equipifi Adds Leading Cybersecurity Expert to Advisory Board

equipifi, a fintech company providing banks and credit unions with a white label Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solution, announced today that it has added Kyle Starkey to the company's Advisory Board. As an advisor, Starkey will support equipifi's team in ensuring the security of its platform and the protection of client data as it scales to serve thousands of financial institutions throughout the United States.

With over 25 years of experience in cybersecurity, Starkey specializes in helping businesses design technical security solutions as well as implementing and managing compliance. He is an experienced Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), having previously served at multiple enterprise software companies in the banking space, most notably with Early Warning, the owner and operator of Zelle.

equipifi's BNPL software connects with financial institutions through their banking cores and is launched within their digital banking application. Its proprietary decision engine leverages cardholder data to produce pre-approved BNPL offers that are not only fully customized to institutional risk tolerance, but also in alignment with cardholder financial health.

"It is exciting to help design and execute the security architecture of an industry defining product," Starkey commented. "equipifi's technical team is providing customers with enterprise level security rarely seen in fintech startups and often not seen in much larger and more established organizations."

"Financial institutions are the ideal providers of BNPL for US consumers," said Bryce Deeney, CEO and co-founder of equipifi. "We've built a product from day one that is compliant with the security and regulatory guardrails our customers already follow, and we will continue to engage the most experienced and forward-thinking industry leaders to do so."

In addition to Starkey, equipifi's Advisory Board includes experts such as Fred Rubin, an experienced Chief Credit and Compliance Officer and former National Bank Examiner at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Paul Watkins, the founder of the Office of Innovation at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It also includes Brian Gruttadauria, former CTO of Oracle Cloud.