allpago, a leading payment service provider in Latin America, today announced that it has appointed Horst Müller, formerly regional vice president at Mastercard, to its advisory board. Müller is a retail and financial services veteran with more than 20 years’ experience shaping the Latin American payment landscape. After spending more than a decade working in the retail sector he founded the credit card company Innovacard (now IbiBank) in 1994, before holding senior leadership roles at Fininvest and Unibanco.

From 2003 to 2014 Müller worked for Mastercard, expanding its presence across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Here he led Mastercard’s efforts to open the acquiring market in Brazil up to competition, a project that required an active role at ABECS, the Brazilian association of credit cards and services companies, and close liaison with Brazil’s central bank and regulatory authorities.

Müller’s appointment strengthens allpago’s advisory board with significant additional regional and payments expertise. He joins Marcus Mosen, CEO of European payment service provider Concardis, and Raymond Low, the former president of Transaction Network Services’s payments division, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2014, as advisors to the company.

Philipp Bock, founder & CEO of allpago, comments: “We are thrilled to welcome Horst to the team. Horst’s knowledge of the payments and financial services industry in Latin America is second to none and his appointment will help us to strengthen our relationships with card acquirers, issuers and other financial institutions as we expand our coverage across the region.”

Horst Müller comments: “allpago is one of the most exciting fintech startups in the world and I am delighted to join the team. There is a huge e-commerce opportunity in Latin America, but there are many different payment methods and a complex regulatory environment to navigate. Merchants get great benefit from working with a partner like allpago that can simplify the task of taking payment and make it easier to trade with customers across the region.”

Through its single platform and API, allpago’s state-of-the-art technology provides all relevant payment methods alongside industry leading levels of security and integrated risk management systems to help merchants of all sizes and locations improve conversion rates, boost revenues and run compliant e-commerce operations in Latin America.