The Chief Compliance and Operations Officer (CCOO) is a senior executive whose primary mandate is to lead the organization's Compliance function as a Chief Compliance Officer, ensuring the company operates within all applicable laws, regulations, and internal standards at all times.
This is a MAS-facing leadership role. 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. The successful candidate will lead on regulatory engagement, establish the operating model, and ensure that commercial growth is supported by appropriate governance, compliance, risk, technology and operational controls.
In parallel, the role oversees the Operations department and leads the Project Management
Office (PMO) team, driving operational efficiency and on-time, compliant project delivery.
Key Responsibilities:
Regulatory Leadership and MAS Engagement
- Lead and maintain 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 Operating 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, including adequate staffing, governance, compliance, financial crime controls, operational resilience and customer protection arrangements.
- Maintain a constructive, transparent and responsive relationship with MAS.
Operations (Oversees the Operations Department)
- Oversee the Operations department, ensuring day-to-day operational processes, internal infrastructure, reporting systems, and company policies are efficient, scalable, and fully compliant.
- Drive operational excellence by identifying and implementing process improvements, automation, and controls that increase efficiency while strengthening the control environment.
- Oversee funds movement control and approval workflows for both FIAT and crypto, in coordination with Finance and with a strong compliance lens.
- Hold the Operations team accountable to company policies, procedures, and compliance guidelines.
Project Management (Leads the PMO Team)
- Lead the Project Management Office (PMO) team, providing executive oversight of strategic initiatives and cross-functional projects to ensure they are delivered on time, within budget, and to scope.
- Drive the implementation of company strategies and key projects established by senior management, translating strategic objectives into executable plans and milestones.
- Embed compliance checkpoints into project lifecycles so that new products, processes, and systems are launched within an approved compliance and regulatory framework.
- Prioritize and balance the project portfolio against available resources, regulatory commitments, and business priorities.
Skills & Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Law, or a related field; an advanced degree (e.g., MBA or JD) is preferred.
- At least 10 years of relevant professional experience, including senior leadership experience in payments, banking, fintech or regulated financial services.
- 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.
- 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.
- Working knowledge of, and the ability to oversee, an Operations department and lead a Project Management Office (PMO); experience running or scaling an operations or PMO function is a strong plus.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with strong stakeholder management and reporting skills.
- Effectively bilingual in English and Mandarin.
