Visa is a world leader in payments and technology, with over 259 billion payments transactions flowing safely between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive while driven by a common purpose – to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.

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Position Summary

The Head of Risk, Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand (SMT) role and key responsibilities will be to maintain trust in the Visa brand, championing security in the industry and differentiating Visa in the eyes of clients and key industry stakeholders and regulators. As a key member of both the SMT Leadership team and the Asia Pacific (AP) Risk Leadership Team, the position will advise the Group Country Managers, Leadership Team and hub & global functional leads on strategies related to complex operational, financial, legal and regulatory risk exposures.

The successful candidate will lead a small team of Risk professionals responsible for fraud and risk management across Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand. The team is supported by the resources of the AP Risk function across Asia Pacific as well as Global market support centers. These resources range from other sub-regional Heads of Risk, in-market Risk Managers, analysts and highly skilled Risk specialists in the areas of compromise management, data security, fraud analytics, and corporate risk

What a Head of Risk (SMT) does at Visa:

Reporting to the Asia Pacific Regional Risk Officer, the Head of Risk SMT is entrusted with a broad portfolio of responsibilities including Strategic Risk Management for the business, Credit Settlement Risk, Ecosystem Risk (Fraud & Data Security) and Regulatory Risk across regional South East Asia. The Head of Risk SMT will interact and represent Visa with Governments and Regulators, Banking and Law Enforcement agencies across each market. This sub-region includes some of Visa’s fastest growing markets.

In addition to overseeing Strategic Risk Management, the Head of Risk will have responsibility for championing security in the industry and maintaining the integrity of the payments ecosystem in SMT. This complex and fast evolving ecosystem includes issuing and acquiring banks, merchants, cardholders, and service providers such as processors, device manufacturers, and payment gateways.

A strategic pillar is the development and implementation of Security Roadmaps for all key markets in the subregion. Security Roadmaps are a set of market-specific initiatives & goals backed by Visa Rules, mandates and incentives. The roadmaps are agreed collaboratively with clients & regulatory bodies to drive improvements in the security posture of the industry – underpinning Visa’s reputation in security. Historically roadmaps included EMV adoption, PCIDSS adoption, 3-D Secure adoption and Consumer Awareness campaigns.

The Head of Risk will develop comprehensive Country Risk Plans, security priorities and execute strategies to prevent fraud, enhance user authentication, safeguard sensitive data, identify and respond to data breaches and prevent the misuse of the payment system for unlawful purposes. The Head of Risk is responsible for representing Visa’s Credit Settlement Risk policy to protect Visa against financial loss in the case of a failure of an issuing or acquiring bank. The Head of Risk is also responsible for protecting Visa as the 2nd line of Defense by proactively governing corporate risks, frameworks and supervisory regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute a comprehensive risk plan that is consistent with local market landscape, market priorities and global risk strategy.
  • Execute both internal and external risk management programs
  • Lead client forums (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand Risk Councils, working groups, etc.)
  • Promote & support client adoption of Visa risk products / solutions / initiatives
  • Identify new, creative "win-win" methods to reduce and mitigate payment system risk, fraud and cardholder data security risks
  • As a member of the SMT Leadership Team, serve as a trusted & strategic advisor to the Group Country Manager on all risk issues
• Lead the responsible innovation initiative by assisting Visa and its clients in mitigating risks and embracing new technology improvements.
  • Assess emerging/innovation risks and new business models
  • Leverage local insights to contribute to Risk thought leadership
  • Guide clients through payment innovation complexity
• Manage relationships with issuers, acquirers, merchants, payment processors, service providers, regulators and law enforcement to:
  • Resolve fraud & data breach events
  • Identify opportunities to enhance the payment ecosystem and advance risk management best practices
  • Support constructive relationships with local market regulators and law enforcement agencies
• Keep executive management informed of risk activities, issues and opportunities
  • Convey risk-related trends and developments to local country manager and leadership team through regular reporting
  • Synthesize marketplace feedback regarding the effectiveness of Visa’s risk management strategy and programs; benchmark Visa’s performance relative to other payment networks and participants
  • Guide Visa’s proactive risk communications and collaboration across all of these stakeholders so as to advance the safety, security and long-term growth of the Visa payment system
  • Represent, inform, and advise executive management on top risks and the control environment status (including ERM, Regulatory Risk) across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand

Why this is important to Visa:

Visa owns the most recognizable global brand in the financial services industry. The key responsibilities will be to maintain trust in that brand, championing security in the industry and differentiating Visa in the eyes of clients and key stakeholders.

As a key member of the SMT Leadership Team, the Head of Risk will advise the Group Country Manager, the SMT Leadership Teams and hub & global functional leads on strategies related to complex operational, financial, legal and regulatory risk exposures.

What you will need:

The ideal candidate is an accomplished enterprise and operational risk leader with 12+ years of experience in leadership positions across technology products/ solutions, or similar years of experience in a leadership position within a financial institution.

While candidates with payments experience (networks, processors, financial institutions) are preferred, candidates from other multi-national, technology based, transactional businesses (e.g. large retailers) would also be considered.

Industry Experience

• Track record for successfully identifying and mitigating enterprise and operational risk for a complex, global company in a regulated industry
• Experienced in consumer and corporate data protection through the development and implementation of rigorous compliance & rules management processes
• Demonstrated approach to risk management contributing to brand and business growth
• Strategic and operational understanding of the myriad risks facing the business; drives down to root causes to assess the severity of the risk, the cost of remediation, and develops an appropriate action plan
• Strong personal base of knowledge with respect to risk management, industry practices, trends, and issues

Professional Skills & People Leadership

• Solid general management background, with a proven track record in strategic thinking, financial planning, risk management, relationship building and project leadership
• Leads courageously, setting high standards for the team by setting strategic goals and challenging the status quo
• Strong track record in developing diverse talent and infusing knowledge and experience across wider organization
• Leads by example, encouraging constructive debate and enables others to succeed
• A high degree of self-confidence, humility and energy essential to succeed in a fast paced and evolving industry

Collaboration and Communication

• Collaborates seamlessly cross-functionally to deliver insights that drive key business strategies and decisions
• Works in tandem with clients and external stakeholders for the benefit of the ecosystem – banks, processors, regulators
• Proven ability to influence, collaborate, and work in matrix environment. Ability to influence senior level decision makers and to partner closely with the business is most critical

Executing for Results

• Intellectually curious; finds stories in the data, asks the right questions, demonstrated track record of mining data & intelligence for game-changing insights that generate big impacts
• Gets things done; relentlessly focuses on results; aligns efforts with business objectives
• Decides quickly and moves fast, not afraid to fail fast when required

Other Exposure & Education

• Global and deep knowledge of the payments industry and the major trends affecting the major stakeholders, including regulatory, market environment, competitive landscape, technology and the rising threat of data breaches
• Extensive international experience or work experience in a multinational corporation preferred
• Undergraduate degree from top-tier institution required. Graduate degree with a focus on general management will be preferred

Visa is an EEO Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or protected veteran status. Visa will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with EEOC guidelines and applicable local law.