eFunds International has appointed Peter Lloyd as the company's new Asia-Pacific chief, who replaced eFunds' former managing director Ray Whiteside on July 1.

Lloyd was previously managing director of UK electronic banking solutions vendor Deluxe Data (re-named eFunds International in 1999) until 1997 when he left to work as client services director for a Houston-based IT company.

Lloyd re-joined eFunds in Australia in October 2001, taking up an international product manager role for the company's Webpay product range (which provides secure authenticated messaging).

"His return to Australia and subsequent contributions to eFunds' local success made him the natural choice to succeed me," Whiteside said.

Ray Whiteside has headed eFunds since 1997. He is a 36-year veteran of the IT industry, who spent most of his career in senior management positions in Australia and overseas.

Before his time with eFunds, Whiteside spent two years as general manager of Integrated Research, a multinational provider of systems management and IP telephony management solutions. He was also with Tandem Computers for more than 13 years as managing director for Australia and New Zealand, and as a US-based worldwide business development manager where he set up distribution channels in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.