Dempsey, whose appointment comes in the wake of a number of blue chip client wins for Sefas, including HBOS and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, joins the group from Synertec, where he headed up the national sales team for three years and oversaw a 135% sales hike.

At Sefas, Dempsey will be charged with strengthening relationships with clients and partners in the UK, as well as developing the company's markets in Scandinavia.

Giles Hill, Sefas's managing director, said: "Nick has the skills and motivation to help Sefas articulate our strengths in the marketplace and to support our ambitions for continuing and sustainable growth."

Dempsey said: "The attraction of Sefas to me was threefold – the products are at the cutting edge of technology, the market is just becoming aware of these capabilities and the plans to build a team able to deliver aggressive growth were evident.

"These factors made my decision to join Sefas very easy."

Sefas's UK operations are based in Bristol. The company is headquartered in Paris and has operations in the US.