Visa's top crypto executive Terry Angelos leaves for Softbank-backed brokerage start-up DriveWealth

cnbc.com:

One of Visa's top executives is leaving the payments giant for a brokerage technology start-up, CNBC has learned.

Terry Angelos, Visa's global head of fintech and crypto, will take over as chief executive officer of start-up DriveWealth next week. Angelos joined Visa seven years ago as part of its acquisition of TrialPay, which he founded and led as CEO.

DriveWealth lets consumer finance apps like Block's Cash App and Revolut offer stock trading by providing necessary behind-the-scenes infrastructure. The Jersey City-based broker-dealer was one of the first to allow fractional investing, or buying stocks in smaller dollar amounts vs. whole shares.

While retail trading boomed during the pandemic, Angelos said the long-term opportunity is in taking U.S. equities international. He estimated roughly a billion people across the world, outside of China, access financial services from a digital wallet or a fintech app and are looking for exposure to blue-chip stocks.

«If you were to think about the single, most reliable long-term asset that people around the world want to own, it's equity in U.S. companies,» Angelos said. «Traditionally, people outside the U.S. don't have the ability to open up a brokerage account. That's something that we think we can help solve.»

U.S. companies have been less of a safe haven this week with the Dow hitting its lowest level of the year on Monday. Still, over the past six decades, U.S. stocks have seen a roughly 10% annual return.

DriveWealth was last valued at $3.7 billion and is backed by Softbank, Fidelity's venture capital arm and Citi Ventures among others, according to Pitchbook. The company operates as a licensed broker-dealer, providing clearing and settlement on behalf of its fintech