Freelance IT consultant for banking, payments and APIs
Where banking, payments and technology meet.
Freelance IT consultant from Frankfurt's financial centre. As Product Owner, Product Manager and Business Analyst, I have connected business and IT in banking and financial services for over ten years.
Payments end-to-end4 business cases: how customers, banks, technology and regulation work together. With an outlook on PSD3, PSR and the digital euro.- Commerzbank
- SWIFT
- BDO Bank
- Euroclear
- SCHUFA
- Capgemini
- Accenture
Focus areas
Product management and product ownership
Owning products end to end, from strategy and roadmap to delivery, with cross-functional teams on site, remote or distributed internationally.
Business analysis
Bringing business and IT together: eliciting requirements and continuously managing the backlog, prioritising and refining it with the teams. The focus is on delivery, from development through test phases to business acceptance.
Payments and digital banking
Guiding new payment methods and banking products from the requirement to go-live, including the connection of third-party providers (TPPs), payment service providers (PSPs), banks and corporates.
API management and governance
From a single API product to enterprise-wide governance: API standards, lifecycle and tooling that help teams build high-quality, reusable APIs and turn them into marketable products.
Regulation
From PSD2 to PSD3 and PSR, plus the digital euro and Open Finance: translating regulation into business and technical terms, identifying affected interfaces, integrations and dependencies, and turning them into requirements and roadmaps.
Selected projects
Projects in Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Philippines.
SCHUFAInterim Product Manager
Since April 2026, Wiesbaden
Product lifecycle and governance
Financial services: Analysed the API product lifecycle in workshops, defined a KPI framework and advised on strategic product initiatives.Governance: Used a gap analysis to develop a target picture with binding delivery standards, quick wins and a roadmap of short-, medium- and long-term goals. Assessed tooling options and prepared a recommendation for the way forward.
EuroclearProduct Owner
2024 to 2025, Brussels
IT modernisation
Financial services: Product Owner of a cross-functional Scrum team of ten developers, responsible for backlog and prioritisation in line with corporate goals.API products: Helped build the API Center of Excellence and supported business units in adopting APIs. Introduced the first developer portal and set up API monetisation from scratch.
BDO BankInterim Product Owner
2023, Manila
Open Banking
Banking: Analysed processes and developed a new operating model based on domain-driven design.Open Banking: Helped develop the API strategy and standards for the Open Banking programme and optimised the lifecycle so that partners can use new interfaces faster and at consistent quality.
SWIFTSenior Business Analyst
2021 to 2022, London
API products and connectivity to the SWIFT network
Financial services: Supported banks and corporates in connecting to the SWIFT network via the API channel and Microgateway.Payments: Looked after API services for SWIFT gpi and SWIFT Go and supported business teams in the migration to ISO 20022.Integration: Supported product teams from API specification through to delivery.Governance: Helped build and owned API certification: no API went live without it.
CommerzbankSenior Business Analyst
2018 to 2020, Frankfurt
Cloud migration, payments and API banking
Account offboarding (cloud migration): Moved account closure and credit card deletion from the monolith to the cloud: helped assess vendors, analysed processes, systems and data flows, and wrote migration concepts.Payments: Supported the launch of Apple Pay with PSPs, Apple and Visa, plus new card features for online banking and the app such as blocking, ordering and authentication.API banking: Helped shape the build-up of the API banking programme and advised business units on developing their API products. Developed use cases for reusable APIs, such as an instalment loan that car dealers integrate directly into their systems. Assessed the system landscape for suitability for the API gateway.
Consulting experience at
AccentureManagement Consulting
Payments Squad
2025 to 2026, Frankfurt
PSD3, PSR and the digital euro
Payments: Prepared preliminary and proposal studies on PSD3, PSR and the digital euro.Open Finance: Developed a point of view on data access and consent under FiDA.
CapgeminiSenior Manager
API Portfolio Owner for Financial Services Germany
2016 to 2025
Nine years of banking consulting
and the API portfolio
Banking and payments: Advised banks in client projects, including Commerzbank and SWIFT.Portfolio and community: As portfolio owner, responsible for the API consulting offering; led the API Community Central Europe.
Certifications
Certified Payment Professional
Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering
IREB
Professional Product Owner
Scrum.org
Professional Scrum Master
Scrum.org
Leading SAFe 6.0
Scaled Agile
Reinvention with Agentic AI
Accenture
Further certifications:
Developing APIs with Google Cloud's Apigee API Platform,
Certified Agile Service Manager,
Management of Risk Foundation,
Certified SAFe 4 Agilist.
About
Since 2016 I have worked where business and IT need to pull in the same direction, whether in separate departments or in a joint product team. My focus areas are banking, payments and APIs, and my projects have taken me from Frankfurt to London, Brussels and Manila.
I have gathered requirements, owned products through delivery and prepared decisions for management. Along the way I have seen again and again that good technology alone does not make an initiative succeed. It takes someone who understands both sides and translates between them. That is what I do today as a freelance consultant with Mejjak Consulting for banks and financial service providers.
Artificial intelligence is no different. Whether it is an assistant or an AI agent, technology alone does not make a better product. What matters is how well it fits into existing processes and systems. That takes clear standards and governance, reliable data and, especially for agents, secure and well-documented APIs. Much of this has been part of my work for years, and that is exactly where I start when banks want to use AI in their established IT landscape.
At a glance
- Role
- Freelance Product Owner, Product Manager and Business Analyst
- Experience
- Over ten years in banking and financial services
- Topics
- Banking, payments, API management and governance, Open Banking, regulation (PSD3, PSR, digital euro)
- Clients
- Including Commerzbank, SWIFT, Euroclear, BDO Bank and SCHUFA
- Location
- Frankfurt am Main
Projects worldwide, remote, hybrid or on site - Languages
- German, English, Arabic
Insights
Let’s talk about your project
Send me a message or give me a call. I usually reply within 24 hours.
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