Zapp Adds Barclays Mobile Payments Veteran to Management Team

London-based Zapp has hired a former Barclays executive experienced in mobile payments to help prepare for its first product launch in early 2014.

Zapp, a unit of payments provider VocaLink, will add Ian Sayers, a former Barclays technology executive, as chief technology officer in October. In addition, Peter Keenan has joined Zapp as CEO and Justin Basini as chief marketing and product officer, the company states in an Aug. 2 press release.

All three join Zapp chairman David Yates to round out the management team.

Sayers led technology development at Barclays for the past 12 years before committing to join Zapp. He was involved in Barclays' PingIt and BuyIt mobile payment applications.

Keenan brings experience in both retail and financial services, having been managing director of the Currys and Dixons businesses in the U.K. and Ireland. He also was head of both the U.K. and global propositions functions for HSBC.

Basini spent the last three years building an Internet startup in consumer data and also served as chief marketing officer of Capital One.

Yates, CEO of VocaLink, led the global payments businesses for First Data Corp. and Western Union prior to founding Zapp.

"The team we have assembled has all the right experience and expertise to win in the market and deliver Zapp to millions of U.K. consumers, the financial institutions they trust and the retailers they spend money with," Yates says in the press release.

In June, VocaLink announced the formation of Zapp, which will establish a system for making real-time payments through a mobile device linked to a bank account.

Last month, Zapp revealed it would build its system on Oracle technology, eventually operating with mobile and online commerce, as well as Near Field Communication, QR codes and other systems at the point of sale.