First Atlantic Commerce marks a quarter of a century in business in the middle of a growth spurt.

Chief executive Chris Burns said the pandemic was the trigger.

“Covid-19, for our industry specifically, provided a lot of opportunity, because suddenly everyone was turning to the online world,” Mr Burns said.

The Bermudian-born company operates in 29 countries and is the largest electronic payment gateway in the Caribbean and Central America.

“A lot of the e-commerce industry in those regions had been developing slowly,” he said. “During the pandemic people who had planned to set up electronic payment gateways over the next 12 to 24 months were suddenly rushing to do so.”

The burst of interest came as a surprise to FAC.

“We had to scale up very quickly,” Mr Burns said.

However, that sudden growth in the middle of a lockdown presented challenges.

“We were suddenly trying to grow, 500 to 600 per cent from our living rooms,” Mr Burns said. “We have had to change a lot of our processes and procedures. Ever since then, the company has continued to grow significantly.”

FAC was originally founded by Canadian Andrea Wilson.

“I don’t think there were many companies like ours started by women back in 1998,” Mr Burns said. “It has historically been a very male-dominated industry.”

He came on board in 2004 to work in business development.

“I never thought I would stay with any company for 19 years,” Mr Burns said. “I have really enjoyed my time here.”

When he started he never expected to become chief executive.

“I worked in Manchester, England, for a headhunting company for five years after university,” he said.

He was recruiting CEOs and salesmen and women for Silicon Valley companies that were moving to Europe.

“I had never worked directly for a software company,” he said. “I came home to Bermuda to change direction.”

The firm’s founder, Ms Wilson, taught him to never give up.

“As a young company, as we were then, we needed a lot of tenacity and drive,” Mr Burns said. “It was a newer technology, then. We were a payment gateway company for e-commerce businesses that were trying to accept credit card payments online.”

One major change impacting the industry is the rise in cybercrime. It has become a major concern for FAC.

“We all do what we can to make sure that we’re secure,” he said. “As we have seen evidence of recently, if they want to get into your system, they will. These bad actors do not play by any rules and they are very sophisticated in their methods.”

He has to do cybersecurity training every three months to keep up.

FAC hosts in Bermuda and has been moving various services into a cloud-based infrastructure.

“Bermuda is a good place for us to do that,” Mr Burns said. “We have no designs to move our headquarters.”

Corporate giants such as Sandals, KFC, Walmart, Burger King and the Jamaican Government’s accounts receivable department, are all running on its platform in the Caribbean and Central America.

He is extremely proud of what they have achieved as a Bermuda company.

Sometimes people in Bermuda tell him they have never heard of FAC. Only a small fraction of their customers are actually on island.

“We have always been more of an action based company, rather than a talking one,” he said.