Director, Head of Risk & Compliance, Consumer Banking Products & Card Issuance

Position Summary The Head of Risk & Compliance, Consumer Banking Products & Card Issuance is responsible for leading operating risk management and compliance oversight for Western Union’s banking and card issuance products. This role will partner closely with business and product owners, legal, fraud, cyber security, technology and our sponsor bank partner. The role will develop and oversee systems, processes, and controls that support compliance with laws, rules, and regulations surrounding our US consumer products that involve card issuing and payments..

This leader will also partner with the first line of defense to ensure superior customer experience, robust risk controls, prudent fraud management, and forward-looking enhancements for digital banking-related features and services This leader will play an instrumental role in driving scalability and reliability of our digital wallet, debit card, prepaid card and core banking platform.. The position places a particular emphasis on supporting both digital and retail channels to deliver secure, compliant, and innovative experiences for our U.S. based consumer customers with global payment and banking needs.

The successful candidate will help support innovation and profitable growth while ensuring adherence to all applicable regulatory requirements and operating risk guardrails. This individual will serve as a strategic partner to senior management across Banking Products & Card Issuance, on all aspects of operating risk and compliance management. The role will work closely with Business, Product, Operations, Compliance, Risk, Technology, Finance, Marketing, and external partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the banking products and card issuance operating risk and compliance strategy, upholding alignment with business objectives and regulatory requirements
• Drive alignment across the organization to ensure all functions and processes related to these products comply with relevant laws, regulations, and policies – inclusive of product development, marketing, and customer support
• Create mechanisms to support adherence to applicable financial regulations, including banking, anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC), data privacy, card issuing, money movement and banking as a service to name a few.
• Lead design of policies, procedures, and controls that ensure regulatory compliance across all operations, including customer onboarding, transaction monitoring, ongoing suspicious activity monitoring, and all third-party partnerships.
• Monitor compliance related controls and key risk indicators to identify weaknesses, research issues, and make recommendations for remediation where required. Manage internal audits and controls testing to evaluate the effectiveness of controls, ensuring they are operating as intended
• Drive resolution of identified issues – drive root cause analysis, develop action plans and coordinate execution of identified solution across cross-functional teams
• Support major initiatives across debit, credit, prepaid, commercial, and digital payment products, including growth efforts, technology implementation and large conversion efforts
• Develop and maintain executive-level relationships with card networks, processors, sponsor banks, fintech partners, and key vendors
• Maintain comprehensive documentation of operating risk strategies and controls and that proper evidence is maintained on identified issues and actions to address
• Remain apprised of emerging industry and regulatory trends in the consumer banking and card issuing sector and ensure proactive risk mitigation strategies

• Bachelor’s degree (BA) or equivalent from a four-year college or university in a business-related field or equivalent experience; MBA or advanced degree preferred
• Ten or more (10+) years’ previous experience in card issuance, consumer banking, fintech, or related financial services. operating risk, regulatory compliance required
• Advanced knowledge of the federal, state, and other governing agencies regulations and requirements related to bank processing and transaction monitoring. (e.g. Reg E, Reg Z, UDAAP, BSA/ AML…