional CxO engagements and fintech advisory, establishes him as a leading figure in the payments industry.
We’re particularly excited about Tom’s contributions to the development of real-time rails in Canada and the broader landscape of payment innovation in 2024-2025. Tom played a critical role in developing Canada’s first real-time payment rails, as the original product manager of both Interac E-transfers and Visa Direct in Canada.
In that capacity, Tom enabled clients such as Bank of America, PNC, Navy Federal, Q2, Nium, and Marqeta to transform card issuing into modern digital-first customer experiences. For instance, in a case study with Redwood Credit Union, these efforts led to an 83% growth in transaction rates within the first three days of instant credit card issuance or re-issuance to customers’ mobile devices, along with an average of 19 additional card transactions per customer.
During his tenure at Visa, Tom also led the global digital wallet product line, designing and commercializing high-converting payment SDKs for 50 million users across hundreds of thousands of merchants in 25 countries. His work spanned partnerships with renowned brands like Starbucks, United Airlines, Walmart, PizzaHut, and Uber, demonstrating his ability to scale digital payment solutions globally. Tom has also authored more than 80 US and international patents in payments, digital wallets and tokenization technologies.
In his current consulting practice as well as in his recent role as Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer of the US fintech company MainStreet.com, Tom has been spearheading AI-transformation in combination with Open Banking and embedded finance. For example, at MainStreet.com Tom enabled thousands of US businesses to quickly connect, classify, and process their purchasing and payroll expenses, unlocking billions in tax credits and procurement savings.
With Tom on board, Blanc Labs is poised to lead the charge in payment innovation for our clients. We look forward to the transformative impact he’ll bring to our clients and the industry at large. Welcome, Tom!
Interested in speaking with Tom? Send him a note thomasp@blanclabs.com