Claire Gates

Global Head of Payments and Solutions

Claire Gates is the Global Head of Payments and Solutions at Crown Agents Bank. Her role focuses on developing payment solutions that differentiate the bank and support its growth. Claire has over 20 years of experience in payments, as well as in B2B and B2C financial solutions, having worked with notable companies such as American Express, Citi, GE, and MasterCard. In addition to her extensive corporate experience, she has spent around 10 years at various start-ups. These include working on payment orchestration at PPRO, developing a B2B lending platform for high street banks at Funding Exchange, formulating go-to-market strategies for Virgin Money, and creating a Buy Now, Pay Later (BnPL) solution at Paysafe.

Claire has achieved significant milestones in her career, such as establishing a joint venture for GE in the UAE that rapidly scaled to $250 million in assets under management within 15 months. She also successfully turned around the European merchant acquiring business at Citi, which led to a profitable sale to US Bancorp. Additionally, she was instrumental in launching and scaling Paysafe Pay Later, a white-label BnPL service that was later sold to KKR.