After 34 years in banking, Richard C. Ercole has joined a leading consulting firm with a strong suit in payment systems.
Mr. Ercole, who had been president of Huntington Bancshares' treasury management subsidiary in Columbus, Ohio, was appointed executive vice president of sales, marketing, and management services at Carreker-Antinori Inc. of Dallas.
A well-known name in the corporate payments community, Mr. Ercole, 55, said he relishes performing a service for the entire industry rather than one institution.
Mr. Ercole is responsible for Carreker's sales force and corporate marketing department.
He has also taken charge of the Carreker firm's three business offshoots in the payment services arena: Electronic Check Clearing House Organization, Payment Solutions Network, and Infiteq, a cash management and check processing unit.
During his five years affiliated with Huntington Bancshares and Huntington Treasury Management Co., Mr. Ercole was instrumental in the growth of the National Clearinghouse Association, a Huntington-led, private-sector alternative to the Federal Reserve banks' check clearing service.
He also helped found the National Returns Clearing House two years ago.
Before Huntington, Mr. Ercole ran First Interstate Bancorp's cash management sales unit for five years.
He also spent 23 years at Security Pacific National Bank of Los Angeles, rising to head of its treasury management division.
Mr. Ercole said he is now in a position to orchestrate joint and collaborative action that can help banks reverse their sliding market shares.
In addition to forming alliances, banks could save money by consolidating initiatives in the payments arena and reducing the number of clearing houses they support, he said.
They also have an opportunity to "electronify" checks and eliminate paper.
"Banks, if they work together, can be a powerful force in the marketplace," he said. "I thought I could do more for the industry if I were not with a bank."
Mr. Ercole is not the only technology executive to have left Huntington Bancshares recently. Rick Sellers, 48, announced his departure late last year as president of Huntington Service Co.
He was at the company 26 years and headed the operations subsidiary for 12, and the parting was said to be amicable.
