Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has announced the appointment of Andrew Torre as the new regional president for its Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region, based in Dubai.

Torre, who previously led Visa’s Sub-Saharan Africa business, will now oversee all of the group's operations in more than 90 countries across CEMEA and report to the Global President Ryan McInerney.

In his new role, he will also sit on Visa’s global Operating Committee in San Francisco.

Torre is a Visa and payments industry veteran, with deep experience across the markets that comprise the digital payment leader’s CEMEA region.

Having previously worked with the World Bank in Kiev, Moscow and CIS territories, Torre has been with Visa since 2002, holding global roles in product, strategy and pricing, as well as general manager roles in Russia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Welcoming the appointment, McInerney said: "Torre’s deep experience, which touches every part of our CEMEA region, has prepared him well for his new role. It provides him with a phenomenal understanding of both Visa’s global operations, as well as the markets that make up this fascinating and complex region."

"This will not only benefit Visa and our financial institution clients, but also add tremendous value to our merchant and government partners as we strive together to bring the benefits of connected, digital commerce to more people in the region," he stated.

"We are doubly proud and excited that the world-class executive we needed to bring into this role came from our own in-market ranks. This is testament to the value we place on hiring the best people, and helping them develop into the best they can be," he added.  

Visa’s mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure digital payment network that enables individuals, businesses and economies to thrive, said Torre.
 
“Nowhere is our mission more important to economic growth and prosperity than in the CEMEA region,” he noted.

"By 2020, we estimate that around 25 per cent of the world’s population will live in this region, and those consumers will be young, technology savvy, and hungry for financial services that are more relevant and accessible to them. This opens up exciting opportunities for us to service those future consumers through innovative, mobile technologies that Visa is deploying, right now, in market, in anticipation of future consumer needs," observed Torre.
 
"What is even more exciting is that there is a huge amount of home-grown innovation happening in markets around this region, led by local developers. We are enabling this innovation through the deployment of our APIs (application programming interfaces) to help developers access the Visa network, and then backing it up by creating innovation spaces, like our Center in Dubai and forthcoming Studio in Moscow, for them to co-create with us," he stated.

"These are hugely exciting times for the industry and for Visa, and I am honored to have been chosen to lead our efforts at this important moment in Visa’s history," he added.-TradeArabia News Service