Peter Reynolds
Otoma has introduced a new global payments infrastructure designed for banks, alongside a leadership reshuffle that brings back executives from Fundtech, signaling an effort to modernize how financial institutions build and deploy payment systems.
The company has named Peter Reynolds as chief executive officer and Reuven Ben Menachem as chairman. Both previously played senior roles at Fundtech, a payments technology provider that was widely used by banks during an earlier wave of industry digitization.
Otoma is positioning its platform as an AI-native alternative to traditional payments infrastructure, aiming to reduce banks’ reliance on external vendors and shorten the time required to launch new payment capabilities. The system is designed to function as both a full-stack payments infrastructure and a development environment, allowing institutions to build and test new features more quickly.
At the core of the offering is a no-code “Innovation Suite” that includes tools for visualizing payment flows, continuous testing, and data transformation across systems. The company says the goal is to compress development cycles that typically take months or years into days, particularly for banks that need to modernize legacy systems without overhauling their entire tech stack.
The product is aimed at addressing a long-standing issue in banking infrastructure: the difficulty of updating core payments systems that were built for earlier generations of financial technology. Many institutions still rely on fragmented vendor ecosystems, which can slow down product development and limit flexibility as fintech competitors introduce faster, more modular solutions.
Reynolds said the industry has been constrained by outdated systems that no longer meet operational needs. He described Otoma’s platform as a way for banks to regain control over payment innovation and reduce dependence on slow-moving external providers.
Ben Menachem said the company’s goal is to help banks maintain competitiveness as payments infrastructure continues to evolve. He pointed to the need for modernization in areas such as global transaction processing and emerging technologies, including stablecoin-based payments, which are increasingly being explored by financial institutions.
Otoma’s leadership structure reflects a broader return of experienced payments executives who were active during earlier phases of banking technology transformation. The company is drawing on that experience as it attempts to reframe how core payment systems are built, shifting from heavily customized, vendor-managed solutions toward more flexible, AI-enabled platforms.
The company has established its global headquarters in New York, where it plans to centralize product development and customer engagement. The office will also serve as a hub for collaboration with banks and other financial institutions adopting the platform.
The launch comes as banks face growing pressure to modernize their payment systems while managing cost constraints and increasing competition from fintech firms. Many institutions are exploring ways to reduce infrastructure complexity and accelerate time-to-market for new financial products, particularly in cross-border payments and real-time transaction processing.
Otoma is also targeting industry interest in more programmable payment systems, where banks can configure workflows and services without large-scale redevelopment efforts. The company argues that combining AI tools with no-code development environments could allow institutions to adapt more quickly to regulatory changes and customer demand.
As part of its rollout, Otoma plans to showcase its platform at upcoming industry events, including EBADay in Copenhagen. The company has also published a manifesto outlining its vision for what it describes as a shift from legacy banking infrastructure to more agile, AI-driven systems.
The launch places Otoma in a competitive segment of financial infrastructure providers focused on modernizing core banking systems, a space that has seen increased investment as institutions seek to balance stability with faster innovation cycles.