Blythe Masters Sees Blockchain Advisory Role at Santander

Spanish banking group Banco Santander has announced that Digital Asset Holdings CEO Blythe Masters will see a new role as the group’s senior blockchain advisor.

Spain-based global banking group Santander has announced several new roles for Digital Asset Holdings (DAH) CEO Blythe Masters. In a press release, the banking group revealed Masters’ new position as the banking group’s senior adviser on blockchain. Furthermore, Masters will also join the group’s International Advisory Board as well as the board of its online-only bank, Openbank.

Prior to her new position, Masters previously served on the board of directors at Santander Consumer (SC) USA, a role she has now resigned from.

Ana Botín, executive chairman of Banco Santander said the following, in statements:

Blythe will bring her expertise in banking, business and blockchain where it will have significant impact to our digital bank, International Advisory Board and strategy team. She has done an outstanding job for SC, and I’m looking forward to her focusing our global efforts in digital banking.

A former JP Morgan executive, Blythe Masters worked at the bank for nearly three decades and is widely seen as one of the creators of the credit derivatives market. She joined DAH in March 2015 and is among the most prominent figures in the Wall Street-centric blockchain services industry. A report from late 2015 revealed that Masters was offered the prominent job of heading British bank Barclay’s investment banking arm, an offer she turned down to stay in the blockchain space.

Speaking about her new role, Masters stated:

I am excited to have this opportunity to work with Banco Santander more expansively.

Santander has notably used blockchain technology as a part of its pilot program to trial cross-border payments in Europe. More specifically, Santander UK, with the integration of the Ripple blockchain platform, became the first known UK bank to use Ripple technology for cross-border transfers. The trial demonstrated payments that were made from GBP, transferred to EUR and even USD, the former toward 21 countries in Europe and the latter, to the United States.

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