EQUALS APPOINTS ED CHANDLER AS COO AS £60BN PAYMENTS BUSINESS TARGETS NEXT PHASE OF GLOBAL GROWTH
FROM VISA AND MASTERCARD TO EQUALS: ED CHANDLER JOINS AS COO TO SCALE GLOBAL PAYMENTS OPERATIONS
Equals has appointed payments industry veteran Ed Chandler as Chief Operating Officer as the global money movement platform builds on £60 billion in annual transaction volume and prepares to scale its embedded payments and cross-border capabilities.
Global money movement platform Equals has appointed Ed Chandler as Chief Operating Officer as the business strengthens its senior leadership for its next phase of international expansion.
Chandler brings more than 25 years of payments and financial services experience, including senior positions at Visa, Mastercard, Barclaycard and OKTO Payments.
He has led commercial and operational teams across both large global organisations and high-growth businesses, with experience spanning operational transformation, commercial expansion and long-term value creation.
His appointment comes as Equals seeks to build on a period of significant growth following the company’s rebrand and integration.
£60bn Transaction Volume Underpins Expansion
Equals reported another year of significant double-digit growth in 2025/26, with annual transaction volume reaching £60 billion.
The company’s proposition combines payments technology, compliance capabilities and human-led servicing, with its infrastructure currently enabling businesses to collect, manage, convert and send payments across more than 30 markets and in over 140 currencies.
Built on more than 18 years of payments technology development, the platform is increasingly targeting businesses that need infrastructure capable of supporting more complex international operations.
Chandler will lead global commercial strategy and operations, with a particular focus on strengthening customer delivery as the business expands.
His remit will also include helping to scale Equals’ embedded money movement platform and cross-border capabilities.
Equals Targets Embedded Payments Growth
The company’s strategy extends beyond providing conventional business payment and account services.
Equals is positioning its infrastructure for SMBs, larger companies and strategic business customers that want to embed payments and accounts within their own customer experiences or build and operate payment products using Equals’ underlying infrastructure.
The ability to combine payments technology with regulatory infrastructure and servicing is becoming increasingly important as businesses expand across multiple currencies, markets and compliance jurisdictions.
Chandler said: “Equals has an ambitious growth strategy, a regulated technology platform that adapts to customer needs, and a service model that can handle the complexity businesses face scaling across borders, currencies and compliance jurisdictions.
“My focus is ensuring our operations provide exceptional support to our customers as they grow globally. By bringing our commercial and operations teams closer together, we are ensuring that our customers are supported by experts who understand their business at every stage of their payments journey, from onboarding and implementation to new market entry.”
Payments Veteran Takes Operational Leadership
Chandler’s background gives Equals experience spanning some of the world’s largest payment networks as well as emerging payments businesses.
His appointment also indicates the operational challenge facing financial technology companies as they scale. Expanding transaction volumes and geographic reach requires not only technology infrastructure, but increasingly sophisticated compliance, implementation and customer support capabilities.
Bringing commercial and operational functions closer together is intended to create a more integrated customer journey as clients expand their use of the platform.
AI-Native Technology And Human-Led Service
Equals Chief Executive Officer Ian Strafford-Taylor said Chandler’s appointment comes at an important stage in the company’s development.
“Ed’s appointment comes at an important stage in our growth as we partner with more businesses to solve their global payments problems with our flexible, AI-native technology platform and human-led service model.
“His operational expertise and commercial leadership are critical as we build the foundations for our next phase of growth and continue delivering the highest levels of customer experience.”
The appointment puts Chandler at the centre of that growth strategy as Equals seeks to turn its existing scale — £60 billion in annual transaction volume, operations spanning more than 30 markets and support for more than 140 currencies — into a larger international payments business.
