Dive Brief:

• Elavon, a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, has appointed Wally Mlynarski to lead its payments processor unit, recruiting him from Bank of America, where he had led a merchant services and receivables unit, according to a Wednesday press release.
• Mlynarski started in his new Elavon role on Monday, the company’s spokesperson John Friess said by email. Mlynarski is reporting to Mark Runkel, who leads the bank’s payments division. It’s a second tour of duty for Mlynarski at Elavon, where he previously was chief product officer until 2019, according to his LinkedIn profile.
• The newly rehired executive will replace Jamie Walker, who was selected to head up a new U.S. Bank unit focused on digital assets and money management. Walker had been Elavon’s CEO since 2017.

Dive Insight:

Elavon, which is headquartered in Atlanta, processes about $576 billion in transactions per year worldwide for two million clients in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, with a sweet spot in servicing airlines and hotels. Its Minneapolis-based owner is the fifth-largest bank in the U.S.

The leadership change comes as competition in the processing industry intensifies, partly due to the $24.25-billion-dollar merger last year of Global Payments and Worldpay. Fiserv, Fidelity National Information Services and JPMorgan Chase also compete fiercely in that top tier of processors, as digital upstarts, such as Shift4, Square and Stripe, making inroads.

Mlynarski knows the business well because he worked for the processor for seven years in various roles starting in 2012, his LinkedIn profile shows. He left in 2019 for Bank of America where he became the head of product and merchant services and then climbed into his most recent role there.

For his part, Walker suggested the selection of Mlynarski as his successor makes sense. “Wally brings deep experience, a strong client-first mindset, and a clear vision for the future of our business. I’m confident that our employees, clients, and partners are in excellent hands as he steps into this role,” Walker said in a post on LinkedIn.

In his new role for the bank, Walker will continue “to support the merchant services organization’s growth and momentum in new ways,” according to the press release. In that job he will oversee “all the rails around stable coins and tokenized coins,” Friess said.

Last October, U.S. Bank CEO Gunjan Kedia said banks shouldn’t shy away from new offerings, such as stablecoins and cryptocurrency. “If it creates value for the clients, you should lean into it, and not try to defend an old product or an old business model,” she said during a fireside chat at the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas.