CEO, Singapore

Role Purpose

The Chief Executive Officer will lead the Singapore business and act as the senior accountable executive for the company’s Major Payment Institution licence application and subsequent regulated operations.

This is a MAS-facing leadership role. The CEO must be capable of demonstrating to MAS that the company has credible, experienced and locally accountable senior management in place. The successful candidate will be responsible for building the Singapore business, leading regulatory engagement, establishing the operating model, and ensuring that commercial growth is supported by appropriate governance, compliance, risk, technology and operational controls.

The role requires a senior payments, fintech, banking or regulated financial services executive with a strong track record of operating in regulated environments and engaging with financial regulators.

Key Responsibilities

Regulatory Leadership and MAS Engagement

• Lead the company’s MAS Major Payment Institution licence application from a senior management perspective.
• Act as a senior point of contact with MAS, together with the Chief Compliance Officer and external counsel.
• Ensure that the business model, product scope, transaction flows, fund flows, safeguarding arrangements, technology architecture, outsourcing model and compliance framework are clearly understood and properly documented.
• Respond to MAS queries in a clear, accurate and credible manner.
• Ensure the company is able to demonstrate regulatory readiness before launch, including adequate staffing, governance, compliance, financial crime controls, operational resilience and customer protection arrangements.
• Maintain a constructive, transparent and responsive relationship with MAS after licensing.

Business Leadership

• Lead the Singapore business strategy, including market entry, client segmentation, product roadmap, commercial partnerships, banking relationships and regional expansion.
• Build and manage a high-quality Singapore management team across compliance, operations, finance, technology, risk, customer support and business development.
• Own the company’s commercial performance, budgeting, capital planning and resource allocation in Singapore.
• Ensure that revenue growth is pursued in a disciplined manner and does not compromise regulatory, financial crime, safeguarding, consumer protection or operational resilience standards.
• Represent the company with regulators, banking partners, payment networks, institutional clients, auditors, investors and other external stakeholders.

Governance and Control

• Establish a strong governance framework for the Singapore entity, including appropriate management committees, escalation channels and Board reporting.
• Chair or participate in key governance forums, including management committee, risk committee, product approval committee, incident review forum and audit/remediation committee.
• Ensure that new products, customer segments, payment flows, outsourced services and commercial partnerships are subject to proper legal, compliance, risk, technology and financial crime review before launch.
• Provide the Board with clear reporting on licensing progress, regulatory matters, operational risks, control issues, financial performance, incidents and remediation plans.
• Ensure that the Chief Compliance Officer has sufficient authority, independence, resources and access to senior management and the Board.

Operating Model and Execution

• Oversee the design and implementation of the Singapore operating model.
• Ensure that transaction flows, settlement arrangements, safeguarding processes, reconciliation controls, customer onboarding, transaction monitoring, complaints handling and incident escalation procedures are operationally sound.
• Work closely with Product, Technology, Legal, Compliance, Risk, Finance and Operations to ensure that regulatory requirements are embedded into systems, workflows and customer journeys.
• Maintain effective oversight of group functions, outsourced service providers and overseas affiliates supporting the Singapore business.
• Ensure that the company has robust arrangements for business continuity, technology risk management, cybersecurity, outsourcing oversight and operational resilience.

Required Experience

• At least 15 years of relevant professional experience, including senior leadership experience in payments, banking, fintech or regulated financial services.
• Prior experience as a CEO, country manager, regional head, COO, payments head, commercial head, regulated entity head or equivalent senior executive.
• Strong experience in one or more of the following sectors:
• Payments, merchant acquiring, card acquiring, e-money, stored value, remittance, cross-border money movement, payment gateways or payment infrastructure.
• Transaction banking, cash management, correspondent banking, FX, treasury services or financial market infrastructure.
• Regulated fintech, digital financial services, payment institutions, e-money institutions, money services businesses, stored value facilities, remittance businesses or virtual asset service providers.
• Experience engaging directly with regulators, preferably MAS or another major financial services regulator.
• Experience building or scaling a regulated business, including management of people, systems, controls, budgets, banking relationships and external stakeholders.
• For businesses involving digital payment tokens, stablecoins or digital assets, prior exposure to digital asset regulation, wallet infrastructure, blockchain analytics, on-chain risk controls, stablecoin settlement or institutional digital asset clients would be highly advantageous.

Required Functional Expertise

• Strong understanding of regulated payment services and the operational requirements of a licensed payment institution.
• Familiarity with the Payment Services Act, MAS licensing expectations, AML/CFT requirements, safeguarding of customer monies, outsourcing, technology risk, operational resilience and customer protection.
• Ability to explain payment flows, fund flows, customer journeys, settlement arrangements, safeguarding arrangements, liquidity requirements and risk controls to regulators, auditors, banks and internal stakeholders.
• Strong commercial judgement combined with a disciplined approach to regulatory and operational risk.
• Ability to challenge, slow down or reject business initiatives where regulatory, financial crime, safeguarding or customer protection risks are not properly addressed.
• Strong leadership, communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-growth environment while maintaining regulatory credibility and control discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree in finance, economics, business, law, accounting, technology, engineering or a related field.
• MBA or equivalent senior management qualification would be advantageous but is not essential.
• Professional training or certification in payments, compliance, financial crime, risk management, governance, technology risk or digital assets would be beneficial.

Personal Attributes

• Regulator-facing credibility.
• Strong judgement and personal integrity.
• Commercially pragmatic but control-minded.
• Comfortable operating with accountability.
• Able to work with founders, global leadership, regulators and the Board without losing independence of judgement.
• Clear communicator who can explain complex payment flows and regulatory issues in practical terms.
• Hands-on enough to build the business, but senior enough to represent the company externally.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• The ideal candidate will have led or helped scale a regulated payments, fintech, banking or financial services business. They will have direct experience dealing with regulators, building local management teams, establishing operating models, managing banking and payment partnerships, and embedding compliance and risk controls into commercial execution.
• The strongest candidate will already understand how MAS assesses senior management capability in a Major Payment Institution application and will be able to demonstrate that they can act as a genuine Singapore-based accountable executive, rather than a nominal local appointment.