Stablecoin to reshape financial services workforce

The domestic stablecoin market is still nascent, but it's shaping up to be a springboard for seasoned financial services executives looking to ride the new wave in payments infrastructure.

This week, fintech start-up AUDC has hired Andrew Kitchen as its chief financial officer.

Prior to joining the group, Kitchen had held senior finance roles at Westpac, IAG and Macquarie Group.

He was also the chief financial officer at BNK Banking and at fintech start-up Hay.

Alongside his appointment, AUDC recruited payments platform Zai's head of sales José Barroso as its new general manager, growth.

"These appointments are about ensuring we have the right leadership in place to scale with the growth we're seeing across the business," said AUDC chief executive Effie Dimitropoulos.

"As adoption of stablecoins accelerates across payments, financial institutions and global markets, we are focused on building the capabilities required to support that demand, expand into new markets and continue delivering trusted, regulated digital payment infrastructure."

Early last month, AUDC had appointed Jason Beale as its new head of product and operations. Beale had previously worked at SBI Digital Asset, the Singapore Stock Exchange and UBS.

Rounding up the group's recruitment spree in the last two months was blockchain expert Hamish Crittenden who became AUDC's chief technology officer.

According to ABS data, the domestic stablecoin market barely registers as a blip in labour statistics, but that could change once it catches up with the global stablecoin market worth US$320 billion.

Last month, ASIC chair Joe Longo told the Tech Council of Australia that the regulator is beefing up its regulatory sandbox framework to help start-ups and emerging fintech businesses navigate licensing requirements. AUDC secured its AFSL in February, formalising its role within the regulated payments network.

If it's not AUDC or Coinbase Australia (which hired a former ASIC supervisor as COO back in December) doing the hiring, it is fund managers creating new tokenisation-led roles within the organisation.

In January, State Street had launched its own digital assets platform designed for institutional investors.
According to BCG, the stablecoin businesses are scaling at a rapid rate, projecting the size of the market to hit US$3 trillion by 2030.