Head of Risk

We are looking for a Head of Risk for the fast-growing Singapore office. We are looking for a motivated/energetic and critical thinker to help shape a new and exciting team.

The Head of Risk appointment will provide leadership in the development of risk & control frameworks, policies, procedures and tools as it relates to our Singapore and APAC business practices. The individual will work closely with all business teams globally to provide ongoing risk support and oversight and challenge day-to-day risk management and control activities across the business.

The Head of Risk will be responsible for advising and supporting the business with the evaluation of their existing processes, understanding the risks that arise and assisting as appropriate in the determination of remedial actions for any control gaps that may develop.

The Head of Risk challenges and influences the business to ensure its control environment is robust and effective to mitigate the risks across the business and will challenge and build trusted relationship with a wide range of senior stakeholders across the Group in order to deliver focused continuous improvement on risk mitigation and control adequacy, efficiency and effectiveness.

Regulatory & Governance

• Develop and maintain the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework in line with MAS Guidelines on Risk Management, Outsourcing, and TRM.
• Ensure compliance with the Payment Services Act (PSA), MAS Notices, and any other applicable regulatory requirements.
• Act as the key risk contact point with MAS and other regulatory authorities.
• Support the Board and CEO in fulfilling their risk governance responsibilities.

Operational & Technology Risk

• Oversee operational risk management including transaction processing, settlement, reconciliation, and safeguarding of customer monies.
• Implement MAS TRM-aligned practices for cybersecurity, system resilience, incident management, and data protection.
• Partner with technology teams to assess risks for new products, features, and third-party integrations.

Financial, Liquidity & Safeguarding Risk

• Monitor liquidity and credit exposures, ensuring adequate safeguarding measures and risk mitigation strategies.
• Provide second line oversight of treasury risk relating to safeguarding accounts and customer funds segregation.

Fraud & Financial Crime Risk

• Implement consumer fraud monitoring and suspicious transaction reporting frameworks.

Risk Reporting & Culture

• Provide regular risk reports to senior management and the Board Risk Committee
• Establish key risk indicators (KRIs) and early warning systems for emerging risks

Foster a strong risk-aware culture across the organization.

• Implementation, ongoing development & management of the Risk Management Frameworks covering all new and existing product strategies and related governance processes with a primary focus on business processes across our global operations
• Identify and investigate operational risk events, ensuring root cause analysis and control assessments are undertaken. This will involve undertaking ‘deep dive’ reviews on significant and complex events to provide ongoing recommendations to enhance the control environment
• Identify process/control weaknesses and raise issues and associated actions, where required. This will involve notifying responsible owners and providing enough oversight to ensure the issue is managed to completion
• Lead the Risk Assessment process with all business units & assist with the development and maintenance of annual risk and control self-assessments across the business
• Prepare high quality risk management information (reports) for use by business units and the Risk management function, including reports for the Singapore Risk Committee & Board of Directors
• Maintain & build relationships with both the Global Risk teams and business units

Understanding of Fraud and Consumer Risk

• Develop and implement frameworks to identify, assess, and mitigate fraud risks across the e-wallet and payments ecosystem.
• Oversee transaction monitoring, fraud detection systems, and escalation processes.
• Ensure compliance with MAS scam and fraud prevention expectations, including safeguarding measures for consumers.
• Monitor consumer behavior risks (e.g., account takeover, social engineering scams, misuse of wallet features).
• Partner with compliance, operations, and customer service teams to strengthen customer protection mechanisms.
• Lead consumer education initiatives around fraud prevention and safe usage of payment services.

Develops strategic perspective

• Know how work relates to the organization\'s business strategy
• Demonstrate forward thinking about tomorrow\'s issues and the possible solutions
• Ensure that all systems in the organisation are aligned, scalable and well controlled to achieve the overall strategic goals
• Ensure business controls efficiently and effectively mitigate the relevant business risks

Communicates powerfully and influences

• Use strong writing and verbal skills to communicate facts, figures, and ideas to others (ability to present unpopular opinions)
• Give clear, understandable instructions to stakeholders and others
• Help people understand how their work contributes to broader business objectives
• Break down communication barriers between teams and departments

Collaborates and fosters teamwork

• Develop cooperative working relationships with all stakeholders
• Proactively address conflicts and disagreements that affect effectiveness of work

Focuses on results

• Build commitment in others for their individual and team objectives
• Hold others accountable for achieving results

Builds relationships

• Handle difficult situations constructively and tactfully
• Maintain and utilize relationships outside the company through which resources or information can be generated
• Deal effectively with people in order to get work accomplished

• Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent) in Finance, Business Administration, Law or similar.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of experience in Risk Management, Regulation, Audit, Compliance, Oversight & Control, Technology Control, or other related discipline required, experience within the Big 4 consulting firms is considered a plus, in payments, fintech, or banking, with strong knowledge of Singapore’s regulatory environment.
• Good understanding of MAS Payment Services Act (PSA), MAS Notices (e.g., AML/CFT, safeguarding), and TRM Guidelines.
• Experience in managing operational, technology/cybersecurity, and fraud risk in financial institutions.
• Demonstrated ability to engage with MAS and senior stakeholders, including Boards, advantageous.
• Professional certifications such as FRM, PRM, CAMS, or CISM are an advantage.