ClearBank has announced the appointment of Tristan Kirchner as chief executive of its European Bank.

Kirchner joins the firm from ride sharing company Uber, where he spent over four years in a variety of roles, including global director of payments and head of commerce EMEA.

Over his 25-year career, Kirchner has also held senior leadership roles at Barclays and Visa.

ClearBank said his appointment marks a significant step forward in its European growth journey.

ClearBank said that Kirchner's deep understanding of Europe’s regulatory and payments landscape will be “instrumental” as the company scales.

Based in Amsterdam, Kirchner will lead ClearBank’s European operations and long‑term strategy.

Working with group chief executive Mark Fairless and Maurice Oostendorp, chair of ClearBank Europe supervisory board, Kirchner will shape expansion into new markets and evolve the bank’s services across the region.

Additionally, ClearBank said it will launch a French branch in response to strong demand for cloud-native agency banking and real-time payments.

The company said the French branch will allow it to work directly with domestic FinTechs and financial institutions.

To support this expansion, ClearBank said it is strengthening its commercial structure by introducing a regionally focused sales organisation.

The team will now operate across three regional hubs, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe and Southern/Western Europe, enabling sharper market focus and deeper customer engagement, while recognising the local nuances of each market.

“With Tristan's appointment as chief executive of our European Bank and the opening of our French branch, we’re accelerating our mission to modernise payments across the continent,” said Fairless. “Tristan’s track record in driving growth and navigating complex payments ecosystems makes him the ideal leader to propel ClearBank Europe’s next chapter.”

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