Swift has hired David Scola as its new head of North America, based in New York.

He joins from Barclays, where he worked for almost seven years, most recently as global head of financial institutions. Prior to that, he spent seven years at Deutsche Bank, and previously worked at BNY Mellon.

In his new position, which he will take up on October 1, Scola will be in charge of Swift’s innovation and growth strategy in the US and Canada. He will have a particular focus on driving growth in Swift’s global payments innovation (gpi) service and financial crime compliance portfolio.

Swift’s gpi was launched last year to speed up settlement time and improve transparency for international payments. The service has so far been adopted by more than 200 financial institutions globally, but Swift recently announced it will move towards universal adoption of the gpi, meaning that all 10,000 banks on its global network will use the service by 2020.

Commenting on the appointment, Javier Pérez-Tasso, Swift’s chief executive, Americas and UK, says: “With a proven track record of leadership in the Americas and Europe, Dave is ideally positioned to deliver innovation and growth in North America. We are delighted to welcome him on board as we accelerate our strategy in the region.”