Responsibilities
About the team Global Payment Compliance sits within Global Payment. We build a world-class regulatory compliance team, systems, and controls to proactively mitigate regulatory risks and enable business growth through sound compliance framework implementation and license acquisitions. About the Role We are looking for a senior compliance leader to serve as Head of Compliance, Southeast Asia for our payments and financial services business. This role leads the regional compliance agenda across Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This role does not cover Singapore. The role is responsible for shaping a strong, scalable compliance framework across diverse regulatory environments while enabling sustainable business growth. The successful candidate will partner closely with business, legal, risk, product, operations and public policy teams to support market expansion, product development, governance, and regulatory engagement across SEA. This individual will play a key role in leading regulator-facing engagement and ensuring the company maintains a credible, proactive, and well-governed compliance posture in each market. Key regulatory counterparts may include the Bank of Thailand, Bank Negara Malaysia, Suruhanjaya Kredit Pengguna (Consumer Credit Commission, SKP), State Bank of Vietnam, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, SEC, OJK, and Bank Indonesia, depending on the company's business model, product suite, and licensing footprint. This role reports to the Head of Compliance, Global Payment. Responsibilities Regional Compliance Leadership and Compliance Framework Implementation - Lead the compliance strategy, governance, and oversight model for Southeast Asia across Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. - Serve as senior advisor to regional and country leadership on strategic initiatives, new business models, market expansion, partnerships and product developments. - Build and maintain a scalable regional compliance framework (AML/CFT, Sanctions, consumer protection, data security and privacy, etc) that balances consistency in standards with market-specific regulatory requirements. - Ensure effective compliance coverage across payments and financial services activities, including licensing obligations, conduct and consumer protection expectations, regulatory reporting, complaints governance and financial crime coordination. Regulatory Engagement and Policy Interpretation - Lead and coordinate regulatory engagement with relevant financial regulators and supervisory stakeholders across Southeast Asia. - Act as a principal contact for regulatory interactions, including licensing matters, supervisory inquiries, inspections, regulatory reviews, thematic assessments, and remediation discussions. - Support the business in maintaining trusted relationships with regulators including authorities such as Bank of Thailand, Bank Negara Malaysia, SKP, State Bank of Vietnam, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, SEC, OJK, and Bank Indonesia. - Interpret emerging legal and regulatory developments and translate them into practical business requirements, governance expectations and control enhancements. - Help shape regional positions on regulatory change affecting payments, e-money, payment systems, intermediary payment services, outsourcing, operational resilience, safeguarding-related requirements and consumer protection. Advisory and Product Compliance - Advise business, product and operations teams on regulatory permissibility and compliance implications of new products, features, channels, partnerships and operating model changes. - Provide actionable compliance guidance on payments and financial services activities such as merchant acquiring, stored value, remittance, payment facilitation, digital financial services, and related regulated activities. - Promote compliance-by-design principles within product development, onboarding, servicing, and operational workflows. Governance, Monitoring, and Issue Management - Oversee compliance governance mechanisms, including policies and procedures, compliance risk assessments, monitoring plans, training programs, management information, and governance reporting. - Identify, assess, escalate and manage material compliance risks across the region, and ensure timely remediation of control gaps and regulatory findings. - Partner with internal stakeholders on incidents, investigations, complaints themes, audits, remediation plans and regulatory submissions. - Ensure local regulatory obligations are reflected in regional and global frameworks, controls, and reporting structures. Leadership and Stakeholder Management - Build, lead, and develop a high-performing SEA compliance team. - Partner effectively with Legal, Risk, AML, Internal Audit, Product, Operations, Government Relations, and senior business leadership. - Influence senior stakeholders through strong judgment, clear communication, and deep understanding of regional regulatory expectations.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications: - Significant experience in compliance, regulatory affairs, legal, or related control functions within payments, fintech, banking, e-money, or broader financial services. - Demonstrated experience leading compliance programs across multiple Southeast Asian markets. - Strong track record of direct engagement with regulators, including supervisory dialogue, licensing support, inspections, thematic reviews, and remediation management. - Experience advising fast-growing, technology-enabled businesses in regulated environments, and ability to operate effectively across complex, matrixed, and cross-border organizations. - Strong working knowledge of regulatory frameworks relevant to payments and financial services across Southeast Asia. - Excellent judgment and a pragmatic approach to balancing regulatory rigor with business enablement. - Demonstrated people leadership and team development capability. Preferred Qualifications - Experience with licensing, regulatory change, and compliance framework build-out in one or more of the following markets: Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. - Familiarity with AML/CFT, sanctions, conduct risk, consumer protection, complaints handling, outsourcing, third-party risk, and operational resilience requirements in regulated financial services environments. - Legal qualification or advanced degree in law, finance, public policy, or a related field is a plus. - Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, including experience preparing materials for regulators and senior executives. - Proven ability to lead through ambiguity, manage multiple priorities, and execute across several jurisdictions simultaneously. - High integrity, strong ownership mindset, and resilience in a fast-moving environment.
