Larry Diamond spent more than 12 years at Pacific Brands, Deutsche Bank and Macquarie Capital. Then he watched Australians carrying credit card debt and decided the better move was to replace the credit card altogether.
The founding
Diamond co-founded Zip in Sydney in 2013 with Peter Gray. The pitch was a fairer, more transparent alternative to the credit card: interest-free, with repayments over weeks and months rather than years. It listed on the ASX in 2015 as zipMoney.
The run
Zip became one of Afterpay’s biggest local rivals. In 2020 it bought US buy now, pay later player Quadpay in a deal widely reported at around $400M, giving it a real foothold in the US. At the peak of the BNPL boom in February 2021, Zip shares hit $12.51.
The handover
In August 2023 Diamond stepped aside as group CEO to run Zip’s US business, with Cynthia Scott taking the top job and Peter Gray running ANZ. He later stepped off the board to focus on a family office and philanthropy, staying on as an adviser.
My read
Leaving a senior banking career to go after the credit card is a big call. A decade later Zip had built one of the biggest fintech rivalries this country has seen, and the US bet is a big part of why it is still around.