Financial technology firm Plaid has hired Ripsy Bandourian, a former Booking.com executive, to lead its European operations.

Keith Grose, who formerly served as Plaid's international director, is now primarily responsible for the company's operations in the United Kingdom.

Bandourian joined Booking.com in 2014 after spending more than eight years at the online travel platform in a number of product and marketing roles. 

She was most recently vice president of global lodging partnerships at Booking.com, where she was in charge of the company's hotel partnerships.

Plaid helps companies build fintech solutions for people to connect their financial data to apps and services. The firm also offers payment tools and it claims will expand "aggressively" in Europe this year. It presently has services in seven European nations, including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. 

“Since 2019 when Plaid first entered the UK, our team has launched a full-stack open banking solution to support data and payments, expanded services across continental Europe, launched a payments partner network, and grown into the premier transatlantic open banking platform,” wrote Ripsy Bandourian in a blog post. 

“With one integration, companies can now access the best of open banking across Europe and North America.” 

Plaid aims to expand its manpower in Europe, where it presently employs roughly 80 employees, as well as hire individual country managers in France and Germany.