Paywhere appoints Nick Lazo, industry veteran CRO, to accelerate programmable banking adoption

Press Release: Nick Lazo Joining

Former Deluxe and Autobooks leader joins to drive go-to-market strategy, empowering banks and credit unions to thrive in the era of AI-driven finance.

San Francisco, May 2026 – Paywhere, the programmable banking platform enabling banks and credit unions to serve businesses that bank using code, announced the appointment of Nick Lazo as Chief Revenue Officer. In this role, Lazo will lead go-to-market strategy and partnerships, helping financial institutions become programmable platforms that power the next generation of embedded, API-driven, and AI-enabled banking experiences.

The commercial banking industry is undergoing a massive shift. Paywhere provides the bridge between traditional banking infrastructure and modern, connected financial networks.

A Proven Track Record of Scaling Fintech Distribution

Lazo is an experienced fintech and payments leader with 20 years of success driving sales, partnerships, and growth across banking and regulated markets. Over the course of his career, he has built national financial institution networks that process more than $5 billion in volume. He also led the expansion of a sales portfolio to more than $150 million in annual recurring revenue. 

"The era of the legacy banking portal is over," said Brett Vasconcellos, CEO and Co-Founder of Paywhere. "As AI agents begin to automate and orchestrate financial workflows, banks and credit unions must adapt to this new era of programmable banking. Nick is here to scale our go-to-market and help financial institutions claim this new reality immediately, without the friction of a multi-year modernization project." 

For Lazo, the opportunity to define a new category in banking technology drew him to Paywhere.

“We are witnessing a fundamental transformation in how businesses interact with their financial institutions,” said Lazo. “Paywhere builds infrastructure that enables banks to operate in a financial system that is rapidly shifting toward API-first design, programmable money, and AI-driven automation. I am thrilled to join a team that fundamentally understands this shift. Together, we will help banks unlock new revenue streams, deepen commercial relationships, and confidently step into the programmable banking era.”

Paywhere is the programmable banking platform that enables commercial banks and credit unions to serve the businesses that bank using code. The platform works alongside existing core systems, puts the institution in control, and was built from the start for

a world where fiat, programmable money, and AI-driven financial workflows converge. Paywhere provides the engine underneath. The bank keeps everything on top.

As AI agents begin to automate and orchestrate financial workflows, they require compliance and risk architecture that legacy systems were never built to handle. Paywhere provides that architecture, designed from the start for the speed, volume, and complexity of AI-driven banking. Modular by design, banks activate what they need without replacing their core. Implementation takes weeks, not years. 

Learn more at www.paywhere.com