PA expands payments team with new Partner appointment

International professional services firm PA Consulting has expanded its payments team with the hire of a new Partner from Capgemini. Michel Vaja brings 16 years of experience to the firm, having also spent time consulting with Accenture and Syntesys in France.

The financial services wing of PA Consulting works to help financial services firms understand, evolve, and meet the disruptive forces of regulation, technology and changing customer expectations. With the age of digital transactions now very much upon businesses, this is increasingly also seeing the firm work to help clients stay fast on their feet adopting the new technology, with a range of competitors waiting in the wings to seize on any dithering.

As PA looks to bolster its payments team ahead of growing demand, PA has appointed Michel Vaja to the rank of Partner in its London office. He joins the financial services consulting practice and will focus on further developing PA’s offering to clients in the payments space.

Vaja brings 16 years of experience to the role, having worked extensively in delivering payments transformation programmes and strategy engagements for banks, market infrastructures and corporate treasurers. Over the last nine years, this saw him lead the payments practice for Capgemini, covering Europe and the UK and giving him a global view of the payments industry initiatives and regulations.

Prior to this, Vaja spent four years working for Accenture in France, becoming a Manager in Financial Services and Consulting and System Integration in that time. Before that, he spent three years as a Consultant in SWIFT and Cash Management for Corporates with Sntesys France. Vaja has also been closely involved in the open banking revolution, working with clients on open banking platform implementation and Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) compliance. 

Commenting on the appointment, David Troman, PA’s global financial services lead said, “We’re delighted to welcome Michel to our team. He is a true innovator in the payments space and brings a wealth of experience and insight to build on PA’s existing track record of helping clients adapt and transform, further and faster, to beat significant payments challenges.” 
 
Vaja himself added, “The payments industry is constantly evolving, and the UK alone will be going through a number of major transformations in the next five years. It’s an exciting time to join such a fast-growing company. Financial services, and more specifically the payments domain, is a promising platform for PA to pursue its growth.”